No matter how cold and unfriendly the world outside became, the kitchen and cafeteria of MHHQ never failed to be a warm and welcoming place. On stressful days, Celeste found that she could always take comfort within its secure walls.

Hot and tired after a very sucessful round in the Training Gym, Celeste sat up on a table in the kitchen, idly kicking her feet and wondering with mild impatience when she was going to get to battle a real Maverick. Before her sat Terrence and Phillip, who were silently and methodically stripping potatoes of their jackets. Having a conversation with the two ex-kennel staff reploids was usually as thrilling as watching paint dry on a fence, but Celeste decided that she was desperate enough to talk to them. She needed to put her mind at ease.

"Hey fellahs..."

T and P instantly stopped peeling and whipped around to face the Huntress.

Now that she was in the hotseat, a fresh layer of sweat rose on Celeste's skin and replaced the traces left from her earlier training.

"Tell me something, guys...what do you think about love?" Celeste's right hand unconsciously tightened around the piece of paper balled up in it. It was the note that Zero had left under her pillow last night. It didn't have his name on it, but it was still pretty damn obvious who it was from...there had been brown and white cat hair all over it.

"Love...?" Terrence and Phillip blinked at each other as their sluggish minds tried to process an adequate answer to this oh so complicated question.

Phillip was the first to speak. "Isn't that what leads humans to make more morons?"

Celeste ground her teeth. "Fall on your knees and thank your God, Phillip, that I can't find anything good and solid to throw at you right this minute."

Panic swam in Terrence's blank eyes. "Have we been stupid again, Ms. McTreggor?" He squeaked. "Please don't tell Lady Draco! She can't stand it when fellow Canadians act stupid. If she gets word of this, she'll crack our heads together...again!"

Three surly knocks suddenly landed outside of the kitchen's locked door.

"Knock-knock-knockin' on the kitchen door!" T and P sang automatically, although neither of them made a move to get up and answer the angry summons.

A scarlet titanium boot kicked the door clear off its hinges.

"Uh oh," T and P said in unison. They both dove for shelter under the table that Celeste was still perched on.

A severely cheesed-off Zero barged through the maimed doorway. By the looks of his singed armour and the neat row of odd teeth-marks crisscrossing his shoulder, the Hunter had been at the losing end of some battle. Zero ripped off his helmet, revealing a rather humourus 'helmet head'. The Hunter flung the gilded headpiece against the wall opposite to him hard enough to make a dent in its sturdy twice-forged titanium. Then, with the loudest voice and most vulgar vocabulary he possessed, Zero told everyone present exactly what he thought of Sigma and his mother.

"That's the loudest profanity I've ever heard!" Terrence remarked from his hiding spot.

"Zero!" Celeste slid off of the table and threw caution into the wind as she ran towards the frenzied Hunter. "Calm down! What's wrong?"

Zero merely continued to howl like an unfed wolverene. Celeste could pick up only a few broken words...and she didn't like what she heard. The disjointed phrases consisted of "Draco...Sigma...Skysheen...Spartans...we're all gonna die!"

"Soooo..." Cain sighed wearily from across his office desk where Zero had officially delivered the bad news with Celeste there for him as support. "What you're saying is that Sigma, Red, Skysheen, and the Spartans went bats and offed all the human Hunters present before trying to get you to join them?"

Zero bobbed his head slowly, weighed down with disbelief.

"That's it, then." Cain mumbled, creaking back into his stylish chair. "By starting the mass production of reploids, I've effectively doomed the entire human race. And mother said that I'd never accomplish anything in my life. I've certainly shown HER, haven't I?" The elderly scientist gave a short, humourless laugh.

"Sir...shouldn't we start working on a counterattack plan right away?" Celeste inquired.

Cain lurched to his feet. "Of course, my dear...after I visit the pub downstairs for some...inspiration." He excused himself and exited, shakily singing something along the lines of, "It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine..."

"Argh! This is by far the worst goddamned day I've ever had in my life! Damn Sigma! A fury is in my brain!"

X found it difficult to keep his voice devoid of the exhaustion that pressed down on him as his short steps tried to stay in time with Zero's long, passionate strides. "It...can't be all...that bad," the blue reploid puffed optimistically to his friend. "After all, Cain promoted you to the leader of the Regal Dragons..."

Zero gave a tremor of a growl. "It's not 'Regal Dragons' anymore, X. It's been renamed the 17th Unit. But whatever in bloody hell its name is, I don't want to lead it." Zero reached the training room and bashed its heavy doors open. The gym was empty.

