That was the word on Zero's mind when he woke from the bed. It rang out like a word spoken quite recently, and yet he couldn't recall much of the conversation it was spoken in. Gripping the side of his head in one hand, he sat up. Then he realized he was in a bed. His senses heightened, realizing his surroundings. The next moment found him off the bed and on his feet to scan the room. For some reason his senses couldn't be entirely sharp, his vision being hazy and his head swimming like he was living a dream.
What caught his attention first was that the TV in the room was already on. It displayed nothing but static, with noise to match. He stared at it with his peripheral vision for a few seconds while he made out the rest of the room. On the bedside dresser was a bell, a bowl of what looked like some sort of food, a mask and a key. An odd collection of items just sitting there. What was more troublesome was that none of his equipment was with him, noticing this while he quickly gave the room another once-over.
Realizing he was moving better than usual, Zero checked the places on his body he knew were most damaged. Instead, everything on him seemed fine. None of this made any sense. The last time he was aware he was trudging a desert wasteland barely holding himself together. Was he rescued somehow? The style of the room didn't match anything he knew before, though. Whoever it was, it definitely wasn't the Resistance. This made him even more wary. What if it was someone from Neo Arcadia? What if this was Neo Arcadia? The reploid moved to the dresser. The mask and key caught his eye. The mask had no interest to him right now, but the key... something about the key seemed important.
Right when he grabbed it, the TV started acting up. The noise coming from it grew loud enough to pierce the door to the outside, the visual static growing more violent. Immediately Zero's eyes snapped over to the display. On it flashed what looked like a large W, plastered entirely on the screen for a split second, and then again, reappearing once more for a few seconds before going back to static.
A voice could be heard from it, chopped apart by the noise interference. "Zero-o-o-o... my m-m-master-er-er-er-piece..."
The static warped to another flash, this time of a silhouette of some other person he never saw before. Or thought he never did, anyway. The voice was oddly familiar however. It cut to another static-like image for another few seconds. Zero walked closer to the television, his mind increasingly searching through its memory banks to desperately remember the things that clearly related to him.
Then he heard another voice speak, cutting through the noise but barely understandable against the static.
Was that his own voice just now? No, it was slightly different, with what he could make out. But it resembled him enough to make him step back in apprehension. The accompanying imagery didn't help.
And as if to mark it as some sort of joke, some text splatters itself in front of the image: Stay tuned for the season finale of "Back to ZERO"!
With some more sharp noises, the last image shattered into static once more, finally ending its barrage, the deafening volume cutting back to barely-audible levels. Zero couldn't help but stare at the screen, trying to make everything have sense. Nothing still did. A new sound started to make itself known then from outside the room, a distant and muffled sound of music playing, likely due to the noise dying down.
One thing was for sure... whoever had him as a guest here knew that Zero was looking for his past. He picked up the mask to study it, and then saw the note.
"'Wear this when leaving', huh..."
He flipped the mask over. This seemed entirely unnecessary, but without his usual weapons he had to be more cautious. Even if this seemed like some sort of joke, if he was indeed saved by someone benevolent, paying heed to a request couldn't hurt.
Still deciding on what to do with the mask, Zero moved towards the door. In any case, this reploid wanted some answers, and someone was going to answer for those questions.
Open | TW: Blood (Terribly Late on the Warning, Sorry)
That was the word on Zero's mind when he woke from the bed. It rang out like a word spoken quite recently, and yet he couldn't recall much of the conversation it was spoken in. Gripping the side of his head in one hand, he sat up. Then he realized he was in a bed. His senses heightened, realizing his surroundings. The next moment found him off the bed and on his feet to scan the room. For some reason his senses couldn't be entirely sharp, his vision being hazy and his head swimming like he was living a dream.
What caught his attention first was that the TV in the room was already on. It displayed nothing but static, with noise to match. He stared at it with his peripheral vision for a few seconds while he made out the rest of the room. On the bedside dresser was a bell, a bowl of what looked like some sort of food, a mask and a key. An odd collection of items just sitting there. What was more troublesome was that none of his equipment was with him, noticing this while he quickly gave the room another once-over.
Realizing he was moving better than usual, Zero checked the places on his body he knew were most damaged. Instead, everything on him seemed fine. None of this made any sense. The last time he was aware he was trudging a desert wasteland barely holding himself together. Was he rescued somehow? The style of the room didn't match anything he knew before, though. Whoever it was, it definitely wasn't the Resistance. This made him even more wary. What if it was someone from Neo Arcadia? What if this was Neo Arcadia? The reploid moved to the dresser. The mask and key caught his eye. The mask had no interest to him right now, but the key... something about the key seemed important.
Right when he grabbed it, the TV started acting up. The noise coming from it grew loud enough to pierce the door to the outside, the visual static growing more violent. Immediately Zero's eyes snapped over to the display. On it flashed what looked like a large W, plastered entirely on the screen for a split second, and then again, reappearing once more for a few seconds before going back to static.
A voice could be heard from it, chopped apart by the noise interference. "Zero-o-o-o... my m-m-master-er-er-er-piece..."
The static warped to another flash, this time of a silhouette of some other person he never saw before. Or thought he never did, anyway. The voice was oddly familiar however. It cut to another static-like image for another few seconds. Zero walked closer to the television, his mind increasingly searching through its memory banks to desperately remember the things that clearly related to him.
Then he heard another voice speak, cutting through the noise but barely understandable against the static.
"I'm ... ster. ... purp ... kill, a... all. ... fight... for...?"
Was that his own voice just now? No, it was slightly different, with what he could make out. But it resembled him enough to make him step back in apprehension. The accompanying imagery didn't help.
"Every .... die .... ... T... ha... ... suff... ...tence ..."
And as if to mark it as some sort of joke, some text splatters itself in front of the image: Stay tuned for the season finale of "Back to ZERO"!
With some more sharp noises, the last image shattered into static once more, finally ending its barrage, the deafening volume cutting back to barely-audible levels. Zero couldn't help but stare at the screen, trying to make everything have sense. Nothing still did. A new sound started to make itself known then from outside the room, a distant and muffled sound of music playing, likely due to the noise dying down.
One thing was for sure... whoever had him as a guest here knew that Zero was looking for his past. He picked up the mask to study it, and then saw the note.
"'Wear this when leaving', huh..."
He flipped the mask over. This seemed entirely unnecessary, but without his usual weapons he had to be more cautious. Even if this seemed like some sort of joke, if he was indeed saved by someone benevolent, paying heed to a request couldn't hurt.
Still deciding on what to do with the mask, Zero moved towards the door. In any case, this reploid wanted some answers, and someone was going to answer for those questions.