Disclaimer: Nope, Still Don't Own Megaman X :(

Chapter 2: Love On The Brink Of Destruction

X charged up his X-Buster to max capacity and fired it at the giant Maverick they had codenamed Gigas. The blast however just simply deflected off the giant and flew back at X hitting him full on sending him through a building several feet away.

"X!" Zero yelled angrily.

He charged Gigas and started striking madly with his Z-Saber while Axl gave him cover fire from his twin pistols. All efforts seemed to fail against this Maverick though.

"Alia, we have a real problem here, X is down and nothing we're doing slows Gigas down," Axl reported.

"We have to lure it away from the city," came X's voice from behind them.

Zero and Axl turned to face their comrade. He was seriously injured. Just having been hit by his own charged buster blast his right arm was torn clean off, his armor was damaged and cracked in countless areas and he had an unthinkable amount of wires protruding from everywhere, and his helmet crystal was completely shattered. It just was not the Blue Bombers day. When the giant mechaniloid noticed X again it fired several laser beams from its side at the Azure Hunter. The trio dodged with X only just barely avoiding it.

"X, get back to base now," the Crimson Killer demanded realizing his best friend was a sitting duck right now.

"I can't do that," X said.

"Why not!?" Axl demanded.

"Look at it, it's only focusing on me, every since we got here it has only launched attacks at me," the Blue Bomber replied.

"Meaning if you leave the city it will likely follow," came Alia's voice.

"Exactly," X said.

"No X, you can't, your only down to five percent energy, you have to come back to base, let Zero and Axl handle it." Alia said.

With that X jammed his radio signal and pulled out a stun pulse bomb and dropped it at the feet of Zero and Axl then took off running. The bomb went off letting out several rays that hit the teenage reploid and the Red Death stunning them before they had a chance to react.

"I'm sorry everyone," the Azure Hunter said running toward the city gates with Gigas following right behind as X had predicted. X led the Gigas to the outskirts of the city but his strength was fading fast. His best hope was to lead it to the junkyard which was looking more impossible by the minute as Gigas fired a giant laser which cut into X slowing him down even more.

"Warning, damage levels critical, energy remaining: three percent, backup energy: depleted, armor: zero, attack capabilities: zero, X-Buster: offline, Z-Saber: offline," his internal systems warned him.

"Oh boy," the Blue Bomber mused to himself as his system listed off his problems.

The junkyard came into X's view and the giant mechaniloid was right behind him. He knew he was only going to have one chance at this. X lead Gigas into the junkyard and stood on a compactor that was slowly staring to compact waiting for Gigas to come onto the platform after him. Gigas quickly climbed up the platform and X jumped off barely missing being squashed. The Gigas however was not so lucky and got crushed in the compactor. However the giant was still alive much to the dismay of the Azure Hunter.

"Good grief," X said to himself.

He channeled two percent of his remaining energy to the X-Buster to get it functioning again and as soon as it became operational he started to charge it to maximum levels.

"Warning, expending this much energy will result in total energy drain and will initiate full stasis lock," came the voice from his internal systems again.

"X, don't!" Alia screamed through his headset having finally broken through his jammer. X sighed wondering what the point of jammers were if they could be easily broken through.

"Alia, I must," X said weakly.

"X, please no!" Alia yelled out.

"Why not!?" the Blue Bomber demanded echoing Axl from earlier.

"Because, I...I love you and don't want to see you hurt!" Alia finally admitted fiercely but at the same time embarrassingly to the reploid of her affection over an open com channel where many others had heard the proclamation as well.

This took the Azure Hunter by surprise and caused him to hesitate. The Gigas finally managed to stumble over to X and came around with one of its crushed legs to strike the Blue Bomber only to have it removed by a large green beam seconds later. X saw Zero and Axl rush the robot trying to finish it off now that it was totally defenseless. X watched for a few more moments then started feeling dizzy.

"X!" from three different voices was the last thing he heard before blacking out.

Maverick Hunter Headquarters: Medical Bay

Alia waited outside with Zero and Axl blaming herself for X being in his current condition.

"Had I maybe said something sooner," she berated herself.

The spotter was upset with herself and still slightly embarrassed she had proclaimed her love for X pretty much publicly and probably not at the best of times for the blue Maverick Hunter.

"It'll be okay Alia, it isn't your fault and he's tougher than he looks," Zero said.

"I know Zero but I still blame myself, if only I had done something sooner then maybe he wouldn't have ended up like this, thinking he had nothing to lose and had to sacrifice his life to work toward peace," Alia said.

"Come on Alia, as Zero said, don't blame yourself X was only doing what his heart told him." Axl said when Hydro came out, her head hung somberly.

"How is he?" Alia asked hopefully.

"Not to good, his systems are so advance it's hard to fix him from so much damage, typical damage that you all normally sustain, not a problem, with this much though we did the best we could, he's currently in a stasis coma and who knows how long it will be, if ever before he wakes up," Hydro said sending a sense of despair through the three.

