Chapter 11: Double Crossed

In a matter of minutes after leaving Storm Owl's fleet behind, X's ship was breeching the storm clouds that had formed in the sky. His ship was rocked by the roar of thunder and crash of lightning, forcing him to hold onto the steering wheel as tight as he could to stay on course. He grunted and grit his teeth as the ship jerked left and right.

"Got to…break…THROUGH!" He pressed down on the ignition as hard as he could, converting all the ship's power into the jets. They flared up larger than the ship itself, and sent X hurtling through the storm clouds faster than the fastest bullet. His body was pressed against the back of his seat, and it took him a few moments to readjust himself.

When he laid his hands on the steering wheel again, his eyes laid beholden to a fantastic sight. Stars, stars as far as the eye can see, were laid out across the endless void of space. X could not fathom counting all of them, even if he lived for another hundred years. In clear view at a much closer distance was the moon. Even hearing what the moon looked like from others, seeing it now in all it's pristine, stony glory left X speechless.

Then with a gasp, X realized the window for this shuttle was spacious enough that he could look back and see the planet he came from. Having just breeched the atmosphere, the most he could see was the North and South American continents, which had mixes of brown and green across their lands. X stared in awe at how much water the planet had, and the clouds seemed more like singular entities than a swarm of white puffs in the sky.

This beautiful world was what he was fighting to protect, along with the millions of humans and Reploids too miniscule for him to even see from here. With a slow turn of his head back to the controls, X arched his brows and remarked "I'll do it…I'll protect this world!"

He gripped the boosters and rocketed off towards his destination, a massive satellite with eight attachments shaped like the thin, curved petals of a daisy that were wrapped around a tower with a laser cannon pointed right at the Earth. Seeing something so destructive pointed at something as beautiful as the Earth filled X's mind with disgust.

Disgust towards General, for being willing to use this weapon for his cause, and for once feeling disgust towards the humans that built this weapon in the first place. He widened his eyes and let out a gasp at himself for feeling such things, but the surprise didn't last for long once he put a little thought into things. Just like there are Mavericks amongst Reploids, there are bad humans amongst the good ones. But as much as X wanted to do something about the crimes of humanity, that was not in his programming. He knew, deep down, that he was never to harm a human.

Breathing out a heavy sigh, X tried to remain focused and flew his shuttle straight towards the Final Weapon. The place didn't have any defenses set up around the perimeter, at least not at the moment, as X did fly by a few outer turrets on his way to the landing zone. He got inside without a fight, then landed his ship underneath a large Repliforce carrier. An energy barrier at the door prevented the vacuum of space from affecting anything in this room, so X was able to exit his shuttle safe and sound.

He cocked his buster at the waist and looked around. All the Repliforce troops had abandoned the landing zone and gone on ahead. Everything was quiet, too quiet. Despite his suspicions of a possible sneak attack, X took a moment to get in contact with HQ.

"Double, come in Double. I've infiltrated the Final Weapon. If possible, transmit General's location to me." There was no response. X couldn't feel any disruption in his transmission, in fact it was clearer than it ever had been before.

"Has he left his post…?" X mumbled as he drew his hand away from his helmet, resting it atop his buster. Looking ahead at the only door out of this room, he knew he didn't have time to wait for Double to respond. He'd have to find General on his own. As he remembered that Zero was still down on Earth, he wondered how the fight with Colonel was going, and the possibilities that went through his mind were none too pleasant.

"…I can't worry about that now. Zero can handle himself." X nodded his head and sprinted right for the door. It opened with his presence, but the moment he was passed it a few of the drones he saw on Storm Owl's fleet dropped from the ceiling and almost sniped his head off with a heavy laser beam. He rolled to the left and fired a charged shot to destroy the drones, then cocked his buster atop his left bent knee and remarked "So they know I'm here…"

With a sharp "Tsk…!" he kept his buster charged and stood upright, sprinting deeper into the Final Weapon. He noticed the walls were lined with dozens of thick wires, all of them connecting to many power cores that beat like the 'hearts' of Reploids. The cores even thumped like human hearts would as well. It was a little disturbing to listen to, and the noise disrupted X's focus just enough that lasers from Repliforce's drones managed to scrape his armor.

