Nightmares

Zero had only been revived a few days when the world turned on him. He'd just had enough strength to drag the body Sigma had nearly destroyed into hiding and then had lost consciousness for a time. When he'd awakened, his body was good as new; he wasn't sure how, but he certainly didn't really care, because he was still alive.

Then Isoc had gone public, announcing that 'investigators' were working to eliminate 'the ghost of Zero'. Zero knew then that whatever he had to do had to be done away from the Hunters. He couldn't risk having their names dragged through the mud with his until the situation was resolved. Even though it hurt to have to avoid his friends, Zero sternly set out to investigate the Investigators alone.

He'd tracked one of them to the frozen wastes near the North Pole. Zero was carefully making his way up a slick and snowy hill when the ground began to shake and rumble.

Avalanche!

Looking for an escape, he spotted a ledge of rock overhead and dash-jumped toward it, hanging onto it with a series of quick, urgent wall-kicks. A series of huge, iced-over boulders tumbled by beneath him.

In the midst of the rumbling something rushed up, bouncing deftly up and off the boulders, and Zero only caught a brief flash of purple and lavender as it raced toward him. Abruptly arms closed around his waist, ripped him away from the wall and flung him downward into the path of the boulders. He couldn't catch himself in time, was struck in the head by a huge chunk of ice and was knocked down the hill for about forty feet before the rolling boulders shoved him into a deep pit in the ground.

He crashed hard into the narrow stone cleft, landing on his back, and lay dazed for several moments as the ground shook around him. Snow and ice fragments rained down on his chest, and the purple-something dashed into the gap above his head just before a boulder embedded itself in the mouth of the pit with a thunderous sound.

The pit went dark. Zero struggled to get up, a hand moving to his head and the other reaching out blindly to try and find the edge of the pit, to get a bearing.

Something giggled behind him, swept his feet out from under him just as he was starting to stand; it grabbed his hair as he tripped, tangled up his feet so he couldn't catch himself, and swung him sideways, slamming his head against the narrow side of the pit. Zero's helmet cracked, and his vision broke into pixels and static. The hand grabbing his hair jerked him back ward, then shoved face-first into the stone a second time, with a strength and ferocity that was beyond anything Zero could match in his bewildered state. This time, he felt his nose collapsing. Coolant spurted out, and he yelped with shock and pain.

A body pressed against him, hand at the back of his neck, breath hissing against his shoulder. "Keep quiet." Icy fingers jammed roughly into his mouth, and he was too stunned to react.

It was his own voice that had spoken.

He was pushed onto his knees, and his head was jammed to the floor, cheek ground against the stone until he felt like his skull was going to cave in. He struggled, but the unseen attacker had the advantage. His arms were wrenched backward, and held, and his saber was grabbed out of its recharger.

A flare of green light briefly illuminated the dark. The saber was driven through his left shoulderblade, pinning Zero to the floor. The fingers in his mouth pressed down on his lips and tongue, and his cry of pain came out throttled.

"I'm going to eliminate all Mavericks," he heard his own voice dimly above the pain. A body moved over him, twisting and wrenching his arms. A sharp jerk shattered Zero's right arm at the elbow and it went limp, dead to his senses. "Starting with you, the false form of me."

- - -

Zero trembled in the dark. His hair had been wound around his neck and pulled as tight as a noose. Pain spasmed in strange segments from his shoulder, his arm, the space between his thighs. His armor had been torn off, the protective coverings removed. Cold hands smoothed against his naked, searing ass, and fingers grabbed into his thighs like claws, leaving bruised spaces.

Something was inside him; he didn't know how, wasn't sure he wanted to know. Something hard, thrusting, hot, ground him up inside. Pushing, pumping. He groaned inchoately and feebly tried to move away from it, but couldn't; he had no strength left. He was forced into its rhythm, forced to move with it, to taking it. He felt something hot and wet splashing inside him, dribbling down the backs of his legs.

The attacker hissed in his ear. "I told you you'd be mine again." Zero almost wretched. That was no longer his own voice. It was a voice that sent cold chills through his blood; it was Sigma's. The noose around his neck tightened more, pulling his head back painfully, until he felt the structures inside his throat straining. "Just like you used to be. Do you remember how I used to lay you over my desk and take you, Zero? You didn't fight me then. You used to beg for it. I had to gag you because you'd scream so loudly for me. Say you remember." His hair was jerked. "SAY it."

Zero managed to cough it out. "I... nuh... remember."

The Saber was jerked out of his shoulder and the something inside him slid free. He was turned over.

Sigma was lying over him, heavy and hard, eyes gleaming with a hatred that shone in the dark. Zero's eyes widened in terror, and Sigma's massive hand closed over his face, gripping his entire head and squeezing.

Sigma's fist punched deep into Zero's pelvis, grabbed hold of something, and pulled with all his terrible power.

Zero had just enough time to scream.

- - -

X teleported into the area, senses on alert. The Nightmare was thick here- so thick his sensors were barely to be trusted. Strange voices howled on the arctic wind, and the air crackled with a dark, ruinous energy. He made his way forward, moving as quickly as he could over the slick and unsteady ground.

Something flashed through his vision- an image that was almost too swift to perceive. He thought he saw Zero, moving ahead of him, leaping up onto a wall. X narrowed his eyes, confused. Then the ground began to shake. He made a quick leap, grabbed onto the very wall he thought he'd seen Zero move toward, and narrowly escaped the avalanche. In that instant he understood how to pass the rest of the terrain.

You're still looking after me, Zero...

X waited until the boulders had passed, then dropped to the ground and exhaled a deep, grateful breath. He moved on up, mindful of Alia's warning to use the terrain wisely.

He had no idea that Zero was sealed in less than fifteen feet behind him.

- - -

But Zero knew him. The awareness of X brought him out of unconsciousness, though he had no power to try and reach his friend. His face, wet with blood and ejaculate, lifted slowly. He gave a weary, quiet sob in the dark.

"eh...X..."

"He can't hear you, Zero." Small, soft hands touched his broken face, lifted and turned his head. "Nobody can hear you except me."

Iris. Her eyes were so gentle. Her smile was like a sweet and tender rain. She sat on his chest so lightly she was barely there.

And Zero knew she was going to deliver the killing blow. With her appearance the truth became clear. He was paying for his sins, being made to face all his secrets again. The Nightmare had taken hold of him.

Her fingers moved slowly, and took firm hold of his throat, but her gentle, innocent expression never faltered. "I finally get to show you, Zero... the world just for us."

Her lips came close to his, kissed him. Her hair folded over his forehead. Her fingers dug into his neck, ever tighter. "Are you ready?"

The Saber was by his side, abandoned, still lit. Just within reach, if he could find the strength to move his hand. But he was hypnotized by pain, and memory, and the sweet smell of her breath. His fingers twitched.

Somehow, he spoke. "I hate... that it's always you I have to kill." Somehow, he found the strength to grab the Saber. He swung it up, half-blind, and it pierced through her neck.

The Nightmare gave a horrid, melting moan, and the visage of Iris shredded apart. It was once again his own image, face distorted into a scowl of rage, but this only lasted for a moment before it suddenly turned and fled, pushing aside the stone that blocked the entrance of the pit.

Light flooded in, cold and white but clear. Zero slowly risked sitting up, expecting to find half of his internal structure scattered across the floor. To his surprise, he found himself completely intact. He felt sick and sorrowful, but he was alive. He could still move. He could still fight.

Maybe that's right. The memories of the past can still hurt me, but they're no longer enough to destroy me.

Slowly, he got to his feet again, and picked up his Saber, and began to move.

I have to catch up to X before the Nightmare does.