Guess what? Another shorter chapter. Let's face it; I don't meander around with my words anymore. It may be shorter, but all the good stuff is still in there and then some. So enjoy the plane ride! And to warn you: this chapter bears almost no resemblance to the original. Sorry if the combat scene doesn't do it for you anymore; I made it a lot more basic.

---

"Take her frail hand and hold on to the dream."
- Roger Waters, The Gunner's Dream

The sunlight flared against X's eyes; it didn't blind him like it would a human being. However the bright rays made it difficult to look out the window, so X averted his gaze. He felt as if he were startled from a long dream.

"Hey X, you okay?" Zero asked. They were both sitting on leather couches, about ten thousand metres in the air. The low hum from the jet engine was somehow relaxing. X blinked a few times trying to clear his head.

"Huh?"

"You kinda spaced out there," his friend seemed concerned.

"What-- Yeah, I think so," X was confused. He was having trouble remembering what had happened. He sat up and thought about it. He could remember Anyi making several appointments with UCO contractors. He could remember following the Australian coast with Zero to the airfield. His memory was hazy; for some odd reason, he couldn't really focus on the last few days. He felt like he just woke up from some other time and place. He ignored the feeling and looked up to see a familiar setting.

"This is our jet isn't it?"

"Obviously," Zero raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Seriously, what's going on?"

"Nothing, nothing," X scrambled to find a way to make his statement seem normal. "I was surprised it's still kicking around, that's all."

"Well, the government doesn't catch everything," Zero murmured. "It's a good thing she was so good at paperwork."

That stopped the conversation right there. X could feel the weight of a glass in his hand and realized that he had been drinking. It looked like a liqueur. He had been working his way through various alcohols, having developed a taste for a few. Truthfully, he couldn't remember getting the drink from the bar. The alcohol had never affected him like this before. He would have to check his systems when they all got home.

"I'm sure Alia would be happy to see this jet flying again," X said to no one in particular.

"Who's Alia?" came the girlish voice from behind X. He jumped in his seat and turned around. Anyi grinned at him. She was leaning over the backside of the couch.

"Hey, I see you finally woke up!" her smile was clear in her voice. "So Alia is the woman that lent you the jet?"

"No, it's ours," Zero replied. "When the war ended, the government claimed everything used. Their inability to do all the paperwork left us with a few goodies here and there. This jet is one of them."

"They forgot an entire jet?" asked Anyi. Her voice contained obvious suspicion. Both androids had a sly smile in response to her confusion. She obviously wasn't used to dealing with the government branch that is the military.

"Well, Alia did a pretty good job of keeping it a secret for emergency situations," X replied.

"She was good at that. Hell, especially her spotting; it kept us all alive," Zero added. Both men looked at eachother and raised their glasses in a half-hearted clink. Zero downed his glass easily, but X sipped and put the rest aside. Anyi seemed nervous bringing up the past; she backed up from the couch and sat on a stool near the coffee table to face both of them.

"It was a long time ago," X said and then stood up. He took a long look at the jet. It was recently refurbished. Keeping it up-to-date and paying for the hangar spot was the least X could do. His hefty government payout was more than enough to keep a jet. It was funny, even though X took precautions with his bank, the government never asked him how he spent all that money each year. They wanted to continue forgetting he ever existed. X stood up and walked over to the center of the large room; he stared at the upraised floor next to the carpet.

"It's a little worn, but you can still see it," Zero came up from behind and pointed down to the large emblem. The training mat had never been moved. Each vehicle came with a training area to practice and install different weapon modules. It was the emblem that caught their attention. Alia was the one who suggested it: a single red poppy struck by a thin beam of light. It was a common symbol used by ANZAC for remembering past friends; Alia helped the reploids make it their own.

Anyi seemed oblivious to the thoughts of her two new acquaintances. She hopped a bit on the mat, as if testing it's strength. She walked over to the edge of the mat near the cockpit and started fiddling with the controls.

