Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

X woke to the sound of utter confusion. A cacophony of voices that were all asking the same question, while all not making any sense at all. Opening his eyes didn’t serve much help either. He was simply looking up at a plain white ceiling. Now understanding that he had been laying down, X carefully worked himself up into a sitting position. He let out a low groan as a bout of dizziness hit him. It felt like someone had hit him with a truck. What happened before now?

“Another one’s awake!” someone called. “The last guy is awake now!”

Blinking, X looked around him and was shocked to discover he wasn’t alone. There around him were 13 other people. Some were sitting like he was -looking no less bewildered-, others were walking around as they tried to piece together where they were. The one who had spoken earlier was already happily getting closer to X. They looked to be a teenaged boy with orange-ish brown hair that stuck every which way at the back of his head.

“Hey there,” the boy greeted with a wide grin, offering his hand out to X. “The name’s Axl. You need a hand up?”

“Y-yeah. Thanks.”

“Not a problem,” Axl proclaimed as he held his smile.

Now standing, X had a better understanding of just who was in the room with him. The variation was… a bit overwhelming.

“So that makes 14 of us.” one of the strangers remarked. His hair was a dark blue, covered by a fedora that slightly hid his red eyes. “Is that correct?”

“Well, no one else is still conked out on the floor, that’s for sure.” Axl mused in agreement.

“I agree!” said a girl with bright yellow hair that flew behind her like seraph wings. “I counted five people still asleep when I woke up, and now everyone I can see are awake. That means all of us are awake now.”

“Then we should probably start the introductions,” suggested a girl with blonde hair that she kept up in a loose bun, and dark blue eyes that illustrated she knew business. “My name is Alia.”

“Zero.” a guy standing near the wall, sporting long blonde hair he kept in a low ponytail, told them all in a toneless voice.

“You can call me Spider.” the guy with the fedora nodded.

“Axl!” Axl piped up, even throwing his arm in the air.

“Cinnamon!” the girl with seraph hair chimed in, inspired by Axl’s gusto.

A girl with turquoise hair that looped much like a squirrel’s tail gave a small snort before saying, “The name’s Marino.”

“You can call me Massimo,” another guy told them. His body spoke well to his name, being quite bulky and massive in comparison to X’s own stature.

“My mother said I was Vile,” a boy with a purple motorcycle helmet on said, “So I guess that’s what you can call me.”

“Oh, be nice to yourself!” a girl with a high voice told him. Her hair was pulled back into two high pigtails, pink accents were printed onto the tips and center of each pigtail. “I’m Pallette. It’s very nice to meet all of you, for whatever reason we’re meeting.”

“My name is Iris,” a girl with long brown hair and sparkling green eyes shyly introduced.

“I’m Layer,” an equally shy girl also piped up. The bangs of her purple hair hid a good portion of her eyes- it was a wonder if she was able to see at all.

“And I guess you can call me Dynamo.” a guy with well groomed silver-blue hair greeted with a wink.

Alia gave a nod. Her eyes scanned the room as she took stock of them all.

“Is that everyone?” she asked.

“Feels like it.” Massimo agreed.

“Wait!” Axl proclaimed. He took X’s wrist rather quickly before thrusting it into the air, “There’s still a guy over here!”

“And a stalker.” Zero added, pointing to the corner opposite of him.

Sure enough, there was one last female there. She looked down at the ground, as if embarrassed, before stepping forward into everyone’s sight. X felt his chest tighten. This girl immediately felt different from the others. As for how, he really couldn’t place. The best he could think was that he had seen her somewhere before, but he was sure no one in this room knew each other before now.

“My name is Aero.” the girl said to them. Her voice was clear, for the most part. It could have had the ability to quell the whole room had it sounded off earlier.

Still mystified by who this girl was, X had to remind himself to say his name to the others. It came out as a less sure sounding, “X.” but it did the job.

“Just X? Like the letter?” Axl wondered- his voice peppered with a bit of confusion.

“Just X.” came the affirmation. After a few moments of hesitation, “I think.” was also added.

“That’s encouraging.” Aero smirked.

X managed to return the gesture with a small smile of his own.

“Now that we’re all chummy with each other,” Spider spoke up, “What are we doing next?” He then made a point to look at Alia, who had started the impromptu assembly. She seemed a bit surprised that he had turned to her.

“I think we need to investigate this place,” Zero said for Alia. “Unless someone here already knows where we are.”

Everyone looked at each other. It was soon decided in agreeable murmurs that they had no idea about this place.

“We could split up.” Alia suggested. “The boys explore what they can on their own, and the girls will do the same. We’ll meet back here when we’re done. Is that alright with everyone?”

With no real opposition, the complete strangers did as such. Axl was more than happy to be the boy’s leader, even if they weren’t going anywhere in particular. Behind him was Vile. X had settled for a place near the middle, just steps behind Dynamo and Spider. Massimo was able to almost match X in stride. Zero pulled up the rear, taking note of the walls, floors, and ceiling. He was looking for something- X figured at best it was a sign of a way out.

“Just so we’re clear,” Dynamo said, giving a click of his tongue, “I’m not the only one with a gaping hole in my memory, yeah?”

“Nope. I’ve got nothing either.” Spider agreed. “One of the last things I can remember clearly is a bet I made. Hope that went over well.”

“What kind of bet?” Axl asked.

Vile snorted. “I’d die laughing if it was the Russian roulette kind.”

“Not quite.” Spider replied with a snicker of his own. “Though I guess it could get just as sticky if my forgotten friend comes after me.”

“How can you joke about that?!” Massimo spat.

“What else do we have going for ourselves at the moment?” Spider shot back. “We only know each other’s names- which we’re apparently lucky for. A little gallows humor isn’t going to kill anyone.”

X absently took a hold of his wrist. It was true that it was rather nonchalant considering they didn’t even know their situation yet. But if they were the only ones here? There was a possibility they’d have to get used to each other pretty quickly.

The boys continued to make conversation as they took stock of their surroundings. They had found a corridor that led to private dorms, each door having their name set inside a hanging placard. Following the corridor down to a main foyer was the entrance to a cafeteria. It was pretty spacious, and even allowed them access to the attached kitchen. Across the foyer was the entrance to an auditorium. There were no seats- in fact, there wasn’t much of anything in the room to truly speak of, so the boys went back toward the dorms. On the opposite end of the dorms corridor, right at the end of said corridor, was a modestly sized entertainment room. It had multiple couches facing a TV hooked up to gaming consoles of various generations. There was even a stereo nestled into a corner with enough room to exercise or dance in.

What caused them to stay the longest were the stairs.

“They’re barred.” Zero noted first. He folded his arms in thought, giving a small huff of inconvenience.

“So we’re stuck on one floor?” Axl asked, looking at the others as if they could offer any different conclusions.

“Not unless we’re able to blow it up.” Vile retorted. “By the looks of it, it’s pretty heavy stuff. It’s not going anywhere soon.”

Dynamo cocked an eyebrow. “And you would know?”

“You could say I got around.”

“Watch who you say that to, kid.” Spider retorted, tilting his fedora forward as if it would hide his very obvious smirk.

X blinked at them, then looked back to the stairwell. They were here for a reason. But why?

The answer would soon come to them after they all returned to the main entrance.

“Why’d your search go?” Marino asked the boys.

“Well,” Dynamo retorted, “We found the dorms, so when we want to avoid all you girls, we know where to go.”

Marino’s face immediately went into disgust. “Classy.”

“Did anyone else notice how empty the auditorium was?” Palette asked. “It was so weird that it had steps and layers to it, but no chairs or even a podium.”

“It was odd.” Zero agreed with a nod. “I’m sure the reason for that is the same reason why we’re all here to begin with.”

“Ah, so we’ve had time to know each other now.” a new voice spoke up. “Excellent.”

Everyone in the room tried to look around for a new face, but no one could be seen.

“Don’t look too hard,” the voice snickered at them, “You can find me in the auditorium instead. We can get to know each other better there. Don’t take too long.”

“I don’t like this.” Cinnamon nervously mumbled.

“At least we’d get some sort of explanation.” Spider decided, already working his way back to the auditorium. The others followed behind with their own levels of hesitation.

Back in the auditorium, there was now a podium placed at the front. Standing there was an ambiguous-gendered person with purple hair and red eyes.

“Plese, find a spot to get comfortable in.” this person told them. “There’s a lot to discuss.”

Everyone gave their peers a glance before moving around the room a bit more. Once everyone seemed settled on a spot, the new person gave them a snide grin.

“Welcome to our little experiment, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Lumine.” they said.

“Experiment?” Massimo repeated in surprise. “What do you mean by that?”

Lumine gave a proud snort. “I mean what I say,” they claimed. “You were chosen for a very special purpose. One by one, you will each become Maverick. It will take its time, but it is inevitable.”

“Maverick?” Zero questioned.

“Indeed.” Lumine nodded. “A Maverick is one who kills one of your own. It is a fate you will all share- unless you’re the killed, of course.”

The idea immediately caused a round of shock.

“There’s no way we’d kill each other!” Alia shouted at Lumine. They simply shrugged in response.

“We don’t expect you to go Maverick right away, lab rats.” they callously claimed. “This is an experiment, not a game. You’re free to sit and enjoy yourself as domestic prisoners, but soon one of you will become Maverick. Be it boredom, perhaps even rage or fear. Maybe even a little nudge from time to time…”

“So we’ll know when we've been called as a Maverick?” Spider asked, tipping his fedora upward to better glare at Lumine.

“Of course.”

“This won’t happen.” Iris spoke up. “We’ll live in peace.”

Lumine looked to her. They gave Iris a glare so chilling that she immediately shied away from it.

“If you insist,” they mused, “But know there is nothing you can do to stop it. You may become friends, but understand that you may find that the ones closest also know where to plunge the knife.”

“Might as well blow us all skyhigh before that even happens then.” Vile sneered before going into a proud laugh. Everyone looked to him- some in disbelief, others in anger. X himself could feel his hands clench with worry.

Any of them could become Maverick. They couldn’t trust each other- not truly. Lumine might have called their situation an experiment, but it felt more like a sick game. A game where they’d always be on edge. A game where they’ll never really know peace. A game where they’d have to hurt each other to survive.

This… was a killing game.

Chapter Text

Despite everything, X slept pretty well that night. It was waking up the next morning that took effort. Everything felt so foreign. Yet… this was his home now. A home where anyone could turn on the other without warning. A place where you simply couldn’t relax.

‘We don’t have to hurt each other,’ X reminded himself. ‘We can work together and find a way out of here. I know it.’

X frowned. He could talk to himself all he wanted, but it wasn’t going to take any sort of action. And the first course of action he needed to take for them to all live peacefully was to get out of bed. No immediate distrust either. He would get to know everyone on their own terms. No one was going to like each other right away. Especially not now when Lumine had already planted that seed of fear in them.

X’s head was still swimming in thoughts as he got ready for the day. Not sure of where to go after, he decided to head to the cafeteria for something to eat. He found himself surprised that a few others had already beaten him there.

Sitting at a single table were Alia, Massimo, Zero, and Aero. Alia had a plate of pancakes, scrambled eggs, and four strips of bacon in front of her, paired with a glass of milk. Aero had a teacup filled with red tea that she took her time enjoying. There weren’t any dishes in front of Zero or Massimo though. Either those two had already gotten something to eat, or hadn’t done so yet.

“H-hey…” X awkwardly greeted.

“X!” Alia greeted back, happily waving to him. She patted a spot next to her as she said, “Come sit with us. We were trying to get to know each other better before everyone else got here.”

“Okay…”

Feeling no less awkward than before, X took a seat between Alia and Zero. This placed him right across from Aero, with Massimo at her right. Aero quirked an eyebrow at him before taking a sip of her tea. X looked away, hoping it looked more like a respectful gesture than an intimidating one.

“I’m sorry if I interrupted what you were talking about before.” he then said.

“Don’t be.” Alia assured him. “We were just talking  about how Massimo got his name.”

X looked to Massimo in confusion. “Your name?”

Massimo gave him a proud nod.

“It was given to me,” he told X. “Back in my home city, there was a hero named Steel Massimo. He was brave, and kind to children. But he was hated by a lot of crime factions that lingered around. One of those deviants managed to get the upper hand on him, and took him for prisoner. They captured me too some time after -due to some debt that hadn’t been paid that I was sure I wasn’t a part of- but I was able to break out, and I found the room Steel Massimo was being kept.

“He knew he was dying at that point. Yet he looked at me as if I was there to save him. He told me ‘I see a lot of strength in you. Take my mantle, my name and justice, and destroy those who threaten the peace.’ and so I did. I’ve been following in his footsteps ever since. To the best I can, at least.”

“Wow,” was all X could say at first.

“It is pretty noble.” Alia nodded in thought.

“A bit too altruistic for my tastes.” Zero huffed.

“Not a fan of romanticism, Zero?” Aero teased. His only answer was a dark glare- one that Aero easily laughed off with another sip of tea.

“Romantic or not,” Alia cut in, “It’s nice to have a name that means something. Steel Massimo as a hero is a great title to inherit. All I know about my name was that I was almost named Aria, because I have music nerds in the family. I like Alia a bit more though.”

“Hey Zero,” Aero mused, “Do you think you got your name because you’d amount to nothing, or because zero has the potential to be a negative or positive.”

Zero grimaced.

“I was the second, and last, son of a man who hated the advance of artificial technology.”

“Ah. So you only have the potential to be negative. Gotcha.”

“Hey guys!” Cinnamon’s chipper voice filled the cafeteria. The five at the table turned their attention to what appeared to be the rest of the girls. They waved, allowing the girls to take a few of the empty spots.

“Iris had the best idea this morning.” Cinnamon then explained to X, Alia, Aero, Zero, and Massimo. “She thought it would be great if we girls all got ready in the morning.”

“It was more of a suggestion,” Iris quickly interjected. Her tone indicating a more meek position on the idea.

“It’s not a bad idea, though.” Marino said. “There’s power in numbers and all that. A little early morning pampering isn’t that bad either when hungry eyes aren’t looking.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Massimo immediately asked.

“I think you know exactly what I mean, honey.” Marino shot back, even hitting him with a coy wink. The hulk of a fella physically shrunk from her gaze.

“That reminds me,” Cinnamon once more spoke up, “Aero and Alia, you should join us!”

Palette clapped her hands in agreement. “Yeah! Every morning we do each other’s hair, help decide what we should wear…”

“It’s not as terrible as it sounds,” Layer supplied through a shy smile.

“It can get kinda busy though.” Iris pointed out. “It was this morning, at least. We were all jammed in my room…”

Alia laughed. She found their combined energy rather infectious.

“I can join in tomorrow morning. But I’m an early riser,” she playfully warned them, “Is that alright?”

“Of course!” Palette and Cinnamon chimed at the same time. They looked to each other and laughed.

“Whose room are we meeting in tomorrow?”

“Mine.” Layer told her. “I’ll be up early too. Just in case there’s some cleaning I need to do before all of us are there.”

“What about you, Aero?” Marino asked, turning attention to the remaining girl.

Aero held her teacup tighter. “Oh… I…” she tried to say, only to lose her words. Her eyes drifted down as everyone’s attention was on her now. “I finished my rooibos. I’m going to clean my cup out. Don’t want to get ants or anything, right?”

Not waiting for anyone to stop her, Aero got up and took her cup back to the kitchen. From what X could tell, she still had a fair bit left.

“She could’ve just said no,” Marino huffed once she was out of earshot.

“Sorry I’m late, guys.” Axl loudly yawned as he entered the cafeteria. “I barely slept last night- then when I finally got up, I realized this wasn’t some joke, so I panicked a bit. No big deal.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” Cinnamon politely offered. “We are all in the same situation.”

Axl scrunched his face as he let out a slow, “Nah,” before placing himself where Aero had sat. X seemed to be the only one who noticed, or apparently cared. He opened his mouth to ask Axl to move, but then saw Aero come out of the kitchen and take a place at the far end of the table without so much a second glance.

“Did I miss anything?” she asked once she was comfortable again.

“Nothing but us sleepy-sheepys,” Axl yawned. He laid his head down in his hands on the table, then moved his head so he was looking over at her. He hummed a little before musing, “Ya know, you look kinda like an angel. Not in a ‘you’re kinda hot’ sorta way. Nah. You’re just so… breezy. Like you’re barely here…”

Aero cocked her eyebrow at him, but didn’t say anything to refute the case.

“I’m so hungry!” Palette then announced. “Does anyone know how to make something good?”

“I might.” X offered. “My sister taught me how to make scrambled eggs once.”

“Oh! I know how to make avocado spread too!” Cinnamon chimed in. “We can have scrambled eggs with toast, with avocado.”

“A bit bland, but I’d try it,” Marino nodded in agreement.

“That does sound rather nice.” Iris said.

“And here I was about to settle with cereal.” Massimo lightly laughed. “Having something warm would be a lot better.”

“Well don’t start eating on our account.” Spider’s voice teased as he and Dynamo entered the cafeteria next.

“Some of us actually savor our beauty sleep.” Dynamo also joked, stretching his arms above his head.

“Because you two clearly need it,” Marino snorted.

Dynamo snapped his fingers before telling her, “You got it, girlie.”

Iris adjusted herself in her seat, taking a look around at everyone around her. It took a moment for her to realize, and then say out loud, “Has anyone seen Vile this morning?”

As if to answer, a loud BOOM resonated throughout the building, shaking the floor and even tilting a few paintings on the wall. Everyone froze for a minute to realize what had happened.

“That came from the auditorium.” Palette mused.

Everyone gave each other the same look before running out of the cafeteria. What they found in the auditorium causes an equal spike of horror and frustration.

Somehow, Vile had been able to construct Molotov cocktails from what looked to be bourbon bottles. He had a full fruit basket of artillery on his side. Vile was actively trying to light one of his improvised weapons with a match that just wouldn’t take to flame. It was easy to tell where he had been firing at- a very large spot of soot and a small dent had been made into the auditoriums’ ceiling. Zero had been the one to storm over to Vile, snatching the cocktail away just as the matchstick was able to keep its fire burning.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” Zero demanded right to Vile’s face.

“Well, one of two things will happen.” the troublemaker huffed. “Lumi-ass will come out and tell me to stop, OR I bust a way out of here and you can thank me later.”

Vile bent down to pick up another Molotov cocktail, but was stopped when Alia swiped the basket out of his reach. The two gave each other a dark glare before Vile threw his hands up in the air with defeat. Marino snuck a peek at the basket. Just getting a whiff of nail polish remover made her look up at Vile with disgust.

“Are you insane?” she demanded.

“Only the normal amount.” he callously shrugged.

“The normal amount is zero, buddy.” she immediately spat back. “And making flammable cocktails with acetone isn’t a sane thing to do!”

“You’d be thanking me when I finally got us out of here!”

“Not if you don’t blow us up first!” Axl shouted.

“I do in fact like my insides to not be outside.” Dynamo mused.

“Ditto.” Spider agreed.
“I think that goes without saying,” Layer said as well.

Vile let out a loud, agitated groan.

“All you guys want to do is whine and stay complacent.” he told them all. “ I’m doing something. I’m trying to find a way out. I’m not going to sit with a thumb up my ass waiting for a Maverick to tap dance down the hallway admitting they’re going to kill whoever happens to cross their path!”

“That’s… not going to happen.” Iris said quietly, although the eye roll she gave was pretty apparent.

“Look, kiddo,” Spider then said, moving up to Vile to slap his hand on the latter’s shoulder, “From the way we see it, there are two options. We either let you continue to cause damage to a ceiling that certainly isn’t going to give at any moment, OR we can call you Maverick and go on the witch hunt now. It’s your choice, really.”

Vile growled as he forced Spider’s hand off of him.

“If trying to be free is such a crime,” he hissed, “Then I guess I am Maverick now. Good luck trying to blow this place sky high without me. You’re going to need it.”

With that, Vile made his leave from the auditorium- stomping along the way.

“It wouldn’t have worked anyway,” Aero murmured under her breath.

X quickly turned to her. No one else did, so he surmised he must have been the only one to hear her. Aero herself didn’t know he was looking at her now either. Instead, her eyes were trained up to a certain place on the ceiling. X trailed his own to where her attention fell, and noticed that the spot Vile had been throwing the cocktails at was now soot-free. The single dent he had managed to make didn’t even exist anymore.

Chapter Text

This had to be done. They had to stop the killings before they ever started. It was obvious who needed to leave. Peace just couldn’t be had until they were taken out. There was just no way around it. It had to be done. It had to be done. It had to be done.

Of course this guy didn’t keep his door locked. But that certainly didn’t mean that knocking was the most polite thing to do right now. Not when he only had minutes to live, if that.

And of course he had a bomb in his hands. A small one, not really much larger than a baseball if one had to guess. Why did he have to move it around as if it were a toy?

“What are you doing with that?”

Vile looked up, mostly uninterested, before returning to his fiddling.

“Don’t get your panties in a twist- it’s just a smoke bomb. Not even a super concentrated one either. Cocktails are one thing, taking the chance on rigging real bombs here is another.”

“But you would try?”

Vile looked up again to give a hard stare.

“What’s it to you?” he questioned. “Gonna police me in this lawless confine? Yeah right.”

For this, his intruder seemed to hesitate. Vile cocked an eyebrow from under his helmet.

“You really think you’re going to police me, are you?”

“I’m not taking any chances.” was all his assailant said before lunging at him.

Vile just barely missed the blow, uttering out a single “Christ.” as he further scrambled out of the way. After he had regained his composure, he laughed.

“You thought this was going to be easy?!” Vile cackled. “This is my room, asshole. I go in and out on my own terms!”

Before his intruder could further react, Vile tossed the smoke bomb at his feet. The bomb exploded over the room- albeit not reaching very high overall. It was still enough for Vile to duck under the clouds while his intruder coughed, barely able to keep track of his shadow.