Keeping on the straight path ahead, X noticed that a lot of machines were set up not just in the walls, but in the floor as well. All of them served to keep the Final Weapon running, making it no surprise that one would need something as powerful as 'Bassnium' to even fire the cannon. Even focusing on the way this satellite was constructed, X managed to clear the first hall of Repliforce troops and jumped up the wall to reach the next door.

Passing through it, X saw a hallway going left and right a little further ahead. With a cautious raise of his buster he heard some footsteps along with seeing a couple shadows running down from the left. Pointing his buster up, he charged up to the point of the energy pouring out from the barrel, only to hesitate when he saw just who was coming.

It was Double, and trailing behind him was Iris.

"What…? Double and…Iris?" X's mind didn't know how to process what he was seeing. For a brief moment, he thought he was being tricked. Before making a mistake he'd soon regret, he retracted the energy he was about to fire and ran down the hallway, rounding to the right corner and proclaiming "Hey! Double! Iris!" as loud as he could.

The two turned back as they walked out onto a platform in the middle of a spherical room, watching as X ran towards them. Iris raised a hand to her mouth and looked worried, as she began biting the tips of her fingers. Double swung his left arm back and said "Don't worry about X, Iris, go on ahead. You should be able to find him soon!"

Iris gave a terse nod then turned around, dashing to the door at the other side of the room. X swung his right arm out and proclaimed "Iris, hold on!" but his path was blocked by Double holding his arms out and shaking his head nice and slow.

X waved his hand out and remarked with haste "Double, what's the meaning of this?! Why are you and Iris here?!" Double closed his eyes and said in a serious tone "Sorry sir, but I had to do this. Poor Iris had her heart broken by Zero, so I brought her here to meet with General."

"…Her heart broken?" Even though those words sounds weird put together, X could piece the meaning behind them, and realized that Colonel had to have been killed by Zero. Lowering his head and letting out a grunt of anger that things should've gone differently, X then looked at Double and exclaimed "Even still, this place is too dangerous! What were you thinking bring her up here?!"

"Well, uhh, you see…" Double stammered, rubbing his chubby right pointer finger against the side of his cheek. X shook his head and started to walk around him, remarking in a disappointed tone "Return to HQ, we'll continue this talk later. That's an order, Double."

As X went for the door, Double laid his hands at his sides and glanced over his left shoulder. His eyes slanting into a darker glare. With a deepened tone, he punctuated a response with scathing sarcasm.

"Yes, sir."

X was about to exit the room when he heard something slicing it's way through the ground behind him. He turned around and leapt to the right, cocking his buster up as a rugged wave of energy ripped through the door. Before he fired his shot, he was shocked to identify his aggressor as Double, whose right arm had changed to a more beefy, purple, gelatinous filled form complete with a rugged energy blade atop his gauntlet.

Double lowered his arm and had a sinister grin on his face as he commented in annoyance "Damn…How could Repliforce make this so easy and yet so DIFFICULT at the same time?!" X paused, pointing his buster straight at Double while declaring "Who are you, and what have you done with the real Double?!"

"Hehehe….HAHAHAHA!" Double's face spread as far as it could as he erupted into laughter.

"'Real' Double? Hahahaha…You're an IDIOT, X!" Double then crossed his arms, the other limb transforming to resemble the buffer one. A bloody red energy formed around his entire body as the rest of him spontaneously transformed. His body became slender, the legs becoming almost as long as X's whole body, each ending with a single curved gold spike at the toes of his boots. His shoulder broadened and were lined with two curved spikes, while his core was bared behind the gelatinous material of his waist. The biggest change of all, however, came from his head. Double grew a pair of devilish horn at the sides of his helmet, his eyes were left blood red with miniature dotted pupils and the brows in a permanent slant, while his chin grew pointed and his smile more confident.

Standing in the center of the room with his body now stuck as this malicious machine, Double proclaimed with all the glee he could muster "There's only been one Double, and he's tricked ALL you gullible idiots into turning against each other! EHEHEHEHE!"

