I hear the beep as the huge, metal door opens and my dad stands there, looking furious.

Swallowing the vile taste in my mouth, I stand up, ready to face him. I don't even notice Zero inching closer in a defensive manner to me.

I start to walk over to my dad, but am stopped when Zero's hand grabs onto mine, pulling me back into a solid hard chest.

"Stay." Zero growls, making my eyes widen slightly in surprise. I wonder how he learned that word. have the scientists been treating him like a dog and issuing commands to him like 'stay'?

My dad's eyebrows raise, and he holds up his hands in a surrender motion. I shake my head at him, my eyes pleading and hoping he can help to calm the suddenly tense Zero.

I squirm, and when Zero doesn't let go, I twist to face him.

"Let me go, Zero, or I swear this will be the last time you see me." I say in a forceful 'no nonsense' tone of voice, hoping it gets my message across.

He might not understand English fully, but he understood I was making a threat. He snarls, but let's go, storming away to the corner of his room. My dad slowly walks up to me and leads me out of the room, Zero scowling and growling the entire time.

A scientists starts to close the curtains, but Zero does not like that at all. He starts pounding on the glass with his fists and snarling until the open the curtain back up. His eyes, calmed down slightly now that he can still see me, track my movements as my dad leads me over to Mrs. Clark. Her face is emotionless and cold, making me shudder.

"We need to perform a check up on Ashley immediately," Dad says the second I arrive within hearing distance of Mrs. Clark.

"Dad, I'm fine. I think it was just a very sudden cold. It's passed now." I say, thinking he was worried about me being sick.

Did it feel like just a cold? Heck no. Do I still hate-checkups enough to not want one even after going through all of that? Yes.

His face grows red, fury written in every feature. "You didn't ask for her consent?" He says, his voice calm yet deadly.

I frown, utterly confused. "Consent for what?"

Mrs. Clark sighs, looking bored. "Remember that cup of water you drank when in Zero's cell? Originally that was meant for Zero, and contained a lab-made virus, entirely my creation, to see how his immune system would react. I never expected you to drink it, but the data we received from you being affected by it was equally as useful. It turned this experiment into a study on Subject Zero's primal side, and he appears to have a very nurturing, protective side for the ones he likes." She finishes, looking proud of herself.

"You were the reason I felt like death?" I ask, anger leaking into my voice. She nods her head, not at all looking guilty. I contemplate smacking her like they do in all the soap operas, but then I glance at my father, who looks equally furious. Maybe it's better to let him deal with it.

"Mrs. Clark, that is a violation against our code and a threat to her safety. You're lucky I don't fire you right here-" My dad begins his lecture, but is cut off by Mrs. Clark.

"Threat to her safety? You're telling me that shoving her into a room with a powerful killing machine isn't dangerous, but letting her become slightly sick is? I took this job to study this species and that is exactly what I'm doing. Now, are we going to show her the footage or not?"

My dad turns red in anger, but I put a hand on his arm, stopping him from saying something he will regret in the heat of the moment."What footage?" I ask, turning back to Mrs. Clark.

Mrs. Clark levels a gaze at me, and I see a slight apology in her eyes. "Ashley, while you were a bit....delirious, Zero did something. We have video proof that he might be even more dangerous than he already is."

Stunned, I watch her with careful eyes. Does she know about Zero's eyes? I recall the way I had seen them in a shade of pale blue. I thought I was just imagining things, but if Mrs. Clark has video footage....I want to see it.

Mrs. Clark leads both of us to a door that leads to a room with a desk and computer inside. Distantly, I hear furious growls as the door slides shut behind me. Those must be loud growls if I could hear them even through the thick glass. I sigh, shaking my head. Zero can throw a temper tantrum all he wants. I still haven't forgiven him for the stunt he pulled with breaking my card.

As if reading my mind, Mrs. Clark picks a card up off the desk, which I'm assuming is hers or maybe an extra, and hands it to me. I nod gratefully and slide it into my pocket. She sits in the chair and starts typing furiously at her key board while I study the desk. No pictures, or books, or really anything besides a few papers and a pen. It's almost like she has no personality.

"Ah, here we are." She says, gesturing me over. My dad follows behind as I approach, looking over Mrs. Clark's shoulder at the screen where a video is pulled up.

I watch as she presses the play button and immediately my eyes zone in on Zero and myself. I watch myself become sick, growing slightly irritated with Mrs. Clark when the memory of how horrible I felt at the time is brought up again. I watch as the camera zooms in towards Zero, but his back is turned towards the camera, meaning they don't have a view of his eyes. However, his eyes weren't the only thing to have changed, I watch as Zero makes no movement for a few seconds, and then suddenly his hands turn really pale, as if they're suddenly super cold. Mrs. Clark pauses the video then and swivels in her chair to face me.

