Sometime between X6 and X7.

And Tomorrow

The soft whirring of the overhead fan permeated the small apartment, wedged into the corner of the compound's third floor. Dust motes danced in a shaft of sunlight inching its way through the blinds. The light continued its travel through the room, falling at last onto the tattered couch and the man sprawled across it. His chiseled, handsome features were scrunched in concentration, bangs falling into his eyes as he glared intently at his target.

"Turn it off, Zero... I can't stand it any more."

The blonde hunter looked up from his handheld video game and blinked. "But I'm about to beat the—"

"Not the game, the television," X said, from the armchair beside Zero's couch. His green eyes were tightly closed, although he held a book in his lap, and his expression was pained. "Turn it off, please..."

Zero blinked again, suddenly noticing the voices emanating from the small, dirty television set in the corner of the living room. It was a talk show of some sort, featuring a group of angry human men shouting at one another.

"...Would you give your car the right to vote? Would you marry it? It's the same principle here," a fat, balding man in a ill-fitting brown suit was saying. Zero fumbled for the remote amid the trash littering his coffee table. "They aren't human — they aren't alive. Only humans have human rights—"

The sound cut off and the screen faded. X sighed and put down the book, drawing his knees closer to his chest, hiding the Maverick Hunter logo emblazoned across the front of his T-shirt.

"That guy again?" said Zero, giving his friend a sideways glance. X nodded. "He's just an old windbag, X."

"But the humans listen to people like him." There was a note of desperation in the other hunter's voice.

Zero shrugged. "Let them, then. Don't worry about it." He picked up his game from the cushions. "Why don't you go back to reading? I thought you said you wanted to finish that book today."

"You're changing the subject," X said.

"So?" Zero lowered his eyes to the screen, but didn't unpause the game.

X didn't answer, but also didn't pick up the book again. Zero raised his eyes and saw that the black-haired reploid was still staring at the empty television screen.

Zero sighed and pulled himself upright again, gears groaning in protest. He placed the game on the coffee table, on top of the unfinished report of yesterday's mission. Then he turned to face his friend directly. "X... why does it matter to you so much?" he asked, watching as his friend's gaze shifted from the television to his face.

"Because they hate us," X said.

"So what?" Zero replied, trying to ignore the strange tone in his friend's voice. "People hate all the time. We don't have to associate with them."

"But I want to know why, Zero!" X sat up so suddenly he knocked his head into the potted fern sitting on the side table. It crashed to the floor, the vase shattering and spreading dirt over the floor. "Oh... oh no..."

"Never mind, X, I didn't like it anyway," Zero said, as X started to get up. "And my floor's coated in dirt already. Sit down and let's talk about this. It's not like you to get worked up over television. You're getting hysterical over nothing."

"Zero, how can you say that?" X asked, though he did sit back down. "The fate of all reploids lies in the hands of humans like that man."

"X, reploids have only existed for two decades," Zero reminded him.

"And I've lived through both and things are just getting worse!" X shot back. "We're practically slaves, Zero... We can't vote, can't own property, can't rise above a certain level — the Maverick Hunters is the only organization where reploids can be in true positions of power. The death penalty for humans has been abolished for a century, yet if a reploid commits a crime he's labeled as Maverick and summarily executed, without a trial. And it's other reploids who are the executioners!"

X was almost shouting now, but Zero ignored it. He kept his own voice calm as he replied. "Mavericks are different from human criminals, X... they're uncontrollable, deadly—"

"You and I both know that humans can be just as Maverick as reploids with the virus," said X, his tone instantly becoming dangerously soft. "Their lives are just more sacred than ours. Even mass murderers, guilty beyond a shadow of a doubt, are given trials and life sentences. Suspected Mavericks are destroyed first and questioned later. ...Look at Repliforce."

"That was..." Zero started, but his voice failed him.

"You see, Zero?" X said, sighing, his fervor fading. "That's why I care. General and Colonel... and Iris... and everyone. And I think deep down you care too."

"...Maybe so," Zero replied. He brushed a few strands of blonde hair from his eyes, gathering his emotions. "But still... what are we supposed to do about it? We're just two reploids, and as you said, we have no say in the workings of the world."

"Yes, because according to human definitions, we aren't even alive," X said. "A living being is defined as something with the ability to reproduce on its own... so like biological viruses, Reploids aren't classified as living."

"That's a load of..." Zero shook his head. "Reploids can build other reploids..."

"But it's not technically reproduction... just as viruses don't technically reproduce."

"But why do you care, X?" Zero asked again. "It's not... It won't bring Iris... and the others back. Look at you, X. You're incredibly stressed because of something you can't control — the way others think of you."

"But if we don't care, nothing will ever change!" X said. "I've tried to ignore it for twenty years, Zero... and it's just escalating. Human against reploid, reploid against human, reploid against reploid... it's never going to end! I've been fighting for peace practically my entire activated life and we're even further from it than when I started!"

"X..." Zero was becoming alarmed now. They had debated this issue before — but X never acted so irrationally. Something was troubling him beyond the politician on TV. "What's the matter with you today?" he continued, after his friend didn't answer. "This isn't like you at all."