"What do you mean?! Answer me!" X lashed out with a furious confusion, and Double stood up and fondled the bottom of his chin while carrying an aloof air around him.

"Oh? What do you want to know? The part where I activated the dragon Mechaniloid to frame Repliforce for the attack on the Sky Lagoon? The part where I tricked Slash Beast and Web Spider into trying to kill you and Zero? Oh, or perhaps the part where I've sent that lovestruck FOOL Iris on a one-way trip to die at Zero's hands?!"

"Zero would never kill Iris! You're insane!"

"Insane?! I'm more sane than you'll ever be, X!" Double hunched forward and pointed a mocking finger at X, unable to hold his position from the sheer laughter he unleashed.

"Look at you! Spewing all that nonsense about 'peace' and 'understanding' between Reploids and humans when you're just as liable for their deaths as the common Maverick?! What a load of hypocritical CRAP!"

"T-That's…!"

"Your naïve ideals will never mesh with the fact that you're a living, breathing weapon…JUST LIKE ME!" Double clenched his extended hand into a fist and grit his teeth into a scowl as he drew a blade from that same fist.

"Your goodie-two shoes attitude pissed me off from the very start X! But now…Now I get to wipe that smug look of yours off the face of the Earth!"

X cocked his buster at Double and exclaimed with all his rage "You did all this just to get to me?! Thousands of humans and Reploids have DIED because of YOUR actions! Colonel, Repliforce…ALL THEIR LIVES ARE ON YOUR HEAD!"

"GOOD!" Double took X aback with his sudden and delighted exclamation. The Maverick licked his lips with a slimy purple tongue, proclaiming with a frightening nonchalance "Reploids, humanity, Mavericks?! I don't give a shit about ANY of them! Destruction, carnage…THAT is what truly makes me feel alive, X!"

X stared this monster in the face. The malice in his words, the callousness towards all forms of life. It filled X with a rage not experienced since the likes of Sigma. No, this Maverick was WORSE than Sigma. For all his cruelty, Sigma's ambitions were still aimed towards helping his kind, even if his methods were twisted to the core. Double, on the other hand, deserved not an ounce of mercy or sympathy from the likes of X.

"I won't let you get away with this! You'll pay for what you have done, DOUBLE!" X exclaimed, his buster charged to maximum in a second and a shot fired right at the madman. Double sliced it apart like nothing and cackled at the rage he was witnessing.

"Good…GOOD. Make this fight worth my time, X! Make it one that I, Lieutenant Double of the Shadow Corps, shall never, EVER forget!" Double then swung his arms out and floated an inch off the ground, his energy raging like never before.

"I'M SO ANXIOUS TO RIP YOU APART!"

Double dashed across the platform with the speed of a cheetah, drawing both his energy blades out and swinging them in a rapid flurry. X sprinted to the left to get out of the way, watching as Double blades tore through the wires in the wall behind him. The Maverick laughed and ripped some of those wires out, flinging them right at X.

In the few seconds Double took to do all this, the wires still retained their electricity and sent a powerful surge through X's body that left his feet magnetized to the ground. Double dashed in and sliced his right blade down, stabbing the ground as he ripped a diagonal scar into X's armor.

X grit his teeth and leapt back before Double could come back up with another slash, taking a chance to fire a charged shot at Double. The Maverick raised his right arm and blocked the shot, which did little more than ripple his gelatinous frame. He lowered his arm and cracked a smirk, while X gave him a worried stammer of the lips. Reaffirming his anger, X clutched his buster tightly and switched his armor's colors so he could fire some Twin Slashers.

Double raised his brows and swung his blades in a cross to rip through the energy crescents, remarking in glee "There's no weapon in the entire WORLD that can break me!"

X switched to an icy-blue color and charged energy in his body, swinging his arms up to call forth gigantic icicles from the sky. Double looked up at them and his smirked grew wider before he vaulted off the ground and stabbed one through with his blade, breaking it into many smaller chunks. He then spun his right leg up like a whirlwind, bringing it down upon one of the chunks to send it straight at X.