"Is there a reason you have a stasis generator here?" Anyi continued to poke at the switches. "I think it still works, actually."

"Yeah?" Zero raised an eyebrow. "How about it X?"

X could see where this was going.

"I don't get it, these fields are meant to generate opposing force of great magnitudes," Anyi said. "Why would you need one for a training mat?"

"It can get pretty rough," said X. Zero crossed the mat over by Anyi and turned back to face X. They both nodded.

"Yeah, but these fields are designed to stop pretty serious concussive force," Anyi was still confused. "It just seems like overkill."

"I dunno, I've overloaded one before," Zero smiled and raised his right hand into a fist. He mimicked flexing.

". . . You're joking right?" Anyi turned from the controls in disbelief. She clearly didn't think it was possible.

"Don't fall for it Anyi," X smiled at her. "We used pretty serious weaponry. We rarely engaged in hand-to-hand."

"Yeah, I'm worried you might be rusty," Zero put his feet apart and bent his knees slightly.

"Oh I dunno about that," X matched his friend's stance. "Anyi, could you turn the field on?"

"You guys aren't... here? NOW?" Anyi's mouth was agape.

"Don't worry, this won't take long," Zero smiled. X raised an eyebrow at the comment.

"How out of practice do you think I am?" X said. Anyi shook her head and flicked the switch. The stasis generator warmed up and generated the field between all four pillars. There wasn't a way off the mat now. X bowed before his opponent.

"Okay, I can't watch this," Anyi squirmed. "If you guys don't mind, I'm gonna go inspect the cockpit. I'm sure there's less crazy in there."

"It'll be fine," Zero said, without looking away from his opponent. "The field will keep everything on the mat."

"You ready?" X asked. Anyi quickly ducked out of the room.

***

'Boys will be boys, doesn't seem to matter if they have wires or veins,' Anyi mused. She closed the door to the cockpit behind her and stretched. She had to admit that even though the two were distant with her at times, she was more comfortable dealing with them than her colleagues in school. She had always been that way; she involved herself in this project to indulge in her mechanical sweet tooth once again.

"Let's see how this jet does it's job," Anyi said aloud and sat down in one of the chairs.

"Well, I know I play a big part," came a steady voice from in front of her. The comment made Anyi jump and she yelped in surprise.

"Oh m--I didn't realize someone was in here!" Anyi put her hand on her chest to steady herself. This was confusing. There should be a Blackbox Pilot in here like any other plane.

"Yes ma'am," the pilot didn't take his eyes off the controls for a second.

"Soo...you're the pilot?" Anyi wasn't exactly good at starting conversations. She rolled her eyes at her own question and shook her head. She took a quick look around; she didn't understand most of the controls in this room.

"I'd like to think so."

"I, well, I didn't realize you were even here..." Anyi caught herself. "I mean, you didn't announce or anything."

"It's a private flight ma'am; I already checked and cleared everything with Mr. Layne before we took off."

Anyi recognized the name as the one on X's report sheet. She had to clear him and Zero for the dig. She was surprised at how much paperwork surrounded the two androids. She had to be careful to acknowledge them as human beings on any documents. It was ridiculous, really. Anyi didn't understand all the smoke and mirrors, but X and Zero never explained it. It seemed like a bad idea to bring it up. She only knew that as long as they were 'human', they were citizens like any other person; reploids were otherwise considered property and nothing more.

"Isn't it hard flying this jet?"

"Well. I wouldn't expect you could land it in the event of my accidental demise," the pilot chuckled to himself.

"Um..no, probably not," Anyi resigned herself to studying the controls and tried to avoid further conversation. It was a shock discovering someone in the cockpit; X must have forgot to mention it. He was kinda spaced out that way lately. She just assumed it was stress. Anyi kept to herself; there wasn't much to see out the pitch-black window. She was studying the layout of one of the back-up consoles when she heard a large electrical crackle; it wasn't the noise but rather the shuddering of the walls and her chair which freaked her out. She caught her scream before it got out too far and dug tightly into the armrests. She looked at the pilot; he didn't even flinch.

