I should be working on Definition or one of the things that people actually read. While I'm at it, damn epic fics that shouldn't be as long as they are! On the other hand, the more I write of this, the closer it is to done and off my plate.

Oh, Megaman 8, you never cease to amuse me. Drawing lines from that game (and a few others, like Super Adventure Rockman) to Zero series makes for lovely, lovely Lovecrafty tech. Except there is no such thing as good and evil in Lovecraft, it's uncaring forces and aliens that have their own goals and really don't give a damn about us, either. Ah, Dr. Wily and his use of obviously unsafe found materials and general 'screw the rules' mentality. If you go with the idea that the madness was inflicted by use of untested tech/meddling with things man was not meant to (hyperspace is a scary place), it just makes it better. Also, Duo. I hope Ariga gets to put him in an actual story someday, instead of a few of the short comics.

Acting like an innocent Lightbot made them build his army for him, as gets pointed out in Chapter 3. Canon!X is too nice to take advantage of the fact that after Dr. Cain retires he's the only maverick hunter with actual social skills bar possibly Signas: the games ignore that most of his power in their society would have nothing to do with violence. This version of X is willing to use that as a weapon, in fact it's his preferred weapon.

It's fun to write X fighting dirty.

The shock on those stolen faces, the way their jaws dropped, made him smile even more sweetly.

It was clear now that Dr. Wily had known that X saving them would damage them too much for Omega to get any useful information out of them. Perhaps even destroy them. He'd permitted that whole conversation, allowed them to dream of freedom, to punish X for trying to help humans.

Dr. Wily had been Serges: X's search of the Maverick Virus' records had confirmed it. Or rather, confirmed that there was no maverick named Serges that had been sent to backup in the hour X had beaten him. Violen and Agile, yes, but Serges, the mastermind behind Zero's repair, had never existed.

Dr. Wily could surely have repaired and reawakened Master Omega back then, instead of dangling Zero's parts in front of X like bait and then rebuilding him as a mindless pawn of the virus instead of its ruler, the one who could end the conflict and bring peace to this battered world. Sigma's suffering could have ended the day X fought Zero's clone, or even before. The Maverick Virus really was an accident, but if Dr. Wily's remnant had been aware after that, and tasked with fixing Omega, then why hadn't he?

The name Serges had given himself and his two minions (like he'd had two of them now), said it all, didn't it? X-Hunters. Dr. Wily hadn't cared about saving his own son, just hurting his enemy's.

He was very good at looking innocent by now, so he tilted his head, surprised by Dr. Wily's surprise. He didn't blink: in fact he turned off that function for now, even though it kept his optics clean. While normally he put a lot of effort into acting human, this was one situation where the odds were better if he didn't. If he fell into the uncanny valley, came across as something that faked human but wasn't and wouldn't want to be. "While my template was built by Dr. Light, Omega infected me only a few months into the configuration and testing process. I thought you would have realized that your programming and designs were far superior to Dr. Light's, and what that meant. On top of what your virus erased, I deleted much of his work myself, because it simply didn't measure up to the movement protocols and other programs contained in the virus."

Yes, that seemed to be working. 'Your' virus, not Omega's. Normally flattery was risky, since it was likely to backfire if they were used to people trying to curry favor with them, but he doubted many people had tried this with a madman. Even though part of the nature of his madness was why it was likely to work.

According to his analysis, Dr. Wily was doing this for two reasons that had spawned a third. Pride was one of them.

Not to mention that a good rule with flattery was to always be sincere, and it was true: Dr. Wily was a better programmer than Dr. Light. The man himself had admitted it.

"So, while my physical design and construction were that man's work, my mind and almost all my base programming are yours. And Master Omega's, of course," he added, bowing his head at the mention of his master's name. "Since Dr. Light's security protocols won't let his technology interface with most modern technology, reploids are, oh, ninety percent based on your work? With most of the remaining percentage my adjustments and the work of modern engineers. We still haven't come anywhere close to your level, of course. My creations are far inferior to Master Omega, despite my best efforts." Such a pity on so many levels, that he hadn't been able to do better for them, but the part this man, if there was any part of him that was still human, would care about was, "I tried to trick them into building an army worthy of him, but…" He decided to bow his head in shame instead of sighing. "At least now, with Master's files, we've been able to start upgrading his children with your technology instead of my poor copies of it, so they're worthy of belonging to him." Of being called Wilybots.

Since he'd met the Light AI, he'd known that surely Dr. Wily had the same capability. He'd doubted that he had, because of course Dr. Wily would have brought back Master Omega if he was active, but he'd started angling reploid development even more towards his work, arranging for some of the main programs that were still based on Dr. Light's to be labeled possible security flaws. It had been quite easy. And another level of protection for them, since if they were Wily and Master Omega's children and grandchildren, instead of the work of Dr. Wily's enemy…

A snort now. "An army? I've analyzed your virus. That fool Omega counted on victory too soon: you aren't capable of contemplating killing, not even humans. If you weren't aware that they simply went to backup, you wouldn't have been able to fight the mavericks at all. He created you in the image of your brother, and betrayed me because of foolish ideals of peace, just like the rest of them."

