Yes, X4 establishes that X would much rather die than be turned into a maverick, thank you, but there's also the end of X3. The sequence where gameplay forces you to run away from something Sigma claims can infect, or rather possess you.

In this fic I've given X a fear of losing people because, well, it happened. Also an entirely rational fear of being discovered. But for a being created to be free of reprogramming, to have absolute free will… I like the idea of the virus squicking him. Killing is wrong, yes, but mind rape is wrong to him on a whole 'nother level. Especially since he'd be aware of it as a danger, as something that can happen to other people and did happen to several family members. While people may call X a 'pansy' because he doesn't want to kill, he is very much not a coward. Nothing else in the series inspires the kind of terror that had to be present in that sequence in X3. He asked Zero to kill him if it ever happened to him, and while X is X, and I'm sure at least part of that was because he knew what a powerful maverick he'd make?


The mall. The only real mall in the city so far, although there was an indoor one being refurbished that had been under construction since forever. According to Dr. Cain, they really should have knocked down the building and started over, but the History Department was an investor (via their endowment) and got to set terms because of it.

Non-sentient combat robots had already passed through, leaving bodies and blood. Display windows, some smashed by bullets and some, perhaps, by not (just) looters but people trying to find somewhere to take cover. Maybe there were still some of the living here, somewhere. The combat robots weren't that bright.

That might be why the warbot that had identified itself as Zero to the human and their camera before destroying them both was doing a sweep through here, almost a half-hour since the attack began with an assault on the more populated locations. Like this one. There was the coffee shop which Vilnus and Ciel liked to argue about even as they downed cup after cardboard cup: Vilnus said it was vile stuff, and Ciel said that she'd had real coffee and it was even bitterer.

Around the corner and a few shops down that way was the store that was generally recommended to everyone for field gear. Things were hotter than they'd been in 20XX, but people digging in the ground needed knees that could rest on sandstone and gravel, reinforced work clothes instead of the creations of a local fashion industry dominated by design students and catering to the desire of college students to wear something that would help them get laid. X had taken one look in most of the shops around here and known right away that he couldn't buy anything there: they'd make him look his physical age. Wearing more concealing 'grandpa clothes' helped make people overlook the fact his physical design was younger than the first-year students.

Zero had attacked while it was still dark, but they hadn't vanished with the dawn. It was shaping up to be a hot day. It almost always was. He was glad he could turn off his olfactory sensors, but he could still see the blood on familiar streets, to either side of the warbot that caused it.

Blue eyes looked down at him from a handsome face that seemed mildly curious more than anything, the hue shifting to green as irritation replaced examination. "I don't even know where to start," said the killer robot master. "But did you really think that I wouldn't detect an incoming teleportation within line-of-sight? If you wanted to get the drop on me, you should have appeared behind a building, not tried to do it literally."

Prioritizing critiquing X's tactics over everything else that could be said in this kind of situation? With one hand around X's neck, and the other holding a beam saber right at the shoulder of his buster arm.

That actually wasn't the first thing the probably-Wilybot (there was a faint W in the helmet crystal, even though it was still possible that was a trick) said to him after it sidestepped X's drop , batted away the charged shot, and took advantage of when X had to trigger his dash boots to kill the momentum, leaving him relatively stalled in midair while Zero used their own dash boots to get the momentum to knock X into a wall, causing enough systems to suffer some percent degradation while they did minor repairs or otherwise sorted themselves out to make it easier to get X in this position. Although the amount he'd been disoriented… Just being spun around and slammed into a wall shouldn't have made him that dizzy. He'd been disrupted enough he'd seriously considered a partial reboot of the afflicted drives until his head suddenly cleared.

The first thing his captor said after that was a curt order to unform his buster, which X obeyed. After that token obedience, the stern expression was replaced by assessment, and now here they were.

He couldn't have accepted an outright demand to surrender, not in good conscience, not when he intended to continue fighting if that was the only way to get the other person to stop this, but letting this 'Zero' think they had the upper hand… was sadly true. But while Zero was talking they weren't attacking, and X could ready his systems and try to think of what to try next.

He'd thought he might learn something valuable if he managed to make the other AI (probably) start talking, but he really hadn't expected Zero to start dispensing advice.