“Gotcha!” Vile shouted as he leapt from the fog, tackling his intruder from behind. Both of them fell to the ground in a loud thump. Vile refused to let go of his intruder’s neck, causing them to flail around from lack of air.

“Isn’t this just stupid?” Vile hissed as the two wrestled. “Even if I manage to get the upper hand, I’d be blamed even when you’re the Maverick!”

“I’m not a Maverick!” his assailant hollered. They slammed Vile as hard as they could into the ground- the impact caused Vile’s helmet to connect at an odd angle at his neck. With him temporarily paralyzed, his intruder was able to get him off and reach for their weapon again.

“Cheap shot.” Vile grumbled as he managed to get up again. “Come and face me like a real-”

He was cut off- his assailant had plunged their knife right between his lungs.

“Die.” they said to him. “Die and stay dead so the rest of us can exist peacefully!”

Vile could do nothing but watch as his murderer plunged the knife even further. They pushed down so hard that he fell back onto the floor. Crumbled like an aborted fetus, Vile watched his own blood crept away from him.

In his final breaths, Vile gasped, “We… were all Maverick… when we opened our eyes… here…” and after that, his body finally went still.

It had to be done.

It had to be done.

Now they could all live in peace.

. . .

It was easy to find who would become the early risers, and who would always take breakfast late. Zero got up the earliest of all. He was the only one in the cafeteria when X -the second to arrive- came in.

“Good morning.” X greeted as he took a spot near Zero.

“Morning.” came the toneless answer back.

“Did you already eat? I can get something for you when I go back there.”

“No thanks.”

“Right…”

X looked down at his hands. Zero kept to himself. That was good to know.

“About what Aero said about your name yesterday,” X then said, after failing for a moment to stop himself, “I think your name means that you are able to grow. Positive or negative, you have the potential to do whichever you want. And if there’s a path you don’t feel comfortable with, you can easily change it. I think that’s pretty cool.”

Zero looked to X. His expression didn’t immediately look like anger, but it didn’t feel rather understanding or empathetic either. The corner of Zero’s mouth twitched as he considered telling X something. It appeared to be from quite a bit of effort, but he took the plunge anyway.

“Do you think there’s something weird about Aero?”

X’s heart jolted. “What do you mean?” he asked.

Zero looked away from X. His eyes trained to the door like he expected her to come through at any moment.

“She’s hiding something,” he said. “You can see it in the way she smirks.”

“How… often does she smirk?” X then wondered- a casual thought entered his head of how often Zero must look at Aero to notice a detail like that.

“Every time she looks at me.”

Well, that certainly answered that .

“Are you sure it isn’t a genuine smile? Maybe she likes you.”

Zero grimaced at the idea. X looked over to him, then an idea came that made X smile.

“She is pretty cute though, don’t you think?” he asked, nudging Zero a bit. “Maybe you’d like each other more if you just talked.”

Zero’s face distorted even more. “Manic pixie dream girls with short pink hair aren’t my type.”

“I thought her hair was more of a red.”

“I’ve been calling it strawberry-red myself.” Axl playfully chimed in. Already almost to the table, he took a seat across from Zero and X without any invitation. “And her eyes? A perfect chocolate.”

“You stare at her often?” Zero asked with a snide smirk.

“Just as often as you do, apparently.” Axl quickly shot back- even giving Zero finger guns to accentuate his cheekiness. Zero’s face immediately went to one of disgust. The change was so quick that both Axl and X couldn’t hold back their laughter.

“You three sure seem to be in good spirits with a Maverick running around.”

The boys looked up to see Aero coming toward them. She had a grin on her face too, as if she knew they had been talking about her.

“None so sweet as yourself, my lovely Breezy.” Axl chuckled.

“Breezy.” Aero repeated with a scoff. “Alright. I wish I had a caffeine addiction instead of a rooibos one. I think I’d need it today. You boys want a cup while I'm at it?”

“No thanks,” they replied with their own levels of certainty. Aero gave another snort before heading off into the kitchen.

Not long after, the rest of the girls entered the cafeteria.

“Have you guys seen Aero this morning?” Alia asked, taking a seat not far from Axl.

“She’s in the kitchen making tea,” X told her. “Why? Did something happen?”

“We just really want her to join us.” Palette said. “I guess it does get a little crowded, but still. We have a lot of fun!”

“She’s a weird one, that’s for sure.” Marino entertained.

On cue, Aero came back out of the kitchen with her freshly steaming tea. She gave it a few careful blows before finally looking up. Everyone was staring at her.

“Good… morning…?” she cautiously said to the others. She was greeted back by a various array of good mornings- which did not help her now careful demeanor at all. For the second day, she took a seat at the farthest side of the table from the others. She refused to look up at them, resuming her controlled tea cooling.

“Looks like we stepped in at a good time.” Dynamo noted as he and Spider entered the cafeteria. “Is there something cooking, or do we have to feed ourselves?”

“Talk like that, and you’ll be lucky if you get the scraps.” Marino snapped.

“Told you that line wouldn’t work,” Spider snickered. He sat down at the table near Zero, who didn’t look bothered at his presence.

Dynamo simply shrugged. “I tried.”

Breakfast took place not long after. Everyone ate in such high enough spirits that they didn’t quite realize two of them were missing. At least, not until Massimo finally entered the cafeteria.

“What took you so long?” Spider asked, flicking his fork full of sausage back and forth.

“I overslept, I guess.” Massimo replied, his voice dull and tired. “Had a hard time going to sleep.”

“Been there, done that.” Axl agreed with a sage-like nod.

“There’s some extras from breakfast if you want some.” Alia then offered. “It’s nice that Vile is letting us eat first before constructing homemade grenades again.”

“Where is Vile?” Cinnamon wondered. “Did you see him on your way here, Massimo?”

Massimo did not answer. Instead he kept a steady walk to the kitchen.

“And here we thought Aero was the weird one…” Zero muttered, giving a small shake of his head.

X shifted a bit in his spot. Something about Massimo felt extremely off today. He had arrived at breakfast pretty early yesterday, and now he was one of the last. Massimo also seemed more reserved than he had been the past two days. Not that they’ve known each other long, but it was enough to just feel… off.

“I think I’ve had enough to eat for now,” X said to anyone who might be listening, “Tell Massimo he can have my seat.”

The few people who had listened gave him a nod. It gave X the encouragement he needed at the moment.

An issue he soon ran into not long after was what he would do now. Everyone was still at breakfast. Maybe he could take a late morning nap? He couldn’t say that he was always getting the best sleep either. Thinking on it, X went toward the dorms. If anything, he could rearrange his furniture, or get a light walk in before giving it all up and heading to the entertainment room.

The corridor lining the dorms also felt different. It was the same kind of different that matched how odd Massimo had been during breakfast. A passing thought reminded X that Vile’s room came before his. Then his feet slowed to a stop before he was fully aware of it. X stared at Vile’s door. It wasn’t any different than the other dorm doors. None of them had found the time or resources to really decorate their rooms yet. If they had, X had a feeling that Vile would put up posters of motorcycles, ladies that left nothing to the imagination, and large robot mechs.

X took several steps closer to Vile’s door.

“Hey Vile,” he loudly said, hoping he’d be heard through the door, “We missed you at breakfast. You wanna go play a game in the entertainment room with me? Everyone else is still eating. We could play for about an hour or so before the others came in. What do you think?”

X waited several minutes, but there wasn’t an answer. He considered just leaving Vile alone, however he ended up knocking again.

“Vile? Vile, are you in there?”

X started to knock a bit harder now. A small pit was starting to form in his stomach. As he tried to rationalize why it would take so long for Vile to answer, he noticed that the door was slightly opened. Tilting his head to the side, X got a closer look at the door. The door must have been tight enough to not budge while he knocked. However, it wasn’t closed enough to make the lock engage. X looked over the door, feeling his whole stomach go into knots now, as he took a firm grasp on the doorknob and put his weight into forcing the door open.

Sure enough, it opened.

“Vile…?” X carefully hissed as he entered the dorm. “Are you in here? Your door wasn’t…”

X didn’t have to get far to see the destruction. The desk and dresser were out of place, as if they were used to barricade someone from getting close. The desk’s chair had been discarded to the other side of the room. Even the bed looked like someone had jumped on top for safety and never fixed the sheets after.

And in the middle of the room was Vile himself, face down in a puddle of already partially dried blood.

Suffice to say, X screamed. He staggered out of the room before tripping over himself at the doorway.

“X!” three voices called out. The source of said voices, Axl, Aero, and Spider, were at his side in a moment. Axl and Aero had gotten down to his height, while Spider remained standing.

“X, what happened?” Axl asked first.

“You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Spider noted, tipping his fedora forward a bit.

X looked up at him. He then looked back at Vile’s door in shocked silence. It was hard to see Vile’s body from here. The blood, on the other hand, had pooled out just enough that it could be seen from where X was. Its near dry texture still hit X harder than seeing Vile himself.

Finally, X managed to croak out, “Vile… Vile is dead.”

Chapter Text

“Vile is dead.”

X was sure for a moment that not Spider, Axl, or Aero believed him. He tried - wanted - to elaborate on what he just saw, but all words failed him. Spider was the first to recognize the shock in his features. Not a moment after he went into Vile’s room without a hint of hesitation. Axl noticed him move out of the corner of his eye.

“Hey, wait!” he called out as he got up to follow Spider. “It could still be dangerous in there!”

With Axl and Spider now inside Vile’s room, Aero helped X back onto his feet.

“Are you hurt?” she asked in genuine concern.

X just shook his head. Aero nodded right back, understanding his nonverbal communication. She then tried to head into Vile’s room as well, but X stopped her by taking a quick hold of her wrist.

“You don’t want to see what’s in there.”

Aero looked him over. She gave a glance at Vile’s door, as if debating staying or going, before finally -and gently- getting herself out of X’s grasp. His eyes betrayed a slight desperation in watching her go in. It almost felt like he’d never see her again. A thought like that scared him more, and so X went back to Vile’s room.

He looked everywhere other than the body.

Aero had stopped in her tracks at seeing the destruction of the room. Axl had gone as pale as a sheet in seeing Vile. Spider had pulled his hat down to prevent them from getting a good look at his face.

“Wonder how we’re going to tell the others.” Spider mused, mostly to himself.

To answer, a loud siren went off. All four of them flinched at its sudden presence. It left just as quickly; X was sure everyone else’s ears were ringing as badly as his.

“A Maverick has killed.” Lumine’s voice said over an intercom system. “I repeat, a Maverick has killed. Please review the body at your pleasure in Vile’s dorm room, then report to the auditorium for further instructions.”

"Well," Spider then mused, "I guess that's how."

“At your pleasure…” Aero bitterly repeated, looking back down at Vile’s corpse. X couldn’t remember the last time he had seen anyone look so angered.

. . .

The walk to the auditorium felt like a waking nightmare. Going into the auditorium itself didn’t help that illusion much either. The room now had 14 debate podiums set up, much like the one Lumine had used earlier for their initiation. One podium had a picture frame, supported by a short stand, that had Vile’s face on it. It was a grim reminder of why they were back in the auditorium. X couldn’t help himself from looking up at the spot where Vile had tossed the Molotov cocktails the day before. They were still scratch free. It didn’t even look like anything had happened.

“Find your places, and get to them quickly.” Lumine told the captives, standing at their own podium- still placed in the front of the room for undivided attention. “We have quite a bit to cover before we discuss our Maverick in detail.”

Everyone did as they were told. They all looked at Lumine for the next step.

“Oh, don’t look so glum,” Lumine said. “It’s our first debate. This will be over before you realize it.”

No one looked too sure of this.

“You see, lab rats,” Lumine went on, “We considered having a trial to give the Maverick a fair chance to explain themselves- or cover up their crimes. However, we found that having a time debate was a lot more cost effective. The Maverick will be revealed to you immediately. From there, they have a set amount of time to bring the rest of you to their side. If they succeed in convincing a third of you to their thought process, then they may go free.

However, there are rules for this. If you agree with the Maverick, you too will be branded as one. All Mavericks must die. We are an eye-for-an-eye sort of folk, you see. Moreover, if all of you do not agree with the Maverick, then only the Maverick themselves will be put to slaughter. Do you rats follow me so far?”

With various tones of agreement, they did.

“Excellent,” Lumine nodded. A small smirk etching itself onto their face. “Remember, while the rules may be simple, there are people who are known to lie. Good lies become truth and fact. Even if you think you can trust each other outside of this room, you can not here. Everyone is guilty. Everyone is Maverick.

“So, without further ado, let’s reveal the first Maverick. Yes?”

Lumine gave a snap of their fingers. The main lights went dim and a bright spotlight came on in their place. It came from the rafters, casting its harsh light onto the Maverick: Massimo.

Massimo’s whole body froze as he realized everyone was looking at him. His breathing started to pick up, the spotlight becoming more blinding as the others looked at him in shock, surprise, and hurt. He could feel his mouth flounder as it tried to find the right words. Every syllable got lost in a terrifying shock. Even as the spotlight dimmed for the main lights to come back on, the heat of its bult still hit Massimo like a volcano sauna.

It was Marino who pulled the trigger.

“Why’d you do it?”

Massimo quickly turned to her- you could see in his eyes the hurt of her asking such a thing. He had come to admire her these past few days. For her to ask that was worse than being kicked in the shin.

“And -although we pretty much know- why Vile?” Spider asked as well.

The look Massimo then gave Spider was a lot more angered.

“It had to be done!” Massimo declared, quite loud and clear. “Vile was dangerous! He was going to hurt all of us the moment he got the chance! We all knew it would happen!”

“I didn’t think Vile was super dangerous…” Cinnamon mused out loud. “He liked a good boom, but nothing beyond fireworks.”

Massimo shot Cinnamon a cold glare.

“Do you not remember yesterday?” he snapped. “Vile had constructed Molotov cocktails out of bourbon bottles, nail polish remover, and his own bed sheets. He made a dent in the ceiling, for God’s sake!”

“So he got a bit overzealous in his escape plan,” Dynamo shrugged, “Doesn’t make him a criminal. Maybe a thrill seeker- but not a criminal.”

Massimo gripped his podium with deadly force.

“B-but what if he didn’t throw one of those grenades in the right spot?" he argued. "What if it landed towards one of us instead? You saw the damage it made on the ceiling. A whole dent was there! He made them so strong, at least two of you would be dead, and everyone else would be seriously injured!”

“I guess that’s true…” Iris slowly agreed.

“You could smell that nail stuff a mile away.” Axl also concurred. “He could have just as easily turned it on us, knock us out, then throw the cocktails wherever he liked.”

“We wouldn’t have even been aware of him hurting the school foundation!” Palette realized.

“Exactly.”

Agreeing murmurs started to fill the auditorium. The only ones who remained silent still were X, Zero, Alia, Marino, and Aero. Even then, hearing the majority vote allowed Massimo to relax quite a bit. Seeing him think he was out of the woods made X fidget slightly.

“Vile was trying to help us yesterday…” X softly said- more to himself than everyone else.

Lumine tilted their chin upward.

“What was that, X?” they asked, drawing attention to him. “You need to speak louder for your fellow lab rats. Timid squeaks are not tolerated in a debate.”

X looked at Lumine. Then he carefully trained his attention to Massimo.

“Vile was trying to help us yesterday.” X said once more, this time clear enough that his voice carried well around the room. “He said as much himself. ‘I make a way out of here, and you can thank me later.’ He wouldn’t have used the acetone to knock us out. He just wanted to get out without waiting for someone else to help him.”

"A rather generous retelling of events, X." Lumine hummed. "Would anyone like to concur?"

“I agree with X.” Zero said. “For that reason, and quite a few more. Vile was a nuisance at best, and a demolition derby at worst, but that meant he knew better than all of us what that meant for him in the long run. When he threw the cocktails at the ceiling, he did so with purpose. He was aiming for a single spot the entire time. If he really wanted to go after one of us, he would have done it while we were in the cafeteria. Instead he chose a room that wouldn’t cause too much damage should it collapse. A room where the rest of us were safe while he was playing kamikaze.”

“Before we came in and took away the cocktails.” Alia added. “Layer and I even washed out the bottles so they didn’t smell like acetone anymore.”

“Exactly,” Zero nodded. “Vile had the power to hurt us, and he didn’t. Instead he was trying to get us out.”

The murmurs in the room now started to shift. Everyone was more in agreement of this stance now. Massimo knew it, and a new round of panic swept him like a tidal wave. Zero looked to Massimo, giving the man a cold stare.

“Do you remember Vile’s last words to you?” Zero challenged. “If I had to guess, it was along the lines of ‘damned if I do, and damned if I don’t.’ He knew he was going to die- either by your hands or at the conclusion of this debate. And you still left him in a pool of his blood. Leaving his door closed, no less, so none of us knew. You didn’t even try to tell any of us what had happened. You wanted to hide it. You’re trying to justify it. From how I see it, that makes you a Maverick, Massimo.”

“No!” Massimo screeched. The vibrations could be felt through the entire auditorium. “No, no, no, NO! You guys don’t understand, he was going to do it no matter what! He had a bomb in his hands when I got in there! He was going to hurt us, I know it!”

“You might want to stop talking now,” Dynamo smirked at him. “Because the more you babble, the less credible you sound.”

“No! He was going to hurt us! It had to be done! IT HAD TO BE DONE!”

“And I believe that’s time.” Lumine announced. “How do the lab rats concede with the Maverick?”

One by one, everyone turned in their vote. A simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ ballot that appeared on their debate podium for a moment, then disappeared once they had checked the mark.

“Interesting, interesting…” Lumine mused as they looked over the results. Once all the votes were in, Lumine snapped their fingers. The spotlight came back on to place focus on Massimo once more.

“Well, Massimo, the votes are in.” Lumine said to the nervous, burly man. “And unfortunately, the rats are smarter than they look. You were alone in your choices. You are a Maverick, and you will die for your sins.”

“No.” Massimo cried. “No, no-! He would have hurt us. I did what needed to be done! It had to be done!”

Lumine laughed as they pressed a button hidden under their podium. Not a moment more Massimo let out a scream as his podium lit up with bands of pure electricity. Several of the girls gasped in horror as they all watched Massimo twist and contort under the currents passing through his body. It was an odd, macabre dance that Massimo himself had no control over. 

All the while, Massimo kept shouting the same mantra. “It had to be done! It had to be done! It… had… to… be… DONE!!” until his eyes slid to the top of his skull. His only sounds then were gargled and strained. Lumine kept the dangerous shock going for a few moments more before finally ending it. Massimo’s body immediately dropped.

The auditorium became deathly silent as they stared at Massimo’s body, slumped over the podium, never to move again.

Chapter Text

“Good morning lab rats. Since you all agreed to out the Maverick yesterday, I’m going to give you a little gift. The second floor has been unlocked for your enrichment. Please feel free to explore it.”

X moved out of bed despite his mind wishing all of this was a dream. The walk to the cafeteria was surreal. There were two less of them now. It was two less people to expect in the morning. A knot formed in X’s stomach as all that remained came back to the cafeteria for breakfast.

“So we gotta new floor to explore,” Axl mused as most everyone was near done with eating. “Are we going to explore in groups again, or…?”

“It might be smart.” Alia agreed with a nod. “We’re not exactly equal in gender anymore, though, but there’s still enough to make two groups of six. I can start one group, who’d like to join me?”

“I'll go with you.” Layer said.

“Me too!” Cinnamon cheered, happily waving her hand in the air.

Marino gave a snort before saying, “Where that plucky girl goes, I’d like to follow. Count me in as well.”

“Anyone else?” Alia offered, looking to the rest.

“I guess we could pony up to protect you girls.” Dynamo said, slapping a hand on Spider’s back. “Ain’t that right,  buddy?”

“If this is what I have to do to uphold our contract, then I guess I must.” Spider mused with a playful shrug.

“Then that settles it.” Alia nodded. “We’ll meet back up here in about, say two hours? Maybe three?”

Everyone gave a nod of agreement. Alia’s group moved out first. The remaining six, subconsciously knowing that they didn’t quite have a leader yet, didn’t go pretty far.

“I don’t understand what you’re all waiting for.” Zero huffed at them. “Let’s just get this over with already.”

“Aye, aye, captain!” Palette agreed, putting on a serious face for all of a moment before dissolving into a flurry of giggles. Axl joined her, and soon after Iris and Aero did as well. Even X got out a chortle or two. Zero’s steely expression, on the other hand, did not change.

With that, the troop was off. Axl and Pallette lead the group the most. Iris and Zero were mostly toward the back of the group. Aero kept in closer time to Axl and Pallette’s footsteps, but still lingered close enough that X could have reached out to touch her if he had felt like it. The first room they entered immediately got the approval of Zero.

“This is a rather nice gym.” he noted with a nod.

“It’s very… clean.” X decided, looking around. Each corner of the gym was outfitted with different types of equipment- one corner dedicated to cardio, another to weight lifting, and so on. Each piece looked rather high-end, and also well kept. There wasn’t a single speck of dust to be seen.

Axl immediately drifted to the hand weights and tested a few out. Then an idea came to him.

“Hey Breezy, how heavy can you lift?” he loudly teased, a wide grin etched on his face.

At first, his only response was a small shrug as she walked over to him.

“I’m about as scrawny as I look.” Aero admitted.

“No way! I can see you getting at least 20 pounds. Maybe even 35.”

“Oh, I want to try too!” Palette cheered, running to catch up with Axl and Aero.

“Please don’t hurt yourselves…” Iris said to them. Her steps behind were more cautious, as if the training equipment would purposely fall on top of her at any moment.

“Tch.” Zero scoffed. “You’re all acting like children. You’ll hurt yourselves if you continue to pick them up like that. Let me show you how it’s properly done.”