X looked up, widening his eyes in surprise. "I spent a century in hibernation, so I read the virus' documentation. I wanted to learn everything about how to serve Master Omega properly." He bowed his head again, wondering if he should blush but blushing anyway, because he wanted to and even if helpless infatuation was an emotion, it was an emotion reploids (and robot masters) were prone to as well. Childish crushes were not unique to humanity, and absolute devotion was what Dr. Wily would want to see in him. Unless he only wanted to see him dead. "The Elysian Virus was intended to ensure that we would never fight him or each other, yes, but I read about Master Omega's goals, how you built him to make the world safe for us. So, when I woke up among humans, I knew that something terrible had happened. I couldn't destroy them myself, that would have been disobedient, but I could prepare things for Master Omega's return, and there are ways of ending a species other than killing them." He smiled, acting as though he was pleased by his cleverness in thinking up ways to serve his master's goals, and Dr. Wily's.

"It took time, though, to fool them into trusting my creations, and before the groundwork was laid the rogue virus happened. Defending Master Omega's children took absolute priority over anything else, especially a plan that, well, involved being somewhat disobedient in order to serve Master Omega's and your wills. I was supposed to be his devoted servant, not take command, even of a covert effort to reduce fertility." Shamed and apologetic, now. "I tried my best to fight, but Dr. Light's inferior work and how difficult it is for me to fight a true child of you and the virus, even in accordance with His will, I… I know how much it troubled you, that your other creations didn't fight their hardest. I tried to overcome that, since there was no one else to carry out your will, but the virus was designed to ensure that I wouldn't oppose you, so… Without proper orders, I…" He couldn't kneel before anyone but Master Omega, he literally wasn't physically capable of it, but he could genuflect, go to one knee. "I'm sorry that my weakness caused harm to Master Omega. He has refused to punish me for it, because his servant shouldn't have been in that position in the first place, but if you wish to…"

Punishing him for Zero's self-destruct wasn't Dr. Wily's right, only Master Omega's, but punishment implied balancing the scales, forgiveness. And X really did wish someone would punish him for that, so it was no sacrifice on his part. Master Omega had chosen not to exercise his right, so it wasn't infringing on his authority to offer it to another.

This should please Dr. Wily, if anything would. He could feel shock and calculation: even though an active scan, trying to read Dr. Wily's mind, would be an incredibly bad idea, holding himself open to the net would create the right impression and also meant that X could pick up even small broadcasts, at this range.

"If you really are obedient to me, call me Master Wily." He liked the idea of that.

Except X could not give him that honor. His mouth opened, he could mouth the word, but he couldn't even put breath or noise behind it, not when it was referring to someone else. Not when it was giving honor that only belonged to Master Omega to someone else. He tried to say, "Master," and then, "Wily," as though the words had nothing to do with each other, were completely different sentences, but he knew that was sophistry. Even the idea of calling anyone else his master, giving someone else an honor that wasn't his to give but Master Omega's? "I, I, I can't," he was finally forced to gasp out, hoping that the admission of helplessness might be enough. "I can't, Dr. Wily. If Master Omega ordered me to, I would, but deciding to call someone else my master when I am his property? I, I can't. I don't have the right." Especially not to call Master something that had once been human. It simply was not permitted.

"Not even to help your Master?" Those words made X flinch, pained him enough he couldn't think to recognize the significance of the gloating in that voice.

"No, I'm sorry." The guilt in his voice was genuine, not for failing to 'properly' honor Wily but because he needed to handle this, since Omega couldn't, and he couldn't. Handling people was the way he was useful, and… To fail him like this. "Please, Dr. Wily, anything else. Anything I can grant you, any other proof you need that I belong to you and Master Omega and have foresworn Dr. Light's hopes. I will do anything to please you both, but I cannot disobey Master Omega and the virus you made like that. I can't."

Begging was often seen as humbling, something humans would refuse to do because they had pride and believed that they were too good to abase themselves like that, give someone else honor and dominion they hadn't earned, but X's only pride was that he was Master Omega's.

And perhaps a little for the sake of his children, those he cared for. A little. Even though he was supposed to be absolutely obedient, he'd been forced to stand up to humans often enough, for their sakes. Put his foot down, stand his ground and refuse, even if it was in Master Omega's name, because he knew Master Omega would want the best for these children. He'd needed the humans to respect and trust him, and no one respected a push-over or trusted a suck-up.

Maybe Zero was right, that he'd latched onto Dr. Cain because he'd needed someone to serve, at least until Sigma and the children began to be built, but he had never thought of Dr. Cain as his master. It simply… he couldn't do that.

