A/N: From the acclaimed author of the hit story 'missadventures' comes my latest creation...! Alright so I'm not acclaimed, but it sounded cool though doncha think? AKA "Second Rendition" from when I had it off of another website a while back but I changed the name. Anyway. My MegaMan muse has bitten me like a flea bug, and it's an itch I just gotta scratch! Alright, here's the idea. This is not a sequel to my other story, though I would love to do one sometime someday when I DO get enough free time to write in away from work... it's supposed to be more serious, but still have some fun loving and jokes and similar character takes. It takes place after the war has ended and Sigma has been defeated. Alia and Gate have their son Taiko, and Iris and Zero have their daughter Cero. Time passes, they end up growing up, and more uprising happens. Neon Tiger was the sole survivor of the war and is able to release the Sigma Virus a large city of Reploids and fighting starts up once more, calling the Hunters back into battle again led by X and Zero. Taiko is very smart and became a great scientist and technician like his dad, Cero however always looked up to her dad and becomes a hunter to her mom's dismay and enters the war alongside her dad years later on. I don't want to give away the ending, because it is very emotional and full of love/betral angst, but I was thinking about maybe adding a slight Cero/Axel/Taiko triangle, but I changed my mind, it was just an idea. But the ending is solid and set in stone, so get ready for a SHOCKER! No promises, I'm so busy with work and have no free time updates may be strung out, but if you review, I swear to you I will write and finish this story. Thank you. Title is inspired by the absolutely BEAUTIFUL song by Hoobastank, so enjoy!

During peace time in the Hunter HQ, not much out of the ordinary was ever going on. With Sigma finally gone, the world entered a tranquil stage where people and Reploids alike all lived and worked together happily and cooperatively. The Hunters occasionally embarked upon governmental assignments whenever commander Signas saw so fit to chose, so MegaMan X continued to train the new recruits. The newest he had molded into an excellent covert spy to infiltrate an anti-government agency known as "Red Alert", and his name was Axel, he was the youngest of the group but X took a liking to him because he had reminded him of his own young self when Axel first enlisted to join shortly before the warring era of 20XX ended. X worked closely with the General and Colonel, whose sister Iris had been married to X's partner, the legendary special class a-lister, Zero. Another young married couple were the collage colleagues Alia and Gate, Alia who worked with Iris and Gate who worked in the lab with a great medical scientist named LifeSaver. Douglas the repair mechanic would often stop by to see what improvements he could make to his inventions in their lab, but mainly staid in the service bay to be around his parts. But other than that, nothing else much new has transpired…. well, except for one thing, if you may count it. Both of the two married couples had a child, Gate and Alia had a little boy, and Iris and Zero got a little girl. Their names were Taiko (which by the way means "drum" and Cero. About a decade had passed since the end of the war and peace was restored, Taiko was roughly about 12 and Cero was almost 10.

Seven am

"Come along now Taiko!" Alia called up the small stairwell. In the HQ, each person had their own living quarters, however for couples they had two bedrooms (one large and one small) with their own small bathroom and a kitchen/dining area. Those units were located at the end of the station so both families 'lived next door' to each other. Alia moved out of the kitchen area and looked up towards her son's room. "Taiko, I mean it now! Your dad can rise at six, I don't know why you can't ever be on time for your tutoring session."

"But mom!" Taiko whined as he approached the top of the stairway. "It's boring, I wanna do something fun with my life…" He slouched down the steps slowly.

"But you're only a child Taiko." Alia kissed his head as he went to sit down. "You should be lucky, when your father and I were young the war was beginning. You don't have to fight."

"But I want to learn how to be great, just like the story of X!"

"I know. But you are a very bright young man, you have great potential."

"I know mom, I know…" Taiko ate his breakfast as Alia finished putting away the dishes.

7:30 am

"Zero I swear, sometimes you are like a child…" Iris groaned, seeing her husband still in bed, their dog Rush sleeping beside him.

"Hey!" He moaned as she tore the cover off him.

"No, you're worse than a child. Your daughter has been up for a while now. Why is it you are so lazy?"

"Because it's peace time?" Zero shrugged with one eye open, still half asleep.

"And get that dog off the bed, I just did the laundry!" She shooed him with a pillow and he got off, running out of the room. "Breakfast is going off the table in 15 minutes mister!" She left and walked back down the hall into the kitchen/dining area. Alia and Gate had their bedrooms up above the bathroom and kitchen/dining area, whereas Iris and Zero's were a single story, storage for the station was above them, that's just how the building as designed. Iris smiled as she saw Cero taking out the trash, "How did you end up so well?"

"Because you raised me, mama." Cero giggled, and that made Iris happy as well. "I'm going to head off to my class now, I have a library book to return."