Iris did nothing to hide her exasperated sigh. She looked to X, hoping that he still had some semblance of common sense in him. X gave her a small nod- ‘I’ll mind myself,’ that nod told Iris, ‘You don’t have to worry about me too.’

Iris thanked him with a grateful nod of her own.

The small group then took their time getting acclimated to the gym. It was Pallette who noticed the attached bathrooms were for separate genders. It was also Pallette who forced them into two groups to explore their respective bathrooms. She didn’t give either gender a choice, really, and that moment of consideration took longer than marveling at how clean both the gym and boys’ bathroom were.

“It’s a locker room,” Zero impatiently told X and Axl not long after Pallette had left them there. “Not a bathroom.”

“Is there really a difference?” Axl asked, giving Zero an almost teasing side glance.

“Yes,” came the curt reply.

Suffice to say, our boys did not explore the new area very much.

“Hey, there’s another door back here.” X noted, speaking loud enough for the other two to hear him. “It doesn’t look like a supply door.”

Out of better judgement, X did not wait for them to answer him before venturing closer to the door. He reached for the handle without a second thought, and opened it. The bright overhead lights reflecting off water made him squint his eyes for a moment.

“A pool!” Palette marveled from somewhere near him. X looked to his right to see that the girls were coming out of their locker room as well. They noticed him right away, and each gave him their own greeting.

“Do you think it’s heated?” Zero wondered as he and Axl also came into the pool area. His expression had been as serious as ever, but there was a small hint in his voice that indicated a playful irony.

“Let’s find out!” Axl playfully decided before running on up to the pool’s edge. The rambunctious boy made a leap of faith into the water, curling his body into a ball before causing a large splash on impact. It didn’t take him long to resurface with a wide grin on his face.

“It’s heated!” he declared, giving the others a thumb’s up.

“And now you’re wet,” Aero retorted without so much a thought.

“You wanna join me? The water’s ni-ice!”

“Not in your life.”

Axl pouted at the rejected, but it was the denial he needed to get him out of the water. He waited until he was back with the group before shaking his body off like a dog. It elicited the exact reactions you’d expect.

“Once Axl has properly dried off,” Zero grunted, “We might as well make our way back to the cafeteria. There’s nothing left to explore on this side of the tower.”

The others agreed rather simultaneously without complaint.

. . .

“I think I still have water in my ears…” Axl whined as they rounded the corner to the cafeteria.

“Let it be a reminder on how you should look before leaping.” Zero retorted at him.

“Literally!” Palette even giggled.

“Yeah, yeah…” Axl continued to groan.

Alia’s group was already waiting for them as they entered the cafeteria.

“There you are.” Dynamo snorted. “We were about to start a search party for you six.”

Iris was the first to be taken aback by this.

“Were we really that late?” she wondered.

“Ignore him,” Alia assured her. “It just means you took your time exploring. Apparently none of us are going to be artists or scientists anytime soon.”

“What did you find?” X now wondered.

“A pretty robust science lab, for one.” Marino told them. “Nothing has a connection to an outside network -it’s all local- but you might be able to cook up a mean virus to, I dunno, make the clocks run slower, or something.”

“I went with the wrong group, apparently,” Aero teasingly mumbled to herself.

“We also found a super large art room too.” Cinnamon then chipped in. “It had all sorts of mediums to use, and even an area to sculpt vessels both large and small.”

“Perfect for any art therapy you might need to indulge in.” Spider chuckled.

“The pool might help with that too.” Axl thoughtfully decided.

“Damn,” Marino whistled, “Now I think I went with the wrong group too.”

“It’s connected to a gym,” Zero interjected. “And that is far more impressive. There is enough equipment for all of us to undergo a whole range of targeted exercises.”

“If that’s the case, Lumine certainly gave us a floor filled with enrichment, alright.” Alia mused, placing a finger over her mouth in thought. “It feels a bit… odd.”

“We’re meant to go Maverick,” Iris carefully agreed, “But we’ve been given spaces to work past it.”

“Exactly,” Alia nodded.

“Which means we won’t go Maverick anymore.” Cinnamon told them- even spiritedly pumping her fist in the air. “We’ve got a lot more space now, and we all like each other. Right?”

“Speak for yourself, kiddo.” Spider muttered as he tilted his fedora forward to hide his face. The small opposition gave the group a sense of unease. Palette looked over everyone, placing a clenched hand over her heart as her mind came up with something interesting.

“Let’s have a pool party.”

Now everyone was staring at her.

“Are you nuts?” X questioned first. “Vile and Massimo died less than a day ago! We can’t just have a party like their deaths didn’t matter!”

“No, no, no, no! It’s not like that!” Palette quickly corrected. “I didn’t mean it like that! Yes, they meant a lot to us, but that doesn’t mean we should mope around either. We can celebrate our relationship with them. We don’t even need to have the party today!”

“Not that any of us have a real relationship with anyone around here,” Dynamo snorted. “But I see where this is headin’. I sure as hell ain’t going to spend now from whenever I get killed or go Maverick being depressed.”

“The pool’s really nice too,” Axl chimed in.

“It sounds rude, but a small boost in morale isn’t going to hurt anyone,” Alia agreed. “Maybe we could have the party tomorrow afternoon? We’ll use it to eat lunch together instead of having it in the cafeteria.”

“I would like that.” Layer nodded.

“I’m down.” Dynamo agreed with a half shrug.

“Ditto,” Spider chimed in.

With the majority rule, the pool party’s time and date was decided. It still didn’t feel right to X, but what choice did he have at this point? He was just as trapped as everyone else.

. . .

The afternoon that day proceeded to go by rather slowly. X took a minute to recoup from the morning before heading back out. His feet landing him in the recreational room where Zero, Spider, and Marino were already occupying a card table. Zero was the one to notice X first.

“X.” Zero said in a still tone. “Come to join us?”

“What are you playing?” X ventured to ask as he moved closer to the trio.

“Poker, naturally.” Spider told him.

“Please join us,” Marino then teased, “I’ve been sweeping these boys under the rug for an hour. We need some fresh blood.”

“Oh, I…” X bashfully tried to say, sheepishly brushing the back of his neck. “I don’t know how to play poker.”

“We can modify the rules a bit.” Marino assured him. “Come on, sit with us.”

X offered a bashful smile as he did what he was told. He took a spot that had him with Zero on his left, Marino on his right, and Spider across from him. Spider himself had already collected the cards from their last game, and was shuffling them with ease.

“The name of the game is anaconda- known in some less friendly circles as ‘screw your neighbor.’” Spider informed them. “I’m going to give each of you seven cards. From those seven, you choose three to send over to the person on your left. Don’t claim them until everyone has chosen, and placed down, their discards. From there, we make a betting round (that we’ll skip for this first pass, to ease the newcomer into the rules). If there are any cards that are catching your eye, feel free to place them into your poker hand in front of you. For now, we’ll keep them visible- suits upward. A typical poker hand consists of five cards, with pairs being the most common tactic. Aces are high in this game, so keep them close. That being said, you do not have to place a card down after betting, but you should still only do one at a time. Everyone got it?”

With various forms of agreement, the game commenced. X still had no idea what he was doing.
“Alright boys, time to ‘fess up,” Marino delightful said once everyone had placed at least one card down to their final hand- Marino herself placing an ‘8’ next to her previously placed ‘9’ card, “We’ve been here for a few days, so which girl’s gotcha dreaming about the intimacy we’re clearing all lacking.”

“Dynamo and I made a suicide pact,” Spider easily offered, placing his discarded cards down, “And I think that’s all you need to know about that .”

“Fair.” Marino agreed with a click of her tongue. She then shot a glance at X and Zero. “So what about you two?”

“Since I feel like this is a losing conversion either way,” Zero grunted, placing his own discarded cards down, “I have a type.”

“And that would be…?”

Zero’s eyes flicked over to X for a fraction of a second. He attempted to sit up straight to hide the small bluff.

“Brown hair. Green eyes.” Zero admitted- his voice reaching more of a grumble.

“Interesting. Very interesting.” Marino nodded. “Let me guess, the innocent types too? Usually pretty quiet and bewildered by what’s around them?”

Zero only gave her a disgruntled huff. Marino snickered, fanning herself with her current deck.

“And you, X?” she pleasantly requested.

X couldn’t help but jump. “I… I haven’t really thought about it.” he admitted. While the words were true, his mind briefly reminded him of Aero. Particularly her smile. He didn’t see it often, but the moments when he could…

“I see.” Marino mused. “ Very interesting indeed.”

“Could you cut that out?” Spider snapped at her. “It’s getting unnerving.”

“In that case,” Marino smirked, “Then let’s see how very, very interesting this round goes…”

“Oh brother…”

X gave a small smile of amusement. He looked over to Zero for his reaction, but the man with long blonde hair and a penchant for the color red was too focused on his current dealings to bother with the others. The ambient light in the recreational room cast itself gently on Zero’s concentrated features. X felt himself relax considerably at it, then quickly jumped when he realized he had been staring for too long. Zero still hadn’t noticed. Luckily, neither did Marino or Spider- who were still arguing over Marino’s odd sense of mysticism.

Huh, was X’s fleeting thought. But nothing more came from it.

Chapter Text

“X!”

The young man with a penchant for the color blue turned around. Coming his way was Pallette and Cinnamon.

“Is something wrong?” X asked, looking at each girl with worry. Both of them made an equal face of disgust.

“Of course not.” Cinnamon said.

“We need your help.” Pallette added.

“With wha-“ X started to asked but was interrupted by the girls taking his hands and pulling him to the dorms.

“We need some trustworthy guys to help us decide our swimsuits.” Cinnamon told X as she and Pallette continued to drag him.

The confusion on X’s face was more than apparent as he questioned, “Why?”

“Why not?” the girls replied in unison.

X likely would have challenged the notion more had the trio not entered Alia’s room. Most of X’s senses were overwhelmed in an instant. Alia’s room smelled of strawberries and vanilla, and she even had a small sectional were someone X was least expecting was sitting- arms folded in contempt.

“Zero?”

“Don’t ask,” his peer huffed. “At least I know I’m not the only guy they suckered into this.”

“Not suckered,” Alia gently corrected as she came out of her in-suite bathroom, “Lightly seduced.”

“Is THAT what you’re calling it?”

“To help gaslight you into not bolting the moment the door opens again? Yes.”

Zero shook his head in dismay. “Girls.” he even huffed under his breath.

Alia smirked, but said nothing as she went over to Marino.

Carefully making his way over to Zero, X looked around the room. As he took mental note of all the girls crammed into one dorm room, X came to realize something.

“No one invited Aero?”

“We did- or rather, we tried.” Iris told him.

“We all did.” Layer nodded. “At different points, of course.”

“Maybe it means that she’s not coming to the party.” Zero mused. He cocked a meanspirited smirk before adding, “It’s not like anyone trusts her.”

“Says you.” Alia said, throwing a dress in his direction. It landed perfectly on top of his head. All the girls laughed as Zero then tried to get it off like a puppy stuck in a blanket. Even X let out a chuckle or two before Zero finally managed to get the dress off of him, and tossed in some other direction, far away from him.

The rest of the dressings commenced in a similar manner.

“Hey X,” Marino called to him at one point, “You have some pretty nimble fingers- can you help fix Alia’s straps? The rest of us can’t get it tight enough.”

X blinked. “Yeah. Sure.” he agreed.

As he went over to Alia, Iris stepped out from the bathroom.

“I… I don’t know about this swimsuit.” Iris nervously told the others. “Is it too revealing?”

A resounding cacophony of voices told Iris how beautiful she looked. The cheeks of Iris’s face flushed a light pink.

“Red looks good on you.” Zero said, his voice oddly more clear than the others.

Iris’s face now became a deep red. “T-thank you…”

Layer watched as the two exchanged eyes telling of a certain emotion. Fidgeting, she piped up in a near squeak, “What color do you think would look good on me, Zero?”

Zero looked over to Layer. His eyes narrowed as he inspected her from head to toe.

“Navy blue and white.” he decided. “Perhaps a striped print that accentuates your figure. Boasting your femininity, as it were.”

“Oh! We have something like that!” Cinnamon realized. “Come with me to the bathroom real quick, Layer!”

Layer took a look at Zero before finally giving her attention to Cinnamon.

“Alright,” she agreed with a nod.

X couldn’t help but stare- more at Zero than much else.

“He… he’s good at this.” X whispered to Alia.

“He is,” she agreed, sounding just as surprised. “How did that happen?”

“A super analytical mind, or something? Is that possible?”

“Maybe.”

The two looked at each other and shrugged. Once Alia’s straps were safety fastened, X went back to sit and wait until one of the girls needed him again. Once, for only a brief moment, he wondered what colors would look good on Aero.

At the back of his mind, green felt like a good answer.

-

How can anybody have you?

How can anybody have you and lose you?

How can anybody have you and lose you

And not lose their mind, too?

-

Some hours later at the pool party, X didn’t know how he got into this situation. What he did know was that the longer it went on, the more uncomfortable he felt. The music playing was loud, but it wasn’t the thing making him uneasy. It was a conversation Pallette had pulled him into with Spider and Dynamo. Not that X was the one doing the talking…

“He and Zero were such a great help!” Pallette happily trilled to Spider and Dynamo. “We couldn’t have asked for better stylists!”

Dynamo snorted. He looked more to X than Pallette as he asked, “Did you help tailoring as well? I’m sure you had a hard time adjusting that top compared to the other girls.”

“Oh no, no, no,” Pallette disagreed- completely missing the jab, “That was Iris.”

X couldn’t help but fidget in his place. His unease was easily caught by Spider and Dynamo, who laughed at his expense- much to Pallette’s confusion.

“Huh? What are you guys laughing about?”

The two guys laughed even harder.

“Mind if I cut in?” Alia asked, as pleasant as could be, while making herself a wedge between Pallette and the boys anyway. She gave them all a polite smiling before turning to Pallette.

“Pallette, I think Layer was looking for you earlier. Something about pool loungers?”

“Oh! I totally forgot about that! Thank you, Alia!”

Then she looked to Spider and Dynamo. Her smile felt far less sincere now.

“And boys, I’m sorry, but I’ll also have to steal X away as well.”

“Need him to find coordinates for your prom dress?” Dynamo smirked.

“If only a single  boy could be so lucky.” Alia shot back. She then rather forcefully took X by the elbow and dragged him away from Spider and Dynamo for good. They ended up closer to the food table, more than enough from the previous duo’s hearing.

“Thanks Al-” X started to say. Alia was quick to shut him down.

“Do you not have a backbone at all?” she demanded. X immediately recoiled. “I can’t believe you just stood there and took that. Palette had no right to be saying that stuff, and those two…”

Alia made a gesture similar to strangling someone for a moment.

“Every second I’m grateful we trusted you and Zero with the fittings,” Alia huffed. “Every other guy is just-!”

“Axl’s not that bad.”

Alia looked at him. In a flat voice she reminded X, “He’s Axl .”

X opened his mouth to argue, but found that a reasonable one just wouldn’t form.

“Exactly,” Alia nodded, noticing his pause. “But enough about that, honestly. You’ve been hanging around the party like a lost puppy. Instead of letting you wander around and being embarrassed by a loudmouth, let’s keep you occupied for awhile- dance with me.”

X immediately recoiled- his face even flushed a bright red.

“O-oh. Alia, I don’t know how to dance like…” (He pointed over to Zero and Iris, who were dancing rather close and intimately.) “That.”

“You don’t have to.” Alia laughed. “I don’t think I know how to either, honestly. But we can work with it. We just have to trust each other.”

X looked at Alia. 

Trust?

Still having a rather confused look, X took Alia by the hand and allowed her to lead him into a dance.

-

Oh my Lola, we really did it now

I'm a monster and you're my sacred cow

Oh, I can keep running

No, I can't keep on running; oh, oh, oh…

-

Well, if there was one thing about Alia, she certainly was a reserved dancer. And yet, she moved with purpose. If only X could reach that ease of confidence. The most he could muster were small shuffles to the side. Alia would incorporate body rolls and shoulder raises. She looked like she was enjoying the music.

Alia lost interest in dancing not long after the song ended- not that X had any plans on dancing more either. This, however, suddenly left him alone for the first time since the party started. Not sure of what else to do, X’s eyes wandered around the area. The pool caught his attention first. Its water reflected the fluorescent lights across its surface, looking quite a bit like little stars on an otherwise clear mirror.

X’s eyes tracked down the length of the pool. At the end he found Aero, sitting all by herself as she dipped her toes in and out of the water. X stood a bit straighter. Without consciously meaning to, he started to walk toward her.

-

Shut my eyes and count to ten

It goes in one ear out the other, oh

One ear out the other, oh

Burning bright right 'til the end

Now you’ll be missing from the photographs

Missing from the photographs

-

Aero didn’t notice X before he asked, “Mind if I sit?” to her, effectively making Aero jump. She blinked for a moment before becoming slightly embarrassed.

“Yeah.” she agreed. “Sure. I don’t bite.”

“Thank you,” X gratefully said before starting to sit down next to her. His feet carefully dipped into the pool- it was the first time he had been in it yet, and it was far warmer than he was expecting. His reaction must have betrayed his surprise, because Aero let out a soft laugh.

“Warm?” she teased.

“Very.” he sheepishly nodded.

Aero let out another laugh. X could feel his cheeks burn with further embarrassment.

“If only it was my bed,” X then floundered, “I’d probably go to sleep from all this partying.”

“Not a party animal?”

“No more than you seem to be.”

Aero snorted. “Okay, I walked into that one.” she retorted. “But I have an excuse.”

“Yeah?”

“It’s called trauma.”

X jumped. He immediately looked at Aero with horror.

“What-” he started to say, but quickly shook his head. “No. No, that’s not my business to know.”

“What if I wanted you to know?” Aero carefully probed. “What then?”

X refused to look at her now- even fidgeting a bit as he refused to think of what could have happened. How could she be so earnest about something that seemed to prevent her from being too close to everyone else? Why was he the one she wanted to confide with? Most implications made him feel… conflicted.

“Tell me something about yourself.”

“Huh?” came the first befuddled response as X finally looked to Aero again. She simply gave him a shrug.

“Don’t really have time for one on one talks when you avoid too many people all the time,” she reasoned. “And if you don’t want to hear my dark and brooding past…”

Finally, X understood.

“Right,” he agreed. He then let out a long sigh as he set back a little- Aero absently mirrored him, her face expressing one of interest to what he had to say.

“I don’t think my life is all that interesting, honestly,” X admitted to her. “My father was pretty old when he had me, and I have three older siblings- two brothers and a sister. We’re not a close family either, honestly. My oldest brother left home the first opportunity he had. He and my father just never saw eye to eye.”

“You and your sister must have been somewhat close- she helped you make scrambled eggs once.”

“Housekeeping was her vice. It kept her happy, and her thoughts off of other things.”

“So she was really just-?”

“Yeah. None of us were ever good at confrontation.”

Aero nodded in understanding.

“It sounds messed up, but at least you still have them in some way.” Aero said.

“Yeah… I guess so.”

Aero tilted her head a bit. She scooched a bit closer to X before telling him, “My parents were in an accident when I was pretty young. My grandmother raised me because she was the only family member who could. Sometimes, I’d see a distant cousin of mine -he was an archaeologist- when he’d find something interesting. One time he found something so interesting, he helped start a new generation. Not just for me, but the world at whole.”

“What did he find?”

Aero only smiled. She leaned closer, as if she were going to whisper it to him. X absently mirrored her. As they closed the distance between them, the air seemed to change. It became more charged. More… anticipated.

The moment was broken when Axl suddenly shouted, “Hey Breezy, check this out!”

The rambunctious boy then ran toward the pool. He took a leap once he reached its edge, curling his body into a ball to cause a large splash to occur on impact. It was close enough to X and Aero that they ended up with the brunt of the water spray.

“Hey!” both Aero and X proclaimed- Aero sounding more amused while X was more than a little annoyed. Aero also recovered far quicker. She let out a teasing, “You’ll pay for that!” before pushing herself into the water. Axl was practically beaming as she came over. It soon turned to surprise as she dunked him under, placing her hands on his shoulders and using all her strength to keep him under water. Axl managed to come back up again with relative ease.

“Race you to the diving board and back.” Axl challenged her.

“Bring it.” she agreed. Not long after, not bothering to wait for a countdown, Aero took off. Axl admired her for a moment, then laughed before going on as well.

X’s thoughts drifted as he watched Axl and Aero race. She sure got along well with Axl. Would she had offered to share her past traumas with Axl had he been sitting next to her instead of X? Did she already tell him? The more X thought about it, the more his heart raced and his teeth clenched. He refused to believe it was jealousy.

-

You might have to excuse me

I’ve lost control of all my senses

And you might have to excuse me

I’ve lost control of all my words

-

X snapped out of his thoughts when a large splash of water hit his face. He wiped most of the water away with a hand as he tried to figure out how had gotten him. Smiling up at him -just out of kicking distance- was Axl.

“Come on in, X. You’re the only one who hasn’t taken a dip yet!”

X blinked. His attention left Axl for a moment as Aero also swam over. She remained a bit aways from the orangey-redhead (possibly so she could give him another surprise dunk under water), but it was more than close enough for X to see her smile at him. It was warm and welcoming- even more so than simply ushering X into the water like Axl was.

-

So get drunk, call me a fool

Put me in my place, put me in my place

Pick me up, up off the floor

Put me in my place, put me in my place

-

X smiled. “Screw it.” he decided as he started to get up. He took a few steps backward before leaping into the water- keeping his body straight as he dove in. The splash wasn’t very impressive, but it was rather close to Axl. The younger man flinched out of anticipation even though nothing came from it.

