X's p.o.v.

We were in Zero's apartment that evening, still absorbing everything that had happened. Zero was on his knees, staring blankly at the ceiling. I waved my hand in front of him, but he didn't seem to notice. I sighed heavily and hit my head against the wall.

"... I'm sorry."

I slightly jumped at the sudden voice in the room. No one else was in there except for me and my red friend. "... A-Alia? Are communications are still on?"

"I'm sorry, X-ey, it was my fault you got expelled."

"D-don't worry about it," I said. "I can understand why you wanted that Maverick dead so badly, I was more than happy to do that favor for you." Plus, if it was her fault that you're like... this, then she really needed to fucking die!

Alia lightly giggled.

"That's so sweet! It's too bad you're gay, otherwise I'd be going over there to arrange our marriage right now."

I sweat dropped. "Aheh heh..." Zero and I can't pull off that damn lie forever. Hopefully by the time she gets older she'll move on from boys and we can confess that we're both straight. Maybe someday... "Hmm?"

Zero lifted his hands and finally showed a reaction.

"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCK!" He got up and tossed his pod across the room. "FUCK!"

"Da fuck, man!? Calm dow-"

"FUCK MY LIFE, FUCK MY JOB, AND FUCK EVERYTHING!"

Zero's p.o.v.

I was walking down the road, muttering curse words to myself. I'd lost my dream, I'd lost the bet, and the only plus to this was that I wouldn't have to fufill the second end of the bet with Vile. Right as I was realizing that, Vile came into my line of sight. I started to walk away when...

"Not so fast, Rapunzel," he said. "I heard some juicy news that you and Mega Man X have been expelled from the Academy."

"Grr...! Yeah, which means I've lost this fucking bet. But it also means that I won't be able to go with the second end of it!"

"Ha ha ha ha! You still think that this is about that stupid bet to get with that stupid girl?"

"... Well, I did..." I took a step back and gripped my Z-saber. "Up until you chuckled like that..." He charged to strike me with his gun. I took another step back and blocked it.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! You're even dumber than I gave you credit for, Rapunzel!"

I tossed him off of me.

"What the hell are you doing, Vile!? Have you gone Maverick!?"

"I've been a Maverick for quite some time," he sneered. "You're a complete ignoramus if you couldn't tell that the Mavericks that you chased on your two missions was I."

I fucking knew it! "B-but Commander Sigma said H.Q. caught the Maverick from our first mission!"

"He did? Well, whatever, it was obviously just a slip-up." He pulled his gun over his shoulder and pointed it at me. "But the main slip-up is you ever trusting me." He pulled the trigger.

The shot fired around the edge of my neck and side of my face. Blood streamed down my body as I fell on the road. I could feel my consciousness slip away as my upper body was dragged across the concrete, leaving a trail of blood.

Then... what was the point...? What was the point of the bet? Why did you need X to become a Maverick Hunter? What was the need... for this... stupid fucking bet...?

X's p.o.v.

"Alia, we should probably end communications. We can't abuse the circuits like this."

"B-before I hang up, I just wanted to... say thank you again." I felt myself blush slightly. "Okay, I'm shutting off comunications. Good night, X-ey..."

I smiled. Maybe Alia wasn't as creepy as I had made her out to be. As I was soaking in some happiness, a large fist punched a hole in the wall. Once they stepped in, I saw that it was a Ride Armor being driven by a familiar purple Reploid.

"Aren't you Vile? What the hell are you doing!?"

He started laughing.

"Finally! Finally, we can fight!" He fired at me.

I ducked underneath his shot and charged up my Buster. "Vile, what the hell are you doing!? Have you gone Maverick!?"

He started laughing a maniacal laughter.

"This all worked out perfectly! I've been a Maverick for so long, it's grown boring. I needed a rival to keep me on my feet, but no one was worthy of my rivalry. So I had that princess-haired moron make me one! Ha ha ha! Now I can finally fight you!"

He fired again. I shot with my Buster, and our shots cancelled each other out, creating a bit of smoke.

"... What did you just say...?" I muttered. I jumped through the smoke to punch his ride armor into the wall. "What did you just call Zero!? He's not a fucking moron!"

Vile chuckled and stood up.

"It looks like we're ready for a fight."

He charged at me again for a punch which I ducked under the ride armor to shoot him in the back. My shots didn't seem to damage his armor in the slightest, so I charged for another punch. Before I could hit him, he grabbed my wrist and squeezed it.