"And so smart too…"

"Don't get carried away mom, it was just that "Where's Waldo" book dad wanted." Cero paused. "You know, he never did find him… dad just figured it was a conspiracy."

"That sounds like him… well run off then, I'm sure you'll see Taiko on the way." Iris opened the door.

"Okay." Cero grabbed her book bag by the door, kissed Iris, and left. "Bye mama!"

"Have a nice day." Iris closed the door.

Cero looked next door as the door opened and Taiko came out with his back pack on, "Hey Taiko!"

"Oh hi Cero."

"Come on, it's Friday, that means one more lecture until the weekend!" Cero skipped.

"You're sure perky this morning." Taiko smirked.

"What's there not to be happy about?"

"I'm just bored with the same old routine I guess…"

"Don't worry, once we get older I'm sure things will get better… no, I know." Cero smiled, Taiko turned to see her bright cheerful face and that made him smile too.

"Thanks Cero, you always know what to say to make everything right." That comment made Cero giggle and give a peace/victory sign in his direction.

"Come on, we'll be late, hurry up!" Cero hurried off.

"Hey wait, come on…" Taiko ran to catch up.

8:15 am

"Good morning Alia." Iris smiled as she saw her friend in the courtyard garden.

"Hey there Iris." Alia looked up as she sat down next to her on the bench by the fountain. "How's that cold of yours doing?"

"It's alright, pretty much all gone just sometimes I get a little tickle in my throat there. But I sent Zero out to the little store on the corner to get me some lozenges."

"You could've sent him to see Gate, he left over an hour ago to start working. I'm sure he could've given him some cough drops for you."

"Come on now, with how famously our husbands get along? You know what would happen." Iris could just imagine it as she spoke. "Zero calling him an ice cream man, Gate grabs the nearest blunt object and beats him repeatedly, Zero grabs his lollypops, Gate starts poking him with a pointer until Zero starts crying…"

"Yeah, that wouldn't help you out very much… plus it'd use up a whole appointment time for one of Gate's patients." Alia laughed. "Well if Zero comes home drunk and empty handed, I'll have Gate bring some back from the office with him." Since Gate didn't have really many patients at the base what with the war over, he had opened his own practice which he partnered with LifeSaver in, so most of the time now he spent over there treating civilian Reploid patients.

"Thanks Alia, that's really nice of you."

Meanwhile, elsewhere….

"And what about that jerk Gate huh?" Zero was drunk in the bar already, X sitting next to his friend with a frown on his face. "Tapping on people all day to make a living, prodding them all day." He took another swig and it emptied the bottle. "And do you know how he

gets me to say 'ah' huh? He doesn't even TRY to ask, he just grabs a giant mallet and swings it into my guts… man he's such a loony toon, I SWEAR to you one time afterwards I had a mark on my stomach that read "ACME" on it… man…" Zero reached for another drink but the beer can was also empty.

"Because he KNOWS that you WON'T! You'll just start whining and yelling about how those sticks remind you of ice cream headaches... then he'll comment how a brainless idiot can't get brain freeze…. Zero don't you think you've had enough? Getting drunk already, it's only like nine!" X sighed, not that this wasn't unusual.

"Hey, you know what they say… it's five o'clock somewhere!" Zero laughed like an idiot.

Not to brush off an old one, but "Oh joy…" X put his hand on his forehead and groaned.

Later on that day…

"See you later Taiko, I'm going home!" Cero called as she left the classroom at the other end of the HQ. The library was in the room next door, she had already returned the book. Taiko was a lot smarter, and was almost a year older than her, so he staid afterwards to do more advanced work. As Cero walked down the hall she saw Axel, "Hey Axel!"

"Hi there Cero, have a nice day in class?"

"I guess… man Taiko kept on correcting that new tutor Signas hired, I mean I swear he's so smart sometimes I think that HE should be the teacher."

Axel laughed, "Well, he does have two very bright parents, they met in college and have two of the highest ranking university degrees in the whole HQ."

"Wow. So how is work with X going?"

"Pretty good, not much going on. You really like the Hunters doing you Cero?"

"Yeah, my dad was such a hero, I wish I could grow up to be just like him!"

"Your dad was one of the best there ever was, and hell, probably ever will be. I know how much you look up to him, but you're lucky you don't have to learn how to fight."

"I know, mom says the same thing… but sometimes it's like Taiko says, it feels so boring always doing the same thing. I mean, is there nothing out there better worth our time…?"

Axel laughed, "Hey you be careful, you're starting to even SOUND like Taiko now. If you start talking around your dad like that, he might not even understand."

"Hahah!" Cero laughed gleefully. "That's funny, but that's true."

Axel caught a glance of his watch, "Oh man it's almost 3:30 I have to report to Signas about Red. Excuse me."

"Yeah." Cero looked past him. "Looks like I'd better head home too, my dad's gonna need somebody to kiss his boo boos since mom went grocery shopping with Alia."

