Weakness

Zero came back to himself in darkness. Hard metal bars lay under his back; his helmet was gone, his long blond hair was loose and layers of it were wildly fluttering around his neck and back, the rest caught between the frame he was bolted to and his body. The air around him was hot, thick and hard to breathe in. He felt uncomfortably like a piece of meat on a grill. Something was bolted down at his temples and laid heavy across his eyes, a hard seal of darkness. He snarled and twisted hard against the frame in an attempt to dislodge it, and as he did, sharp white pain bit into him; a savage surge of energy lanced through his arms and across his shoulders, burning the back of his neck. He couldn't stop himself from screaming.

"Oh, that's marvellous," a syrupy female voice giggled and Zero instinctively shrank back against the bars, electrocuted muscles twitching. Light fingertips brushed his nose, his lips, tracing their shapes, startling him. He let out a gasp; the woman's touch stung bitterly, and his mouth was tingling after her fingers slid away.

"You were made to be restrained. It's so lovely to watch you struggle- I only wish you could see yourself."

"Sure you don't wanna trade places?" Zero rasped, breathing labored and face flushed from the humidity and power surges wreaking havoc on his internal regulators. "Bet you'd like this way more than I do. You probably look way hotter in bondage, too."

Throaty laughter answered him. "Mm. A sense of humor, too. I hadn't expected a government dog to have a bark."

"I'm just full of little surprises. Get me off this thing and maybe I'll even show you my bite." He bared his teeth, defiant, trying to ignore the way her fingers were trawling up his waist, spreading tingling numbness into every place she touched.

"Dogs that bite are usually muzzled," she tartly informed him then, and he felt her breath- chill and even- above his mouth. "Must I give you an obedience lesson?"

Her palm went flat against his waist, her deft tongue slid into his mouth, and he felt her pulse, trying to access his mind. Too fast, it was all happening too fast; he fought to rebuff her, but she had a fraction of an instant to establish a hold, and it was sufficient. She latched on and began to worm in...

"Nmmnh. MNHH!" Zero resisted, flushed and smothering. He was fighting for his life, trying to push her tongue out of his mouth, trying to shove her away from his psychological matrix, but she was persistent, and unexpectedly strong. He groaned loudly as she brute-forced her way through his deepest, most critical firewall- the one protecting his personality block and all his essential memory clusters. Seconds after it fell, her consciousness swept like a tsunami through the rest of his senses, pushing him into the back of his head and assuming command-level of his sensory network. Zero ripped his mouth away from hers with a violent twist of his head, but she was inside him now, inside deep...

Zero felt her force him into 'receptive' mode and groaned again as his body instantly responded to the ghosted command, sending out an acceptance-pulse that locked their systems tightly together. Another hard shot of pain went through him then, whiting out his mind for a few moments- it was only dimly that he heard her shrieking as well.

"Mm, that was fun," she breathed against his cheek. "And I think you liked it too, didn't you...? Be honest now..."

"...yes," he heard himself whisper, and grimaced helplessly as soon as the word left his mouth in a voice not really his own; she'd wanted him to say that. "NO, dammit! What are you trying for apart from cheap smut here?"

Ferham watched Zero's abdomen shuddering and slowly touched her tongue to her lips. "Master Epsilon simply wants to know what you Federation pawns plan to do here... but he never said I was restricted in how I gathered that information... so let's start simple and get to know each other a little..." She straddled Zero, putting her hands on his hips, rubbing the taut, tense muscles she felt beneath his thin black 'skin'.

"... In other words, torture. As if trading these cheap lines isn't painful enough. Fine. Bring it, Maverick. I can take anything you can dish out." Zero bared his teeth.

"As you like.. just remember, pretty Hunter... you asked for this."

She slid off Zero. A low hum snapped on above his head, energy that excited the humid air. But the tip that tickled Zero's face was bitterly cold, and Ferham laughed as saw his cheek twitch...

~ ~ ~

Fifteen lashes.

No, seventeen... eighteen? Dammit.

"H...hey. You. Whoever you are." Zero rasped. "Start over. I lost count."

"...start over...?" She stopped striking him long enough to laugh wildly, and she was still amused when she found her voice again. "Shall I count for you? I wouldn't want you to be so distracted by trying to remember that you forget to suffer."