"What are you going to do in here?" X puzzled.

Zero waved his arms around helplessly. "Oh...I don't know. Maybe I'll bash my head against the wall a few times. That should cheer me up."

"Come on Zero...maybe Sigma doesn't want to kill off the entire human race. Maybe he just wants to...enslave them or something."

Zero shook his head slowly, sorrowfully. "X, you're one of my best friends and I love ya like a brother, but you're living in a world of MAKE BELIEVE, with elves and moogles and little dragons named Smaug. Sigma wants the entire human race to go pppfht... off the face of the planet, for good. That'll be a gargantuan task to complete...it could take centuries. After all, to put things bluntly, most humans have sex drives that would send any jackrabbit into an early grave. But the point is, our best Hunters have gone Maverick WITH him. We have no defense against his attacks."

X shook his head defiantley, as if he had been thinking of a counterattack to this statement for ages. "Not entirely true."

"Oh? 'zat so?"

"I want to join the Hunters."

"Uh...what was that you said? I think we have a bad connection. Aren't you the one who thinks that violence is oh so wrong?"

X had seen this one coming. "I'm not saying that I think it's right. But I also think that it wouldn't be very nice of me to let the humans fend for themselves. Will you let me into the 17th?"

Zero blinked twice in rapid succession before throwing back his head in a long howl of laughter. "X, what do YOU know about fighting? You're not even equipped for battle! What're you gonna do, throw your shoes at the Mavericks? Or maybe you'll preach them to death with sermons on how wrong war is."

X retorted in a silent voice. He was absolutely heartbroken, and it showed on his contorted face.

Zero softened at the pitiful sight. "Aw come on X...I'm just looking out for your safety. Didn't you hear what I said earlier? The Mavericks now have Sigma and the Spartans on their side. What worries me most is the fact that they also have Red! That gal can crush beer cans against her head."

"So? Anyone can do that."

"While the cans are still full?"

"...Oh. She can do that?"

"You betchya. Look, Cain is organizing a counterattack on the Mavericks that'll involve the 17th. It's basically a suicide mission. Our best fighters have gone with Sigma. There's no one left who'll want to be a Hunter."

"Y'think?" A feminine voice challenged from behind the crimson reploid. The half-word wafted up from a sea of din that had suddenly appeared with the voice.

X and Zero both stared at each other for a second prior to turning around.

There was Celeste, decked in her light fighting gear. A prize smile lit up her fairly simple face, giving it a glow of beauty. And behind her were equally eager Hunters. A lot of them. A few reploids were scattered amoung the ranks, but most of the mass was made up of humans. Zero recognized a few of them with disbelieving eyes...he saw Paul Wells and his Night Vipers (most of whom had been humans in the first place), and a few residents from the refugee camp...including, much to his surprise, Tess and a young male beside her that Zero took to be Josh.

"We're all part of the counterattack, Zero." Celeste explained. "We're in the 17th, under you. I know that humans aren't as good at fighting as reploids are, but now that Sigma has officially declared war on humans, what're we supposed to do? Wait to die? If I'm going to be killed, I want it to happen while I'm protecting my existance, and the existance of my family and friends. The others agree."

A ripple of positive murmur rose from the large band behind Celeste.

'When humans are threatened, they can turn into nasty war machines.' It was Skysheen who had told Zero that on the first day he had arrived at MHHQ. Finally, the Hunter knew what the Mechadrake had been talking about. Celeste and the others seemed ready to fight to the death before they would be axed by Mavericks. A slow smile dawned on Zero's face, relaxing the worried lines that had been etched into it. Humans. They couldn't think ahead, they couldn't educate their young...but damn, they could fight. He had found a new respect for them.

"Okay Hunters!" Zero shouted with new energy. "Welcome to the 17th. When we can finally locate where Sigma is hiding, we'll be right there to kick him in the groin. Some of you won't return from the mission when that day comes...actually, a hell of a lot of you won't. But that's not what's important right now...let's get some training done!"

A small candle with a proud, unwavering flame lit inside of Zero as he watched his new troops practice what they knew about fighting Mavericks. Some of the recruits were already decently trained, and they helped out those who were not. Zero hungirly anticipated the coming battle. Shame was threaded in with the hunger, because Zero knew that he looked forward to the spilling of blood on BOTH sides. Some emotions died hard. Oh well.

X was beside the observant Zero. "Doesn't look too shabby," he remarked.

"Yeah, I guess." Zero sighed absently. His gaze was pegged on Celeste who was busy far across the other end of the gym.

