MegaMan NT Warrior (Rockman) Fan Fiction ❯ my life ❯ Chapter 3

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It was the middle of the night, and almost every Reploid in the base except him and whoever may have been on guard duty was asleep. While this human, someone who needed far more rest than any one of them, was awake and hard at work.
"Ciel?"
The blonde woman jumped in her seat, shrieking. She spun around quickly, and then breathed a sigh of relief as she saw him. "Oh... Dark," she said, giving him a weak smile. Ciel lifted up the visor and Dark hound could instantly see her eyes were incredibly bloodshot. It was painfully obvious that she was insanely tired, but she was working even still. "I didn't mean to scream... what are you doing out around here at this time of night?"
Dark blinked, wondering if she understood how strange that question was. "I should be asking you that."
"I just had some work I needed to get done," Ciel said, still smiling. "I should be done in another couple hours..."
The black warrior raised an eyebrow. "It's four o'clock in the morning. It'll be dawn in two hours."
She just stared at him for a moment, seemingly a bit surprised by that. She then merely shrugged slightly, turning a bit to look back to her terminal. "It doesn't really matter... I can rest when my work is finished. Besides, that's why I've had all of this caffeine," she said, indicating the empty coffee pot. There was some amusement in her voice, but given that she was the only one in the Resistance base that actually consumed such things, it was somewhat usual for Dark to see. "I just can't rest when I'm so close." She stopped, a heavy yawn interrupting her speech. "So close to finalizing my plans for the substitute energy..."
Ciel's smile faded, and she looked back at Dark Hound. The look in her eyes, beyond the obvious one of being tired, quickly became sad. Almost painfully so. "Even as we speak right now, there are still innocent Reploids out there that can be declared as Mavericks. The fact that they can be 'retired'... having their lives slaughtered and wiped out of existence... I can't even imagine what it must feel like to have just simply die like that. So I can't let something so insignificant as my own needs get in the way... not when I'm so close."
Dark didn't want to say it, but he knew what it was like to die. He had experimented it before He was fairly certain, somehow, He just couldn't pinpoint it in his mind.
"How can you expect to really be any good to anyone," He said, staring straight into her eyes, "when the human body and mind need rest to function properly?"
"Dark, I-" Another yawn. "-I... I'm fine. Honestly... you don't need to worry about me. With everything you do for us, doing all of that without question... If I can somehow end this quicker, even if just by a short while... If I can make it so that you-" Ciel paused again, but this time not from a yawn. She bowed her head, her cheeks turning slightly red. "If I can make it so that none of us have to fight again a little sooner..."
Dark Hound continued staring at Ciel. Her posture was really quite horrible, slumped over as she was. Her bloodshot eyes looked as if they could barely stay open. On top of that, she continued to yawn every few seconds.
He almost just shook his head at the sight. Her selfless determination to grant Reploids their deserved freedom was truly admirable.