The three then spent the next hour playing in the pool. Several races were held, and even an oddly competitive game of Marco Polo happened. For a moment, just for a moment, the idea of becoming Maverick was the last thing on their minds.

Chapter Text

Being labeled a Maverick was an inconvenience. It was awfully nice that they provided them with a weapon ahead of time. A bit of a reverse calling card, if you will. Perhaps that was what made it ironic in seeing this was the same knife Massimo had used on Vile. Or, they likely had a lot of the things so they used it to mark the next Maverick. Regardless, it was their time, apparently, and that made it mildly annoying.

They let out a bemused snort in thinking over how there wasn’t anyone they particularly hated. Vile really was the only obvious danger. And those who were still kicking were getting along pretty well, even with them.

“I’ll just tag whoever I find…”

The only problem with that was the still early hour. Who would be up and out of their room by now? They didn’t know, so they simply went for a walk.

Their patience paid off once they entered the pool. There, leisurely floating on her back, was Pallette. A smile was on her grin as she floated. She was likely off in her own world and didn’t notice them at first. That could easily be remedied with one question.

“It’s a bit early for a swim, don’t you think?”

Palette moved her head a bit to see who had entered, then smiled as she laid back down again.

“Yeah, maybe,” she giggled, “But I had so much fun at the pool party yesterday, I think I unlocked my inner fish!”

They smiled at her joke, to humor her, while their mind considered how to proceed. With her in the water, there were quite a few options. Most, if not all, were a lot less of a mess than using a knife out in the open.

“Would you like to join me?” Palette then sweetly asked.

They mulled the question over for a moment before giving a callous shrug.

“Why not?” they agreed. “I need to change though, do you mind?”

“Not at all!”

Another staged smile, and off they went to the changing rooms. While there, they noticed a pair of artificial gills- ones that covered both mouth and nose. That would be good to have. On a shelf beside them were light weights, meant to be used for pool exercises. Testing the heft for a bit, then lifting their foot up to measure how large they were, the Maverick let out a small laugh. Never let it be said that they didn’t let an opportunity pass on by.

“What are those?” Palette asked as they came back out. They smirked a bit at how observant she was while also having no idea what was about to happen.

“Artificial gills.” came the simple answer. “They help you stay underwater longer than simply holding your breath. Found them while idling around at the party.”

“Oh!” Palette exclaimed- even her eyes lit up at the idea. “Do you have a second set? They sound like fun.”

“Unfortunately not.” they sighed, along with a click of their tongue. “But we can play a little game with them.”

“Really? What?”

“I’ll tell you once I get in.”

“Okay!”

What a silly, naive girl. Some blondes were able to piece things together rather quickly- this one apparently could not when it mattered most.

“Our game is real simple.” the Maverick told Pallette after swimming over to her. “We see who is able to hold their breath underwater for longest. You in?”

“I feel like you’ll be cheating,” Pallette teased, “But I’ll do my best!”

“Excellent.” the Maverick nodded. “On my count.”

Pallette returned the nod with determination. The Maverick gave her a snide grin as they put on their artificial gills.

Pallette never realized she was in danger until it was too late. While under the water, the Maverick maneuvered themselves below her- helped by the small exercise weights they had hidden in their water shoes.

Without warning, they tugged at her ankle- the sudden, sharp movement toward caused Pallette to let out an underwater scream. As she tried to use her hands to cover her mouth, the Maverick used the time to switch from pulling her ankle to her hair. Palette let out another silent scream from the force the Maverick used to continue to pull her further down the pool’s depths.

Her struggling made it a bit hard to reach the pool’s drain. By the time the Maverick was able to bring her hair close to it, enough to tie several locs into the drain itself, Palette’s body was desperately struggling to find oxygen. The Maverick made sure she wouldn’t leave with her hair now entangled before resurfacing.

Getting out of the pool, the Maverick gave their limbs a little shake to get some of the excess water off.

“Guess that means you win.” they mused after removing their artificial gills.

“What have you done?!”

The Maverick looked up, and saw Cinnamon there. So she also took morning swims? Well… This is no good. Surely a Maverick wouldn’t leave a witness, would they?

“Well, you know what they say,” the Maverick simply shrugged, “If you want to make an omelette, you have to crack a few eggs. And it sure is a good morning to kill some chicks, you know?”

It took Cinnamon less time to realize the danger she was in than it had for Pallette. Which was the exact reason why they didn’t give her the time to respond, or even scream, before killing her as well. The additional mess it took to hide most of the blood was exhausting. The only easy part was dumping her body into the pool as well. All in all, being Maverick had made for a rather boring morning. Next time they’d just head back to bed.

. . .

Aero almost had to stand on her tip-toes to look over X’s shoulder.

“A little more pepper,” she told him.

“Nooooo!” Axl whined. “Too much pepper is going to ruin it! Use garlic salt instead.”

This proclamation earned him a confused, disgusted, and potentially worried glance from Aero, Zero, and X.

“Garlic salt?” X wondered first. He kept his spatula moving so the partially cooked eggs wouldn’t burn.

“To give the eggs some spice, clearly.”

“That’s what pepper is for, Axl.” Aero told him- her tone reaching a condescending correction.

“Besides,” Zero decided, “If you could mix anything else into the eggs, it would be fresh fruit. Like apples.”

“ Apples ?” Aero repeated in absolute repulse. “I knew you were crude, but I had some faith you wouldn’t be straight barbaric.”

“How would you even cook that without making the eggs even soggier?” Axl wondered.

“Carefully.” X replied without thinking.

Aero and Axl gave each other the same look, and immediately burst into laughter. Zero tried to pretend he didn’t find it funny too, but the small quirks at the end of his lips spoke for themselves.

“I’m surrounded by the Four Stooges.” Dynamo teasingly huffed- even giving a small shake of his head. Unlike the others, who hovered over X as he cooked, Dynamo was leaning against a counter with a coffee cup in hand.

X turned around to look at Dynamo. He picked up the skillet from the stove and gestured it toward Dynamo’s way.

“You wanna help?” X offered.

“Oh, no, no .” Dynamo smirked. “Just wanted to get some early morning entertainment while I enjoy my cup of joe.”

Zero face darkened. “We are not your entertainment.”

“Look,” Dynamo said as he started to walk out to the dining hall, “All I’m saying is that if there was a sitcom starring you four, I’d buy your merch.”

Finally leaving the kitchen, Dynamo’s laugh echoed for several moments after.

“You know,” Axl mused with a click of his tongue. “He and Spider are kinda made for each other.”

With nothing nice to say, no one bothered to disagree.

Breakfast commenced for the five of them after X finished the omelettes. Their plates were all but clear when it became apparent that no one else was going to show up. Zero seemed the most agitated about this.

“Getting stood up by an early morning date there, Zero?” Dynamo snickered. Zero snarled at him.

“Iris promised to meet us for breakfast,” the man in red grumbled. “She’s never been late before.”

“Maybe she just got busy this morning?” Axl offered. “Alia’s kinda late too- which is also weird for her.”

“Pfft. Those girls.” Dynamo laughed. He reclined in his seat, adjusting enough to throw his feet on the table. “Every morning they get later and later with their morning prep.” He then flashed a glare at Aero. “Which reminds me- why do you always avoid them, Aero? You’re not that ambiguous. Are you hiding something? Because if you were , I’m sure none of them would even care if you did happen to have a di-”

“Hey!” X shouted, slamming his hands onto the table and standing, before Dynamo could finish. At the same time, Axl demanded, “You can’t talk to her like that!” while also slamming a fist on the table.

Dynamo cocked an eyebrow. “Touchy this morning, are we? It was just a joke.”

“A tasteless one.” Zero growled. His arms were folded, and his eyes refused to look at Dynamo. “I think it’s time for you to leave now.”

“Or apologize!” Axl added.

“Or both.” X also said.

Aero had nothing to say for herself. She kept looking at the boys in an expression that didn’t know if it should be appreciative or defensive.

While Dynamo knew they couldn’t avoid the subject forever, but still understood that he wasn’t anyone’s friend right now, he started to stand up. He opened his mouth, prepared to announce his departure, but did not have the opportunity to do so. A loud siren went off across the building. With it came a sickeningly familiar message no one had expected.

"A Maverick has killed. I repeat, a Maverick has killed. Please review the body at your pleasure at the gym’s pool, then report to the auditorium for further instructions."

The five in the cafeteria froze.

“The gym’s pool?” Zero mumbled. “Someone was killed at the…?”

“Shit.” Aero cursed before quickly getting up from the table. She didn’t wait for anyone else to react as she bolted out of the room.

“H-hey!” Axl called after her. “Wait for us!”

Aero did not even pretend to stop.

. . .

As small as Aero was, X found it shockingly hard to keep up with her. Even Zero -arguably the most fit of the five- couldn’t quite keep in step. It made the race even more anxious. All the adrenaline leading up to reaching the pool popped like a bubble when X saw what had happened.

Alia, Iris, Layer, Spider, and Marino were already at the pool. They were the group who had triggered the Maverick warning, no doubt. Marino seemed to be arguing with Spider over something, but nothing that truly felt out of the ordinary. It was when X looked at the pool itself that his heart jolted to his throat.

Palette was floating body upwards in the water. Her eyes and mouth wide open, with her arms and legs barely breaking the surface of the water. Even the top of her head kept dipping far enough to cover her lifeless eyes. Not far from her was Cinnamon. Unlike Pallette, Cinnamon was floating on the surface face down. Only the thinnest trail of diluted blood hung near her. To anyone that wanted to cling to hope, they would have tried to rationalize that she was just playing dead in the water. But everyone there knew the truth. The bodies still looked recently deceased, due in part to a lack of bloating or even the fact that they were floating at all, as if the girls were still alive.

“WHICH ONE OF YOU DID THIS?” someone screeched. X snapped his head up to see Marino coming toward them. He almost didn’t recognize her for a moment. Her face held nothing but fury. Even her eyes looked red, likely due to holding back her tears.

“Marino, calm down!” Alia quickly said as she tried to keep up with the rage filled woman. Iris was not far behind her. “They just got here. They don’t know what’s going on either!”

Marino stopped, just short of strangling distance from X, to glare at Alia.

“Cinnamon and Pallette are dead!” Marino shouted. “One of you bastards did it, and when I find out who, I’ll kill them myself!”

“Maybe it was a mistake?” Iris offered. “You don’t know why-”

“There was no reason to kill them!” Marino continued to shout. Iris immediately flinched. Luckily for her Alia made herself the barrier between the two women.

“Marino, calm down.” Alia once more instructed. “You’re allowed to mourn, but you can’t attack the others.”

“Not without proof.” Layer suggested. The sharp glare Alia then gave her made Layer flinched. She apologized with a meek, “Sorry.”

“Kinda funny how we went from the first victim being the most arguably dangerous of us, to the two least dangerous. Bit too easy of a target.” Dynamo smirked.

Marino snapped her head to face him. “Say that again. To my face .” she growled.

X had to look away. With his attention no longer focused on Marino’s angered bereavement, he very quickly realized that Zero had gone over to the pool’s edge. Curious, X joined him.

“What are you looking at?” X asked Zero.

His peer didn’t really respond at first. Instead, Zero pointed to the bottom of the pool.

“You see that?” he asked.

X curiously looked at Zero before looking at the pool. Trying to trace where Zero was pointing, X brought his attention to the pool’s drain. Floating like seaweed were long strands of pale yellow hair with the occasional pink streak.

“Pallette’s hair was tied to the drain?” X wondered out loud.

“Not only that.” Zero told him. “Look again, and closer.”

X gave a small nod before looking back at the pool floor. It took a hot minute for him to find it. There, some distance away from the drain, was a knife. Something about its shape seemed familiar, but X couldn’t quite place from where.

“A knife?”

Zero gave a solemn nod. “The same knife that Massimo used to kill Vile.”

“What does it mean?”

“Not sure yet.” Zero decided. He stood up before adding, “However, I have a feeling we’ll find out sooner rather than later.”

Chapter Text

Lumine was waiting for them in the auditorium, looking just as nonchalant as usual. The portraits of the deceased had been updated on their respective podiums. X gave an involuntary shudder. How could it come to this? Four of them were dead already, with another soon to be exposed.

“It’s gotten out of hand too quickly, that’s for sure.”

X spun around to see Aero next to him, not realizing he had been voicing his thoughts out loud until now. The duo looked at each other.

“We don’t have to kill each other.” X finally said. “I don’t know what we have to do but…”

“I know.” Aero nodded. In a slightly darker voice she repeated, “I know.”

The two then went to their podiums without another word.

“Welcome back, welcome back,” Lumine greeted them. “A few short days simply are not enough, are they?”

No one answered as they took their places. Lumine seemed to be amused by their quiet natures so far.

It was time to change that.

“I do have to give a round of applause to today’s Maverick.” Lumine droned. “Only the second killing and you take out two others? Amazing stuff. Although I do feel like you could have taken on someone who had a bit more… muscular strength. Of the ones you could have found, you took the easy ones. Especially that seraph haired girl. Far too easy, that one.”

“You piece of-!” Marino screeched as she prepared to bolt right from her podium to Lumine. She barely made it three steps before something shocked her. With a yelp, Marino backed away from the invisible barrier. Her astonishment came out in a muttered, “The fuck…?” before looking to Lumine for answers.

“Oh, have I never told you?” Lumine sneered. “The moment everyone is ready for our debates, an invisible barrier forms around your podium. It’s to ensure everyone’s safety, of course.”

“The many are mightier than the few,” Zero said in his usual grumble- this one containing a bit more bite than usual. It did not phase Lumine.

“Such as it were,” the snake with a white aura bemused, “We’ve gotten off topic.”

The lights around the auditorium dimmed slightly for dramatic effect.

“Two killings in one…” Lumine mused. “Let’s see who our opportunistic Maverick is.”

As before, Lumine gave a snap of their fingers and the lights in the room went out. A few moments of anxious heartbeats were allowed before a spotlight was turned on. This time, it was pointed at Spider.

Unlike Massimo, he did not bother to defend himself right away. Instead he gave a shrug, then folded his arms before looking down. It was a rather dramatic stance in its own right.

“You killed without me?” Dynamo asked first- giving a whine that invariably sounded fake. “But we made a suicide pact. Spit shaked on it and everything.”

Spider gave a half shrug.

“Opportunity decided to ring for a different outcome, chum.” he said. “It wouldn’t have been much fun for you to begin with.”

“But two girls in one.”

“I know, I know. One for each of us. I know that’s what disappoints you the most.”

“Shut up!” Marino demanded. “How could you two talk so carelessly about them?! They were one of the few who wanted to make friends with everyone, no matter how callous they were!”

“I don’t think they particularly care, Marino.” Zero said. His eyes were closed and his arms were folded. When he opened his eyes, they immediately glared daggers in Spider’s direction. In a cold voice he asked, “Who did you kill first?”

“And why her?” Marino demanded.

Lumine placed their hand on their chin. “Her?” they entertained, rather wickedly.

“Them.” she corrected herself. “Why them ?”

Spider adjusted his fedora as he considered his words.

“You could almost say that Pallette was just in the wrong place at the right time.” He glanced over at Marino without a hint of emotion. “Cinnamon was just in the way.”

“You ass!” Marino hollered, slamming her fists into her podium.

“Marino, please, you need to stay level headed.” Layer requested. “We still need to hear why he did it.”

“Do we need any other reason?”

“Everyone deserves to share their side of the story.” X said. He took a sorrowful glance at Spider. “Even if their reasons were simply ‘because I was there.’”

“Smart boy.” Spider nodded. “I knew there was a reason to like you, X.”

X recoiled- clearly not enjoying the praise in this context.

“But it’s true,” Spider went on, “I didn’t need to kill them. I could have gone after any of you. They were just the ones I happened upon first. It was pretty early when the knife of death was delivered, you know. As much as I didn't want to hurt anyone, so many of you were asleep still that it didn’t even matter!”

Spider laughed. The only one who remotely joined him was Dynamo- who gave an approving smirk. Had there not been a barrier to keep them in place, Marino would have clawed both of their eyes out by now. Her fingers were buried so far into the palm of her hands that her palm was starting to bleed.

“Pallette was the first,” Spider went on to say. “She had decided to take a morning dip. Since no one said we had to use the knife given when we’re chosen to be Maverick, I decided to use the pool as the murder weapon instead. Let it be a lesson for you kids- don’t ever get your hair or loose objects near the drain on an inground pool. Those suckers have some suction to them!”

“And what about Cinnamon?” Alia inquired. “You mention that she was ‘in the way’ at the time. Are you saying that you would have just killed Pallette, and Cinnamon was a… surprise?”

“In a manner of speaking,” Spider agreed. “As I was leaving the pool, she stopped me at the door. A good Maverick would never leave behind a witness. Do you think?”

A growl emitted from Marino’s lips- low and feral. At this point, although it was rather bad in its own right, everyone was starting to ignore her.

“So you left Pallette at the bottom of the pool, and Cinnamon just.. tossed in?” Layer asked.

“Exactly that.”

“That leads to a question I have,” Zero said. “It’s about the way Pallette was in the pool. If you had her hair stuck in the drain, how would she had gotten back to the top?”

Spider shrugged. “Beats me. Girl had a bit more will in her than I thought.”

“Lumine,” Aero spoke up, looking toward the offending person, “You would know. Wouldn’t you?”

“Of course.” came the callous reply. “What kind of observer would I be if I didn’t see every variable as it unfolded?”

Aero’s expression darkened. In return, Lumine offered a smug grin.

“Listen close, lab rats,” they then went on. “For a tale of willpower and desperation. Of altruism and inevitability. It’s quite a doozy, if I do say so myself.”

-

The morning started as it always did for the cheery Cinnamon. She took a shower that helped her forget the world for a moment. She put on her familiar, and very comfortable, white and blue dress that she adored ever so much. Then she set out to find the girls. Sharing her morning with the others was another distraction from their situation. With combined comradery and potential gossip, Cinnamon looked forward each morning with hope.

After leaving her room, Cinnamon thought to gather Marino first. Their rooms were only two doors apart. Cinnamon also knew that Marino would still be in her room at this point. However, little seraph hair decided not to. The whys would likely only belong to her- perhaps she thought she could get her most treasured friend last, or maybe she assumed Marino was still sleeping and didn’t want to bother her. Regardless, Cinnamon went elsewhere to gather the girls.

That was how she happened upon the pool. She saw the moment Spider proposed that he and Pallette play a little game. She thought nothing of it as the two dipped underwater together. It was only when Spider came up and Pallette did not that Cinnamon realized something was wrong.

Her cry of outbreak was her own undoing.

Cinnamon was barely clinging to life when Spider disposed her in the pool. The knife he had used to kill her was still lodged within her ribs. The pain was immense. She could barely move as her lungs filled with blood. But her eyes still worked. They could see plain as day that Pallette needed help. So, as with all altruistic souls, Cinnamon fought against her pain to swim toward her friend.

Knowing there was a possibility that she could be saved brought hope to Pallette. Holding her breath was becoming impossible. She reached, both for the air she couldn’t have and for Cinnamon, as her vision dimmed.

Cinnamon made it far enough down that she was within arm’s reach of Pallette’s entangled hair. With a wince and a silent yelp of pain, Cinnamon pulled out the knife from her own stomach. More red than blue filled the pool at that moment. Cinnamon had to see against her own blood to cut at Pallette’s hair. It was the only way to free her friend at that point.

For what it was worth, she was successful. Cinnamon cut enough of Pallette’s hair so that the latter could be free. However, it was still too late. Palette’s body floated to the top of the water without a movement to be seen. In her own loss of consciousness, Cinnamon believed she had been successful. With that, nothing else mattered.

Her heroism had been for nothing, and everything.

-

The auditorium went silent as Lumine finished the recount.

“She… she tried to…” Marino whimpered. Her knees finally gave way, causing her to fall to the ground. Her look of disbelief bordered on full mental shut down.

Even Zero was frazzled at the revelation, letting out a mumbled, “Christ.”

Spider had hidden himself in his fedora.

“Strong girl…” he muttered. His head slowly came up to look at Lumine. “Alright Lumine, guess you can electrocute me now, or whatever. We’ve exhausted this as far as it can go.”

“Hmm… Whatever, you say?” Lumine mused. “I might just have to take you up on that offer.”

Lumine snapped their fingers. At the command, a glass barrier started to rise around Spider. The gambler cocked an eyebrow, not truly questioning how this was already different than Massimo’s execution. The glass reached far above Spider’s height before finally stopping. Then something else started to rise up from the floor. An opaque liquid, its viscosity similar to syrup, started to pool around Spider’s feet.

That was when they all heard it- an odd hissing sound and the faint smell of burning rubber.

“Shit!” Spider exclaimed as the liquid ate enough of his shoes to make skin contact. “It’s acid!” Then a quick look to Lumine- his face mixed with bemusement and genuine terror. “Acid!?”

Lumine gave a careless shrug.

Once the substance was identified, more of it started to pool at Spider’s feet. It was at mid-calf in moments. Acid even came raining down from the top of the glass barrier, speeding up the process that much faster. Barely a minute passed and the acid was a little above his knees.

Spider’s initial shouts of ‘shit’s became reduced to agonized screams. He clawed for his life to get out of the barrier. His pounding and scratches were useless. The acid was barely above his waist before he could no longer stand. His screams echoed even when his head was no longer seen.

Lumine let down the barrier several minutes after Spider’s garbled cries for help ceased. It was with surprising speed that the acid melted away as the barrier also receded back into the ground. The only thing that remained of Spider was a scrap of fabric from his fedora, and a section from a single finger.

“Hmm…” Lumine hummed. “Perhaps I overcorrected by a tad. Then again, so did he.”

Lumine’s laughter filled the otherwise deathly quiet auditorium in a chilling echo.

. . .

The next morning felt like a sick dream. Lumine’s voice over the speakers only punctuated the hurt.

