The next day, Zero had an unfeeling sense of dread as he went about his daily activities.

Killing Harvey was one thing, but murdering two military privates and leaving their bodies out in the open was a much riskier move. Each time he heard footsteps or heard the elevator doors opening he thought it might be the herald of his death approaching.

However, it was actually a pretty quiet day.

Two had given him a running regimen that he was to uphold every day which included running 40 miles in under 2 hours at normal speed. The idea being that if he were to increase his normal running speed and stamina, it would ultimately allow him to run further for longer periods of time using Chronos Trigger as well as increase his overall speed ceiling.

While Zero finished the last of his laps, doing so in complete agony at this point, Five was busy working in the 'static chamber'. It was a new machine that was just installed the week before to help Five with his training. It's a completely insulated chamber that's about 15ft wide and 10ft in height. The walls are shock proof so it allows him to completely release his energy without fear of electrocuting the equipment or others.

"And…that…makes….40!" Zero collapsed over the finish line in a pool of his own sweat. He lifted his head enough to see the stopwatch on the wall. It read 03:17:44. "Ughhhh."

"All finished, Z?" Five walked up wiping the sweat off himself with a towel. His hair was standing up in several places from all the static. Also, he had recently taken to calling Zero "Z" as a nickname.

"Yep. Missed the mark, AGAIN." Zero picked himself up off the ground. He could feel his legs starting to cramp up from all the overexertion.

"Steam room?"

"Steam room."

They both headed to the steam room to relax their bodies for a while. The steam rooms in the base had a special chemical in the steam that highly boosted muscle recovery time. So they would really leave feeling like a brand new person afterwards.

It was the first time that Zero had been in with another person before since being on base.

They undressed in the locker room outside the steam rooms, wrapped a towel over their lower half, and went straight in. There was no temperature or time dials inside the steam room. Once you walk in and sit down, a sensor scans all life forms in the room and determines the best temperature as well as time length it should run at for maximum recovery.

*PSSSSTTTT*

The steam began to rise in the room causing a hazy fog. Zero leaned back and sighed as he could feel his whole body loosening up. He took a look over at Five and saw him doing the same. He also noticed that Five had a tattoo across his chest that Zero had around his neck. This was the first he's seen that anyone in Midnight Squad had the same tattoo.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Hey, Five?"

"What's up?"

"That tattoo on your chest. Is that from the genetic splicer?"

"Yup. I see yours is around your neck. We all have it in different places depending on where we were touched during the whole thing. Yours is the only one not covered by clothing though I think."

"I see." Zero had honestly stopped even noticing the marks around his neck. He reached up and rubbed against it. "Does it ever go away?"

Five looked at him with a bit of a confused look. "Did they never give you the rundown on these things?"

Zero shook his head.

Five leaned forward so he could rest his arms on his legs. "So the mark left behind the splicer is for life. Well, mostly I guess. The deal is that these tattoos are basically what keep us this way. If they were to be taken off we could end up turning back into full blown Reapers again."

"Wait, are you serious? How can it even come off?" Zero had no idea that he could be turned back into Azrael. He had figured that changing one's DNA was a permanent procedure. He never wanted to experience that helplessness again.

"Dead ass serious dude. And no clue. Just know that I rather it not."

Zero pondered on this new knowledge for a moment. "Then I wonder why so many hybrid civilians are allowed to live within the cities. If losing the mark could result in a Reaper transformation, that seems like a big risk."

"Yeahhhhh. So there's a bit of a difference between those in the city and us."

"How so?"

"Well, they don't actually have marks. All the hybrids who lived in the city are ones that never fully turned into a Reaper."

"Huh? I'm not following."

Five sighed. "Geez, they must be really tight lipped around here if you don't know any of this yet. Well basically it's like this: the genetic splicer is only used on A rank and above when it comes to a full Reaper. Anything below doesn't have a human consciousness once fully turned. But, the genetic splicer can prevent a full turn. So if someone is attacked by a Reaper and infected they don't turn right away. It takes a little bit. If they can get treated with the splicer before that final point, then the transformation can be stopped and they'll stay human."

Zero was taken back. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Wait wait wait! Are you telling me that the hybrids in the city…aren't really hybrids at all?!"

"Wellllllllll. Not really. Not like us anyways. They carry the gene in them that a normal hybrid would, but it's just dormant. For the most part they're just regular humans, Z."

"..." Zero looked down at the floor of the steam room. They're just normal people, Zero thought to himself. Just…normal people. "Then…why?"

"Hm? Why what?"

"Why are they treated so terribly? Like second class citizens? They're basically like everyone else!"

"Blame the government for that one. While they're not hybrids like us, by all accounts they still carry a Reaper gene. So the government felt it was in everyone's best interest to keep track of everyone who has the gene and that everyoneee else knows too. So they've basically created a segregated society."

"So there's no clear evidence they could turn?"

"Nope."

"I don't understand!" Zero was up on his feet at this point. "Then why save them at all if they're just gonna treat them like SHIT?"

"Because the alternative is they all die and create even more Reapers. Hey, are you okay man?" Five seemed worried at Zero's sudden rise in emotion. Zero hadn't even realized he had stood up and knew that he was acting suspicious. By all means the conversation shouldn't have been a heated one for someone who wasn't taking actions like Zero was.

He sat back down. "Yeah, sorry. Just…didn't know."

"It's all good. Let's just skip the convo and enjoy this nice steam."

That's when all the power suddenly went out and the base alarm sounded.