*2 Days Later*

Zero's injuries had finally fully healed.

He was in the gym doing leg presses and there wasn't an ounce of pain. "Great. Now I can finally get off medical leave." As he grabbed his towel and wiped the sweat from his brow, he looked on the other side of the gym. Two was busy working his upper body with his headphones on.

He didn't have them on when Zero first arrived.

"Sigh. So much for being in charge of my training." Two had told Five to tell him to go do legwork in the gym. That's the point their relationship was at now it seemed. On the other hand though, Zero and Five were starting to get closer.

Zero decided that was enough for the day and left the gym. He had heard that Four was back, but he still hadn't seen him. Apparently after hearing about the former Zero's passing he had locked himself in his room. Zero figured he would meet him sooner or later.

While passing through the common area he came across Three who was busy working on a large puzzle at the coffee table.

"Hey Three."

"Hmmmmm." She didn't even register that Zero had spoken to her.

"Three?"

"....oh! Hey there, Zero. What's up?" She perked up suddenly.

"I didn't know you liked puzzles."

Her face turned sour. "I don't. I made a teeny tiny mistake on our last mission and now Haji thinks I'm some kinda idiot. So he wants me to start doing more things to exercise not just my muscles, but my brain too."

Zero rubbed the back of his head and chuckled. "Oh is that so? Never took you as the brainless musclehead type."

"Watch it."

Zero looked at the puzzle she was working on - it was definitely on the more complex end with plenty of small pieces and an abstract design, so it was hard to make out where a piece might fit in from just a few pieces. He could see her looking intently for the piece that went with the one in her hand.

Zero actually enjoyed doing puzzles.

"I think you're looking for….this one." He picked up a bright red piece near the edge of the table.

Almost immediately his mind flashed back to Harvey's blood on his mask. His lifeless body sprawled out on the pavement. The blood oozing from-

"Zero? Hey, you ok?"

Three's voice snapped him back to reality.

"Y-yeah. Why do you ask?"

She had a concerned look on her face. "Well I was asking you something and you just zoned out on me."

"Oh. Sorry about that." He placed the puzzle piece on the table. "I'm gonna head to my room and shower up."

"Hm, ok then. Oh! I almost forgot. Haji wants to see you up at his office when you're done. He was down a little bit ago."

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Oh shit, he thought to himself.

"Ok. Thanks."

It had been 2 days since that night in the alley back in Capital City.

Zero hadn't been back to the city since then. Partially because he had forgotten that all of them were tracked. So he needed to figure out a way around that before he went back; but also he wanted to wait till he was fully healed. The last thing he needed was to make his injuries worse which would start raising questions.

Every night since he's been haunted by his choice. He just keeps seeing Harvey's bloodied body as he watched the light go out in another person's eyes. Their life cut short. This was different from all the bodies he piled up while stuck inside Azrael.

He had done this by his own hand. Yet he knew it had to be this way if anything was going to change.

As he walked in his room he happened to notice the corner of the former Zero's journal sticking out from under his pillow. Ever since that night, he hadn't so much as cracked open the journal. He had now taken a path that the other Zero was too afraid to take. There was nothing more he needed to learn about him. He was just hoping that Haji hadn't caught on this soon.

Meanwhile, up on the 4th floor of Alpha Base, Haji sat in his office looking through a pretty hefty report. His office was nothing shy of…mundane. He had two file cabinets in the corner, a pretty nice desk, a mini fridge, and an additional chair on the other side of his desk. There was even a wall dedicated to the numerous awards and recognition he's received over his military career. Everything was neat and orderly.

Over on his award wall also hung a picture. It was of him and the first fully formed Midnight Squad. A younger One could be seen smiling happily next to the other members.

He was the only one that was still around from that first group.

"Hmm. Interesting."

Haji was busy flipping through some photos taken by military drones - a group of Reapers could be seen together, but it was hard to fully make out from the distance that the drone had to take the photo from.

There's more than what was initially reported, he thought to himself. This may be too tall an order this soon. But…

*Knock* *Knock*

"Come in." He said not lifting his focus from what he was doing.

Zero stuck his head through the door. "You wanted to see me, sir?"

"Yes, take a seat."

Zero walked in and did as he was told. He was feeling a bit nervous as to what Haji could possibly call him in for. He had never even been on this floor before.

"Is there something the matter, sir?"

Haji leaned back in his chair. "Quite the opposite actually. You're being assigned your first mission."

Zero's entire body relaxed. So it wasn't the worst like he thought it might be.

"That's great! What's the mission?"

"Well…that's the thing. Before the fiasco at the demonstration and you ended up being out of action for a week, I had something different lined up for your first mission. However, Command was very impressed by what you did out there. So the Major General wants you to do something a bit higher grade than originally planned."

He slid the files he was looking at across the desk to Zero.

Zero picked them up and started looking through them. "Is this…actually a pack of Reapers? I didn't know such a thing existed, sir." Zero saw at least 5 or 6 Reapers together.

"It's a common practice among lower rank Reapers. Their survival instincts kick in and they instinctively realize that they're much stronger as a group rather than getting picked off separately."

"So am I supposed to wipe them out?"

"In a sense. It's not as linear as that though. You'll also need to gather whatever data you can on them before taking action. After the new variant we saw, the higher ups are looking for answers. There hasn't been a new variant in years so everyone is curious. If it's a variant of lower Reapers like we think then there's a chance you could find something out while you're on this mission."

"I-I see." This is a bit more complex than I expected, he thought.

"This will be a good test for your remote time field as well. You'll not want to take on so many in close range. Not to mention they're very close to a known black out zone.

There goes that name again, Zero pondered. "So what exactly is a black out zone, sir?"

*Knock* *Knock*

Zero turned to look over his shoulder towards the door.

"Ah, perfect timing. Looks like your partner is here." Haji said.

'My….partner? I'm not going alone?"

"Of course not. You'll need someone who is familiar with this area as well as has some unique experience with these types. Come in!"

The door creaked open and in walked Two of all people. He and Zero looked at each other with clear disdain on their faces.

Haji rested his head upon his clasped hands.

"You guys will be taking on this mission together. Get ready to leave in 30."