The ice shattered upon contact with X and knocked him towards the edge of the platform, where his balance became threatened. Double landed and waited for the remaining icicles to crash before lunging at X again. Before he was knocked down into the fans guarding the endless abyss below, X leaped back and kicked his legs up, blasting Double in the face with his jet boots as he propelled himself at the wall.

Double staggered back and brushed his arms at his face to remove the ashes placed upon them. X bounced off the wall and assaulted Double with a series of Ground Hunters, covering his body in explosions of which the top ones gave X enough propulsion to make it over Double's body. He turned the moment he landed and fired a charged shot at the Maverick's back.

"USELESS!" Double pivoted his upper body around and dug his right energy blade into the charged shot. The energy broke apart and was swallowed into his blade, which he then unleashed back out as a large spinning discus. X spun to the right and ducked back to avoid being sliced diagonally in half.

Double leaped up and stabbed right down towards X's exposed gut, leaving the Hunter but seconds to back flip out of the way. Double leaned forward and pulled himself from the ground to fly right at X with sword at the forefront. The Hunter shifted to the left, but did not make it in time as Double's blade cut through a couple inches of his waist.

X spun around and gripped down on the wound, summoning his other buster to launch an Electro Web at Double the moment he stopped moving. The web wrapped around Double's waist and sent a shock into his body, but it didn't seem to phase him.

"Hehehe…!" Double giggled and ripped the web right off, turning around to show X him crushing it between his fingers. He then leaped high up and dug his right sword into the air itself, ripping it down to create a massive crescent of static purple energy that launched itself right at X, tearing the floor beneath it to unrecognizable shreds.

Bathed in it's lethal glow, X grit his teeth and rolled to the right, gripping his buster as tight as he could while energy roared into the front of the barrel. He knew Double would lunge at him again, the Maverick's fighting style was unrelenting and ruthless, but this time X would take him off-guard by aiming not for the chest but by firing straight at his legs.

Double paused for a second during his charge and pulled his legs up with a hop, gritting his teeth to a scowl before he kicked his legs back and pushed himself against the air to dive down at X. The Hunter took in a deep breath, concentrating as hard as he could on his right fist. Double's movements seemed to slow before him, allowing him to swerve his head to the left to dodge his incoming blade.

Then, mustering his energy into his fist, X rose up and smashed it square into Double's chest. The Maverick's body keeled over in an arch, part of his back cracking as a shockwave ripped forth from it. X rose further, carrying the weight of Double's body against his knuckles until he was able to leap from the ground and throw the Maverick away with a spinning punch.

Double went flying onto the ground, his body bouncing twice until he dug his swords down and made himself stop. He then got to his feet and cackled, looking little worse for the wear.

"That…TICKLED!" Double slashed at the air with both his blades, his body becoming a living blur as he sent energy wave after energy wave at X like they were shurikens flicked out of his hand. X ran as fast as he could around Double, throwing Ground Hunters to get past the very bottom of the energy waves.

With how fast he was swinging his arms out, however, Double could take a moment to slice down the grounded stingrays without skipping a beat in his assault. X did a leaping cartwheel to escape a couple of the waves, then created a normal Frost Tower to give himself some momentary cover.

Ducking behind the ice, X could feel the tower being sliced through easily, forcing him to come up with a plan as fast as his mind would be able to process one.

"Most of my weapons have no effect on his frame…I still haven't tried three of them out. Hope one of them works…"

Shifting to a green and yellow color scheme, X swung himself around and pointed his buster at Double. The Frost Tower shattered to snowflakes as he fired a green energy orb carrying around it a circular gale as strong as a cyclone. Double stopped his onslaught to grin and raise his right arm to block this attack, declaring to X "Is this REALLY all you've got?!"

The cyclone struck his arm and tore part of the gelatinous frame apart, splattering it across the floor behind Double as he looked at the damage to his body with a hint of surprise in his glare. He then jerked his head to look at X, who fired another miniature cyclone his way. Double swung his other arm up, more of his gelatinous frame being torn away by making contact with those violent winds.