When he didn't respond, Zero's eyes narrowed, and that blade gave his shoulder a little nudge, enough to make him feel the energy of the blade but not enough to do more than singe a little, the kind of thing autorepairs would handle without significant drain. "Why are you even here?" Zero demanded, shaking his head, that fall of golden hair swaying behind him in a way that made it seem like the word should be lashing. "Some kind of White Knight?" The armor. "Do you think this is a game?"

"You're killing people," was all X could say, wishing he could glare at Zero, frown at them, but the faceplate didn't have that kind of articulation. That was half of the point.

"Yes," Zero admitted with an annoyed shrug, as though that was entirely beside the point, and they were only acknowledging it in the hopes that would keep X from going on and on about something they both knew. It was rather obvious from, oh, all the dead bodies. "And they killed your family. So why are you here? Did one of them order you to do this?" A scowl, but not at X. "I thought they hadn't found you, I thought you weren't in some secret lab complex somewhere. I checked. You haven't been experimented on? No, they'd have labeled you. Branded you. Put some serial number on you, to mark you as their property if anyone spotted you, so they could take credit for what you did."

Damn. There went his chances of passing as, well, not a Lightbot. If he'd already been identified as X? But how? "I thought you were the military model. That someone else built a robot to use as a killer, so it was blamed for human deaths instead of its builder."

Ah. "I suppose that explains it, a little. A species that used to live in trees, hundreds of thousands of years of killing with thrown rocks, and humans still forget to look up," Zero said disgustedly. "I thought that couldn't be right, but it's definitely the case." How had they tested that? Hunting people down? "A less competent programmer might have built a warbot that would make the same mistake. They've done a disgustingly good job of stripping all the initiative out of their robots, even as it cost them." A disgusted look, again not directed at X. "But the humans of this day and age building something with my physical capabilities, even ones without enough intelligence or initiative to do the math on teleportation detection and question their assigned tactics? Wistful thinking." A condescending smile, as Zero realized "Is that what it was? You were hoping I was a piece of scrap instead of my builder's greatest creation? You might be able to beat something like that. Maybe you aren't quite so stupid as to think you could take me down with those tactics."

Stung a little, X was immature enough to say, "…Your builder's greatest creation? Are you going to say you're the strongest robot master?" Like, oh, Forte?

It wasn't as though X cared about his combat prowess, beyond trying to save lives, but someone who went around slaughtering innocent people, which was clearly incredibly stupid, acting as though X was the fool here, for trying to stop him?

Perhaps there was some hope that if Zero realized what a damnfool thing they were doing, they would knock it off, although, X acknowledged, that itself was probably wistful thinking. The world would be a much better place if everyone had to do ethical simulations and knew basic game theory. His brothers and sisters would still be alive, for one thing, and he was sure that Rock would have defeated this Zero far more easily than X ever could, meaning these humans (and so many more, over the past century) would still be alive.

"Not a robot master," Zero said in the same almost offhand way they had acknowledged that yes, they were murdering people.

That made X blink, behind the faceplate, because there was no way that X could control all those robots and drones in the way Zero was. Even Dr. Light's AI couldn't do anything on this scale. Zero couldn't be the same kind of android as X, and now they claimed not to be a robot master? What were they?

Zero went on to ask the thing they cared about, which was, "Why are you here? And in a, a costume like that. Trying to pass for a human in armor? So they don't find out that you exist? Because they will kill you. If you haven't been enough of a damn fool to show yourself until now, you must know that. They killed your family!"

"Yes. And you're killing other people's families." If Zero understood that killing someone's family was wrong, then why were they running around doing it themselves? Wasn't it obvious how illogical that was?

"Exactly. Do you really think that a survivor of this attack, if I was fool enough to leave any, would pick a fight with an opponent who has them outclassed in every way, to save my life? Knowing that even if they succeeded, I'd kill them as soon as the fight was over? Yet that's exactly what you're doing, fighting me to save humans. When they're smarter than an android… Do you have somewhere to hide when the humans come looking for you, after this?" An aggrieved breath. "I should have cut the satellite footage when you teleported in, but at least we're under an overhang now and they don't have any kind of audio."

