“You need to do more than just sleep. Actually take a rest, do something you enjoy. Like, uh- you like playing the violin, right?” Pushing Rebecca probably wasn’t the best idea, but she needed the time off. Aerin knew very well that overworking oneself will only end badly.
He’s done it.
The initial response to her question was a quiet sigh as he shook his head. “I won’t lie to you, I feel like a completely different person.”
Even if she was attempting to change the subject, he wasn’t just going to ignore the fact that she was concerned. It was nice, honestly. He didn’t think she cared.
“But that’s to be expected. Anyway, I’m making you take more breaks. Starting now.”
“I only know so many songs though.”
But training was enjoyable for her, she refrained from saying. She quietly listened to him though and turned around to look at him at that last part.
“I’m glad you’re alive.”
But then she looked a bit confused. Starting now? Wait, what?
“Eh? I, uh-”
She didn’t want to make excuses as to why she couldn’t. That would be rude. So she nodded instead.
So that was what was on her mind. At least he knew what her thought process was so he could judge it accurately. He sighed and shook his head. The grip he had on her wrist loosening before letting go completely.
“You won’t get anywhere overworking yourself.”
It was a simple answer. The only one he could really think of for the time being.
“I take breaks to sleep.”
That was enough, right? Not that she slept much these days, considering she had a nightmare every time she slept. Though it hadn’t stopped her from going right back to sleep after jolting up.
Her arm hung by her side now, and she didn’t seem to be making any more movements to walk away.
Did he need anything else? She absently wondered that to herself. She would have asked if Aerin was okay, but she knew X wouldn’t have let him out of the med bay if he wasn’t 100% repaired and rebuilt.
But then again… Maybe it wouldn’t hurt just to be sure.
“…Are you feeling alright since you got out of the med bay?”
So she was looking for Tomoe. Zero frowned a little at that – not at the reason, but at the memory of what they had all learned from the encounter. Kai, the name of the individual who wore X’s face, had Tomoe with him… and it was clear that it wasn’t again her will, either. There had been no way to perform any sort of viral scan, but Zero was more than willing to bet that she was infected now. Likely he had infected her… though that didn’t make it any better.
And with Doppler’s activity growing more erratic…
“Alright, so I’m guessing there’s something else you’re not telling then, because I’m not getting what you’re getting at. You got a signal from your missing sister, you told X about it, he gave you the okay to go after her. What part of that was stupid?” Zero arched a brow as he leaned against her door frame, brows arching as he waited for her reply.
“I was stupid enough to get captured, and you and Aerin got hurt. I-I know that’s a risk of being a Hunter but- I couldn’t do anything but run- I…”
It was clear that she blamed herself. Rebecca rubbed at her face a bit. No crying, not now. Not when she had been holding herself together just fine all this time.
“I’m sorry that I caused you and Aerin to get hurt. I should’ve… I should’ve been better. And I’ll be better.”
His smile felt a bit forced now, though it wasn’t really any fault of Rebecca’s. It just felt like… a lot? A lot that he was now suddenly in charge of that he hadn’t even been aware of.
Xav had been sad and now he wasn’t and it was because of Zach. Which meant that he, one Zach Wily, son of an abusive father and parent to a brother that he had barely managed to raise without a police record, was supposed to keep someone else happy. Zach Wily, the military disgrace who had been discharged after suffering ‘violent emotional trauma’ from just a little thing like having his leg blown off and being pinned out in the field for days, bodies of his (dead) comrades lying next to him, and all he could do was-
“Can I braid your hair one day?”
The small and innocent question had Zach blinking as he snapped back to the here and now. “Uh… maybe.” Making promises that he knew he couldn’t keep was something he wasn’t a fan of, and he wasn’t sure he would ever be seeing Rebecca.
This was. This was just too much. It wasn’t him. It wasn’t something that he could handle. Xav needed someone… different. Better. Stable.
“I, uh… I think I need to go.” Zach nodded as he straightened. “Just tell your dad that it was… nice meeting you.” Xav was still getting something ready upstairs, but Zach had no intention of sticking around long enough to find out what.
There was a faint clunking on the stairs in the background, and someone coming down the stairs.
Rebecca squinted up at Zach before wobbling and squeaking when her Dad patted her head from behind her. She hadn’t heard him approach, but she had been concentrating on listening to Zach.
“…?”
Xav crouched down and ruffled his daughter’s hair before speaking.
“Go on upstairs and play for a bit, okay? Be careful on the stairs.”
He stood up properly and gave Zach a small smile as Rebecca nodded and walked away, wobbling occasionally.
“She’s a curious one. Sorry for the delay. Ready to head out?”
A placeholder for Rebecca going through Gravity Beetle’s stage with Zero.
She’s still quite shaken by her experience with getting captured and nearly losing two of her family, but she did her best to power through it.
On the way to the boss room, she slowly gained her fighting confidence back, though not all the way. She was much quieter than she had ever been before the incident, and a bit shaky. She didn’t want to let it interfere with her duties though, and so she charged through them.
When Zero went in, she kept an eye out for any Mavericks who wanted to sneak up behind him, and blasted them to bits if any one of them tried getting close to the door.
She was quiet the entire way back to HQ afterwards, but seemed a bit more confident in herself combat-wise.
He wasn’t one for pity and that wasn’t what he was about to offer her now. Instead Zero found himself just nodding as he watched the way Rebecca lowered her head as she looked away from him. The flinch hadn’t been missed either.
A slight hum was his response as one shoulder shrugged. “… what were you doing out there in the first place?” Rebecca wasn’t a hunter. Aside from being too young to qualify as one, she still was working on the skill necessary to even be able to be ranked as one.
“Where you looking for something?” Zero didn’t want to risk leading Rebecca into any specific response, so his question was left at that.
