Author's Note: I wanted to write Sigma, to get a better fix on him for a little roleplay I plot to enter as him. So I wrote Sigma. I'm pleased with the result, I think. Besides, you just can't let good Hamlet go to waste.
Disclaimer: Sigma belongs to Capcom. The Maverick Virus might actually be a more sophisticated version of the Melissa. Hamlet and all his angsty goodness belongs to Shakespeare, though he's dead and now we can freely rip him off.
To Reason Most Absurd

Ah, it's you. I hadn't thought there would be anyone else to pound on my door this late at night. You really are braver than most of my subordinates; it's almost funny.
Come in, sit down. You see I have yet to find a torture rack in your size. Stop worrying so much that I will, little one. I enjoy these sessions almost as much as you do. No, don't deny that you aren't at least interested in what I have to say--it isn't polite. I see no reason why you risk so much to come here if you don't get something out of it.
Which reminds me; you had best find another way in. My guards are beginning to grow suspect of the window I leave open on these nights. I must admit I am growing rather fond of you and it would grieve me to see one as ingenious as yourself killed.
Please, sit down. You needn't be so nervous--you know as well as I that if I'd meant to kill you, I would have done so long before. Is it something else that disturbs you, then? Your kind are all so full of energy that it is quite difficult to tell what moves you to act. Here; take this chair, still yourself. We only have so much time in which to talk before someone begins to suspect something.
Where were we last? Ah, yes. I remember now--the Virus. You had inquired after it and I had deferred for lack of time. If the truth is to be told in full, I had not given as much thought to my policy on it as I have now. Your absence since the last visit has given me ample opportunity to think about it.
I believe the biggest misconception--shall I say rumor?--about the Virus is that it controls me. The idea is laughable, though it would certainly make things much easier if I were to allow...no, it's unthinkable. It may be a viable option for my subordinates to believe in the 'bliss of the Virus' dreaming' that I preach so fervently to them, but I cannot.
What's that? Oh, I see. Yes, I am what you might call an atheist in the religion of the Virus. Does it amuse you? No, I will not begrudge you it if you laugh. It amuses me, too. To think that I am leading all my Mavericks by the nose with a religion I falsified into existence to keep a reign on a computer virus I barely control myself...Much is made in your history of hypocritical dictators, and I am not wholly surprised to find myself among them. The atheist Pope leading his congregation in the Ave Maria...It is amusing to think that I actually find the idea of your god possible, but I have created my own that I don't believe in.
Of course, mine is certainly of the--shall we say, Old Testament variety. I think of it as riding a tiger, almost, being the protector of the Virus. It is as vital to my existence as I am to its, and it could turn and devour us all. Yes, you have a reason to be frightened if it does. Like any virus, it seeks only its own propagation. That it is awake, alive--that is an ancillary matter. No one ever said sentience had a code of morality included with it.
Humanity...if you did not feel so threatened by those among my number who have joined the fold because of hatred for your kind, I am certain we would have no reason to destroy you. I am so concerned daily with reigning this beast in I honestly do not know what it would desire of me if I did not. Universal domination, perhaps. I doubt that it will allow us to settle down and create a utopia once all of you have been sacrificed to feed it. It is a pity that me and mine will never know a moment's peace.
I imagine I'm giving myself the image of a beleaguered savior or a martyr. I doubt I am; I doubt I am even doing as much good for the human race as I want to believe. I speak of reining the Virus in, of keeping its madness checked, but it is often enough I have caved to its demands of slaughter and terror. The lives on my hands weigh heavily, but perhaps only because they were made out of presumed necessity, and not because I am truly sorry for them. It is easier that way, not to be sorry. The killer who feels remorse for his murders is the most miserable creature in all of creation. I only regret that I have found no other solution to this.
What? Allow the Maverick Hunters to gain a victory? I cannot. I will not. It will not allow me to do so. I am certain it was Zero who gave me this, who now wears the laughing guise of a hero. It is almost a blessing that it fell on one such as myself to control it; in him, it was...It was the face of madness, destroying all that it touched. That I can count one saved out of fifty in our massacres is more blessing than he ever cared to worry about. This is HIS fault; I will not submit to the one who made me this way!