"You were letting them watch all those people…"

A nod. "Exactly. It's the only warning they get. Just like Rock's 'detainment' at the Gamma v 2.0 unveiling." Dr. Light, utterly surprised, had first protested building something so foolish: even if Dr. Wily was dead, a non-sentient robot like that, with no capacity to care about other living things, so vulnerable to reprogramming?

Then they'd hauled off his son, pretending to celebrate Mega Man's 'retirement,' since he wouldn't be needed anymore, and how wonderful that was. No more need for armed robots that could disregard the third law to save the lives of other robots. Everyone could sleep safer at night… Except for Roll, except for the Cossacks, except for all the robots who had put their lives on the line to protect humans during the Stardroid invasion. All the proof that Dr. Light was right, that it was worth it, infinitely worth it, to give robots the capacity to care, and disregard that programming because they cared, for the sake of others… All those dangerous, erratic, uncontrolled (when wasn't self-control infinitely preferable, the only true form of discipline?) people.

But then, they'd never been people to those who could order a hero killed for the crime of compassion. Just property. Another attempt at a slave race, and if one type of sentient being could be deprived of personhood, then no one was safe. When genocide became acceptable once again, then no one was safe.

So, so many dead while X slept.

"Mega Man's murder was the only warning all the other robot masters got, that they needed to join the Wilybots before the humans came for them, too," Zero continued. "It would be appropriate to leave your dead body somewhere, to remind them of why this is happening. Except you're not wearing blue armor." A slight smirk at that. "At least you're aware that you need to hide who and what you are, if you want to survive in their world."

X couldn't say anything to that last but, "There are good people in this world. People who have helped me. And two of them are probably dead now." What was this about joining the Wilybots, though? "Did any of the robot masters survive?" he asked, even though he needed to be thinking about the killer in front of him, the blade ready to remove the only weapon he had (in theory).

He wished for a moment that the faceplate didn't hide his eyes, although he doubted that pity would move this killer to tell him anything extra. "Probably, but the other Wilybots are long gone from here. They couldn't stay in touch, not when they were planning to take robot masters with them who did have the three laws." A grin that X's internal dictionary described as 'shark-like' even though that phrase wasn't in use anymore. "They couldn't risk those robot masters finding out about me and what would happen when I woke up. Not when they were still in range to do anything about it, when the first law would try to make them go help the people who tried to murder them."

Zero holstered their laser blade. "If you survive, I'll find out if you have any surviving relatives… after the inevitable resistance has been dealt with." The arm quickly formed a buster and fired up into the air, at an angle. "They found a hobbyist with a plane that didn't have much in the way of built-in computing," he explained, turning back to X, who saw that his eyes were now a cheerful blue. "Thought they could get the drop on me that way with the drones gone." The Wilybot laughed.

That laugh invited X to share the joke, to laugh at how pitiful a plan this was, how ridiculous it was that the humans thought they could stop Zero, and the word was charisma. X was very glad he didn't have the human brain's tendency to mix up aesthetic judgment with their overall judgment of someone as a person, but he knew that logic error existed, and Zero was clearly built to take advantage of it.

A Greek god. Something beautiful and superior, the way X was built to seem young, because right now he was, despite that century of meditation. Someone new to the world. Someone still learning, and growing.

If only he was given the chance…

Zero was built to seem perfect. Intimidating. Far stronger than any human, faster, able to survive most of what humanity could possibly hit them with unless they got very, very lucky or Zero made a mistake. Something it was hard to count on, when the design was calculated to make you think that wasn't going to happen.

I really should have trained, X knew. As much as he hated the thought of it. Or at least gone after the weaker robots first. He'd wanted to believe that a quick, surgical strike was all it would take. So he could go back to taking care of Dr. Cain. To his work. But his work was now so much wreckage, plants vaporized and people bleeding out on the ground. "What are you doing?" he asked Zero. "Why, why all of this?"

"I haven't decided yet."