"I... I can't do this anymore, Zero..." X slumped into the chair, and covered his face in his hands. "I can't keep fighting... I can't keep killing... while reploids are continually oppressed by the people I'm trying to protect."

So it was the old saga again, Zero thought. It must have been yesterday's mission that was bothering him. A particularly brutal maverick had been rampaging around downtown, and X had been the one to give the final blow. He should have realized that would affect the blue hunter. "X... c'mon, buddy, cheer up," Zero said. He stood up and walked over to the armchair, kneeling beside it and laying his hand on his friend's shoulder. "Look at me... c'mon."

"Zero..." X lowered his hands to his lap. His green eyes were the same as normal, thin lines of barely perceptible machinery running through the iris. And yet, they seemed dull, empty. "I... I'm going to resign from the Hunters."

Zero felt as though X had physically slapped him. "What!"

"Maybe not permanently... but I can't fight right now." He refused to look at his friend, gazing blankly off at the pictures on the far wall. They were of happier times... brief lulls between the wars, off-duty moments at the base. "After all that's happened... I'm burned out, Zero. I can't go out there and take another life."

"But X... you're one of the best hunters we have!" Zero argued, shocked. "You're my battle partner! We're supposed to be out there together!"

"And yet you seem perfectly fine leaving me behind, don't you?" X said icily.

Zero blinked. Perhaps this wasn't caused by yesterday's mission after all. Come to think of it, X had been acting oddly for a while... ever since the business of the sixth war and his own reappearance had concluded, only a month ago.

"Is that what this is about?" Zero asked. X didn't respond. "It is, isn't it? X... I already apologized. I promise, I'm not leaving again."

"That's what you said the first time." X said, still not meeting Zero's eyes. His voice was soft, almost as if he were talking to himself and not the hunter beside him. "And yet, you continually feel the need to take risks on my behalf. ...Maybe if I'm not out there... you won't anymore."

Zero stared at him. "X, listen to yourself. That reasoning makes no sense."

"Yes it does. You only sacrifice yourself because of my stupidity."

"That's not true!"

"Well, then, what is the reason?" X asked. Green eyes locked on to blue. "You don't fight for ideals. You never have."

"...I fight... because it's what I'm good for," Zero said, shrugging. "What else am I supposed to do?"

"Anything! Everything! You've got free will!" X said, waving his arms in a wild, all encompassing gesture. Zero's hand slipped from his shoulder. "Just because you were programmed for one thing doesn't mean you have to follow it!"

"I know, X," Zero said softly. "All too well."

"Then why keep fighting?"

"...Because you have an ideal, X," the blonde hunter replied. "And... because you're my friend."

X glared at him. "See, it is because of me."

"X, that wasn't my point!" Zero tried to reason, but X shrugged it off.

"Everything... everything, Zero, that's happened in the past two decades has been because of me," he continued. "The Mavericks would never have existed if I'd never been found... no one would have died..."

"And five hundred million reploids would never have been born. Don't talk like that, X. The Mavericks aren't your fault. They're the product of overzealous or insane humans, and bad use of our own free will."

"It's still my fault!"

"No, it isn't!"

"I still can't keep killing, Zero." X said. "I can't take it any more... I..." He paused, searching for words. "Zero, you're my best friend... no, my brother. I can't... can't risk losing you again."

"X, your quitting the Hunters isn't going to prevent that from happening," Zero said, reaching up again and squeezing his friend's shoulder gently.

"At least I won't be in your way anymore." X closed his eyes.

"You're not in the way!" Zero said, shaking his head vehemently. "X, what happened before happened because I chose it to! I chose to do the Eurasia mission! I chose to sacrifice myself to destroy Vile's ride armor!"

"And if I hadn't been there—"

"If you hadn't been there I would have died anyway." Zero grabbed X's other shoulder as well and shook him violently. "Listen to me, X! Wake up! You're not acting like yourself!"

"Get off of me, Zero!" X snapped, standing up so forcefully that the blonde hunter was overbalanced. He scrambled to right himself as X advanced, glaring down at him. "You just want me to fight to justify yourself, don't you? To rationalize your recklessness and your demonic bloodlust!"

Zero stood up, eyes blazing. "Don't call me that," he said. "I am not—"

"I'm leaving, Zero." X said bluntly. He headed for the door, bypassing the coffee table and the silent television.

"No you are not!" Zero moved between the smaller reploid and the exit, extending his arms. "X, we're not finished here."

X shoved past him. "You're not changing my mind." He reached for the doorknob, and Zero slapped his hand away.

"You can't go, X," he said.

"Yet you apparently can." He gave a short, angry chuckle. "Well, fine. I'm sick of caring. Goodbye, Zero." X reached for the knob again before Zero could stop him and yanked the portal open, slipping outside and darting away.

Zero stood transfixed for a moment, listening to X's receding footsteps. He thought about following him, but decided better of it. It was just a phase, he told himself. He just needs a little space for a while. He'll be fine tomorrow. He'll have forgotten all about it.

The fan whirred over his head, and the dust motes danced out the open door and into the hallway. The muted jingle of the paused video game pervaded the stillness. Zero stepped back and shut the door.

Tomorrow, he told himself. Tomorrow, things would be normal again.