"We have an idea that Zero is able to manipulate his body temperature, and also that he may have more abilities than just that. At this moment Zero is being taken to the examination room where he'll be doing a few more x-rays with some added blood tests. The tests aren't because of his powers, if we were able to tell he had powers through x-rays we would have seen it long ago when we took our first x-rays of him, but we hypothesize that something has changed since the last time he took an x-ray."

"Changed?" I ask, waiting for her to go on and wondering what could have possibly changed unless his internal organs completely restructured themselves overnight or soemthing.

"Yes. A connection seems to have formed between you an Zero." She says.

"A connection." I state, incredulous. One, what does that even mean? Two, how on Earth do you see a connection with an x-ray? I'm getting more and more confused by the second.

"We think Zero's people have a custom of forming special mental connections to certain people they trust deeply. Perhaps it has to do with a survival instinct, to have an ally in simpler terms, or maybe it's just the desire to mate. Nothing is for certain at the moment."

Survival instinct? Mate??? If it really is survival instincts, why would he choose to form this 'connection' with me. I can't be of any use to him. I'm just a secretary after all, who has no power here except through my father, but I doubt he'd listen to me if I told him to let Zero go free.

Mrs. Clark speaks up again, dragging my attention away from my thoughts. "Which is why I'm led to this question. Will you let us perform a few tests on you? Nothing big, just a few blood samples and a couple of x-rays. We'd like to see if anything physical has changed because of this connection. Just to be cautious."

I know she is probably only politely asking me to become a lab rat, and I have no idea how they're going to be able to see a mental connection through x-rays, but if I'm being hoenst with myself I'm super curious. I want to know more, so badly to where I don't even think about my hatred for check-ups. Like father like daughter I guess. I nod and Mrs. Clark smiles, exposing straight, white teeth.

My dad steps forward, speaking up for the first time since entering the room with a serious look on his face.

"Ashley, don't be doing this for my job. You may refuse if you want to, or call it off anytime you want. There is no pressure."

Mrs. Clark rolls her eyes at him, but I give him a firm, encouraging smile. I want to do this.

Mrs. Clark goes off to contact a few people, my dad leaving to check that the tests will go smoothly. I wait patiently until an assistant retrieves me, walking me to a door across the big room. I try to peer around the assistant to see Zero, but he's not in his cell. He must still be in the middle of testing, like Mrs. Clark said,

The door opens to reveal what looks like a regular doctors office, with the huge cushion for the patients, and the circular chair on wheels. It's much larger than the usual closet-sized office, and my dad sits at the computer, most likely putting my information in, like my blood type among other things.

I hop onto the huge, rectangular cushion with the annoying, crinkly paper, swinging my legs as I wait and trying not to get nervous. A doctor enters a minute later, asking a few questions about my health, and then a few more questions that make me flush in embarrassment since my dad was in the room. The doctor just stares at me with cold, emotionless eyes the whole time, making me even more uncomfortable. This is why I've never liked doctors appointments.

Finally, he gets out the needles, and I feel my stomach tighten slightly. There's the small prick as the needle pierces my skin, and then I wait for a minute, watching about a cup of blood fills up in a blood bag. For a simple blood test, they're sure taking a lot.

The doctor finally takes the needle from my skin, allowing me to exhale in relief.

"Ready for the x-rays?" The doctor asks. I nod, slowly getting off the cushion.

An energetic nurse strides into the room, taking the blood bag from the doctor and following us into a large room with the x-Ray machine smack dab in the middle of it. Two things happen at once.

One, the nurse stumbles on her own heel, falling forward.

Two, the blood bag flies out of her hands and onto the ground, the bag imploding and painting the floor red with my blood. I grow nauseous as some splatters onto my clothes and the copper tang fills the room.

A second passes in silence, before a huge roar resounds, and I recognize it as Zero.

We all freeze, listening again for the sound. I hear a few loud shouts and ruckus, and unconsciously I start to back away from the door at the same time it's nearly ripped off it's hinges.

Zero storms into the room, taking a second to soak in the scene. I watch him take a deep breath, his eyes livid when he spots the blood, my blood. He's on the nurse in a blink, and my eyes widen as I hear her scream. He moves so fast I can barely keep up, but then I see the nurse fall to the ground, and before I even know it I'm screaming as well, shouting for Zero to stop, head going blank.

He starts to move for the doctor, and without thinking I jump in front, blocking Zero's path of fury. He snarls at me, touching my arm as he shoves me out of the way.

The world goes dark right as I hit the ground.



* * * * *



Very slowly, I come into consciousness, my eyes still closed.

I hear a keening sound and whimpering, like the sounds of a dying animal. Voices surround me, I recognize three of them, but am too tired to put the voices to faces.