Zero licked sweat off his lips. "I'll remember better this time."

When the next blow fell, he felt something crack along his chest.

"One. And my name, Hunter, is Ferham."

~ ~ ~

"Fifty." After 49 blows that meticulously were kept clear of his face, Ferham's last whipstroke landed neatly and solidly across Zero's mouth, turning the synthskin of his lips an ugly, swollen purple and making his mouth bleed.

He'd tried not to scream; she could see the effort it took him to hold it back. Men and their foolish, doomed stoicism- how it made her sigh. Nothing warmed her soul like a true, honest scream...

"...t..that's all?" Zero could barely breathe, but he burned air for his bravado, and somehow he forced his swollen, aching mouth into what was obviously meant to be a cocky grin.

"Silence!" She slapped him viciously, sparing no strength, but inwardly she laughed with delight. Wonderful toy...!

The magnificent Reploid was a mess now; sparking at the joints, meshskin torn and smoking here and there, red streaks in his hair, blood on his bruised lips. He swung his head sharply and spat up something green, wheezing; it sounded like the air intake valves in his chest were malfunctioning, and his artificial lungs were beginning to back up with fluid. But even though Zero was shaking physically, Ferham also knew she hadn't come anywhere close to truly breaking his soul. She had his consciousness and all his memories held captive in the fist of her mind, and there were things she could sense, deep in the darkness of him, that made her own malevolence look like nothing at all. There was a demon inside him; that much was clear, a monster forged in hellfire and flowing blood just below Zero's skin...

It was discomforting.

It also made her intensely curious.

How far could she push before that demon emerged? What would happen if it were unleashed?

This Hunter was unlike any other Reploid she'd ever encountered, a perfected balance of terror and power, full of secrets, and Ferham decided then and there that she had to have all of him, absolutely and completely. She had to leave her mark. She would never be satisfied with being anything less than his worst nightmare. She would crush the terrors of his past below her heels and place herself supremely above them; he would remember her, oh yes...

If simple pain didn't work, there were other ways.

Her fingers reached out and pushed back sweat-streaked hair from his forehead; she tilted her head like a bird, sharp and keenly staring down into him. She brought up her submenu of specialized hacks, ones she'd picked up in her life before the Rebellion, and activated several tools, lowering them toward Zero's ravaged, naked consciousness.

Show me your nightmares, Zero.

This time, Zero did scream.

~ ~ ~

Later, alone, Ferham lay quietly in a data-chair, sifting carefully through the rip of Zero's memories, dissecting each one keenly. What a sad life Zero'd had! Haunted by nightmares, by betrayals, grief, and so much death; who knew the Maverick Hunters could hold such bitterness in them, such bloody pasts? But there was one figure that reappeared over and over in Zero's mind, a shining blue light, viewed by Zero in nearly reverential awe...

So that was that one... She remembered him, that other Hunter that Zero'd been found poking around the Lagrano Ruins with, who'd fled when Zero was tossed away by her whip. She hadn't been impressed; that Hunter'd talked big, but had fled at the moment of testing...

And Zero loved him?

Hmm...

Oh yes, there was no doubt. There were memories Ferham was sure Zero would die rather than confess to holding... secret pleasures, illicit kisses, gasping and breathless need in dark corners... Ferham put her hand to her mouth, to cover her smile. Well, isn't this interesting...? I seem to have underestimated you Hunters, Zero...

The one called X... Zero's solitary light...

This one called X was Zero's ultimate weakness.

~ ~ ~

"Attention!" Ferham snapped, lashing Zero's throat lightly to jolt him out of his painful idle. The blond coughed and brought his head up slowly; she noted with some interest that his mouth had already greatly healed, the swelling reduced and nearly a normal color returned to them.

"...let me guess... hh... time for another beating?" Zero rasped, voice thick and clotted. "Aren't you sick of this yet?"

Her hand seized his chin and forced his head up; her lips swooped down, not a kiss, but hovering so close that as she spoke he could feel her lips moving... "You're the most entertaining toy I've ever met, Zero... I could never be bored with hurting you. But I'm afraid you'll have to wait your turn this time... there's another that's competing for my attention now, Zero. Don't be too jealous; he's nothing like you... I don't think he'll last as long as you have. Go ahead, boys, bring him on inside..."