I screamed in pain as I felt my arm break. In an attempt to get out of his grasp, I shot him repeatedly with my Buster, only to have him grab that arm, too. He squeezed both until blood ran down my wrists, and my screaming continued.

"Come on," he growled, "come on! He made you a Hunter, didn't he!? I saw it with my own eyes!" His grip tightened. "You were meant to bring to me some excitement!"

Pissed, I flung my lower body forward to kick him again, causing him to loosen his grip so I could get the hell away. I charged up my Buster until it was at a full powered shot.

"Time for you to go to hell, Vile!" I shot it. To my horror, it did nothing. "Th... that was my strongest..."

Vile scoffed.

"Looks like once again Rapunzel has let me down." He dashed towards me and punched me into the wall, putting a hole in it. Before I could even attempt to sit up, he grabbed my neck and held me up to where he was looking me dead in the eye. "I guess that entire year at the Academy was pointless then. Oh well, it looks like I'll have to find a new rival to entertain me."

"... P-please... help me..." He shot an electric ball at me that paralyzed me. "Ze... ro..."

Zero's p.o.v.

My eyes shot open. I heard him. I heard X's voice. He was calling for help.

I looked around and saw that my hands and feet were tied to a wall while my Z-Saber was hanging on the wall across from me. Luckily, the ropes around my wrists weren't too tight, so I was able to pull away from them and untie the ropes around my ankles.

Once I was free, I grabbed my saber and ran out the door to see that I'd been in some type of shack. Luckily, it wasn't too far from the city. The pain around my face and neck ached, but I did my best to ignore it and push through.

People were concerned about the blood, but I ignored them and kept pushing towards my apartment. I know now that some people were walking up to me to try and help me, but at the time, I just saw them as getting in my way, so I pushed them aside.

I was loosing my sight, but before I could completely, I finally reached my apartment. It was almost completely destroyed, and several police cars plus a few ambulances were parked outside. I didn't pay any of them mind and ran into the rubble. I thought I heard them calling out for me to stop, but my ears were too full of my blood pumping rage for me to hear them.

Once I tripped over one of the remains of the building, a Reploid cop grabbed my shoulders and turned me to face him. I didn't hear anything he said, as my attention was on what was behind him. I shoved him off and ran towards the stretcher with the blue bomber on it.

"THAT'S MY ROOMMATE!" I cried as I started to shake him. "X! X! Get up! Get up, you moron! Wake up! X!"

I don't know how long I kept screaming. The next thing I remember after that was waking up in a hospital with a rather large stitch on my face. I turned my head over to look at the Reploid nurse stitching up my neck.

"Eh..."

"Don't talk."

"... Eh... x... X..."

"Nobody follows 'doctor's orders' anymore. Oh well, I'm done anyway." She stood up. "I'm glad you're alright. I'd advice you don't talk for a while, your throat needs time to recover. What happened to you, anyway?"

"... Wh-where's... X...?"

"That blue Reploid? He's under repairs right now. Don't worry, he'll be fine. Is he your little brother, or something?"

"... N-no," I said, "we're just friends." Even though I was telling the truth, I felt like I had told the biggest lie in existance.

"Who attacked you, anyway?"

"... Definitely the same Reploid who destroyed that old apartment. A Maverick... A purple bucket headed Maverick named Vile... He was a B Class student back at the Academy, what a waste to throw it all away for the life of a Maverick."

"And you're saying he also destroyed your apartment!?"

"Yes..."

"I'm going to give this information to Maverick Hunter H.Q. right now. You just... stay here."

She left. I didn't do as she said, I was too worried about X. I found him in the room across from me, luckily unguarded. I sat down next to him and gently slided my hand down his blue helmet.

"Is he your little brother or something?"

I grabbed his hand.

... Yeah. Little brother. I can work with that.

X's p.o.v.

I woke up, facing the ceiling. My head never turned, and my eyes never closed. I felt terrible. The words Vile had said to me kept coursing through my brain like a boomerang.

"Looks like once again, Rapunzel has let me down." "I guess that entire year at the Academy was pointless then."

... Was my friendship with Zero pointless? Would he be mad at me for this? I knew he definitely would leave me, as the whole point of our friendship was for him to use me. He would surely be mad that his efforts were all pointless.

Finally, I looked down and gasped. Zero's entire upper half was resting on my torso, and his head was facing me with his eyes completely closed, and his hand was gently gripping mine. A little scared, I started shaking him a little.