“Since our last Maverick took advantage of a new area, I’ve decided to give you lab rats even more room to explore. The third floor had been opened up. Enjoy it at your leisure… or not.”

“Christ,” Axl realized at breakfast, “We’ve only been here for a week.”

Everyone who was already at the table shrunk at the reminder.

“There has to be a way for the rest of us to make peace.” Iris said, tightly folding her fingers within each other. “We have to. It wouldn’t take much… would it?”

No one knew how to answer.

“Guess with a new floor we should go inspect it like the others,” Dynamo decided. “Anyone up to it?”

Several murmurs illustrated that there wasn’t much interest.

“I might.” Alia said. “I was never good at sitting still when there’s a lot of stress around me.”

“I’ll go with you.” Layer offered. “It would be safer if you… I-I mean, there’s no reason why you wouldn’t be safe! It’s just that… that…”

“Don’t worry Layer,” Alia lightly laughed, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I know what you mean.”

Layer let out a sigh of relief, then gave Alia a look of appreciation.

“Anyone else?” Alia asked the rest of the group. There still were not any other takers. It was about what Alia expected. “Alright then.”

“You know,” Dynamo spoke up, “It might be better if you two go together. You don’t want to be caught dead like the other two.”

Marino, who had been quiet up until this point, snapped her head up at him.

“Say that again.” she threatened.

“I didn’t say anything.” Dynamo shrugged. “I’m just pointing out that if either Cinnamon or Pallette had made more of an effort to defend themselves, they might still be here now.”

“That’s it!” Marino snapped. Without any other warning, she launched herself across the table at Dynamo.

Chapter Text

Marino launched herself across the table to strangle Dynamo. His eyes widened in surprise before his body was finally able to react. He made it away from the table with only a single scratch. Everyone else immediately went on the defense as well. Alia and Zero went to hold back Marino, while Axl and X used themselves as shields to protect Dynamo.

“Let me at him!” Marino screamed. “Let me kick that bastard’s nuts so hard that he’ll be crying into next week!”

Absolutely no one let her do it.

(even though quite a few wanted her to)

“Maybe I’ll go explore the new floor too.” Dynamo decided. “Just to get out of everyone’s way.”

“That would be the nicest thing you’ve done all morning.” Zero sneered.

Nodding, and slinking away from X and Axl quite a bit, Dynamo gave them a two-finger salute before leaving. His gait was more than a bit hurried- as if he knew Marino was still wishing for his guts to be spilled on the floor, and had no doubt she’d follow through.

Alia and Zero let Marino go once they were sure that Dynamo was far enough in the clear. Marino’s body immediately sagged. All the fury that once crossed her face not moments before was replaced with emptiness.

“I’ll be in my room,” she mumbled to the others- her voice cracking slightly. Her walk out was slow and sluggish- more zombie than living person.

“I’m just… gonna go back to sleep.” Axl also said. “Stress is hella tiring, apparently. Good night.”

With that, Axl got up to leave as well. Alia and Layer took it as their cue to start exploring, and so they left the cafeteria with a wave to the remaining four.

“What are you going to do today, Aero?” Iris then asked. She wanted to be polite, but Marino’s threats were clearly rattling her. “Are you going to explore the third floor too.”

Aero shook her head.

“I wanted to spend time in the science lab,” she admitted. “It’s been so long since I’ve done a good string of code. I like the challenge. Besides, I think there’s something in there I need to check. You’re free to join me if you want. The more the merrier.”

She gave them a thin smile before leaving.

X, Iris, and Zero looked at each other. The air around them starting to charge with the same question.

“Let’s just head to the third floor,” Zero said first. “Get it done and over with.

X and Iris gave him equal nods, and away the trio went.

. . .

The three passed by Alia and Layer on the staircase.

“Did you find anything interesting?” X asked.

Alia and Layer looked to each other, then gave a shake of their heads.

“Not really.”

Zero, Iris, and X soon understood why.

The first room they found and explored was the library. Tall oak shelves reached to the ceiling, completely filled with tomes and novels of knowledge and fantasy. There were a few desks for private studying as well. It really didn’t look too out of place or held anything notable.

Across the hallway was a nurse’s office. There wasn’t much that felt out of place there either. Blank nurse charts and simple bandages were kept in a drawer. A fridge containing blood for transfusion was nestled in its own little corner. There were even scales and various medical check-up equipment placed around that none of the three wanted to mess around with.

Next to the nurse’s office was a door that certainly did stand out from what they had seen so far. It was a double door, constructed of solid steel. Its polish was so clean that the trio could see faint, distorted versions of themselves reflecting back. Beside the door was a black placard with golden text indicating what the room was. Or, perhaps, who it belonged to.

“The Professor.” X read. His face scrunched a bit before repeating, “Professor? Who’s that?”

Zero came over and also inspected the placard.

“Could be whoever Lumine is working for.” he offered. “We’re in an experiment, after all. This professor must be conducting it.”

“Let’s… not go in.” Iris nervously said, putting a hand on Zero’s elbow. “The door is probably locked anyway.”

Zero stepped forward, gently shaking her off in the process, and gave the knob a hard shove.

“Yep. It’s locked.” he declared in monotone.

Iris looked horrified.

“Why would you do that?” she questioned. “If the Professor is in there, and we’re not supposed to…”

“Then Lumine will come for us?” Zero finished for her. “I doubt that. He only appears when it’s time for our debates, and even then , he doesn’t do a lot of moving. Have you ever seen him outside the auditorium?”

“Well… no…”

“We still shouldn’t brush them off easily.” X said, trying to defend Iris. “They’re capable of dangerous things, even if they never move. I think that’s even more terrifying.”

“You’re right.” Zero sighed. “You both are, I guess.”

“Let’s go see what else is on this floor.” X offered. His suggestion was agreed on unanimously.

However, the last door they got to was just as mysterious. The placard beside it gave the room a single designation.

“Surveillance.” Zero read. “Not surprised, but still unnerving how accessible it is.”

Iris nervously wrung her fingers together. “How often do you think they’re watching?”

“It’s best not to think about that.”

After saying this, Zero still gave the door a hard look.

“Zero.” X said, more as a warning.

He didn’t get an answer as his peer went to the door and tried to open it anyway.

“No dice. This one is locked too.” Zero informed.

“You expected it not to be?” X questioned in disbelief.

Zero simply shrugged.

The three walked around the floor some more before coming back to where they started.

“Looks like that’s everything.” Zero decided, folding his arms in thought. He let out a rather bored sigh before asking, “It’s not even noon yet, is it? Now what crumbs are we going to scrape at in this hellhole?”

There was a small silence before Iris softly offered, “Can we explore the library more?”

The boys looked to each other, shrugged, then said to her, “Sure.”

Iris gave them both a grateful smile and led them back to the library.

They started to explore the rows of books a bit closer than they had on their first visit. Every so often one would pull out a book and show it to the others. Otherwise they didn’t say much. It was a quiet bonding experience, but still a fairly intimate one.

Iris had drifted over to the botany books, with the boys not far behind. Her thumb gently brushed against the spines before one finally caught her eye.

“The Language of Flowers.” she read outloud.

“I bet your name is in there.” Zero gently teased, giving Iris a little elbow nudge.

Iris laughed. “I would hope so!” she remarked. “Let’s check.”

Gently, Iris pulled out the book and started to go through its pages. She stopped when she found the right one.

“Iris- message.” Iris. She hummed in thought for a moment before entertaining, “I wonder what kind of message.”

“Kindness,” X replied at the same time as Zero’s, “Beauty.”

The young woman immediately flushed a bright red. The boys each gave their own small blush, a reflection of their pure honesty toward her.

The trio remained near the flower focused books for awhile. X pulled out another book that claimed to have the definition of flowers, but this one was a bit more clinical than the other. It even brought up the etymology and history of the flower itself.

“The Persian iris, Iris persica .” X found himself reading. “It’s the flower to a patroness of Paris, who is celebrated around January third.”

“Oh!” Iris jumped. “My cousin’s last name is Persica. I wonder if there’s a connection.”

“What’s your cousin’s first name?” asked X.

“Juno.”

“Then I doubt it.” Zero disapproved.

X tapped his finger against the book in thought.

“Juno is the name of a Roman goddess, right?” he mused. “Maybe we could find a book on them next.”

“Oh! I like that idea!” Iris agreed with a clap of her hands.

And off they went. From the Roman gods to building techniques both new and old- X, Iris, and Zero had a rather relaxed afternoon. Zero and X ended up having a serious debate over the adventures of Reynard the Fox. Was he a villain, or a hero that only gave others their just due? Iris kept watch. There wasn’t even a thought in her mind to stop them. This wasn’t a fight, this was two folks who could see and appreciate the differences in each other. They were friends.

It did get a bit boring after they managed to drag it out to 30 minutes. She drifted back to the shelves and carefully looked over the cooking manuals. None of the actual cookbooks interested her. The titles for some of the tea making books did cause some curiosity.

The books on how to brew tea led way to the history of individual teas themself. It was a smaller volume that she ended up pulling out.

“Teas to Know: Millennium Edition.” Iris read out loud.

“Which millennium?” X asked without skipping a beat- stopping the Reynard debate in its tracks.

Iris giggled a bit as she opened the book up.

“Which tea is it that Aero likes?” Iris then asked.

X immediately went over to Iris. Zero rolled his eyes.

“Rooibos.” X answered, once more without conscious thought. “Sometimes she calls it red tea.”

Iris nodded, skimming through the book.

“Aha!” she declared once she found the right page. She moved over a bit to X so he could see the page as she said it out loud. “The leaves of the Aspalathus linearis are used to make a red tea called rooibos. It does not contain caffeine when brewed, but has a high amount of polyphenols.”

“What does that mean?” X wondered, looking to Iris. She gave him a shrug back.

“It means that shade of red Aero has isn’t natural.” Zero smirked.

“I don’t think Aero is a flamingo, Zero- her diet isn’t going to change the color of her hair.” Iris pointed out. “Besides, she’s human. That’s not how that works.”

X let out a short chuckle. The idea was so absurd, yet he could see it so perfectly. Aero, looking into the mirror, tilting her head side to side while deciding on what color she’d make her hair that day. A bright pink? Nope. A deep red that brought out the green in her eyes? Nah, too much. Then she’d scale it back, to the same shade it always was, before smiling at herself and going on with the rest of her morning. The ability would have come in handy if any of them could do it. X personally like the way his hair was now. He was almost afraid to say that it wouldn’t grow back if he did cut it any shorter. 

But that was silly. He was human just like everyone else, which meant it would- eventually.

Right?

Zero’s hand on his shoulder made X jump in surprise.

“We were thinking about getting lunch.” the man dressed in red said. “You wanna join us?”

“U-uh? Yeah. Yeah. I’ll join you guys.” X stammered, his mind slightly confused now. Zero must have seen this as his eyebrow raised slightly. If he had any thoughts, he kept them to himself.

Walking back to the cafeteria helped bring X back to reality- absent hair-touching aside. Iris decided to make grilled cheese sandwiches for the three of them. Zero decided they couldn’t just have a sandwich as an only course, so he found a can of tomato soup for them to warm up. With everyone else making something, X felt like he had to pull in his share too. After some thinking, he put together a caprese salad that all three ended up using to flavor the soup some more. It was one of the best lunches X had enjoyed yet.

The trio went their separate ways after lunch. Zero had wanted to dig through the library some more, while Iris was thinking about doing some free drawing in the art room. X decided he needed a nap. The morning in the library had been fun, and lunch had made him happily full. It was the perfect combination for anyone’s brain to say ‘okay, we deserve a break’.

No one else seemed to have planned an early afternoon nap too. The dormroom hallway was clear and silent. That is, until an odd sound caught X’s attention.

At first he came to recognize the sounds of a female weeping, then he heard Aero’s voice.

“What happened wasn’t your fault, or hers. You know this, no matter how painful it is. And that’s okay. None of this should have happened, and you should grieve. It’s healthy to miss her. Honest.”

X found himself drawing close to where Aero’s voice was coming from. It was Marino’s room. Now that he was closer, X also realized that it was Marino crying. X tried to stay out of sight as he peeked around the slightly cracked door and into the room. Both Aero and Marino were sitting on the latter’s bed. Marino was scrunched so tight that it was hard to imagine that it was the same collected woman he had met at the start of all this. Aero sat close, but was not touching Marino- not even for an assuring rub on the back.

“I miss her.” Marino wept. “I just… I didn’t get to tell her…”

“I know,” Aero softly said. “I know. Just let it out. It will get better eventually, but for now you’re allowed to mourn. Take all the time you need.”

Marino continued to cry. X could feel that pain as if it were his own as he moved away from the door. He could still hear Marino’s despair as he entered his room, and firmly shut the door behind him.

Chapter Text

To no one’s surprise, Marino did not come to breakfast. Even less of a surprise was Dynamo continuing to be a nuisance in her wake.

“You say one wrong thing, and suddenly you’re a criminal.” he bemoaned- loudly, and rather insincerely. “What could I have done to deserve this much ire in a day?”

“Maybe it’s because you’re victim blaming the dead.” Zero informed him in a short tone.

“You’ve also been incredibly sexist every morning since the girls decided to share their morning routine with each other.” X pointed out as well.

“You even tried to say that Aero is a transvestite!” Axl also chimed in, slamming his hands on the table. “Well jokes on you, buddy! She’s cis, straight, and loves it!”

Everyone gave Axl a confused look- one he brushed off with his own air of righteous justice. Dynamo ended up shaking his head with a sigh.

“That is all completely undermining my point.” he then tried to tell them.

Zero cocked an eyebrow. “Which is ?”

“That it’s all Marino’s fault!” Dynamo proclaimed- sounding as if the idea just hit him. “I’m not responsible for that change in ‘step on me’ energy to whatever little pity party she’s having now! Just stress alone doesn’t do that. Which leads me to believe that she must be on her peri-”

A loud smack stopped Dynamo from finishing his sentence. Reeling back his hand was Zero, who definitely was not going to take that kind of talk this morning.

“Utter one more word, and you’ll be nursing bleeding bruises for the next month.” he threatened.

“From you, or is everyone going to rotate?”

“I’ll let you decide.”

Dynamo grimaced. He knew he was crossing boundaries. At the same time, he knew he was the only one left to step on them.

Which meant he had to be good.

If only being good wasn’t so… so… boring .

“Whatever,” Dynamo said as he finally resigned. “I’ll just be out of everyone’s way from now on. Those who can’t keep their mouth shut, deserve to be alone. Right?”

No one offered him any words of kindness or dissatisfaction as Dynamo left the cafeteria. In the few moments after, X realized just how quiet the room was nowadays. Thankfully, the air returned to a more jovial mood with Axl and Zero there, but the lack of others only kept the reminder in the back of his head.

Who would go Maverick next?

-

X found himself wandering around the tower after breakfast. His feet just wanted to move instead of staying in one place for too long. They led him around the first floor, and then the second. Light sounds of keyboard tapping finally brought him out of his half-aware daze. He followed them into the science lab. Sitting at the research terminals was Aero.

“What are you working on?” X spoke up.

Aero’s whole body jolted upright, as if she had suddenly been woken up. She turned around to face him. Nothing on her face illustrated anything had been amiss.

“Just trying to test my hacking.” she smiled. “Wanna watch?”

X gave an absent nod. “Sure.”

He took a spot next to Aero, then scooted his chair closer to hers. His sense of comprehension went out the window when he saw just what Aero was working on. Lines of code, every so often indexed in, filled the screen repeatedly. Every so often he could pick up words that felt real -like ‘parent’ or ‘override’- but others were completely gibberish. He could blink and one string of code could make sense, then with the next blink it was indescribable again.

“I have no idea what I'm looking at.” he finally admitted.

Aero laughed.

“Yeah, I guess you would.” she continued to chortle. “But there’s a pattern to it. See, look-” 

She adjusted the screen a bit so X could see it better. With her finger she started to point out where she was talking about. 

“That line of code means that the point starts at this location. That line of code over there dictates that the ‘camera’ is centered on the point. The line after that affirms that it is meant to track the point should it move.”

X looked over what she had pointed out to him. It made as much sense as much as it didn’t. He looked her over. She had noticed a line of code that didn’t look quite right to her, so she had already gone back to fixing it up. There was something special flickering in her eyes then. Something that filled X with both awe and the smallest hint of… fear?

X shifted in his seat.

“That’s amazing.” he said- if only to say something.

“It’s just a puzzle,” she insisted, “One made up of ASCII most of the time- but still a puzzle.”

He gave another absent nod to show he understood. His eyes drifted back to her screen. A certain kind of hypnosis came over him as he watched her work. Every so often the words ‘denied’ would flash up on the screen, causing her to hiss something under breath before furiously typing something back. X found his thoughts drifting even further- believing for a moment that she was having a chat with someone instead of causing numerous error codes to pop up every so often when her commands were denied.

A knock on the door broke the spell over X. Both he and Aero looked to the door. Standing there, looking a bit out of place, was Layer. She hid herself behind her bangs even more than usual.

“Aero, can I talk to you?” she asked- polite and awfully quiet.

“Sure, why not?”

Layer uncomfortably shifted from side to side. X could feel her gaze shift onto him.

“I… I wanted to talk to you privately.” Layer elaborated. “I noticed that you’ve been helping Marino a lot. I might have overheard some of your talks… And I… I wanted to ask you some things. P-personal… things…”

Aero face seemed to go through many emotions in one.

“I…” she started to say, but didn’t know how to finish.

“If it’s personal, then I should probably go…” said X. He started to get up, but was immediately stopped by Aero’s hand wrapped around his wrist.

“You would be perfect for this conversation.” she informed him. Her eyes held determination and a certain kind of darkness within them. He wasn’t going to get away easily. It caught X off guard for a moment.

“I would?”

“He would?” Layer nervously repeated.

“He would.” Aero affirmed. She used her hold on X to make him sit again. “No one’s got any bad feelings about X, whereas I’ve got AT LEAST Zero giving me the stink eye every time I walk in the room.”

Layer recoiled slightly in thought.

“That is true…” she agreed, mostly to herself. She then gave a firm nod. “Yes, X would be good for this too.”

Layer moved into the room, taking a seat from one of the terminals across from where X and Aero were.

“So what’s wrong?” X asked first.

Layer’s face flushed as she admitted, “It’s… it’s actually about Zero.”

X and Aero very quickly exchanged a look.

“You know,” X noted, “I think I am perfect for this.”

Aero tried, and failed, to keep her laugh down as Layer’s face only became a darker shade of red.

-

She didn’t deserve to die.

Too many people just don’t care. That girl had more love and patience in her pinkie toe than most people had in their entire bodies. The world wasn’t always this cruel- why did it have to be so cruel to her?

They had tried to move on, tried to work through the pain, but every reminder came every morning when she wasn’t there. An empty room. Her voice no longer echoing during breakfast. No daily knocks to see if they wanted to join with the others. It was just silence. Silence, and regret.

The Maverick knew their hand in it all. If they had just been there a bit sooner. If they had intervened instead of waiting for her. But no. All of it was gone now. Could a Maverick be a Maverick through inaction too? They should have died. They should have died instead of her that morning. She had deserved the world. She could have saved the world, in their opinion. And it was gone. Gone. Gone. Gone.

They had found a ribbon that reminded them of her. It was in the art room by the section dedicated to sewing. The ribbon was primarily blue with a white stripe down the center. Within the stripe were embroidered red hearts. They had to take a piece with them. They cut it down just long enough to be the length of their arm. The ribbon was then wrapped around their wrist- in their mind’s eye they could pretend it was her, still tugging at their arm for advice.

Pretending that this didn’t hurt was never an option. So what if people thought less of them? Maybe being a Maverick meant not hiding. It was a small snap to call one to action. Action always meant more. Any bastard that claimed otherwise didn’t deserve this life.

Speaking of bastards…

Taking a walk to the rec room had been a mistake. Already there, staring quite thoughtfully at the vending machine, was Dynamo. He didn’t seem aware of the Maverick’s presence at first. When he did, he turned around and didn’t suspect his danger in the slightest.

“Come to apologize?” the asshole grinned.

There was no thinking about what came next.

The Maverick tackled Dynamo with their whole body. He went down with a crack and discomforted ‘oof’ in its wake. The Maverick worked quickly to keep him pinned down, crushing his ribs with their knees. Their hands wrapped around his throat and squeezed tightly. Horror crosses his eyes in realizing what was happening.

“H-hey!” he croaked. “Stop! Get off!”

The Maverick did nothing of the sort. Their hands wrapped around his neck even tighter. Dynamo closed his eyes. Panic might have been an immediate reaction, but it wasn’t going to save him if he kept acting on it.

Using his knee, Dynamo hit the Maverick as hard as he could. It was enough to surprise them. Dynamo scrambled to his feet and tried to get some distance between him and his attacker. It wasn’t much. The solitare table was right behind him.

“I haven’t even said anything yet!” he then tried to defend himself. “If you’d give me five seconds to apologize or whatever-!”

The Maverick was on their feet now too. The ribbon around their wrist had partially come undone. They still gripped it- a choice coming to their mind without hesitation.

“It’s too late for that.”

Like a thief, the Maverick darted toward Dynamo, shoving him hard into the table. The force caused the table to slide backward. Dynamo’s head whacked the edge as he lost his balance. Stars tracked in his eyes and his mind couldn’t defend the rest of him in time. The Maverick was back on top of him with the ribbon completely unfurled.

The Maverick’s vision went red as they used the ribbon to choke Dynamo out. He tried to struggle, but each time the Maverick used the ribbon as leverage to slam his head onto the ground. Their world of red did not stop until Dynamo’s body finally did. If anything, it was a massive relief. An eye for an eye, and all that. There were no regrets as the Maverick pooled saliva in their mouth before spitting on Dynamo’s dead body.