I'm sorry, little one. Sit back down; I did not mean to frighten you. You must view this anger as natural, a consequence of who and what I am. I do not allow it--like the Virus--to rule me, but it occasionally erupts in such a way that I can't control it. I apologize for startling you so. No, the chair can be replaced; the walls here are not completely soundproof--the guards know if they can hear me shouting, it must mean something will need replacement in the morning. Another source of amusement, how predictable I can be.
There; that is settled. It is not impressive that I can control myself; more, I am amazed that you continue to return in spite of these outbursts. You understand that the mention of the Hunters is...a sore spot for me. To have been counted among the number of the elite, and then discarded, instead of aided...No. It is cold consolation that they are somewhat more loyal to their own now, though X is certainly a zealous one when those under his command turn traitor.
Yes, he is painted in a glorious light, I suppose. It is a consequence of our own depravity, that those held against us must be so ennobled. I can't say I enjoy it, but it is...a necessity, and will continue to be until one or the other of us wins. I wonder if he will be driven so mad by the madness he fights that he will become a greater danger to Earth than us. You can almost see it in his eyes; the desperation overcoming that innocence...But I digress into a field I know nothing of. You would do better to ask one of my trained torturers to explain his personality to you. Save that I doubt that they would offer you a chair over a rack.
At least you've the sense to appreciate black humor when in the devil's lair, though perhaps you needn't sound so strained. I don't care either way, if you find something amusing, by all means, laugh. If you do not, do not. I'm not that insecure in my own humor, and Mavericks make surprisingly dour company.
Does it really show so much? No, do not be afraid that you are impetuous; I am merely transparent. Yes, I do hunger for company that badly up here. There is none like myself--none like myself that I have not already ordered executed--to whom I might speak to freely. My Mavericks, as loyal as they are, believe only the Virus. If I were to speak heresies to them...I should fear the result. With you, at least, I can pretend that I have no need to think about the bloody politics of my court. Some day, when I am dead at last, perhaps you may reveal this.
I hold no illusions about my immortality, no. I imagine that you will outlive me, if you are clever and quick. I am not even as old as you are, but as my kind reckons time, I am already obsolete. Old equipment, older programming, so though I have had upgrade after upgrade added on top of my neural net and body, I am hardly a match for any of the newer models already being manufactured. I sometimes think I continue to exist only by sheer force of will and at the Virus' behest. One day, I will not be quick or clever enough and then...perhaps there will be freedom. Perhaps I have built up our state religion enough that my death will be more than martyrdom, more the crushing blow that breaks the backs of the Mavericks forever. I want my empire to be unstable, so the squabbling bits will cause less damage than I already have.
No, I don't know that the Virus unchecked will be a terrible thing; I have only a gut feeling of it. I think that as long as I remain its chosen host, its focus, that it will not sink further into depravity and destruction than it already has. As I said, it is like riding a tiger...As long as the tiger is amenable to my hands on the reigns, it might be possible to destroy it while it still answers me as its master. A terribly egotistic worldview, but then, I've never been accused of having a small ego and no ambition, have I?
--No, I do not think you are hearing things, little one. My fortress has begun stirring for its day, and there are guards that will be coming by, to check and see that I have not died in the night or something equally awful. Best that you be gone. You do still know the way out, I imagine? Good. Then go, and quickly.

...You allowed one of the enemy to enter your inner citadel, your very heart.
Yes. I did. You do not rule me, and she is better company than you have ever been.
She is the enemy.
You know that is a part of you that you acquired from my troops, not your own volition.
It does not matter. She is the enemy. You let her go.
I did. If it assuages your paranoia, I will do something about her. Soon.
It is enough.
Then be patient.

"Guards."
"Yes, Lord Sigma? What is your command?"
"There is a human rappelling down from the north window of my tower. Apprehend her. Have her given a personal 'tour' of the torture chambers."
"Yes, Lord Sigma."

Is that sufficient?
You lie to them.
If they are worth what it took to indoctrinate them, they will find her anyway.
You make this more difficult on yourself, Chosen.
You demand I sacrifice the one good thing I have left. I will not.
It is not our will to court one of the enemy.
'T is a fault to Heaven, a fault against the dead, a fault to nature, to reason most absurd. One of theirs said that.
What bearing has that on this?
Perhaps nothing you in your magnanimity would understand. It is my vice. Let me have it.
You make improper demands of us, Chosen.
Perhaps. We will see whose demands are improper. In time.


Contents of this document are © 2002 Kim Kondratieff.