Not wanting to see X in such a helpless state Alia thought of an excuse to leave.

"I'd better report to Signas on X's condition," the spotter said quickly leaving the Medical Bay.

"I don't blame her, I really don't wanna see X like this either," Axl said.

"I should probably get back in there and get back to work, I just wanted to update you all," the medic said turning and going back into X's room.

The Crimson Killer and the younger reploid sat outside X's room discussing and debating several small things to distract their minds from their fallen comrade.

"Maverick Hunters Zero and Axl report to my office immediately," Signas ordered over the intercom several minutes later.

"We do have headsets," Axl said grumpily as they left.

Thankfully Signas's Office wasn't too far from where they were and they made their way there quickly. Upon arriving the two entered Signas's Office where Alia was also waiting.

"Zero and Axl, with X currently incapacitated then you two will have to work harder to pick up his slack," Signas said.

The two nodded at their Commander even though they already knew they would have to.

"Also in light of all that has been going on I'm releasing Alia for her vacation time, as such the two of you will be without a spotter," Signas said.

Axl looked over at Alia and understood why he let Alia off, after all she was distraught over X.

"For now you guys can rest, dismissed," Signas said.

With that that the three left his office.

"Well, I'm going to the training room, nothing more I can really do here," the Crimson Killer said cooly as he walked off.

"I'm going to go get me some grub," Axl said realizing like Zero, there wasn't anything much he could do.

With a wave to the spotter he left for the Mess Hall. Alia being left to herself realized and knew in her heart that she had to be by X's side no matter how bad a shape he was in until he recovered so she left for the Medical Bay. When she got there she found Hydro waiting in the main waiting area of the bay. Alia figured either she was taking a break or she had done all she could do to help X. Alia approached Hydro and asked for permission to enter X's room.

"Of course, be aware though despite my best efforts he's still in pretty rough shape," the medic explained.

Alia nodded and made her way over to X's room. After a slight hesitation she finally entered. The moment she saw the Blue Bomber she looked in horror as his repairs were minimal at best. His damaged armor had been peeled off leaving his metal exoskeleton exposed in several place and wires upon wires were exposed and disconnected from him while a multitude of medical wires were attached to him, monitoring him, working on scans, and other repair processes.

"Oh X," Alia said pulling a chair over to his bed.

She sat down and took the hand from his temporary right arm in hers and just sat there staring at him unsure of what to do. She had never fallen in love with anyone like she had done with X. The last person she thought she loved was Gate but it hadn't taken her long to realize with Gate that it was only puppy love as humans would call it. This however sparked an idea in her head and she ran to the nearest computer. She pressed several keys and after a few moments of waiting Gate's face appeared on the screen black and greasy causing her to giggle.

"Bad timing Alia," Gate said.

"Sorry to interrupt but I need your help," Alia said.

Gate had mostly went into seclusion after he was repaired and cured of the Sigma Virus to atone for his sins committed during Sigma's fifth uprising and only Alia and Hydro knew how to contact him.

"Oh, with what?" Gate asked cleaning his face.

"It's X," Alia said.

She then explained the situation to Gate hoping he would help her.

"I understand, I will help your lover, after all I do owe him my life," the scientist said.

With that Alia almost leaped out of her chair in excitement.

"Thank you Gate, you always were a good friend," Alia said.

"Think nothing of it, ill swing by tonight, make sure to get me clearance," Gate said.

As it got later into the night Gate finally arrived and entered the Medical Bay and after showing the proper clearance to the guards that Alia had gotten him Hydro led him to X's room where Alia was sitting at X's bedside still holding his hand.

"Wow," was all Gate could say upon seeing X's condition.

"Yeah, I told you he was in pretty bad shape," Alia said as Gate sat his tools down.

"Alright, let me have a little look see," Gate said approaching X.

The first thing Gate did was run a full system scan, this however was tricky due to X's advanced systems. Fortunately though he was able to get through and get all the proper scans he needed at the least, though he understood performing the actual repairs would be the real task.

"Alright Alia, I think I can do this but it will take me quit a few hours and even then I am not entirely sure I can fix him completely," Gate said.

"I can wait Gate, ill always wait as long as X comes back to me," Alia said.

Gate smiled because it was so apparent Alia was head over heels in love with this legendary reploid. The former Maverick then turned to Hydro with whom he had worked with previous on other projects. As a Research Scientist he had helped with some of the newer tech used by Hydro in the Maverick Hunter Headquarters.

"Alright Hydro, I am going to be needing your help with all of this as well since you're probably the second most knowledgeable about X's systems at this point," Gate said realizing already how much of a headache this was going to be.

Hydro nodded and wished Lifesaver were currently there with them since other than X's own creator, he knew the most about X's systems. However he was at High Command and she seriously doubted the higher ups there would release him from his duties there currently just to come deal with a single reploid, despite who the reploid was.

~A/N~

And here's Chapter 2, as always R&R, good or bad matters not.