X flicked his eyes up towards his new leader. "You still like her, huh?" There's no need to mention who X was referring to.

Half of a nod was the only response.

"A lot?"

"Oh yeah."

"I think she likes you too," X drawled, "but I doubt she'll ever say it to your face. She's a human, you're a reploid. I don't think the two species are...romantically compatible."

"Duh."

X nervously rubbed the back of his neck with a hand. "Well...it all might work out in the end. After all, did a cult of great prophets not once say, 'Love is sweet misery?'"

"That was Aerosmith, X, and they were a far cry from 'great'. No, what you said earlier is true. A reploid's mind has desires, but his body doesn't know what to do with them. It's a pretty cruel thing to do to us if you ask me!"

X patted his mourning friend on the slumped shoulder. "Come now, don't worry. Look...do you want me to talk to Celeste and see what she thinks about the whole situation?"

Zero actually flushed a little bit. "Uh..well...I guess if you want to." The Crimson Wonder thought that X meant he would talk privately to Celeste when he got a chance. He was sadly mistaken.

X took a deep breath. "HEY CELESTE!" The word rang through the gym like a gunshot.

Celeste (and about half of the occupants in the gym) looked up at X's hail.

When he had the Huntress's attention, X motioned towards Zero, who was paralyzed with a numbing species of shock. "ZERO MAY NOT BE A HUMAN LIKE YOU'D BE ACCUSTOMED TO, BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE CAN'T FIND WAYS OF MAKING YOU HAPPY!"

Laughter raged through the gym. Celeste turned about three different shades of red before she slunk off to hide somewhere. Zero remained an oil painting. Giggling, X wisely scurried away.

"Another day another box of stolen pens," Celeste quoted to no one in particular as she crashed on her bed. Between that day's training and X's nice public announcement, Celeste was completely spent...but she quickly regained some energy with an adrenalin surge when she felt a dreaded, unmistakeable presence trickle into her mind...

"I wanna be an Airborne Ranger!" Torrent sang to Celeste's subconsciousness.

Torrent? Just leave me alone for today...please?

"I wanna live a life of danger!"

Go away! Celeste couldn't keep the tremour out of her thought. I always get sick after we do this 'Mindspeak' thing...

It's quite normal to experience nausea after a session of Mindspeak, Pretty One, Torrent chuckled, after all, it puts an enormous strain on the mind and body. But you'll get used to it. After all, your father did.

Celeste didn't respond to this statement, but Torrent fed off of the wild emotions she was experiencing.

You're wondering why you have the ability to Mindspeak, right dear? Torrent asked for her. It's simple high school genetics. Somehow, through random mutations, this freakish telepathy gene found its way into your father's bloodline. The gene is expressed as complete dominence, not incomplete dominence...which means that you either have the ability to Mindspeak, or you don't. There's no such thing as just having 'a little' of it. Plus, there's a good chance that you're a carrier of the gene as well, and can pass it on. And that's what worries me. I've been studying your bloodline for almost a century now. Most of you are unaturally good fighters. A few of you have Mindspeak. A very few of you have both abilities, yourself and your father included. I can't stand humans with gifts such as these. They're dangerous For this reason, I worked on luring your father to a showdown. Killing him had been rather useless, for I found out that he had sired two children. I'm afraid you must be gotten rid of.

Celeste simply stared unseeing into the empty air like a corpse.

Torrent changed the subject quite suddenly. Have you ever read 'The Chrysalids'?

...no.

Oh. Screw you then. I'm going to cut this conversation short by asking you what I always do. When are you going to come and visit me? I'm afraid I can't have you running on the streets, especially now that there's an all out war versus the Mavericks now.

Celeste gave the same answer she always did. Never. She meant for the word to be bold and steady, but it turned out more like a kitten's mew.

Heh...we'll just see about that hon. You know as well as I do that you'll end up here eventually. Tune in for more Mindspeak later! Same Bat Time, same Bat channel! Torrent cut off his line suddenly like the slam of a door, leaving Celeste very much alone, frightened, and sick. Her heart gave a startled flip-flop as she realized what had happened to her father. He hadn't gone after Torrent because of pride, as was the popular belief. Rather, he had pursued the aquatic Mechadrake in hopes that Torrent's death would mean the liberation of his own mind. Mindspeak had been driving him to the point of i nsanity.

And Celeste knew that sooner or later, she would crack under the strain of constantly being on the other end of Torrent's communications. Eventually, she would do as her father did and hunt down the lizard before she lost her mind.