There was a sound; scuffling, struggling, low gasps, feet dragging sharply against the reverberating metal floor and the sound of heavier footsteps to either side. "...Zero!"

Zero's breathing stopped. That was...! His core fell out of sync, and he stammered at Ferham's lips. "... No. No, don't you dare... Ferham, let him go...!"

She watched the blond's struggles accelerate, strength coming from somewhere, his wrists twisting against the unyielding metal, and laughed inwardly. "You'll beg for him, but not yourself...? How interesting, Zero..." Her mouth and hand retreated, and he felt a slight click at his temples, the screwed-in visor coming undone. His eyes jumped, quickly adapting to the red light around him, and he got his first look at his tormentor - slick full lips, painted a deep and bloody red, parted, perfect teeth and heated darkness behind them... her smile was bonechilling. Her face lowered, until they were staring eye to eye, blue to blue, Ferham's gaze hawk-sharp and malignant. "I want you to see this..."

She pulled her head clear and pushed Zero's head to the side with a hand on his cheek.

Two Preons held X down there, bound and helmetless, forced to his knees on the ground. His breastplate was cracked, half torn away, bare, gleaming circuits showing underneath where the armor was gone, and there was blood in his hair, down the side of his face, pooled around his neck and shoulder.

Their eyes met in terror across the room; each horrified at the sight of the other, broken and helpless. X's lips moved; he mouthed words to Zero.

I love you.

Ferham watched Zero's face closely- the way his eyes widened when the other Hunter whispered, and the despair that swept into them immediately after...

She drew away, and began to move toward X.

Zero's body began to spark as he thrashed on the rack, straining his broken body to its limit, wrenching and rocking. His neck craned, his chest heaving... hate blossomed inside his breast, like a black lotus, and his eyes began to burn...

"X!"

Ferham struck her first blows at X's face, lashing him so hard that his synthskin tore away in strips, baring the metal substructure beneath, the delicate servomotors in his jaw... he howled, trying to jerk away...

Zero's senses melted red.

She put her hands to X's armor and tore off the other half of his chest plate with her bare hands, throwing the torn fragment near Zero's feet... and then she dug her fingers directly into X's naked chest, and pierced his conduits, sparks flying and snapping around her hands as she slowly, brutally ripped it open, apart... X's mouth opened, gurgles of blood spilling down his chin as she pushed deeper, tearing out wires at random from the naked endoskeleton inside...

"Get your FILTHY HANDS OFF HIM!"

The black death coiling in Zero's chest PULSED... a silent signal, the only warning...

X screamed a final time and sagged in the Preon's grips, vital fluids gushing green and red down his thighs.

And Zero's eyes filled with blood.

Ten seconds later, hate flooding every cell in his body, he tore free of his restraints like they were paper and flew for Ferham's throat.

All she did was laugh, even as his hands closed around her neck and squeezed until he felt her begin to spasm...

She slapped at the side of his head, her fingers digging into his hair, gasped out something.

Beyond them, X and the Preons wavered, like ghosts, and burst into static and blew away with a shredding metal sound...

Zero snarled, staring, the understanding penetrating his rage slowly. Wasn't real... He reached down and backhanded Ferham, "You BITCH." He punched through her chest, clean through to the floor behind her, grabbed a handful of sparking wires he felt between his fingers, and, above her shrieks, ripped them loose and hurled them aside blindly. "Die slowly." he snarled, then rose and kicked her aside, clutching a hand to his head as his systems lurched. He staggered to one side, like a drunk, pain lancing through the back of his skull. He clawed his way out the door. He wanted out, and nothing was going to get in his way now, not even his own weakened body...

Ferham lay on the floor, on her side, gasping shallowly as Zero made his slow, painful escape. Her eyes were wide, and wildly shaking. Her hand moved to the wound Zero had left her with, and her fingers traced its ragged edge slowly.

A small smile moved across her lips.

So this is the power of your love... Zero...

She touched her breast.

... I think I...

Her eyes slid closed.

And Zero mercilessly thundered ahead.