Well, since there's been a fight for almost every chapter up until now, I'm gonna take a break from all the action. Don't worry, Forte fans, he'll be back after a couple of chapters, but enjoy this chapter for now:

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Outside Guardian HQ

"Zero! You're back." Ciel gasps as she sees the crimson reploid's head. His blond hair is stained with blood and heavy wounds are also found on other parts of his body. Half of the crimson reploid's armor is cracked, revealing his black jumpsuit.

"I'm back." Zero wobbles for a bit and then collapses onto the ground as he falls unconscious. Everyone surrounds the injured reploid as Prairie takes charge.

"Operators, teleport Zero to the medic wing immediately!" Everyone backs away from Zero as he disappears in a white light. "Well, there're no more mechaniloids left, we might as well return with him."

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Medic Wing

Zero wakes up and looks to see that he has bandages all over his body. "Glad to see you're feeling better, Zero." Zero looks up to see the faces of X, Ciel, and Prairie.

"How long have I been asleep?"

"About six hours." Ciel looks at Zero as he rubs his head in pain. "What exactly happened to you and where's Forte?"

Zero sighs as he contemplates a way to break the news to the others. "Forte's…" Zero grips his blankets as he tries to force the words out of his mouth. "I killed Forte!" Zero grabs his head with both his hands as he tries to suppress the image of Forte's death from his mind.

For a few minutes, there is nothing but silence in the room until Prairie speaks up. "What do you mean?" Her voice is shaken and quiet, but the three others manage to hear it with no problem.

"During my fight with Yuriskah… Omega took over Forte's body." Zero pauses for a moment as he tries to put into words what happened. "Omega killed Yuriskah, and then I had to finish him off. I was nothing but a coward, too scared to think of any other way around it and trying to save myself…"

"Maybe it will be easier for you if you started at the beginning, Zero." Ciel looks at the crimson reploid. "I'm not exactly sure what happened, but I know that it can't be your entire fault.

Zero nods and takes a deep breath as he starts telling them everything starting from when he was left alone to fight with Yuriskah.

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"…after that, he just disappeared the same way Yuriskah did. There wasn't anything I could do to stop it." Zero finishes and the others are silent for a moment as they take in the information that Zero just told them.

"It's alright, Zero. If you had done anything else, Omega would have killed you and everyone else here. You did what you had to do, and we're not going to blame you for it."

"I'll go and tell the others." Prairie mutters silently as she prepares to leave.

"Wait, I found this before I came back." Zero reaches into his pocket and pulls out a red piece of metal. "This is what remains of Omega's power. This was probably how he managed to control Vent, Aile, and Forte."

"I'll go and examine it." Zero hands Ciel Model O and she heads to the door. "Are you going to be alright, Zero? Do you need anything?" Zero nods to answer the first question and shakes his head for the second one. Ciel presses a button on the door and leaves, later followed by Prairie and then the door closes behind the Guardian Commander.

"This is almost impossible to believe. Forte managed to stay alive for three hundred years, but now he's just gone. This feels too strange." X sits beside Zero and then thinks. "You know, back when I was a part of Rockman, Forte used to say this: "As long as you're still alive, I refuse to die!" Up until now, I honestly believed he could make it possible… but now…"

"X… I want you to answer a question for me honestly."

"What is it?"

"Did I do this before?" X gets caught off guard by Zero's question and he pauses for a second. What's he getting at?

"What do you mean?"

"When Forte died in my hands, I saw an image. There was a girl… her appearances were a bit fuzzy in my memory, but I was holding her in my hands as she died. I can remember a few things from my past, like Sigma, but the details are a bit hazy."

"Oh…" X realizes exactly what Zero's talking about. "Do you remember the incident with Repliforce?"

"Only that Sigma tried to use Repliforce to destroy earth and we stopped him. I don't know how we did it or any other details." Zero sighs. "Some details of my past are so clear to me while others I just can't seem to place…"

"Well, if you really want to know, I'll tell you the whole story." X sighs as he tries to think of where to start. "You better be prepared, it's going to take a while." Zero nods and X begins recalling everything he could remember.