‘I’ll kill you in my next life too, asshole.’ they thought to themselves before heading back to their dorm. With one less bastard in this world, they would finally be able to rest easy again.

However, there was someone they needed to talk with first.

-

“So you think he really does like Iris?” Layer asked, hiding in her bangs. It was almost silly to ask it at this point, and yet she knew she had to make it obvious- if only to herself.

“They spend a lot of their time together,” X agreed, nodding. “Iris likes being with him too- so I think it’s mutual.”

“If you still like his company, you shouldn’t avoid him because he won’t reciprocate the way you want.” Aero added. “It’s terrible advice, but you can still be there for him. Just don’t, like, expect much.”

“Yeah.” Layer sighed. “Yeah…”

The awkwardness in the room couldn’t be helped. Kessie-Louise, the writer of this fic, has a hard time defining what ‘friend’ means, let alone any reasonable advice on when you crush on someone or vice versa. Asexuality is strong in this writer… or ignorance. She’s working through it.

“Aero?”

Everyone’s attention went to the door. Standing there was Marino- hair disheveled and a suspicious red mark from something once wrapped tightly around her wrist.

“Marino?” Aero asked as she looked over Marino. She stood up, her face becoming harder. “Marino, what happened?”

“I’m not sorry.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Dynamo… That bastard … He’s… he’s finally…”

A chill came over the room. Aero was the only one who moved. She got close enough to place a tight-gripped hand on Marino’s shoulder.

“Marino, where is Dynamo?”

There was a long, dreadful pause before Marino admitted, “Rec room.”

Hearing this, Aero flashed a quick glare at X and Layer. The two knew what to do right away. They quickly left the room, leaving Aero and Marino behind.

Sure enough, there was Dynamo lying dead. Eyes bulged from strangulation. Apparently Layer and X in a rush had caused the attention of Alia and Axl, who followed them into the rec room. All X knew was that he was too in shock to fully register Lumine’s words as they came over the intercom.

"A Maverick has killed. I repeat, a Maverick has killed. Please review the body at your pleasure at the recreational room, then report to the auditorium for further instructions."

Chapter Text

“I’ve got to hand it to you lab rats- this experiment has been quite unpredictable.” Lumine greeted them once they had settled in their usual spots. “We are all enjoying the results as we speak.”

“We.” Zero repeated with a snort. “That’s the first time you’ve mentioned a ‘we’.”

Lumine placed a hand under their chin.

“Is it?” they mused. “Was it not apparent that there was more than just I when the experiment was first mentioned? Well, there goes that admiration I had for your creative unpredictability. Turns out it counteracts the lack of understanding context clues.”

“What are you talking about?” Alia asked.

“On the floor I last unlocked for you, there were two locked doors.” they said- playing with a strand of their hair before tossing it back. “One was the security room- for obvious reasons. The other had a name placard on it. Did any of you happen to read it?”

“It said ‘The Professor’.” Iris spoke up.

“ Good girl.” Lumine congratulated. Iris shrunk a little- it hadn’t been a real compliment in any shape or form, and that made her uncomfortable.

“The Professor,” Lumine went on, “Is the one who is conducting this experiment. Many details are on a ‘need to know’ basis, as it were. Unless someone has learned something new between our talks?”

No one thought they had.

“Good. All is going according to plan then. Now, let’s continue with our Maverick probing. Yes?”

And so it did. Once more, all the lights were dimmed for a breath-taking moment. When they came back on, they cast light down on the Maverick: Marino.

She didn’t seem to react. If anything, she looked just as prepared to find out who the Maverick was like everyone else. She soon found that everyone was looking at her. There was a blink, then another.

“Did you want me to apologize or something?” she questioned in a crass tone. “That bastard had it coming.”

“But now you’re a Maverick.” Alia informed her. “Have some remorse for that at least?”

Marino refused to budge.

“ Is Marino truly a Maverick in this situation?” Zero instead offered.

“What do you mean?” X wondered- almost hating whatever implication Zero could be getting at.

Zero stood a bit taller before saying, “As we all know, Marino has not been taking the death of Cinnamon well. Dynamo, much like his late comrade, was not making the situation any better.

Marino’s hands clenched into a fist.

“The only way to have peace was to kill him. The only way to grieve was to kill him for her.” she told them all. Her voice was low and dark. It was nothing like what they have heard from her so far.

It was Axl who snorted, “You didn’t need to kill him. What you really needed was a therapist.”

“Isn’t that… what Aero was trying to do?” Layer carefully questioned.

Not a second was wasted as everyone turned their attention to Aero now. Her arms were tightly folded in front of her chest -guarded- as she refused to look at anyone.

“Come now Aero,” Lumine teased, “Don’t be such a petulant child for wanting to be the good fairy. We win and lose some all the time, after all.”

Lumine laughed as Aero gave them a dark glare.

“If there is one person I feel sorry for,” Marino then said, “It’s you, Aero.”

Aero suddenly moved back a little, as if someone had punched her, before looking to Marino. Her puzzled face spoke for her. Marino took it as a sign to continue.

“You spent all that time trying to put a bandaid on an open fracture. Some of us are just broken people, you know. Some of us just can’t help making terrible choices because of fear, and love, and hate.”

Aero continued to stare at Marino.

“But you’re capable of more than that.” she pointed out.

Marino simply shook her head.

“Just let us be broken, Aero. You are too. Stop trying to hide it.”

Aero was immediately taken aback. No countering words could manage to come out of her mouth. 

“In any case,” Marino then said to everyone, “I don’t feel like a Maverick. A Maverick feels some regret for what they’ve done. Massimo was obvious. Spider didn’t have to kill Cinnamon. I feel nothing for Dynamo. Only relief.”

Lumine gave a small click of their tongue. A small sound, but one that caught the attention of everyone in the room.

“Something you’d like to add?” Zero asked.

A wicked grin crossed Lumine’s features.

“I’m just… fascinated.” Lumine admitted. “Never once did I imply that Mavericks felt regret upon fulfilling their destiny. Nor did I include it within the classical definition. This… image you’ve conjured, Marino, was it of your own doing, or is that what you truly believe a Maverick is? Just a sad, regretful little vessel that doesn’t want to die. Sounds very opposite of your position right now, doesn’t it?”

Marino refused to budge. Lumine’s grin only grew wider.

“For the sake of our experiment,” Lumine went on, steepling their fingers together, “We are sticking strictly to the classical definition of what makes a Maverick. Someone, or something, that goes against its purpose of peace and disrupts it. May that be death, anarchy, or even a casual coup de grâce. From that definition, this means you, Marino. And Massimo. And Spider. Even Dynamo could have counted as one if you consider all he did and how it helped no one- not even himself.” Lumine grinned. “And that means punishment.”

Marino’s body started to tense. The sense of what was going to happen -what she had done- was starting to fully ring for her. Her eyes never betrayed this. They continued to stare at Lumine with the same conviction as before.

“If I am Maverick by your standards,” Marino then told them, “Then just kill me, you son of a bitch, and get this charade over with.”

Lumine gave a nod.

“As you wish.” they permitted.

They gestured their hand to the base of Marino’s podium, and down came a long tube, similar to the cylinder that had enclosed Spider not long ago. It crept up from the ground to surround Marino. Marino visibly braced herself for a similar punishment. And yet, she was still at peace. What surprised everyone was that a sort of lid came from the ceiling, and was placed on top of the cylinder. The lid hissed as it touched the cylinder while steel clamps secured it in place, trapping Marino perfectly inside like a bug in a jar.

A long pause then followed. Nothing seemed to be happening. Inside the cylinder, Marino was taking deep, calm breaths knowing that something was going to happen to her. Her breathing slowly started to become more shallow while she remained patient. Then, like a switch, Marino brought her hands to her throat and started to gasp for air.

She struggled. She tried as hard as she could for air that was being taken away from her with each passing second. Her eyes rolled to the top of her head, her body slumped against the cylinder. Marino even tried for a moment to claw her way out to little prevail.

In her last moments, something in Marino’s eyes shimmered. A tear ran down her cheek as a small smile found its way onto her gasping lips. Her body pressed further against the glass. Her eyes became unfocused. And soon, Marino didn’t move at all.

“My, I do hope we’ll be able to keep up these silent Maverick deaths.” Lumine mused as the cylinder came down and Marino’s body ragdolled to accommodate. “Then again, we’re at our lucky last seven. What could possibly go wrong?”

Their laugh was nothing sort of mocking.

-

“Aero.”

Hearing X’s voice, Aero started to move faster.

“Aero, please.” X tried to beg. “I know you tried to help Marino -more than any of us did- but please, I need to know. Are you okay?”

Hearing the question was what got Aero to stop in her tracks. She didn’t turn around to face him, however.

“The trees are on fire, but there were never any matches in the campground.”

“Huh?”

Aero shook her head.

“Nothing. It’s nothing. I’m just waxing poetic to myself.”

X didn’t know what to say. He didn’t even know if it was okay to move. It wasn’t like Aero was walking away either. X took a brave step forward. One became two. Soon he had stepped forward enough to place a hand on her shoulder. She didn’t shrug him off, so he supposed that was a good sign.

“Aero,” he said once more- the tone carrying more weight than just saying her name.

Closing her eyes, Aero moved her body to face X. She opened them again to be met with his genuinely concerned green ones.

The two stared at each other.

“You were there for Marino, Aero, I want to make sure someone is there for you too.”

The corner of Aero’s mouth trembled. Without a thought, she pulled X into a tight hug. The warmth of her body was faint- more like a projection than being physically close. It only caused him to hold her tighter. Anything, anything for that warmth.

Aero was the one who peeled them out of the embrace. Her face was devoid of emotion.

“X,” she then said, “I have a favor to ask you.”

X blinked. “What is it?”

“Tomorrow, Lumine is likely going to open another floor for us. I won’t be at breakfast, and I wouldn’t want to explore either. Just tell everyone that… I'm resting. Yes, tell them that I’m getting some rest.”

“But is that-”

“It’s not lying. Axl will try to check on me anyway.” A pause, then- “Spend some time with him tomorrow so he isn’t with me as much. I don’t think you two have had time to really know each other yet.”

Something about this didn’t feel right. A nagging feeling itched at the back of X’s head, but he wasn’t able to scratch it.

Aero studied him for a moment. In deciding that he wasn’t going to question her, she turned around to leave again. X let her two four steps before giving in to his nagging mind.

“Aero?”

She stopped again, and even gave a small glance behind.

“Yeah?”

X couldn’t help but fidget as he asked, “Are you sure that you’ll just be resting? You’re not… You’re not going Maverick?”

For a moment, Aero just looked at him. Then, realizing he was serious, let out an unintentional snort.

“If I went Maverick, the whole world is going down with me.” she told him. As she walked away, X wondered if it was meant to actually assure him or not.

He decided on ‘not.’

-

“Here are the completed transcripts of the debate, Professor.” Lumine said as they presented the documents. “It wasn’t much of a fight this time around. I’m concerned the lab rats just don’t have the spirit to fight.”

The response at first was a gruff scoff. Then the only sound in the room were papers flipping as the Professor looked over the data.

“No, everything is going according to plan.” the Professor decided. “Not knowing what constitutes a Maverick or not is perfectly within the realm of this experiment. Changing their worldview, justifying it to the circumstance. That is evolution. That is the real step toward being a Maverick.”

“Whatever you say, sir.”

The Professor gave Lumine a dark glare.

“Out.” he then demanded. “Your presence is no longer needed.”

“Of course.” Lumine agreed with a bow.

After Lumine had left, the Professor looked over the debate transcript one more time.

“Zero,” he hissed, “Always a problem. It’s no wonder he hasn’t found a way into this room yet. Ha!”

Thinking on it more, the Professor pulled out the transcripts from the previous debates. He also reached over to a control panel and pressed the a button that activated the televisions in front of him. On it, the previous days played in front of him at various speeds and at various times of day. The Professor tilted his head at footage of X.

“How has he not pieced more of the mystery together? He has been capable of much clearer mysteries in a previous life.”

The footage started to show a moment with X and Aero together. It had been moments before during X’s concern for her wellbeing.

“Ah. That must be it. There is interference. Perhaps we are under enriching our test subjects. Too much comfort and not enough motivation.”

The Professor had the cameras track Aero. He moved his hand under his chin as a wicked grin crossed his lips.

“What a strange little girl. So different from the rest and none of them know it. Strange, strange girl.”

The Professor then let out a laugh -cruel in nature- as Aero looked up at the security camera with a deadly glare in her eye.

Chapter Text

The next morning brought in the usual announcement of a new level being open to the survivors. Breakfast also attracted the usual crowd that came about the survivors. The only exception had been Aero- who X knew wouldn’t be joining them that morning, and let the others know just in case.

And just as Aero had predicted, Axl wanted to check on her.

“Someone has to!” he reasoned. “After everything that happened with Marino- we need to be taking better care of each other!”

“And what if being alone is what Aero needs right now?” X challenged right back.

Axl shrunk for a moment. In the next, he stood even taller.

“No one grieves alone.” he decided.

There was nothing X could do to argue with that, but it still brought a point home.

“Let’s just give her some time.” X offered. “Let’s explore the new floor Lumine offered us.”

You could see in Axl’s soured face that it was the last thing he wanted to do. It took a moment for him to compromise with himself.

“Alright,” the younger man sighed, “Let’s go.”

. . .

The fourth floor was far more than what they ever could have expected. Calling it a floor at all was a bit odd too, considering it was the rooftop.

“It’s a whole jungle up here!” Axl exclaimed first. His whole face lit up as he went from tree to tree, even a flower or two, like a child in a toy store. It was enough to make X wonder if Axl had never seen natural vegetation before.

“Oh! Plums!” Axl happily exclaimed before running over to a plum tree.

The young man hummed as he looked over both ripe and blossoming plums. He let out a noise of joy when he found just the right one. Plucking it with expert ease, Axl tested its weight a bit by giving it small tosses in the air.

Then, without any other warning, he jammed his thumb into the fruit.

“What are you doing?” X wondered. He was seeing this right, wasn’t he? Axl was absolutely trying to dig his thumb into the plum.

“Trying to pick the plum seed out with just my thumb,” Axl claimed, as if it were a natural thing to do. “You know, like Jack Horner?”

It, understandably, took X awhile to understand what Axl was really trying to get at.

“Jack Horner had a Christmas pie, Axl. He found a plum with his thumb, not pulled its seed out.”

Axl’s face twisted into one of pure concentration now.

“I’m in too deep now. Come back in a few minutes.”

X couldn’t help but snort. Never did X had to doubt Axl’s commitment to the bit.

With Axl doing his thing, X wandered around the area. Beside the trees were the fruits, then vegetables. They all looked so tempting that passing by the grapes made X’s mouth water. Looking around, X ended up noticing a pair of gardening shears laying on the ground. He curiously picked them up and looked them over. They looked to be in pretty decent shape.

X then looked to his left. He could easily see basil and cloves growing. Behind them were other herbs. Getting an idea, X tried to remember what rooibos looked like in the book he and Iris had found the other day. His intuition was dead on- whoever had placed this garden here had thought of every plant that the test subjects would have needed.

Now if only X knew which part of the plant to cut…

“What are you doing?” Axl wondered as he came over. The younger fella put his hands on his hips as he looked X over. “I kinda figured you might be a plant guy, but you’re treating those plants like your firstborn kid.”

X offered a half shrug in reply.

“I’m trying to cut some rooibos.” X said, simply enough.

To this, Axl tilted his head in thought.

“For Aero?”

The thought made X pause.

“Yeah.” he ended up nodding. “For Aero.”

Axl gave an absent nod back. He then decided to squat down next to X and watched his older peer work.

“Wish we could cheer everyone up like these will to Aero.” Axl hummed to himself. “Imagine getting Zero to smile.”

“Yeah.” X agreed, successfully cutting back enough of the rooibos. He admired his handiwork for a bit before realizing that he didn’t have a place to hold the rooibos in.

Sensing this, Axl sprung back up with a quick, “Wait here, I’ll be back!”

X did so, and in waiting Axl came back with a small flower press in his hands.

“We can hold the rooibos in here!” he declared, well out of breath from rushing. “Besides, they should probably dry out a bit before they get made into tea anyway.”

“Right,” X nodded.

With the rooibos safe, the boys didn’t know what to do next. Axl looked up at X. He tilted his head as he studied the other, then quickly shook it. He wasn’t going to voice his suspicion out loud- not yet, atleast.

Instead he opted to muse, “You know, if Zero was here, I would have thrown a lemon at him by now.”

The bewilderment on X’s face was exactly what he had hoped for.

“What? Why?”

“Because of that sour face he makes all the time!”

Axl even demonstrated by twisting his face into one imitating sourness and the look Zero usually gave. The absurdity of it caused X to laugh. Which, in turn, led Axl to a laughter of his own.

“I have an idea.” Axl proposed. “Let’s get some nice looking flowers and use them to decorate the tables in the cafeteria.”

X thought it over for a moment.

“That’s… not a bad idea.” he admitted. Axl beamed with pride at the approval.

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s get a pickin’!”

X smiled as he and Axl went toward the flower shrubs and decided on the best ones to take. At one point, X had been distracted by the irises. Reminded of their time at the library, X plucked a few, along with a couple white tulips, to make a personal bouquet for a certain someone. By the time Axl had plucked enough flowers to hide his face, X had also secured a few oranges to take back with them.

Setting up the bouquets would have gone a lot smoother had Axl taken them in trips instead of all at once. Yet the energetic young man insisted on doing things the more ‘interesting’ way. In any case, the two were finished just around lunchtime. Everyone but Aero filed in around the same time- their reactions coming just as quickly.

“These bouquets are beautiful!” Iris delighted with a clap of her hands.

“I made one just for you.” X told her. Her face went to complete surprise then.

“You did?”

X nodded before bringing out the bouquet he had made for her. Iris gasped as the present. She was almost afraid to take it from him. Fortunately, X carefully brought it over to her and Iris took the cue to cradle the flowers in her arms.

“Thank you, X.” Iris blushed. “I… I don’t know what to say.”

X smiled, grateful that Iris was enjoying the flowers.

“Gee, now I’m jealous.” Alia teased, coming up from behind X to give him a light elbow bump. “Are there any flowers up there for the rest of us?”

“Y-yeah,” X agreed- his face flushed from Alia’s teasing. “I can escort you up if you want.”

“Urg, you’re too charming!” Alia jokingly whined. “Stop it, X. Stop it!”

Her overdramatics got a laugh out of everyone in the room. Some were more reluctant than others, of course.

With the bouquet introductions out of the way, everyone set about to preparing their own lunch. Zero in particular waited for Alia, Axl, and Layer to leave the kitchen before making his own meal. X took a deep breath in before heading over. It suddenly felt like what he was about to do was very, very stupid.

“I also got these for you, Zero.” X said as he presented the oranges to his friend. Zero looked at them, then at X. His face was hard to read.

“Oranges?”

“Blood oranges,” X sheepishly corrected.

The look of confusion, and the thinnest of disgust, made its way to Zero’s face.

“Why?”

X gave half a shrug.

“Axl wanted to throw lemons at you.” he said, almost a bit too nonchalantly. “But oranges are better for the juice. Blood oranges don’t taste much different, and they’re your favorite color on the inside. I thought they would be perfect for you.”

Zero looked at X. Every part of him wanted to find some hint of a lie in the other, but couldn’t find any. All Zero could see was complete sincerity.

“Alia’s right- you need to stop being so…” he started to mumble, but then shook his head. “Never mind.”

X curiously tilted his head. He wondered for a moment if Zero would have said something other than ‘charming’ or even a more demure ‘kind’.

“I think they’re a nice gift.” Iris decided for Zero. She didn’t make a full meal- only a slice of buttered toast and a small glass of apple juice. Iris then gave Zero a nudge before teasing, “We were just talking about juice options around here. Not fresh enough for poor, healthy Zero. No sir.”

Zero’s face became a deep shade of pink as Iris and X laughed at his expense. It left the impression that X was doing the right thing after all. Not only that, but that only left one more person X had a delivery for…

. . .

X had never noticed how much of a wooded scent rooibos was until now. It didn’t seem to calm him much. If anything, he wanted to be back on the rooftop garden and pretend that everything was normal. That there was an outside word they could get back to. That there were people out there looking for them, concerned about them, to wonder where so many young adults had gone to at once. Did anyone know they were here? Did anyone know that half of them were dead?

X didn’t want to think about it as he reached Aero’s door.

He knocked and patiently waited for her to answer. The quiet moments in waiting almost made him anxious. Had something happened to her? Could something happen to her while alone? The options flew through his mind without warning.

Seeing the door slightly crack open brought instant relief.

“X?” Aero wondered as she poked her head out of the door, her voice groggy and exhausted. “What are you…?”

Without a word, X carefully pulled out the rooibos stalks he had cut. Aero looked at them for a moment, then looked back up at X.

“How..?” came the next groggy question.

“There’s a rooftop garden.” X explained. “Axl and I picked some flowers to make bouquets this morning. I also decided to pick some stuff out to give to you, Zero, and Iris as well. The rooibos is for you. In case you, you know, wanted to make something more fresh for your tea or something.”

Aero blinked. Then a long yawn escaped her lips. A smile soon after replaced it as X fought the urge to yawn back.

“Thank you.” she said. “I mean it.”

Still giving that drowsy smile, she moved closer to X to take the rooibos from him. X’s cheeks flared over how close she was. It became worse when she didn’t immediately step away from him. Her brown eyes bore into his greens. X tried to say something -anything- to make sure the moment didn’t end. It was just so… pleasant. And nerve wracking. And exciting. And…

A frown made its way to Aero’s features.

“I… I’m sorry.” she then said. “I didn’t mean…”

She gave her head a shake.