"W-what just happened?" she stuttered through her question.

"All instruments reading normal. Don't worry about it."

Anyi raised her eyebrows in disbelief. This pilot clearly didn't care about what was going on. She stopped herself from yelling at him and instead stood up in frustration and headed for the door. If he wasn't going to check, then she certainly would. She reached for the doorhandle and paused; she quickly realized that she wasn't as brave as she wanted to be.

'If there's a problem, X and Zero are handling it,' she wasn't scared. It was curiousity, that's all. Nothing more. She pulled at the handle and slowly opened the door. She felt the floor shudder again, this time without an accompanying thunderous sound. Anyi reminded herself to breathe and peeked out into the lounge. What she saw astonished her.

X flew across her field of vision, planting his left knee right into Zero's chest. Rather than being knocked over, Zero took the hit and used both his hands to throw X to the ground. The black-haired android responded with a quick handspring and the fight resumed. Anyi could only shake her head in disbelief; these two were incredibly fast. She could barely make out the quick jabs and when there was a throw, she had to remind herself that they were using their wrists to flip a few hundred kilograms. Any one of those moves would probably kill a human being. And it was obvious that they were only sparring.

Zero threw out both his fists, but X deftly jumped between them with an unbelievable contortion. Zero tried to sidestep, but it was too late and X's elbow came down with incredible force. The plane shuddered again as the impact went down Zero's spine and into the floor. The sparks from the wall near Anyi told her that they had shorted out the stasis field long ago. Zero didn't even flinch and grappled with his friend. The two moved around so much that Anyi couldn't tell what was going on. Finally she heard a strange metallic snap as the two ended with X holding Zero's arms up against his back.

"Okay, okay, that's enough," said Zero as he tried reset the ligaments in his arm. "I didn't think you'd still be that good."

"I'm not good enough," said X. "I still feel tingly from hitting that stasis field. Thanks by the way."

Zero grinned, "Don't mention it."

Anyi came through the doorway to face both of them. Her apprehension quickly turned into anger at their irresponsible behaviour.

"Are you guys crazy? You scared the hell out of me!" she started to vent.

X looked over to see Anyi and he cocked an eyebrow. Zero saw her as well and returned a smirk to her surprised face.

"How long have you been watching?" asked X.

"Long enough to see why you were in charge of the Maverick Hunters," replied Anyi after calming herself down.

"Hey come on now," Zero put on a fake hurt look. "Hand to hand was never used out in the field. It's pretty much a useless skill."

"Useless skill that kicked your ass," X returned the grin. He turned and noted the destruction of the stasis field.

"I'm surprised we shorted the thing out," he said. "I figured it was stronger than that. Maybe it's just too old."

"Well, I'm glad you boys enjoyed yourself," Anyi was just relieved no one was hurt. "I guess we'll have to buy a new stasis field."

"Forget it," Zero said. "Next time we play outside. It's too cramped in here. Not enough room to move around."

"You're just saying that because you know you're faster than me," X patted his friend on the back.

Anyi shook her head. At least X was loosening up. He didn't seem like a cheerful guy most of the time. Seeing him smile made it hard not to smile in return. All it took was a fist fight on a jet a thousand kilometres out to sea to help him out. The thought would have made Anyi giggle, but she was distracted by a thin silver streak soaking through X's shirt.

"Oh no, X are you okay!?" asked Anyi. She rushed over to see what had happened. Sure enough, there was a long gash coming down from his right shoulder.

"It must have happened when I hit the field," X looked at the injury. He unbuttoned his shirt and folded it down to reveal his chest. "It's nothing serious. We should have a medkit behind the bar."

Anyi ran over to the bar; she didn't care if she looked fidgety and worried. Zero left the mat and sat down on the couch nonchalantly. She pushed the bottles under the counter aside; there was a white steel kit, but it didn't have a red cross on it. She opened it up. There were a lot of tools and an aluminum glass bottle with some liquid. She closed it and brought it over. She was sure that the liquid was nitrogen.