“I got a signal from T-Tomoe. I asked Dad about it and he-”
She rubbed at her arm to give herself a bit of time to gather her thoughts.
“He told me I could look for her only if I used my signal if I needed backup. I logged the signal I got from her before I left. I-It should still be in the database.”
She was ready for the lecture, quite honestly. She had been stupid.
Okay, fuck what she wanted. This entire situation was unacceptable, and he needed to do something, anything. Once Rebecca had left the room, Aerin quickly stood and ran after her. Upon catching up to her, he took a tight hold of her (right) wrist and kept her in place. Or well, attempted to without possibly hurting her.
He was holding on rather tightly..
“I know I said you can walk away if you wanted, but fuck that noise. I’m not letting you continue to run from me. I’m your damn brother for god’s sake!”
He was infuriated. Whether it be with her or himself, he wasn’t entirely sure at this point. But this needed to stop. From the very beginning, she’d avoided him. Sure, they’ve had their talks here and there, but it was all very short lived. That wasn’t how siblings were supposed to be..
“I’m sorry for being an asshole, but you’ve gotta step up. Don’t think I’m saying all of this because I hate you or something like that, I’m telling you this because I care.” A sigh. “I know I’m not showing that very well..”
Her hands were shaking. She hadn’t expected Aerin to actually come after her and stop her. That had stopped her in her tracks though.
She didn’t understand. Didn’t he hate her? Why did he want to stop her?
“I thought I was stepping up by putting my all into training. That way this could never happen again. I’m not locking myself in my room like a crybaby again, so I’m not avoiding anything. I don’t understand why wanting to improve is considered ‘running away’ or a bad thing. Maybe I’m stupid, but I just don’t understand.”
She never wanted to see Aerin die like that again. Or her Papa being hurt like that again. Or that there had been nothing she could do to help at all.
She looked up at the ceiling, not looking at her brother at all.
“Your and Papa’s blood was everywhere. I couldn’t do anything to stop it, all I could do was carry you out of there, all I could do was run. I never want that to happen again, where I can’t help anyone.”
“So now you’re running away from the problem? What kind of Maverick hunter does that?”
It was true, he was taunting her at this point. And it wasn’t right, but he wanted – needed to get this off of his chest. All he’d seen from Rebecca was either her attempting to be far too strict, or running when she’s scared. While he can understand fear, this was inexcusable.
He turned to face Rebecca as she was walking out, his arms crossed.
“You can walk away all you want, but it isn’t gonna change the fact that you’re a coward.”
She had paused on the way to the door to quietly speak in response.
“Then consider me a coward. Think whatever you want. You have a right to do so.”
She didn’t understand what seemed to be so damn bad about wanting to improve herself to help others. She just didn’t have the mental energy to bother with this right now, and Aerin acting like that simply decreased her energy.
Something twisted in her stomach area, but she had said what she had come here to say. If Aerin wanted to taunt her, then fine. He could think whatever he wanted, and he had a right to hate her right now.
After all, she had gotten him killed by being stupid enough to get captured. Every nightmare she had since then dug that right into her processor to the point where it was embedded. Aerin’s and Zero’s blood splattered everywhere, across her face it was everywhere get it off she was so stupid-
She left the room, shoes softly tapping down the hallway as she intended to get back to training.
Shadow smiled sadly as he watched her go. It was an unfair trick he was playing on her, as he had no intention of going after her.
As Rebecca took her time to get settled, the robot master waited to ensure that no one was watching before stepping back into one of his own shadow portals. It swallowed him up, taking him into the distorted realm that would lead him along the shortened path to the fortress that Kai (and Tomoe) lived in.
He wouldn’t find Rebecca… but she wouldn’t find him again, either.
It took a good fifteen minutes for Rebecca to stop being excited about getting tested by an actual ninja.
It took another fifteen minutes before she realized that he wasn’t coming to find her at all.
She jumped down from the shelf and peeked out from the closet, wondering what was going on.
The hallway was empty. There didn’t seem to be a single trace of Shadow anywhere.
It took her a good moment of staring before embarrassment burned in her cheeks, and then it turned into and anger before she stomped off to the VR room to blow off steam. He could have just told her to go away! He hadn’t needed to trick her!
She was so embarrassed that she had fallen for it too. That felt humiliating.
“That isn’t the easier skill to learn. Maintaining your silence while being able to focus on something else is a talent that even skilled soldiers often lack. Working on it is commendable.”
The mention of speed had him pausing to think, but he couldn’t really confirm or deny whether or not speed was useful. For himself, Shadow would never say he was fast, but he certainly had the ability to disappear when he needed to. Vanishing into the shadow realm was a far quicker way to ‘escape’ than anything else ever would be.
The conversation as a whole was beginning to wear on him, though. and Shadow could feel his smile becoming strained and forced. He had come here for– why had he even come to hunters, again? Because of Blues? Or… another reason…
He needed to get out.
“The real test now is if you think you can hide yourself well enough that I cannot find you.” The words slipped from his mouth easily as Shadow continued to smile blandly at the girl. “You have 30 seconds to get situated.” It was unsaid, but implied, that she should go elsewhere.
“Mhm. My goal right now is successfully multitasking at least once. Then I can start on trying it more than once.”
She didn’t want an easy path at all. She wanted to get better the hard way. Because she wanted to work hard to get better, not take some easy way out. And learning to multitask would be good for that.
Though what he had said next made her blink in surprise, she didn’t waste any time disappearing at a speed that would have left any human in the dust trying to keep up.
She even managed to disguise which direction she was going in, which was even better!
Rebecca had ended up hiding herself in a small-ish storage closet, tucked up on a top shelf with her signals dampened as far as they could go.
Back in the Game 
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