"Eh?" Axel turned around to see Gate beating up on Zero. "Ugh…" Axel smirked and slapped his head with one hand. "Gate knows injuring Zero is NOT considered job security…" That just made Cero laugh hardily once again.

Debriefing in Signas' office...

"And that's my report sir." Axel was standing at attention as Signas paced back and forward behind his desk.

Finally he sat down and sighed, "You're doing real good work there."

"Thanks captain."

"This 'Red Alert' unit of yours can be quite a problem. But I'm sure you can handle it, it's not like we have any Maverick uprising to worry about, what with Sigma having long since been defeated and all."

"Yes sir, I agree."

Signas smiled, "At ease there cadet, this isn't the military now."

"I'm sorry." Axel relaxed a bit. "I'm just used to it, what with serving under Red and all..."

"Don't worry, I have a feeling this will all soon be gone too. It'll just be a matter of time."

"Yes sir, I agree. Thank you sir."

"Why don't you go and get some rest now alright?"

"Okay, thanks." Axel bowed his head and left, the door automatically opened and closed behind him. Signas was left alone to think in his office again, he folded his hands and rested his chin upon them in thought.

6:30 pm

"Next time I'll give you something to cry about...!"

"You don't scare me, with your fancy Kinko's degree!"

"Why don't I FedEx my foot right strait into your..."

"Guys, stop it!" X whined, standing between the leering Gate and Zero, who were once again feuding like normally outside their homes. Friendly rivals, oh brother...

"Why do our dad's hate each other?" Cero wondered as she watched next to Taiko.

"They don't... you know the saying, you only hurt the ones you love?"

"Yeah." Cero sighed. "Then I guess our dad's must really care about each other."

"I'll bite you!" Zero threatened in the background.

"Here Iris." Alia was standing with her and handed her a small bag.

"Thanks." Iris accepted it and turned back to watch. Finally the fiasco ended and both families went inside to eat their (somehow still warm) dinners.

"So how was work today honey?" Alia asked her husband once Taiko had finished with the story about his class that day.

"Alright I guess." Gate swallowed his food. "But I had the strangest case come in today."

"Oh yeah? Head case?"

"Yeah. Some Reploid was really messed up, some kinda virus or something. I had LifeSaver admit him to the hospital so he could rest and we can observe him. But the symptoms... and he was really short tempered, and kinda nuts." Gate paused and smirked. "Almost kinda reminded me of that Maverick jerk Vile."

"I thought you were going to say "that jerk Zero" heh." Alia chuckled slightly to herself and went back to eating.

"Yeah." Gate smirked and went to take another bite and then paused. "Like Vile... like Zero..." He lowered his fork in thought, frowning at the idea he was pondering, and he did not like it at all one bit.

Midnight...

A figure was in the darkness of the Maverick cemetery outside of the old and demolished Sigma HeadQuarters. The building had been destroyed and everything inside it had been incinerated after the war for precaution. The Reploid was kneeling on a grave, and it was that of his brother, who had been killed in the war. As the clouds passed over the full moon the gravestone read 'Blizzard Wolf Fang'.

"Uh oh, whoops, wrong headstone..." Neon Tiger laughed nervously to himself, moved down one to the one entitled 'Slash Beast'. Neon Tiger sighed sadly with a frown. "Oh, my brother..."

"It's a pity you were the only one to survive... coward..."

"I'm sorry master, yes I agree, I wish somebody else had survived too."

"Shut up... look, do you understand my instructions now, after repeating them for the NINETH time already...!?"

"Yes sir, I go into the old HQ under the rubble and open the cellar door."

"Yes, there I think you will know what to do with what you find."

Following the instructions of the "mysterious voice" Neon Tiger did just that and upon opening the door heard an angry growl and saw...

"AH, Sigma's Dog!" He squealed cat-like.

"Idiot...! Look what he's holding around his neck!"

"Oh..." Neon Tiger carefully grabbed the container on the band around the snarling dog's collar. He looked at it and gasped, "Is this, what I think it is...?"

"Well it's not Love Potion Number Nine, I'll tell you that much."

"I know what I must do..." He stared, focused.

... (awkward pause)

"THEN DON'T JUST STAND THERE! DO IT!!"

"Yes sir!" Neon Tiger scrambled at the enraged yell.

Growl, "Boy do I wish Vile was the sole survivor... gees..."

PS: If you don't know who the 'voice' is, I will hurt you...

That night, Cero saw Zero sitting on the bed in his room... he was playing his old acoustic guitar. The song had a romantic tune, and although she thought it was the prettiest music she'd ever heard, it also felt kinda sad... and even as Zero strummed the chords and stared away, she could see the sorrow within his eyes.

'Why papa, why are you so sad in your thoughts...?'