X was busy using his shirt to clean the wound. Anyi quickly deduced what the materials were for. She might not have worked on a machine this sophisticated before, but it couldn't be much harder than her gadgets at home, right? She calmed her buzzing mind and carried out any procedure she could think of. X seemed thrown off by her assertiveness.

"You know what you're doing?" X said. Anyi didn't respond, she just kept working. Eventually, she had the minor injury handled.

"Huh, she's not too bad at that," Zero said from afar. Anyi ignored both of them; she wasn't sure if she should be upset or not.

"Thanks," X looked right at her. Anyi relaxed onto her heels; she didn't realize she was up on her toes to fix the wound.

"Well, just... it should fix itself now," Anyi turned away from him to put the kit back. She was always easily embarassed, but for some reason she was now so nervous that it was hard to stand without shaking.

It didn't take long for them all to be sitting back on the couches. The mood of the room came up again soon after; the three of them chatted about random topics to pass away the time. Most of it was guessing about what they might find at this secret location. Zero was convinced they wouldn't find anything there. Anyi enjoyed talking to X about Dr. Light's work. Here she was sitting and talking with the legendary doctor's last great creation. Although most people would have found it strange to be sitting with the most sophisticated machine ever built, discussing physics over a glass of soda, the outright weirdness of the situation barely occurred to her. Eventually, the loudspeaker interrupted the light conversation.

"Now approaching our destination: Middle of Nowhere," the voice was wraught with sarcasm. Anyi could feel the air pressure of the jet drop beneath her feet as the plane slowly touched down. It was a clean and easy landing. Anyi looked outside; it was still dark and little snow flakes piled up around the edges of the windows before melting.

X and Zero traded glances. For the first time Anyi ever saw, they both seemed anxious. She stood up.

"Well, I'm gonna get a jacket. Or two. Or seven," Anyi started to head for the entrance room, when the pilot came out and interrupted them.

"She's set down, sir. When do you want me to pick you guys up?"

"I'll give you a call, Doug. Thanks for flying us out here," X stood up with his friend and shook the pilot's hand. Anyi saw the pilot's eyes flicker towards the wound.

"Hey, woah, you're bleeding... You okay sir?" the pilot could see the stain on the shirt.

"It's fine, don't worry," X said. "I guess I'll have to change into something else before we go."

Anyi was confused. She knew that the pilot saw the stain. She watched X leave for the bathroom. She looked at the pilot, standing there.

"Well, enjoy your trip in the snow," the pilot nodded at Anyi. He turned back towards the cockpit as if nothing was wrong. X came out wearing a new shirt and put on a jacket. Anyi knew he didn't really need one despite the freezing temperatures outside. X walked past her and handed a jacket to Zero. Everything was happening normally; the pilot never made a fuss despite what he saw.

"You ready?" asked X.

Zero sighed; the first time Anyi had ever seen him do so. "Yeah, sure. This could be fun."

"X--" Anyi interjected. "A..about the pilot..."

"Not all our friends are dead, Anyi."

Walking out that door towards the new digsite was the first step to unlocking a great discovery. Anyi saw this as an intellectual undertaking; one that could reshape the way society viewed history. She was ecstatic for a chance to indulge in her curiousity. Even if her two friends weren't human, there was still a look in their eyes that betrayed their apprehensions. They both had a lot of their past invested in this place. Now they were here to dig it all up. She couldn't imagine how that felt.

The chilling wind blew across the door as it whirred it's gears and pressed the landing into the snow and ice. Despite her excitement, she held herself and watched the two androids walk outside first. This experience would be exhilarating to her, but right now it looked like this place would swallow those two whole.

---

Author's Comment: Alrighty, that's another one down. Chapter 4 was a pretty serious change. Chapter 5 will probably remain the same for the most part. I'm beginning to realize that a few chapters down the road may be removed entirely. If that happens, you probably won't notice. :O

Leave your comment!