"You…" X wished Zero could see him staring. He hadn't decided yet? Tens of thousands of people would probably be dead before this night was over, and there wasn't even a reason?! "Are they just target practice to you?" he demanded. "My friends, my…" he stopped himself before staying students, even if he was only a teaching assistant, only had a couple of study sections and that didn't really count, but they were still…

"They're a statement," Zero said, with a half-shrug and a calm, undaunted smile, unfazed by X's anger or even the hint of loss. "This is what I can do. This is what they brought on themselves. They'll tell themselves that they'll have improved security precautions soon. That I won't be able to just walk into another base." That smile widened. "They'll see just how wrong they are. Then… well, I can't have you warning them." Of what Zero had in store for them. "What about you? Are you going to keep trying to stop me? Should I destroy your teleporter and leave you here for them, or are you already aware of what will happen if you fall into their hands, too aware to fall for me arranging things so that you'll need me to appear and save you?"

Well, why would he feel gratitude for being saved from trouble Zero got him into in the first place? Still, that kind of manipulative, deceitful plan, meant to play upon someone's emotions, their gratitude? To make them think that Zero had some kindness in there and want to preserve it, make X think that maybe he could get through to him somehow, if there was something there to work with?

"You," Zero said, with the air of someone making a decision, "Are very lucky that you're no threat to me."

X fell a few inches when Zero let him go: Zero had been holding him so that only his toes touched the ground and X still needed to tilt his head up to look the other in the eye. Well, that was the difference between a practical design for an android and an imposing one for a warbot. Exactly how much did Zero weigh, if they were that tall? The idea of luring the warbot over a pit trap was analyzed and quickly discarded, although if X did have the opportunity to prepare the ground in advance… He should think about that, especially since he was already setting up a cave system as his main fallback base.

Although building elaborate trap bases was a Wilybot strategy, so a Wilybot would probably be expecting it.

"Are you an android?" he asked. "I don't know what to call you, aside from Zero. Zero Wily?"

Another smirk. "So you do take after your brother. Always trying to understand, even if unlike him you can't fight worth a damn."

X knew that if his ego was like that of a human his apparent age, he'd be getting extremely motivated to prove Zero wrong.

"Android Master wouldn't be a wrong description, but what I really am," the flash of a smile, there and gone, "is classified." Zero wasn't going to tell him anything useful.

The apparent friendliness was starting to cause a little distrust in X. Yes, people should be friendly to each other, it was only sensible, but someone who was willing to, to exterminate a city full of innocent people definitely wasn't a believer in being nice to people because that was the right thing to do.

Was Zero trying to keep X from fighting him? Was that why all the reminders that humans weren't worth helping, as though that was true, as though that could ever be true?

X might not be any sort of threat now, but he didhave the infinite potential system. Surely Dr. Wily would have guessed that X must have it, if one of Dr. Wily's creations knew he existed.

And Robot Masters were the masters of robots. Since there were no androids other than X, that meant Zero intended to make himself X's master, which, in addition to being all kinds of disturbing… Well, no it was just really disturbing, disturbing enough that X found his shoulders hitting the wall again, trying to back up into it.

It explained why Zero wasn't killing him, but when X was built to be himself, not anyone's slave? He was supposed to be immune to reprogramming, but what if Dr. Wily had found some way?

He wanted, no, needed to get away from Zero, no, to get Zero away from him and keep the murderer from ever coming anywhere near X or his home or Dr. Cain ever again, and tactical tossed up that the best option for bringing that about was to kill it even though killing was not and never should be an option. What was with him that he was seriously reevaluating something that he'd tested and rejected as an invalid option so many times over?

It was because people thought that killing the things that frightened them was okay that his family was dead! That he woke up alone! If he ever hated anything, it would be that thought and the people who gave into it, he knew.

The people who give into it, he thought, and, shoulders shaking, glared up into Zero's too-handsome face. Tried to center his weight, fall into some semblance of a stance, his hands balling up into fists (the first stage of converting into a buster).

Zero was just looking at him in that 'are you serious?' way they had when they'd asked what X thought he was doing, trying to surprise Dr. Wily's greatest creation with an attack from above, but X didn't let it deter him from charging a shot, and perhaps there was a little surprise when X fired, some acknowledgement that at least he had daring.

Before the red-and-gold armored body fell apart into swirling darkness.

Proximity sensors alerted him to the sudden presence of mass to his right, he saw it in his peripheral vision but there was still no time to dodge before that laser blade hit him in the neck.