"Ashley, you need to wake up." I hear the plead and realize it's my Dad. What's going on?

I try to open my eyes, but they are heavy weights, only allowing me to flutter them. There is an intake of breath and silence. They must have seen my embarrassing attempt at opening my eyes.

"She's alright," I hear someone murmur. Alright? Why wouldn't I be alright?

Suddenly, the events of everything that happened come back to me and I sit up with a gasp, so suddenly I hit foreheads with the person leaning over me. I grab my head, wincing in pain as my eyes focus in on Peter. I'm sitting on a metal table, people crowded around me.

"Peter?" I ask, my voice horse.

"Maybe a little warning the next time you decide to head butt me, okay?" He asks with a relieved smile on his face.

Suddenly, the animal sounds are voiced again, but much louder. I look past the people surrounding me in a tight circle to see we are in the main room on the bottom floor, the curtains to the glass door open. Zero sits on the ground in there, bound in so much metal wire, I can't believe he's even writhing. He's intently focused on me when our eyes connect, and they his hopeful and relieved. In a daze i turn away looking back to the people around me

The sound gets louder, the whimpering of someone in pain, but I can't look back at Zero. not when the thoughts of what happened are still playing over and over again in my head.

"Is the nurse......?" I trail off, looking expectantly at Peter, Mrs. Clark, and my dad, who are at the front of the circle. The guys look at the ground, but Mrs. Clark clears her throat, giving me a sympathetic look.

"She died sadly, but unexpectedly from a heart attack, and not Zero's touch. We watched the video recording in the room and it appears she dropped to the floor before Zero could even touch her. You on the other hand, are lucky to be alive." She's completely right. I can feel the phantom tough of Zero's hand on my arm when he pushed me out of the way, bare skin meeting bare skin, his deadly touch no doubt turned on. How am I alive?

I must have spoken that question out loud because Dad answers. "We really don't know at the moment, but while you were......sleeping, we took an x-ray and found this."

He holds out a tablet and on it are two, side by side pictures of an x-Ray. The first looks like the body of a huge, muscular man and I realize it must be Zero. He has faint, but glowing blue lines snaking throughout his body and for a second I stare at them in wonder. They wrap around his arms and legs, almost pulsing with energy, and seem to originate from his heart.

Then I look to the other picture, which looks like my body. At first, I don't know what I'm looking for, but then I see it. The faint blue line that snakes from my chest down my stomach and back into my heart.

"What is that?" I ask, worried.

"The connection I was talking about." Mrs. Clark says.

"This doesn't make sense." I state, my breathing starting to grow a bit rapid. "How can your x-rays pick up something you said was supposed to be mental?"

"We're starting to think this connection has a few physical aspects to it." My dad says, his face grim.

"Oh great, some physical aspects." I say sarcastically. "I don't know if I can keep doing this." I mutter, the shock starting to get to me. "I think it'd be better if I went back to being a secretary. I'm not trained to do this, i have no idea what I'm doing, and I almost ended up dead because of that." I say louder.

Silence.

"Okay," My dad agrees, and Mrs. Clark makes a noise of protest, but is stopped by my dad. "We had no right to drag Ashley into this in the first place, and she may choose to quit if she wishes." I nod gratefully.

With a wave of my dad, the people disperse, until only Peter and Mrs. Clark are there. She stares at me with an unflinching gaze, making me shift on the table.

"You may keep the key card, and visit anytime you want." Is all she says before walking off. I somehow knew she didn't mean visiting her.

"Let's go." Peter says, and I nod, jumping off the counter. The world spins for a second, and I feel Peter's hand on my lower back spreading me. Nobody asks me if I want another doctors examination, not after what just happened.

Together, we start walking towards the elevators. I try hard to ignore the howls from Zero as they get louder with each step away I take. My eyes lock with Zero's once we're in the elevator, the doors starting to close. His eyes have a pleading, pained look in them.

An image of him, pointing at the pig in the little kid's book, flashes into my mind, and a slight pang of sadness hits me.

If I could, i would apologize to Zero for not being able to stay. It's obvious after the situation that just happened that I'm not suited for this. I only provoke Zero.

I lift my hand, waving slightly in goodbye.

The elevator doors close.

Hello, readers! A lot just went down, wonder how Ashley's gonna handle that. Vote, Comment, and dive off a diving board (One of the hardest things I've ever done, idek why lol). Like I said, you can vote once, but you can comment as many times as you want. I REALLY like reading them XD. ALSO the picture up above is a fan art of Zero drawn by xx_Amelia_Sky_xx. It honestly looks so good and cute, especially the way he's saying "Ashie" with those eyes XD. She's really nice and an amazing person, so go ahead and follow her or check out her stories! Lots of Love,

Dangeroustoken.