"Z-Zero-"

"Brother...," he moaned. "... X..."

I couldn't help but smile. His warmth calmed me, and I felt safe and relieved, as if the previous hours had never happened. After looking around to confirm no one was watching, I formed a grip around his hand, and put my other hand on his head. His warmth eventually took me completely, and I drifted off again.

When I woke up, it was cold. I opened my eyes to see why, my red friend wasn't there. I sighed, then I heard running footsteps. Zero burst in, doing his hardest to contain his excitement.

"They're letting us back in!"

"Whoa! Calm down, what's going on?"

"Commander Sigma's letting us back into Maverick Hunter Academy!" the blond laughed as he held my hands. "Apparently, Alia confessed it was her fault, so they let us back in!"

I sat up to look him in the eye.

"That's great!" I cheered. "But what about Alia?"

"Oh. I dunno about her, I think she got expelled in our place. That's probably what happened... We should thank her later."

I nodded in agreement as he let go of my hands and walked over to a table.

"Um... Zero," I said nervously, "I-I know we technically lost the bet, but... a-are we still-"

"Friends?" he interrupted. "Of course." He smiled and gave me a thumbs-up. "You're the best buddy I've ever had."

I felt myself blush and looked down slightly. Without looking up, I slowly moved my hand towards him to return the thumbs-up. While I was still trying, Zero grabbed my neck and started rubbing his knuckles against my head, laughing teasingly.

"Ha ha! Man, you're adorable!"

"S-stop that- Ha ha! That tickles! Ha ha ha!"

I didn't tell Zero about Vile's plan to make me his rival until later, I didn't want to ruin the greatest moment of my life. The Academy had heard that Zero's apartment had been destroyed, so they were nice enough to give us dorms. The only downside was that mine was far apart from Zero's, so I was worried I'd get a little lonely. But, I wouldn't get too lonely, as I was visited by another certain blond my first night...

"Hi," she said as she came through the window.

"AH! A-Alia!? D-don't scare me like that! I honestly shouldn't be surprised that you're still stalking me... But you shouldn't be in here, you've been expelled, haven't you?"

"Yes. You're welcome! It's a real shame you and Zero aren't sharing a dorm, I thought I'd get the chance to see you two fuck again!"

"Alia," I said, "do you think you'll ever get back into the Academy?"

"I'll get back in some day," she said. "I'll probably become an official Hunter a few years after you do. Think you can wait for me, honey?"

"You do know you'll have to be serious, right?"

"Yes yes, I know, but what do the men need me for, anyway?"

"... You're looking for a groom, right?"

"Huh?"

"If you can be a serious Maverick Hunter who thinks more about her job than boys, then..." I took her hand. What am I doing? "I'll be your husband when this war is finally over." I'm an idiot!

She looked into my eyes.

"I thought you were gay."

"I-I'm bisexual."

"Just went from a 9 to a 10." She grabbed my arm. "It's a deal, X-ey!" she cried. "I'll be the greatest Navigator in the world so this war will end, so I'll get the be the greatest wife in the world sooner!" She kissed my cheak. "I won't flirt with anybody until this war is over! I'll see you when I become a hunter, X-ey."

"Um, j-just call me X."

"Whatever you say, honey." She did a blow kiss and headed towards the window. "I'll be seeing you in a few years!" And with that, she was gone.

Once she was gone, a wide smile formed on my face. I plopped on my back onto the pod. As the lid was closing, I shouted out in pure and utter joy,

"This is fantastic! I've got a best friend, a future wife, a way that I can help people, this is absolutely fantastic! I have a purpose in life now!" The lid closed over me. "Look at me, Dr. Cain! Do you recognize me? Ha ha ha ha!" It completely closed, and I dosed off.

Yes, things were looking absolutely fantastic for me. Zero and I graduated from the Academy just a year after that, luckily the only problems we'd gotten were from Chill Penguin, but he didn't bother me as much anymore. Zero even managed to get in a relationship with Iris.

Yup, things in our lives were looking pretty good. But, the sun is most beautiful when it starts to set. It wasn't too long after we became official Hunters... ... that I lost everything.

So... In the next few chapters, I'll be retelling the OVA special 'Day of Sigma,' and the game 'Mega Man X.' {SPOILERS} But, is there really anybody reading this who has ever played these games? It'll be like another reboot where I'm making it my own while pointing out the flaws. Hope you enjoy :D