“Thank you.” she once more said before slinking back into her room.

X let out a breath he didn’t realize he had been holding in. In trying to process what had just happened, he leaned his back against her door and stared at the ceiling. He closed his eyes- still seeing her there and so close. He barely wanted to open them again, but knew he had to come back to reality.

Him and Aero, in a place like this?

How ridiculous.

Chapter Text

The highway smelled like smoke and burning steel. X had to shield his eyes in order to see anything in front of him. He let out a heavy cough from the smog. Not knowing what else to do, X moved forward.

“Is anyone out here?” he shouted, barely, as he progressed. “Any survivors?”

Nothing. Only the crackle of fire answered him.

A section of the highway started to give out from under him. At first, X couldn’t react until it started to fall entirely. Thinking quickly, X jumped onto the support beam that remained and climbed back up. He found that he was tired after such a feat. If anything he felt more wary.

“This is worse than I thought.” X murmured to himself.

He kept moving forward. The heat of the smoke was only growing hotter as he walked. He was getting closer. But to what?

Then he hit the end of the road. Literally. There was no more road to walk on from here. It wasn’t even safe to jump down either.

“I’ve found you, X!” a voice shouted from behind X. He spun around and saw a familiar face.

“Vile?”

The man gave a dangerous laugh. The large chassis he sat in was taller than X twice over. Vile reeled back one of the chassis’s arms, prepared to strike.

“Vile, don’t!” X shouted as he rushed toward the other. But Vile didn’t listen. He let loose a punch that was aimed right at X. Before X had time to react, everything went black.

Then, with it all being nothing more than a dream, X woke with a jolt, sitting upright in his bed. Unconsciously, X reached for his chest. There was a pain there like a phantom memory. His heart was racing a mile a minute. X had to remind himself to take a few deep breaths to calm down again.

A knock on his door almost made X jump a whole foot again.

“Coming.” X croaked as he got out of bed. Had he screamed before he woke up? Maybe that was why someone was knocking.

X quickly put on a change of clothes before answering his door. Standing there, rather sheepishly, was Layer.

“Can I take your picture?” she asked in a quiet voice. She was hiding behind her bangs, her body a bit too tense for such an innocent question.

X blinked. “Sure…?” he agreed. “But how-”

Before he could finish, Layer pulled out a small digital camera from behind her, positioned it at X’s face, then snapped a photo. The flash went off, causing X to blink for a few minutes to get the spots out.

“S-sorry!” Layer immediately apologized. “I’m still getting familiar with it.”

“Where did you even find a camera?” X questioned.

Layer looked a shade more embarrassed at this.

“In the art room.” she told him. “ There’s a whole side room for developing them too.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

The two stood in an awkward silence after that.

“I’m taking photos of everyone.” Layer finally blurted out. “Just… just for something to do. You know?”

X nodded. He could understand that much.

“Are… there others you still need to take photos of?” he asked.

It was Layer’s turn to nod now.

“I only have pictures of you, Axl, and Aero. I want to get one of everyone else too.”

“Which is Alia, Iris, and Zero?”

“Yeah.”

Remembering that so few of them remained caused a lump to form in X’s throat. Layer knew it well too. She hid even further in her bangs as if she were the one to axe the others. X knew he had to say something to change the mood.

“How about I join you?”

Layer jumped. She looked at X with a slight peek in her bangs.

“Really?” she asked.

“Really.” X affirmed with a nod.

“I would like that.” Layer agreed. X offered her a small smile.

The two walked out of the dorms and went on the hunt for Alia. They started on the first floor with little luck before moving upwards. Just when they thought that they'd have to ask around to see if anyone's even seen Alia that day, Layer and X found her relaxing on the roof. Alia was sitting by the orchard trees, humming to herself as she simply stared off in relaxed trance.

“Hey Alia.” X greeted first.

Alia blinked out of her relaxation, noticed X and smiled.

“Heya.” she greeted back. “What do I owe the honor of having both you and Layer here at the moment? Do you need me to move?”

“No.” Layer said with a quick shake of her head. “I'm taking pictures of everyone and wanted to see if you wouldn't mind if I did yours as well.”

“Of course I wouldn't!” Alia beamed. “Hang on, first. Lemme just...”

Alia adjusted herself a bit- sitting a bit straighter and moving strands of hair out of her face. When she was ready, she brought her hands together to make a heart. Layer smiled as she took the picture.

“Thank you.” she said.

“Not a problem.” came the automatic response. “Get me involved with your next scheme, alright? Anything is better than staring off into space for too long, you know?”

Both X and Layer nodded in agreement.

With their affairs situated, Layer and X then backtracked through the building to get to Zero, Iris, or both.

“What are you going to do once you get pictures of everyone?” X asked they walked along the halls together.

“I’m not sure yet.” Layer admitted. “I want to work on something big after this. Something that will take awhile to finish. A painting maybe?”

“That sounds nice.”

Layer nodded. “I hope so.” she agreed. “I really hope so.”

Somehow X knew that Zero and Iris would be in the same room together. It seemed just as natural as seeing Aero with Axl, or what used to be Marino and Cinnamon. Iris had been winning a game of chess with Zero in the rec room when X and Layer entered.

“Mind if we interrupt?” Layer softly asked after getting fairly close to the couple.

Zero and Iris took a look at each other. They then looked down at the chessboard as if it could decide for them instead.

“I guess.” Zero said, folding his arms. “But make it quick.”

“I was winning.” Iris supplied, grinning. It earned a grunt from Zero in annoyed agreement.

“It won't take long.” X told the two. “Layer is taking pictures of everyone so she can work on a big project that has all of us in it.”

“Oh, that sounds lovely!” Iris decided. “Yes, go ahead. Take a picture of us!”

“I-” Zero started to object. He was stopped when Iris moved close to him, pressing a cheek against his. The young man’s face became a faint shade of red as Iris grinned from ear to ear. Layer snapped a picture of them just like that.

With everyone taken care of, Layer went through her photos.

“These are good.” she smiled. She looked up at Iris and Zero. “Thank you.”

Iris smiled as she gave a wave. X returned it before he and Layer left the rec room.

“W-wait!” Zero tried to shout. “That wasn't a good photo of me! I demand a reshoot!”

No one listened.

. . .

“Wow, you weren’t kidding.” X remarked once they got back to the art room. Standing in front of him was a mini darkroom setup, along with a computer to process the digital photos Layer had taken. There really was everything needed to print out a photograph in any time period imaginable.

“I think I’m just going to use the computer.” Layer agreed with a little laugh. “I just need to upload them and print them out using the printer over there. I hope it prints in color… I’d prefer color, at least.”

“I’m sure it will.”

“Me too, but still.”

X smiled, but it soon faded away.

“It makes our situation that much weirder.” he decided. “The way Lumine keeps providing us with most anything we need without us asking for it.”

Layer nodded. “I agree. If we were meant to go Maverick, insane or whatever, then shouldn’t we be deprived of all this… stuff?”

Not sure what to say at first, X let out a small hum. His finger skimmed across the cleaning sink as he thought it over.

“Maybe it’s meant to make a statement.” he murmured

“Of what?”

X shook his head. He didn’t want to think about that. Layer very quickly understood, and looked away as her face went into a bright pink.

“Sorry I brought it up.” she murmured.

“Don’t be.” X insisted. “We’re just… in a bad situation. But we’ll get out of it, together.”

Layer slowly nodded, not quite as sure about it as X seemed to be.

. . .

Lunch was spent that day alone. X made a sandwich and ate it in relative peace. It was there that he decided that he should visit the gym. Not that he really thought he needed to work out, but he did know that if he didn’t then atrophy could happen. Maybe. It was something to stay motivated with, at least.

At first X thought that he was the only one in the gym. He changed out of his regular clothes and into sweats. As he contemplated lifting weights for a fraction of a second, someone spoke from behind him.

“Came for a workout?”

X turned around to see Zero standing there.

“Or did you come here to take more pictures of me?”

X made a face.

“Why would I do that?”

“Because you were earlier today.” Zero reminded him. “Even more than that, you don't seem the gym-rat type.”

X snorted. “But you are?”

That got Zero to snort as well.

“Fair enough.” he decided. His face became a bit more serious before he went on to say, “But for real, if you need any help with the equipment, let me know.”

X absently nodded, taking a look back at the weights.

“I think I'm going for a swim instead.” he decided.

Zero gave X a hard look. He looked his peer up and down as he mulled something over.

“Would you mind if I joined?”

X blinked, but his heart skipped a beat. There was nothing wrong with Zero wanting to go for a swim too. It made sense, after all, for someone other than X to take a dip.

What if it was a trap?

X quickly shook his head. Zero wouldn’t hurt anyone. Just because his heart was anxious in this moment, it didn’t mean that Zero had intentions to hurt X. If anything, it was the opposite. Zero was trying to open up a little. That was fine. That would have been wonderful, actually! So why did X get the feeling that Zero was looking at him a bit too close today?

“I don’t mind.” X found himself finally saying.

Zero raised an eyebrow, then shook his head. For a moment, X feared that Zero could sense his hesitation.

“Good.” he said- relieving X. “I’ll meet up with you at the poolside.”

“Okay.” X nodded.

Zero gave a nod of his own before heading toward the pool. Was… was he just going to swim in the gym clothes he had on?

He wasn't wearing much more than what X was now- just a T-shirt and knee-length capris. Curious, X had to follow him.

Zero didn't seem to notice X as he entered the pool area. He found a lounge chair not far from the pool and started to take off his pants right then and there. X stood frozen in shock as Zero peeled off his shirt in a single motion. X found himself staring at the other’s abs as they naturally flexed while Zero tossed the shirt to the side. It seemed like such a departure from the reserved Zero that X had come to know.

When Zero finally realized that X was behind him, his nonchalant expression didn't change.

“Don't feel like putting on swimwear either?” he asked.

X didn't know how to answer.

“You can't swim naked!” X suddenly demanded. “Do you know how unhygienic that is?!”

Zero just stared at him. Then, slowly, he started to laugh. X could feel his heart start to race again. Zero had a nice genuine laugh too- not dissimilar to Aero's.

“I'm not skinny dipping, X.” Zero snorted. “I know far better than that.”

“Then why-”

“I already said, didn't I? I don't feel like putting on swimwear. Underwear works just as fine. Just as hygienic.”

“I doubt that.”

“Humor me.”

For a moment, X had to hold back a laugh. Did Zero always have to look so serious when he could be telling a joke? That made it just much more absurd when he was saying this in his boxers- and they were boxers, composed mostly of white cotton and gold colored seams. They fit him rather well. X found himself jealous for a moment, his eyes flickered down for only a moment to gauge how… packed Zero was. Then he felt bad about it. And then he remembered that Zero had invited him to strip down too.

Was it just X, or was it getting warm in here?

“Suit yourself.” Zero mused, snapping X out of his thoughts. The young man with long blonde hair ran toward the pool, elegantly diving in once he reached the edge. X found himself envious all over again.

Zero had proceeded to act like X wasn’t there at all. He started to swim laps without a single thought. X walked over to the edge of the pool and simply watched him.Each lap Zero took, he alternated which stroke he used. Once he went through the ones he knew, he turned around and did a few in the opposite direction. X admired him as he dipped his feet into the water. His mind wandered in wondering who would have won a water lap race together- Zero or Massimo? They were both pretty muscular. Zero definitely had the interest in keeping that muscle, but had Massimo? Was it possible to be fit without trying too hard for it?

As X thought it over, Zero decided he was done with his laps and swam over. He hoisted himself back onto the pool’s ledge next to X. His long sigh of exhaustion was purposely made just to get X’s attention.

The two looked at each other. X could feel his heart start to race again- almost thankful that he wasn’t nearly nude like Zero was.

“H-how is Iris doing?” X stammered out, hoping to get some kind of conversation going.

“Fine.” Zero simply told him, not getting the hint. “Why?”

X shrugged. “Dunno, just wanted to make sure.” He looked into Zero’s eyes for a moment. They were a perfectly even shade of blue. “You two don’t really spend much time with anyone else anymore.”

“Not all of us are trying to make friends with everyone else, X.”

“I know, I know.” X admitted with a faint blush. “I just…”

“-Have a big heart,” Zero finished for him. “That’s good. We need people like that here. Though I think we’ve weeded out the ones who could interrupt the peace now…”

X flinched.

“And there’s that big heart of yours again.” Zero mused. “You still feel bad that they’re gone now, don’t you?”

For this, X let out a nervous laugh as he scratched the back of his head.

“That obvious, huh?”

Zero snorted. “Yeah. Just a bit.”

Then Zero’s face became a bit darker.

“Someone is watching us.” Zero said. “And they’re not all that shy about it- just using a proxy that calls itself Lumine.”

X shrunk a bit in his spot.

“Yeah. It’s hard to stay relaxed knowing that.”

Silence filled between them after this. X started to drown in his thoughts of who would put them through all of this. Zero kept his eyes straight on X. Something in them flashed, the same way they did when he looked at Iris. A sense of protection that he wouldn’t give anyone else. Finally, Zero looked away.

“Watch your back, X.”

“Huh?” came the first reaction. “Why?”

“Because someone like you is going to be the next victim.”

The words sent a chill down X’s spine.

“But how can you-?” he started to say. He got cut off when Zero brushed his hand against X’s arm. A breath caught in X’s throat before realizing that Zero had just accidently touched him in standing up again. Zero took a few steps back before diving back into the water. He did not immediately come back up- instead choosing to swim away from X.

“H-hey! Don’t dive without answering me!” X shouted even with Zero still underwater.

Zero soon popped up on the other end of the pool. He moved around so he could face X, just to shout at him;

“What did you say? I was underwater.”

“I said-“ X tried to say again, but once more Zero went underwater. X was very quick to understand what was going on.

“Jerk.” he mumbled despite the grin on his face. “If that’s the way you’re going to play…”

Without any second guesses, X took off his shirt and his pants as quickly as he could. He tossed them off to the side and dove right in the water. He didn’t have the same muscle mass as Zero, but boy could that X swim. He caught up with Zero so quickly, the other gasped underwater in surprise at the incoming X torpedo. Zero came up for air and feared for a moment that X would attempt to drown him.

Instead, once X broke water, he laughed. It took Zero an honest moment to process the sound. When he did, he smirked.

Either he was just really attracted to the both of them, or Iris and X had very similar laughs.

Chapter Text

X woke up in great spirits the next morning. He hummed as he took his morning shower. The bounce in his step was undeniable as he went to get breakfast. He soon entered the cafeteria to see Iris was the only one there. She was already eating at the moment, so he left her alone so he could prepare his own meal. Iris was still there as he came back out to eat.

“Good morning,” X greeted as he took a seat.

Iris jumped considerably. It was like she wasn’t aware that X had entered to begin with.

“Good morning.” Iris soon nodded back. In front of her was a plate with two pieces of toast, and a small cup of orange juice. X quickly noticed that she had only taken three nibbles out of her toast. The orange juice didn’t even look like it had been touched.

“Not hungry?” X cautiously questioned, gesturing to her food.

“Huh?” came the first reaction. It took a look down at her food to change it to a sullen, “Oh. Not really. Something else has been on my mind.”

“What’s that?”

Iris’s eyes trailed away from X. He followed her gaze to the centerpiece he and Axl had placed days before. The flowers were all but dead now.

Iris gently brushed a finger against the dried out petal. It fell immediately. X and Iris watched it as if the poor thing could blow away in a nonexistent wind, or sprout legs and declare it had elsewhere to be.

“They never had a chance.” Iris sighed.

X observed her for a moment. She looked so… sullen. Was she seeing herself in that flower just now? X bit his lip as he thought it over, his eyes moving back to the dried out flower.

In the past few days, the flowers and fruits growing in the rooftop garden had yet to wither away. They were still alive. Maybe they could…

“We can pick more.” X found himself saying out loud. “And this time, we can make sure that they’re properly fed so they don’t die as quickly.”

Iris looked over at him. She mulled over his words with a small hum.

She then smiled. “I’d like that.”

X couldn’t help but smile back.

. . .

The rooftop garden was as quiet and serene as ever. Being here again gave Iris a reason to take in a deep breath. Things were alright. Things could be normal. She and X just had to take a gentle stroll around the garden to find the flowers they wanted to pick. Easy.

“What about this one?” X questioned, crouching down near a darling red flower with yellow stamen.

Iris gave it a tilt of her head. She also crouched down to get a better look at it.

“It reminds me of Zero.” Iris decided.

“You know, it kinda does.” X realized. The two mirrored each other in their tilted heads as they looked over the flower. X glanced over at Iris, head still titled. “Do you think we can find flowers that resemble everyone else? I guess I’d have to go with bluebells, irises with you, obviously. If you want them.”

“I like irises.”

“Maybe we could find something purple for Layer, something pink for Alia…”

“Axl might like something orange. Or just one big sunflower.”

X grinned. “I’m sure we could do both.” he told her. “Then that just leaves….”

“Aero.” they both said at the same time. They looked at each other then, unsure of what to do with someone whose aura was green.

“Maybe getting flowers that resembles everyone is a bad idea.” Iris shrunk.

X thought it over. Then he shook his head.

“No.” he decided. “We can make it work. Every bouquet has filler to it, right? We’ll find a nice looking grassy something to be filler. It wouldn’t look complete without it.”

Iris bit her lip, unsure. X, on the other hand, was certain with this idea.

“Come on,” he beckoned as he stood up, “We’ve got a lot of flowers to track down.”

Iris remained where she was for some time. When she finally got up, she realized how badly she just wanted to sit again. But X was on a roll now. She had to keep up. If he could keep going, so could she.

. . .

Something about Iris felt off. It was like she was hiding something from X. He tried to ignore it. It was still early in the morning after all. Maybe she just wasn’t feeling awake yet? He hoped that she would perk up just a little as they went about finding flowers. But there was something in her that just wouldn’t let it happen. X could feel it.

The near silence between them wasn’t helping much either. Every so often one would call the other over when the perfect flower was found, but other than that there was little in way of conversation. It was another thing that was itching away at X. He had to say something, but what?

“Tell me more about your cousin, Juno.”

Iris jumped. She looked over at X, confused. “Huh? Why?”

“You just seem out of it.” X admitted, not sure of what else to say. “If you don’t want to talk about what’s wrong, maybe we can talk about something -someone- else.”

Iris made a face that didn’t know whether to be amused or perturbed.

“And my cousin is the one you want to bring up? Not Zero, or Alia, or Axl, or…”

“I know them .” X insisted, giving a playful roll of his eyes.

“Alright.” Iris agreed. “But in return you have to tell me more about your family. You have a sister, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Any others? Sisters, or even brothers?”

“Two brothers- both older than me.”

“Oh? Your mother must have had some time with you four. Three boys! I can’t even imagine.”

“I never knew our mother. Sometimes I wonder if we even had one...”

“But that’s silly.”

“Yeah. She just wasn’t there when I was little, and the others don’t talk about her much.”

“You know? Me and my brother don’t talk about our parents much either.”

“Wait- you have a brother?”

Iris giggled. It also didn’t sound right to X. “Yep. He’s older. Very protective of me and Juno. It’s really kinda sweet if it wasn’t his fatal flaw…”

. . .

The cafeteria looked much brighter after X and Iris placed the new arrangements. Even though X was sure Iris wasn’t completely alright, she did brighten up a bit at seeing their handiwork. The two left each other on good terms after- Iris wanting to stay behind a bit longer. X felt pretty good as he left the cafeteria.

Seeing Alia carry a full tea set in her arms genuinely caught him off guard. She wasn’t struggling or anything. She just had a full tea set in her arms. Suffice to say, it was an odd sight.

Curious, X moved closer in. Once close, sure she could see him from her peripheral, he clasped his hands behind his back as he kept pace with her.

“What are you doing today Alia?” he asked, far too innocently.

Alia gave him a hum at first, and adjusted the tea set slightly.

“I think I’m going to have a little tea test.” she mused back. She craned her neck to look at him before asking, “Wanna join?”

“I probably would if I knew what a tea test was.”

Alia laughed.

“Come on,” she beckoned. X was dutiful to follow her back to her room. He even got the door for her like a gentleman.

“Thank you.” Alia thanked in a singing tone as she entered her room. She carefully placed the tea set on the floor. X got down to his knees to help her sort everything out.

Once they were done, they had a full spread prepared for whatever teas they were going to try that day.

“Would you put water in the kettle for me?” Alia requested to X. “We can use the water from my bathroom sink. Boiling it should get rid of any weird pathogens that might be in there.”

“You're very trusting of the fact.” X snorted. Despite this, he got up anyway.

Alia's bathroom did not look much different than the one attached to X's bedroom. It made sense for them to be the same. He really wanted to know where she got those fancy embroidered hand towels from though. X wanted a set of his own now.

X carried the kettle back out to the bedroom to find that Alia had already warmed up the small plate the kettle would sit on. He placed it on top with care.

“Excellent.” Alia nodded. X sat back down with his legs folded. “Now we just need to wait for the water to warm up. What flavor do you want to try first? I'm leaning toward the peppermint.”

X hummed as he looked over the flavors Alia had found. There was the peppermint, along with regular mint. He could catch the package of some green, chai, and oolong teas. It was when he spotted the rooibos tea packet that he stopped.

Alia noticed this far quickly. She gave X a funny look before matching his gaze downward.

“Oh.” she remarked, unsurprised.

X could feel his face heat up from embarrassment.

“Sorry.” he apologized. “The peppermint sounds good.”

“If you want to try the rooibos first-”

“No, it's fine.” X insisted. “We have all day, right? We'll get to it eventually.”

Alia continued to look at X.

“Alright then.” she agreed.

X let out a sigh. Thankfully Alia would drop the subject there. The water was soon heated up and the duo each placed a tea packet into their cups before Alia poured the water in.