"There we go! He can't defend himself if I tear his defenses off!" X was proud of his discovery and took a moment to smile before aiming his buster at Double again. The Maverick hunched over, laying his hands at his hips while beginning to chuckle.

"What's so funny?" X raised his brows and demanded an answer in a stern voice. Double's eyes widened to the point of cracking the frames, and he exclaimed an answer both honest and insulting "YOU X! You're HILARIOUS if you think that'll be enough to stop me!"

Double clenched his fists and swung them back, the gelatin that flew off his body squirming to life before X's very eyes.

"Is he rebuilding himself?!" The answer was no, but the truth of what Double was up to was only going to make things even tougher for X. The gelatin merged together, creating four separate, solidified drones each equipped with a miniature anti-personnel laser turret.

"What?!"

Double gave his right arm a heavy swing out from his hip, exclaiming with the utmost glee "Go! Rip this pathetic Hunter to shreds!" The drones flew out with weapons ablaze, each one firing blinding lasers through the front of their frames. X cocked his buster and switched to a purple and aquamarine color scheme, using a reticule to lock down the zipping drones and blast them with a triangular laser.

He tanked a few shots to accomplish this task, then set his sights onto Double who was charging right at him. The reticule locked on, Double pulled back his right sword, and after charging energy X held his buster out and fired a thick green laser at Double's body. The Maverick swung his sword out and stabbed it into the center of the laser, the energy parting around his body as he dove right towards X with all he had.

"Hahaha…HAHAHA!" Double was moments away from stabbing his sword into X's buster. The Hunter panicked, shut the laser off, and started to run to the left while using the side of his buster to punch aside Double's sword. But in his panic he forgot the other blade, which broke through his attempted defense and stabbed him right in the chest, digging itself halfway in and allowing Double to hoist him right off the ground like a broken piñata.

"Kk…GAAAH!" X screamed and grabbed onto the top of Double's gauntlet, gripping hard enough to bend the metal. But none of that made the Maverick flinch, and his expression whipped into a state of sadistic frenzy as he had the Hunter right where he wanted.

"THIS is why your stupid naiveté makes you weak X! You always hold back, always trying to see the 'good' in all Reploids! But we're not 'good', hell, we're not even 'evil'! We're just who we are…Weapons built to kill and destroy everything in our sight! You think you're so high and mighty?! You think you're beyond us all?! It makes me SICK! You should've just accepted what you are from the very beginning, a weapon built for carnage and destruction!"

X gripped Double's arm for a few seconds more with pained grunts, but then he suddenly let go and drooped his arms at his hips. His hands clenched into fists, and with a grit of his teeth he closed his eyes and murmured with a tired voice "No…y-you're right…"

The left side of Double's face raised as he let out an intrigued "Eh? What did you just say?!" X explained to him in a docile, natural tone "E-Even I can't ignore it…I was built to protect the peace of the world…To bridge the gap between Reploids and humans…But I was given this arm buster, and the ability to copy weapons from other Reploids I touch…I-I am a weapon…"

"Yes…YES! That's right! You ARE a weapon! In your final moments, you acknowledge your hypocrisy!"

X knuckles cracked, and his right fist turned into a buster that he swung up pointed at Double's face with his expression one of pure determination. Double grinned and remarked with an aloof taunt "What? You're going to try and shoot me?"

"But I am not a weapon made to kill or destroy! Dr. Light gave me these powers to protect everyone, whether they be Reploids OR humans! He entrusted the future of this world to me, and he believed that, even with all this power, I would NEVER turn Maverick!"

The energies within X's buster whirred and spun around, building up to it's fullest degree of power. Double stared the light straight on, gritting his teeth and exclaiming "I was stupid to think you'd see things differently! It doesn't matter how weak or strong are you! A weapon is a weapon! NO ONE CAN CHANGE THAT FATE!"

He hoisted X higher, the blade digging deeper into his chest. X grit his teeth, bearing down Double's face without flinching even an inch. His eyes flared open, and he roared with all his might "I am more than just a weapon!"