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Hallway

"…so he's really gone?" Aile and Vent look at their commander as she nods slowly. Poor Praire, she must be really shaken up. She was probably the closest to Forte out of all of us.

Prairie looks down to the ground and Aile puts her hands on her commander's shoulders. "If there's anything that we can do to help you, just tell us. We owe you for everything we have right now."

Prairie pushes Aile's hands away and looks at the brown haired Guardian. Aile looks into Prairie's eyes and backs away as she sees anger aimed towards her. "You helped enough already by bringing Model O to Ragnarok!"

Both Vent and Aile freeze at their commander's sudden accusation, but realization starts dawning on them as they conceive that what Prairie said is partly true. If I hadn't brought dropped Model O back then Forte wouldn't have been taken over. It's all my fault…

Vent tries to diffuse the tension in the air as he begins to talk. "We're really sorry about what happened… it should've been us that Omega controlled instead of Forte… you have every right to blame us…"

Prairie's eyes soften for a moment as she pulls a tissue from her pocket to wipe a drop of tear. "No, I'm sorry for snapping at the two of you just now. All of us could've done something to have stopped this, but we didn't. I shouldn't blame you, with all the stress around lately, I don't know what came over me."

"It's alright. Vent and I almost lashed out at every Guardian when they tried to make conversation with us after the death of boss."

"Well, I'll just go back to my room now…" Prairie begins to walk past Vent and Aile heading toward the room that she and Ciel share.

"Is there anything you need us to do for you?" Vent looks worriedly at the person who managed to help them get over the death of their boss. She supported us during tough times, the least we can do is support her right now in return.

"No, I just need some time alone." Vent and Aile watch the Guardian Commander slowly move away. When she disappears from their line of sight, they still listen until her footsteps are gone too.

"The sudden display of emotions around here is sickening." Vent and Aile quickly whip around to find Pandora and Prometheus standing in the hallway. Vent's hands tighten into fists as he looks at Prometheus.

"Don't you care at all if anyone dies? Oh wait, of course you don't. In fact, I bet you're the cause of things like these all the time!" Vent shouts at Prometheus and prepares to lunge at him.

"You sound surprised that this happened. Do you think this is some kind of story or game where everyone gets to live happily ever after? I thought that kind of idiotic way of thinking disappeared when your boss died, but I guess I was wrong."

"You're the reason our boss died!" Vent almost jumps at the skull helmeted reploid, but he feels Aile's hand on his shoulders.

"This isn't the time and place for this." Her words are strained, and Vent can tell how much Prometheus's words affect her by her grip on his shoulder.

"That's enough, let's go." Prometheus nods and the two of them begin to turn away. Blood begins to come out of Vent's fist as his fingernails dig into his flesh.

"I don't like the two of them one bit." Aile taps Vent's fist and he slowly unclenches his fist, watching three spots that his nails punctured and the blood drips down to the floor.

"You shouldn't let Prometheus get to you like that." Aile bites the edge of her sleeve and tears out a large piece of fabric. She holds onto Vent's hand and wraps the blue cloth around Vent's hand to stop the blood from pouring out. "That should do for now, I'll just get changed later."

"I really think we should do something about those two." Vent sighs. "They're up to no good. I say that we keep an eye on them in case they do anything suspicious."

"I'll agree to that on one condition." Aile watches as Vent prepares to follow the two reploids.

"What?"

"You'll let me handle Prometheus. I don't want the two of you to make a scene." Vent nods in agreement and he takes out Model P and X.

"Rock-on!" The two of them transform and then they dash across the hallway to catch up to Prometheus and Pandora.

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Harpuia's Room

"Come in." The door opens and the two other former Guardians of X walk inside. "Did Ciel tell you two the news as well?"

"Not in person, but yeah." Fefnir and Leviathan plop themselves onto Harpuia's bed to make themselves comfortable while Harpuia sits in his chair. "Well, Harpy, what do you think of all of this?"

"This just seems like one huge mess. They just send one attack after the other and all we can do is hold them off. Each time, we lose more and more people."

"Well, it seems that whenever Weil's around, there's going to be a lot of death." Fefnir thinks for a second. "Reploids and humans almost went instinct during the Elf Wars and he'll probably try to pull something similar this time."