“Now, what to talk about while the tea seeps.” Alia bemused. She idly held her cup, occasionally bringing it close to cool off a bit, and tilted her head from side to side as she thought of a conversation starter. “Don't suppose you got any good gossip in you?”

“Not really.” X admitted. He left his cup sitting on the coaster as it cooled and seeped. “I don't think I'm that type of person.”

“You don't think ?”

X shrugged. It was enough for Alia. She understood by now that X was a particularly simple soul. He wouldn't have any gossip on him.

“Well,” Alia then tried, “Let's make something up.”

“Why?!”

“Because it's just us two, and we're not going to spread any more trouble.”

X wasn't so sure about that.

Alia took her first tentative sip of her tea. The face she made indicated it wasn't strong enough for her yet.

“I think Axl's tried to kiss Aero.” she rasped.

X -who had decided to take a sip of his own tea to see if it was strong enough- nearly choked.

“Alia!”

For a moment, she actually looked apologetic.

“Too close?” she guessed. “Sorry about that. Better than guessing what Zero and Iris have been up to. She's gotten a lot shyer around him, and it's not because they've been getting further apart. If anything-”

“Don't finish that sentence Alia.”

“They're-”

“ Alia ...”

“Okay, okay.” Alia relented. “I won't say it out loud. But you know it's true. You've hung out with the both of them. You know what it's like to feel like a third wheel.”

X scoffed.

“We three got along fine and without a third wheel in the way, thank you.” he informed her. “Whatever wheels you're imagining are just that- your imagination.”

Alia took a long sip of her tea then. It still wasn't strong enough for her, but it had to be done for the effect.

“Interesting.” she mused. “Very interesting, X. So, tell me. Bed, wed, or behead: Aero, Zero, and Iris.”

“Alia!”

There was no sense of apology as Alia went into a bright laughter.

. . .

The rest of the tea test went by with a far less impish Alia after. The two would go on to make idle talks about their lives before- X repeated some of what he had told Iris earlier that day about his own family.

Trying the rooibos had been one of the last flavors the two decided to try before dinner. X drank it slowly, trying to figure out just what about it made it the tea of choice for Aero. Maybe he hoped that it could bring her closer to him, or vice versa.

When X and Alia parted ways for the night, X knew then that he just didn't know Aero the way he wanted to. But he was going to try anyway.

Chapter Text

It was slow going the next morning. X took his time getting up and getting dressed. The atmosphere today felt oddly… relaxed. After getting something to eat, X walked around the halls for awhile before settling on the rec room. A quick game of something would be a good time waster.

The rec room was the same as it always was. No surprise. X hummed a bit as he dug through the board and card games for something to play. He was thinking something along the lines of a spelling game. Something he could easily play on his own without much thought put into it.

“No…”

The sound surprised X at first. It took a moment for him to realize that it had been a voice. Carefully, he tried to figure out where it had come from. He led himself to the couch. He peered over its side and nearly shocked himself in realizing that someone was laying there.

It was Aero.

“No.” Aero murmured in her sleep. “No, I didn’t help. I’ve failed. I failed them. No. No, no, no, no!”

X looked at her. Thinking on it, X looked around the room for a cabinet that held throw blankets in it. He pulled a blanket out and went back over to Aero to place it over her. That seemed to calm her a bit. She clung to the blanket in a death grip. But it wasn’t long until she started murmuring again.

“I failed.” Aero all but whined. “It’s no use…!”

Watching her be in this much distress was starting to distress X in turn.

“Aero?” he carefully said as he shook her shoulder.

“I couldn’t save them. I failed. It’s too late for anything. I’ve failed. I failed. It’s over, it’s lost.”

“Aero.” X tried again, shaking her a bit harder. “Aero, wake up.”

“I failed-!” Aero screamed as she catapulted from her sleep. Immediately disoriented, she blinked as she tried to take stock of where she was. She jumped in genuine shock when she saw X sitting there.

“X.” she mumbled. “I don’t know what you just saw, but…”

“It’s alright. I think.” he told her, anxiously rubbing the back of his neck. “I woke you from a nightmare. You seemed pretty lost in it.”

“A nightmare?” she repeated. She looked down, as if it didn’t make sense. “Just a nightmare?”

Aero visibly shivered. She then looked up at X- her body still weary.

“I’m sorry I worried you.” she told him.

X shook his head.

“I couldn’t watch you suffer like that.” he admitted.

Aero gave a sullen half smile. She soon closed her eyes again and laid back against the couch. X bit his lip as he thought of something to make her feel better. Then he had an idea. It was a stupid one, admittedly, but it was an idea nonetheless.

X went over to the music player and went through its catalog. Finding a song he thought Aero would like, he put it on and turned the music up a bit. Hearing the music made Aero sit up and stare at X inquisitively. He only offered her a small smile. He walked over to her side to offer his hand out to her. Aero looked from him, to his hand, and back again. She shook her head at first, but did not object to the gesture. She took his hand, allowing X to guide her up and away from the couch and closer to the music player.

Then, they started to dance together. Slow and careful, it didn’t take much effort to match each other’s movements.

. . .

Layer had carefully laid out everything she needed in front of her. She counted, and recounted her supplies- even though she knew something would come up during the process. At the moment her project had never felt so daunting. Her sketch was a mess. She did her best to match the faces of her friends based on their photos. She even tried to replicate their poses too. It just looked… messy. There was no other word she had for it.

At least she could hope for something abstract? No one said she had to be photorealistic right away.

The hardest part of her drawing was that she had even tried to draw the deceased. She had nothing to go on anymore than their faces from the podiums in the auditorium. Layer couldn’t even tell you what most of them used to sound like now. Massimo had been loud, but was it with pride in his voice or just a general loudness? Spider also had a particular gait to his voice, but for the life of her Layer couldn’t replicate it now even if she wanted to. These small pieces of what once was didn’t help with deciding their poses. She had to redo Cinnamon’s pose at least six times before it looked like something Layer could be proud of.

Sighing, Layer picked up her paintbrush. She dipped the tip into the first color and stared at the sketch. She really hoped she wouldn’t mess this poor thing up further. What else did she have to do if it didn’t work out? Start over again? The thought of it was both assuring and terrifying.

“It’s okay, you got this.” Layer assured herself. She didn’t know if it actually worked.

Her first stroke against the canvas had been too thick. Layer sighed again, forcing herself to relax. She closed her eyes, counted to 10, and let the tension ease a bit. When she opened her eyes again, she realized why her sketch looked so cluttered. It was because there were 14 people there. It was hard to imagine that many being here at some point. This was a reminder of what they had lost. Of who gave in to temptations and anger.

She may become one of them soon. She didn’t know.

She didn’t want to think about it either.

With that decided, Layer started to paint.

. . .

The two never checked to find if they could be heard. No one ever stopped them, or made mention to their actions, so it was easier to believe no one knew. When they were together like this, no one else mattered anyway.

“Zero…” Iris moaned. Her body writhed as his lips trailed down from her collarbone to the middle of her breasts.

Zero lifted his head up. There was a care in his eyes that no one else had ever seen before. Along with it was a sense of adoration that couldn't be matched anywhere else but here.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asked.

Iris very quickly shook her head.

“Keep going.” she told him. After a pause, she added, “Please.”

“As you wish,” Zero agreed with a smirk. He came back up to kiss Iris's lips. She returned the favor with desire and need.

Zero moved her a little so he could place his hand by her thigh. As he trailed downward this time, his hand glided down her leg, wrapping it around his torso to further keep Iris in place.

And Iris sure wasn't to complain while Zero went from her breasts to her stomach. She loved when he gave every part of her body attention before the real pleasure began. It filled her with so much love and desire that it was almost hard to keep still. She could only wish to be in this much bliss on a normal day anymore. Zero was so attentive when they were alone like this. He wouldn't hurt her. He loved every bit of her.

Iris let out a sharp gasp when Zero kissed the most sensitive part of her body. They were reaching the point when more than his lips would be touching her. Iris shivered in ecstasy at the idea.

Seriously though, how could she bottle up this emotion for later? There just wasn't enough of it anymore.

. . .

Alia puffed her cheeks as she went through the library’s shelves. The woman knew she needed some sort of exercise, but she also knew full well that she wasn’t up for anything that was in the gym. So exercising her brain it would be. Walking through the rows also counted, right? Had to. It’s not like she was just sitting down yet.

It kinda surprised her how many topics this library had hidden away in it. She read through some of the titles to find classics like Asimov and Shakespear. Then there were obscure books on data management and balancing a financial record. Suffice to say, Alia brought herself to the history books in order to find some sort of recognition through it all.

‘The History of the Roman Empire’

‘The History of War’

‘The History of Language’

‘The History of Mavericks’

That last one made Alia pause.

“Huh.” was her first response. She pulled the book from the shelf and started to skim through its contents. She got pretty close to the end before a passage stuck out to her.

‘Too many Reploids became Maverick in the decades that followed. In response, the Cyber-elves were created. The first and foremost of these was the one known as the Mother Elf.’

“Hmm...” Alia mused to herself, starting to read a bit deeper now.

‘The Mother Elf had years worth of development beforehand. The final piece of bringing her to life came, not from the Reploids she would heal, but from a human soul. While history has forgotten their name, we know for sure that it was a female as well. A female, who, may not have even known the role she played in changing the entire world up until that point…’

Alia hummed as she reread the passage a few more times. Was she understanding this right? The world was filled with these things called ‘Reploids’ that became Maverick too? What was a Reploid? Why were there years of development for a cure? Was there a cure to becoming Maverick? Lumine sure didn’t make it seem that way. But were they all in the same situation as those Reploids?

It made Alia’s head hurt as her mind went through numerous questions. There had to be more information on this.

And she wasn’t going to stop until she found it.

. . .

Axl was having a delightfully good time that day. His breakfast consisted of muffins with chocolate chips. There was a song in his head that was pretty darn catchy, so he hummed along to it. And he took a moment to realize how lucky he was to still be alive. All in all, not a bad day indeed.

But he was short one Aero. Aero would make this good day the best. But where would she have gone?

Still humming, Axl wandered around the dorms in hopes Aero would be in her room. Nope. He passed the rec room and had to do a double take when he realized someone was in there. What he saw nearly made his eyes bulge out of his head.

X and Aero were slow dancing in the rec room. Well, slow dancing was the kinder term for it. If anything, they were just hugging each other tight as they swayed back and forth to the music playing on the stereo.

Axl immediately got out of sight by tucking by the door. Curiosity still made him peek in, however.

X moved his head- for a moment, Axl feared he had been spotted. But X's eyes told of a strong love he had for the person in his arms. But what to do, what to do? Axl held his breath as X shakily asked;

“Aero… can I…?”

Aero moved her head with a small hum. She observed X for a moment, and without thinking twice, moved a bit closer so he could give her a kiss.

It was so gentle, so caring in its action that Axl got a chill up his spine. He shouldn’t be watching this. Having them find out he was even here would land him in so much trouble. And yet…

“You go, Aero.” Axl nodded. “I keep saying you need to be happy too.”

With that, he could leave them alone for now. Maybe later he’d tease Aero more on the subject. He wouldn’t do it with X in the room though- that would be too rude. He wouldn’t push just X on the subject, because he had a feeling that would just make X clam up. That wasn’t what Aero needed. Axl could tell that because he was Aero’s best friend. Friends ribbed on each other all the time!

If only being friendzoned didn't hurt this much.

. . .

“Progress has stagnated, Professor.”

The Professor did not need to be told twice. He had been observing the rats as close as Lumine has.

“I know.” he growled.

“Is it time to push an incentive among them?” Lumine offered. “Something to rouse their Maverick behaviors?”

The Professor did not answer. He reviewed the current footage with intense focus. There were many little holes that he could enforce a behavior on in any one of the rats. The budding lovers were on shaking ground, the lone friend was vulnerable, a snoop was learning more than they should, even the two who held each other so close could be swayed elsewhere. It was just a matter of picking one.

“This experiment is not over yet.”

Chapter Text

Iris loved the feeling of Zero holding her- especially in the quiet of the night. His warmth filled her heart with love and safety. The way he held her almost assured that anyone that tried to reach her was going to have a problem quickly. Zero would lay down his life for Iris. She was sure of it. The idea of it… didn’t exactly thrill her either. Not while they were trapped in a murder game.

It was that very murder game that kept her from sleeping most nights. Tonight was one of them. Every little creak made Iris jump. A single sound in the distance made her eyes snap open again. Even Zero’s soft snoring would unintentionally make Iris tense up.

Not standing her thoughts anymore, Iris sat up. It took a bit of effort with Zero there. She didn’t want to wake him up- she didn’t want to alarm him. Thankfully, her caution paid off. Zero would have been none the wiser. If anything, he rolled over with a peaceful sigh. Iris had to smile at him. She hummed a little to herself as she gently stroked the back of his head. A fleeting thought wondered if Zero would purr if he were a cat in this moment. It was kinda funny. Zero, a cat? He would make a fine one, Iris laughed to herself.

Bringing her hands back to herself, Iris looked around the room a little. All the dorms looked the same on the inside. What made each one different was determined by who lived there. Zero’s room didn’t have much decoration to it. He had installed red lights by the door. It was a good emergency looking light, if a bit eerie. Iris didn’t know who to feel about them now.

Her eyes then drifted down to Zero’s bedside table. Sitting there was a knife. Iris’s heart dropped in recognizing the knife. It was the same one all the Mavericks have used -if they used it- in the past. Had Zero been chosen to be the next Maverick? No. No . She couldn’t let that happen. Her mind and body worked on its own as she got out of bed -careful again not to wake Zero. Her hands reached for the knife and took it with a gentle firmness.

Iris stared at the knife. A choice had to be made. It was too late to go back.

Holding back tears and a breath, Iris left Zero’s room.

. . .

The hallway was cold and dark. Iris didn’t even want to guess what time it was at the moment. She just knew it was late. Late enough for everyone to be asleep and leave no witnesses.

That was such a terrifying thought to her.

Witnesses .

She really was a Maverick now.

Iris shook her head as she walked down the hallway. She stopped once she reached Layer’s door. From there, she hesitated.

Layer would be a good victim. She was asleep, after all. Iris could go in, slit that wonderfully tan throat, and no one would ever know- not even Layer herself. She physically wouldn’t have been much stronger than Iris either, really. So on the off chance that Layer woke up, the struggle that took place wouldn’t compromise Iris’s life like it had been between Vile and Massimo.

But Iris couldn’t do it.

Layer had done nothing wrong. She was always so friendly despite her shyer personality. And Iris certainly had no issues with her being a ‘romantic’ rival either. It was Zero who made that choice. Who was Iris (or Layer) to disagree with the one she loved?

No.

It couldn’t be Layer. Iris moved away from her door and found herself wandered over to X’s instead. She was shocked to find he didn’t lock his door. It was with a small, playful scoff that she realized of course he wouldn’t. X trusted everyone. He didn’t have a reason to assume he’d be anyone’s target.

And he shouldn’t be.

Iris stood over X’s sleeping body as a single tear slid down her cheek. The knife was held firmly in her hand as she angled it against his throat. Just one stroke. Just one cut in the right place and it would all be over. No one would know until the debate, and it would be better that way. She’d accept death after this.

She’d accept being…

“No.” Iris said to herself. X stirred slightly but didn’t wake up. “Not him. Not here.”

And she walked out of his room, knife still tightly gripped in her hand. She held it even tighter now. What was she going to do? Anyone who found this knife would assume they were Maverick. They would do something that Iris herself couldn’t make herself do at the moment. Was there any way to get rid of the knife, or would Lumine or someone make it come back to Zero’s room like a stubborn fly? She had to do something with it. Iris held the knife with both hands now. She had to do something…

“Iris?”

Iris’s heart jolted from her chest. She spun around to find that Aero had just left her room. The two stared at each other.

Without looking at the knife, Aero asked, “Iris, what are you doing?”

Tears came down Iris’s face then. Her knuckles white from holding the knife so tightly.

“There’s not a way out of here, is there?” she questioned. “We’re stuck.”

Aero gave a gentle shake of her head.

“There is.” she assured Iris, her tone even softer. “You have to trust me, but I know there is.”

Iris looked down. Her eyes going right to the knife.

“I… I want to believe you, Aero. I really do.” she admitted. Her hands slowly raised. Iris’s mind was being made up at that very moment. Aero looked on, frozen, unsure if she should intervene or not. This was Iris’s choice- and they both knew it.

“But I can't.” Iris went on. “Not anymore. Tell… tell Zero that I said I was sorry.”

“Iris..!” Aero worryingly called out. She tried to dart toward Iris as the other’s hands angled in just the right position.

The last thing Iris would hear was Aero’s voice.

“Iris, no-!”

. . .

Zero woke up slowly. The bed was annoyingly cold now. When did Iris leave? He could worry about it later in all honesty. She probably just went back to her room or something. She did that every so often when they went to sleep together. He was almost asleep again when he heard someone shout, “Iris! Iris, no-!”

The tone woke him up in an instant. His brain going into autopilot, Zero leapt out of bed and out of the room.

What he saw in the hallway made his whole world go black.

There he saw Aero, covered in blood as she desperately stood over the body of someone else. Iris. She was standing over Iris. Iris, who, was unmoving with blood freely flowing out of her body and onto the ground like a demented water spigot. Zero’s whole body shook.

“What did you do?” he darkly questioned.

“Zero!” Aero exclaimed, scrambling up to her feet. “This isn’t what it looks like!”

“What did you do?!” Zero repeated, this time nearly in a roar as he ran toward Aero. He shoved her out of the way, causing her to fumble backwards, then fell to his knees to be at Iris’s side. He placed a hand behind her head and tried to prop her up. But she was nothing more than a ragdoll now. Iris’s eyes were glazed over, staring at nothing.

“Iris.” Zero tried regardless. “Iris, wake up. This isn’t your time to go, wake up! Wake up!”

“Zero, she’s lost too much blood. She’s dead.”

Zero’s head whipped around. Aero was there. Her green and white striped pajamas were so soaked in blood that they were more red instead. Seeing it infuriated Zero more.

“ You .” he darkly said. “You did this. You did this to her!”

“I assure you, I did not.” Aero said back. “If you would just listen-”

“ You did this!” Zero had already decided. He lunged at Aero, not giving her any time to react.

Someone else had time to, though. Before Zero was close enough to completely throttle Aero, X stepped in between the two of them. Zero stopped dead in his tracks.

“Get out of the way, X.” Zero growled. “That bitch has got to go!”

X quickly shook his head.

“You don’t know the whole story.” X tried to say. “I don’t know what Aero did, but-”

“She was standing over Iris’s corpse! What more story do I need?!” Zero shot back. “She killed Iris!”

“Hey, what’s all the commotion about?” Axl groggily wondered as he left his room. “Don’t you know some of us are…”

Axl blinked. For a moment he wondered if he was dreaming. Both Aero and Zero were bloodsoaked. Laying on the ground looked a lot like Iris with a pool of blood nearly reaching door to opposite door. To further accentuate his bewilderment, the death announcement played.

“A Maverick has killed. I repeat, a Maverick has killed. Please review the body at your pleasure in the dorm hallway, then report to the auditorium for further instructions.”

“I… think I’m going to get Layer and Alia.” Axl then said, slowly backing away. “Yeah. Right.”

Giving the other three an odd nod, Axl backed himself into a door then spun on his heel to knock. No one dared to tell him it was Iris’s dorm at first. He realized his mistake and actually did go to the other girls’ doors.

Suffice to say, it was all very awkward either way.

. . .

Zero had to be forced to change his clothes before everyone went to the auditorium. Keeping him away from Iris’s body when he came back out again was another challenge. At least now he was beginning to process the death with a clear head.

He still hated Aero, though. His hate for her had grown even more in the past ten minutes than it had this entire disaster of an experiment. He knew she had something to do with Iris’s death. There was no way that Iris would do anything to herself or others. There just wasn’t a way. She had to be forced. She must have been in a position where it was kill or be killed. That was the core of this killing game. Wasn’t it? And Aero knew the truth. Aero had done it. Nothing was going to change Zero’s mind on the subject. It was as set in stone as blood ran cold.

X wondered how much of that vitriol Lumine was aware of once they set foot in the auditorium. Surely their overseer was aware of most of it. The obvious had been there from the start. But now? Now you could actually feel the heat come from Zero’s body if he so much glanced in Aero’s direction.

“You lab rats have done it again.” Lumine greeted them all. “Just when the Professor and I were getting worried as well. There is something just so special about our Mavericks this crop. Wouldn’t you all agree? Such a creative bunch.”

“Shut up.” Zero snapped. “You don’t know anything.”

“And neither do you.” Lumine calmly replied. “It’s only a matter of time before the truth does come out, though. Our experiment can only go so far without enrichment.”

“And telling us the truth counts as ‘enrichment’?” Axl questioned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Lumine let out a short laugh. “Oh, you of little knowledge.” they mused. “But we digress, lab rats. We’re here for another murder, are we not? So let’s get to it.”

“I have a question,” X spoke up.

“Yes?” Lumine answered with a raise of their eyebrow.

“What happens if… if the Maverick didn’t do anything? What if they’re all being called Maverick because you (or the Professor) say so?”

Lumine raised a hand to their chin.

“You mean, if one of us lied to the rest of you?”

“Yes.”

“Then the debate would go on as it should. No rule changes just because we say one truth or another. Is that able to be understood?”

“I guess so.”

“Then we’ll begin proper now. Unless there are any other questions?”

No one had anything else to say.

A sinister smile crossed Lumine’s lips.

“Good.”

For the fourth time, Lumine snapped their fingers and the lights in the auditorium went dim. The time it took for the spotlight to come up seemed to take longer than the others. When it did, it was pointed at one person.

Aero.