He remembered the faces of all the people who trusted him to protect the world, many of them comrades both alive and gone. Storm Eagle, Dr. Cain, Alia, Iris, Colonel, Zero, and Dr. Light flashed on by amongst the crowd, but at the end of it all was a small blue robot with a similar framework to X's own, who gave glanced over his right shoulder and gave X an approving thumbs up.

The energy cascaded out from the tip of X's barrel, and Double let it rest before his face with a cocky smile as X continued his tirade.

"I…am a Maverick Hunter! I…AM MEGA MAN X! And a Maverick like you…" In a split second before firing X's body changed to a green and yellow palette, and as Double's face curled into a surprised scowl X fired the buster and let all his rage come bursting out "WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO DESTROY OUR WORLD!"

A violent cyclone ripped forth from X's buster and slammed Double in the face, tearing bits of the plating off and forcing his sword out of the Hunter's chest. Green energy whirled so fast at the center of the cyclone that it managed to drill through Double's waist while dragging him across the ground, while the sharp blades of wind on the edge ripped apart his gelatinous frame to the point of making the globs that fell off inert.

"Ghh…GHHH! H-How…?!" Double tried to stab his swords into the ground to save himself, but the winds just ripped into his arms and sliced the gauntlets clean off. He was forced upright, blasted back while his screams of pain were swallowed into the cyclone. X held his buster up, keeping at this attack until he had Double at the edge of the platform. His eyes stayed in a stern glare, and he fought to ignore the pain in his chest with all he had.

When X was done, there was little left of Double's gelatinous framework. His waist was unstable, his legs had been ripped to shreds, forcing him on the tops of his knees, and his arms were gone from the shoulders down. His face had been chipped away, revealing the chrome workings underneath along with a glowing red right eye. Double staggered on the edge of the platform, looking up at X with a rage and disgust he could not explain.

"How…How can a Reploid have so much power?!" He screamed from the top of his lungs as oil dripped between his fanged teeth. X pointed his buster at Double and answered him with confidence "Because I need this power to protect the world. It's over Double…You have lost."

Double scowled, his body trembled, while his mind wracked itself over the sheer impossibility of losing to an idealistic fool like X. But when he thought enough, his head bent down and he begin to laugh. It started slow and grim, but then he reared his head back and erupted into a cacophony of insanity.

X was perturbed, and kept his buster cocked at the Maverick. Double leaned forward, remarking in a gleeful manner as parts of his helmet began to chip off "Lost? LOST?! Yeah…Yeah yeah perhaps I have lost, but I'm the victor in the long term, X!" He swung his head up, the right side of his face slanting off from how unhinged he had become.

"You're still an idealistic fool! There is no such thing as a Reploid that can't go Maverick! One day, you'll see, you'll see that I was right…That none of us can escape our fates as weapons! And by the time you do…By the time you become the very thing you've sought to destroy…"

More of Double's helmet chipped off, revealing on a metal plate behind it a crooked, violet "W", and as X was frozen stiff at the presence of that for reasons he couldn't fathom the Maverick delved into the deepest depths of insanity and yelled out "EVEN HELL ITSELF WON'T BE ABLE TO CONTAIN MY LAUGHTER! EHEHEHE…EHEHEHEHE!"

His body unstable, Double leaned back and threw himself into the abyss, where the fans below ended his laughter by tearing him to shreds. X winced as the Maverick underwent such a gruesome demise, but that was all the sympathy he'd offer that monster as his mind focused on other matters. Particularly, Double's final words.

"Could I…actually turn Maverick?" He looked down at his right hand, realizing that for all his boasting there was no way to confirm whether he was immune to being infected by the Sigma Virus. With that, it left the possibility open that Double was right, and that was a more bitter wound than the scar imprinted on his chest. X laid that hand on his chest, and though his mind was heavy he looked towards the door on the other side of the room and murmured "I can't think about this now. I need to find General or Iris before it's too late!"

His circuits fueled with valiance, X sprinted for the way out. But it didn't matter how fast he ran, for he was already too late to stop what was coming…

Next Time: What We Fight For