"Extinct."

"What?" Fefnir looks at Harpuia as if he's crazy.

"The right word to say is extinct, not instinct." Harpuia points out Fefnir's mistake as he tries to think of what he just said earlier.

"Oh… well, whatever."

"Shademan and the others are a problem as well." Leviathan starts to stand up and stretch for a bit. "It's a good thing we left Neo Arcadia when we did, I don't want to even begin imagining what would have happened otherwise."

"Well, I'm going outside to do a bit of exercise. I hate being cooped up in one place too long." Fefnir leaves Harpuia and Leviathan alone in the room.

"What are your thoughts on the death of Forte, Harpy?" Leviathan lies down comfortably on Harpuia's bed as she stares at the emerald reploid.

"Well, we didn't really talk much one hundred years ago, and the same went for after he became a kid. Despite all of that, he was brave and a great asset to our cause. I'm sure we'll all miss him."

"Prairie must be taking it quite hard. She was practically a mother to him when we first brought him to Guardian HQ." Leviathan tosses her hair back a bit as it flows into her line of vision.

"There's nothing that we can do for her." Leviathan nods in agreement as she turns a bit on Harpuia's bed.

"Well, what now?"

"All we can do right now is to wait. We have no means to bring Forte back to life and Shademan and Model W are still on the loose." Harpuia yawns, closing his eyes.

"You can't be too comfortable in that chair of yours. You can just sleep in your own bed, you know?" Leviathan waits for a reply, but starts hearing the soft snores of Harpuia. Well, he has been working hard, I better make sure he's comfortable.

Leviathan goes up and slowly pushes Harpuia's chair close to the bed. Alright, now how do I get him on it without waking him up? Leviathan gently removes Harpuia's helmet and presses a few buttons on the back his chair so that it slants towards the bed.

Leviathan gently grabs Harpuia's shoulders and tosses him to his bed. She pulls Harpuia so that his head is on the pillow and grabs the blanket from the closet, putting it over the green reploid and tucking him in.

Hmm… should I get on the bed with him and surprise him when he wakes up? Leviathan watches Harpuia sleeping peacefully and decides against it, not wanting to shock the emerald reploid when he wakes up, ruining the serene scene.

Leviathan presses a few buttons on the back of Harpuia's chair and it returns to its normal state. Leviathan gets on it and faces Harpuia as she watches the sleeping reploid, hypnotized by the scene.

Leviathan notices an unusually long strand of hair that's above Harpuia's mouth and watches it rise and lower as the sleeping reploid breathes. Pretty soon, Leviathan falls asleep as well watching the scene.

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Hallway

"The two chosen ones are following us, what should we do now?" Prometheus speaks in a low voice and continues walking.

"You know that plan I was telling you about?"

"What about it?"

"We can just skip straight to phase two if they keep on tailing us." The two of them continue walking.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing? Besides, even if this does work, I'm not sure how it would help us in any way whatsoever."

"It'll help us, trust me. Are you ready? Come back in about twenty minutes, or I can give you a signal." Prometheus nods and the two of them split paths. Aile follows Prometheus while Vent follows Pandora.

Pandora smiles as everything begins to fall into place. Perfect, he's the one following me just as predicted. This will be easier than I thought.

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Pandora and Prometheus's Room

Pandora opens the door and goes in while Vent hides for a moment, thinking about his options. If I go in she might notice me, but if she's doing anything suspicious, she's bound to be doing it in her room.

Vent notices that the door's still open and quickly comes to a decision. If she closes the door, I'll have more trouble getting in. Vent begins to blend in with the background as he activates his stealth mode.

He enters the door and hides next to the wall to observe Pandora as she sits on her bed. She puts her hands behind her wide white helmet and slowly lifts it off, revealing her jade hair.

Her jade hair reaches just below her shoulders and she flings it back as strands of hair fall downward after lifting her helmet, covering her amber eyes. Vent watches her carefully, trying to check for any hidden devices but finds none.