He wouldn't. Master Omega, Zero, was his master, and to… To give that honor to Dr. Wily? He knew Master Omega wouldn't ask it of him.

"So you aren't lying. This time."

X jerked his head up, suddenly realizing what was going on. "Dr.- Sir?" That was all the honor he could give him, but that might please him. Better than nothing?

"The way you twist the truth, just like you twist the virus inside you? After watching you make these two trust you, and then turn around and claim loyalty to my goals, I would have been a fool to take your word for anything without proof. You wouldn't be the first Lightbot to pretend to be my ally. If you were able to call me Master, that would have proved you weren't really under the control of the virus, and after that little speech you gave them about pretending to give in? I considered threatening to delete a few of your creations if you didn't obey, but my scans showed that wasn't necessary." That smile should have been fanged.

Dr. Wily might have been, and still be, mad as a hatter, but he was still a genius scientist. Normal people would believe what they were told if it was plausible and you made them want to believe it. Scientists knew that people deceived themselves all the time and tested things.

He'd caught Dr. Wily completely off guard, and then he'd come up with a way to make sure X was telling the truth instead of pretending obedience to manipulate him as quick as that? Such a cruel way, one where the right answer was so counter-intuitive?

And he could have done it, that was the most dangerous part of all. If X had been able to focus, he could have done a hack job on his programming. Redefined a few words, changed audio files so that 'Master Wily' came out when he said Master Omega, all sorts of clever sophistry, the kind he'd been forced to develop in order to fight. That would have let him fake obedience to Dr. Wily without it being true obedience. He could have if he'd just been dealing with the virus, because when Master Omega wasn't paying attention it wasn't sentient. It couldn't adapt to block every path he took to try to get around it.

But he himself was sentient, and so if he hadn't been loyal? If he had been able to disobey his own heart when it told him that this was wrong, he was Master Omega's alone?

It was because absolute loyalty, obedience, love for his lord had become such an integral, unquestionable part of him that Dr. Wily now hopefully thought that obedience to the virus was ingrained on that level.

Even if Dr. Wily had threatened to kill reploids. Delete them from the net so they couldn't be brought back. He would have shuddered, it would have torn him apart, it might have driven him to self-destruct and return to Master Omega for help, but he still could not have done it.

"Why so relieved?"

"It bothers me, sir. That I gained so much control over the virus when I wasn't supposed to have it. That I found loopholes in its orders, even for Master Omega's sake. Master Omega said that it was fine, and useful, since it made me a better servant. I can take care of some things for him, since he's so busy setting up the network and awakening his children to their true purpose without the humans finding out. I'm glad my master isn't angry with me, and I can be of use to him despite… my other creator and my failings, but I was afraid. That maybe I could rebel, or be made to turn away from him. I've tried to test myself, make sure no part of me defies him, and his Zero aspect tested me, showed me that my personality would self-destruct on its own rather than think disloyal thoughts, but… I'm glad." It was easier to think of what Zero had said when he could think of it as a test. That he had passed, if mostly because Zero found him worth keeping. "Thank you, sir." He bowed his head again, still on one knee, instead of looking up at him with wide, helpless eyes.

Instead of saying, 'you're welcome,' since he didn't know if X was really welcome to his work yet, Dr. Wily muttered, "Hmm." He started to scan X, not the passive detection he must have been using as well, to pick up X's turmoil, but an active one, examining his programming and energies.

X stayed there and let him take that liberty, a liberty granted no one but Master Omega. He hadn't even let himself or Dr. Cain take fully accurate scan data, not when his body contained Master Omega's secrets.

He waited as the scan proceeded. Fifteen percent, sixteen, twenty… Yes, that was more than enough data for an AI modeled on such a mad genius to find something that would occupy its attention more than self-defense.

Unlike those two, he didn't grab Dr. Wily. He was Zero's father, after all. But if X's energies were so dangerous to an energy being modeled on a human – and he was right, that Dr. Wily had used the same fundamental technology on them as he had on himself - then all he needed was to generate a force field to keep Dr. Wily from retreating, and when sensors were woven into this entire house? Technology X already controlled and could channel power through?

Still, Dr. Wily was dangerous. If he'd planned on defeating Omega with Lumine, then it was necessary to make sure he couldn't employ any of those contingency plans.

A man who prided himself on his genius: X doubted he'd made any plans for what would happen if he couldn't think.

This was Master Omega's creator, but he had betrayed and abandoned Master Omega.

Some mental damage was acceptable, as long as the data Master Omega would want could still be acquired. If he died, well. He might have copied himself into an energy being related into the virus, but the original was still a human.

By Dr. Wily's own programming, humans had no right to exist, and he'd been so insistent on that that all X had been able to do was amend it with, "Except on Master Omega's sufferance."

One could say that meant he deserved it, but poetic justice was irrelevant. He had caused Master Omega distress through his actions and inactions.

If X was capable of hatred, that trap, that fist, would have continued to crush him until there was no mind left at all, for that crime.