This is the first time I've seen Pandora with her helmet off. Actually, come to think of it, she has a pretty nice fig… Vent refuses to finish the thought as he shakes his head. What the heck am I thinking? I can't betray Aile like that, still it's just a thought…

Pandora takes off the white armor covering her back, revealing her black jumpsuit and Vent moves back in surprise, bumping the wall. He sees rips in the jumpsuit, revealing scars. The scars all run deep and have dried blood.

Pandora immediately puts her armor back on and turns toward Vent's direction and calling out. "I know you're there, chosen one, stop hiding." Vent gulps and turns off his cloaking system, revealing himself to the white armored reploid.

"Uhh… I was just here to…"

"You don't need to say anything. I know that you and your friend don't trust us, and I can't blame you." Pandora's voice is soft as she speaks. Vent puts his pinky in his ears to clean it to make sure his hearing is right. Is this the same cold Pandora that we ran into in the hallway just a few minutes ago?

"You don't blame us?" Vent tries to make sense of this new information that Pandora's telling him. What does she mean by that? I mean it's pretty obvious me and Prometheus don't get along, but she seems so open and honest right now.

Pandora pats the spot next to her on the bed, inviting Vent. "You know, I never told anyone else about this, but since you saw the scars, you might as well know."

"Know what?"

"My…" Pandora pauses for a moment, as though going through a painful memory. "…family was captured by some Irregulars a long time ago. Although I'm a reploid, there were plenty of others I consider just that."

"I know what that feels like…" Vent looks down at his feet, remembering how he and Aile were separated from their parents.

"The Irregulars turned out to be all under Model W's control. He tortured my family and another family in order to find someone with power. Everyone died except for me and Prometheus…" Pandora's voice drops and Vent waits patiently for her to continue.

"Model W's Irregulars started to "test" us, as he put it. This included electrocution, enduring bullets and slashes and many other painful experiences that made my pain sensors reach limits that I never thought were possible…"

"After a while, Model W seemed to be satisfied with us and he granted us powers, the ones we have today. Prometheus and I got to know each other, and we tried to escape from Model W before, but it turned out we're too closely connected to him and he could just take away our abilities at will…"

"That must have been painful…" Vent realizes there's much more to Pandora and Prometheus than he first thought. They've been doing all of this against their will the whole time?

"Every time we were caught escaping, he punished us. That's how I got all those scars. One time, we almost managed to escape, we headed to a city, but they rejected us because they were afraid of our power. Model W found us again and punished us with methods more painful than ever. In the end, Prometheus and I decided it just wasn't worth it anymore…"

She and Prometheus completely lost their freedom because of Model W. Maybe the two of them aren't so bad after all.

"We started to serve Model W and the punishments became less and less frequent. Everything seemed to work out until Phantom showed up. Model W didn't need us anymore, so he got Phantom to dispose of us."

"Wait, why didn't he just take away your powers like you mentioned earlier?" Vent tries to think of an answer, but finds no logical explanation.

"After you and Aile defeated Serpent, that took away a large chunk of his power, mainly his power over me and Prometheus. That's why we became a threat and he decided to get rid of us." Vent looks on the bed sheets and notices moisture, he looks up at Pandora to see tears falling out of her eyes.

"That's why it's hard for us to trust people, but we're trying to make an effort. We've experienced things that you can only begin to imagine, so please forgive us for causing any trouble." Pandora speaks between sobs and then Vent feels an arm around his neck and sees Pandora's pulled him into an embrace.

She's suffered so much and had no way to let all her emotions out. Vent returns the hug by putting his arms around her waist. "It's alright. I never realized things were so hard for you… I should've made an effort to get to know you and Prometheus better."

Vent notices a green cape in the edge of his vision, but quickly dismisses the thought. He hears a feminine gasp and wonders if he's being too forward wrapping his arms around Pandora's waist.

Pandora breaks the embrace after a few moments, wiping her eyes dry. "Well, you better go back now." Vent nods as he leaves the room.

After a few minutes, Prometheus enters. Pandora looks up, "Did you lead the girl here just in time to see the crucial moment?"

"I have to say, I've never seen someone look so hurt. I guess it's worth it after all, although you didn't have to exaggerate the story that much."

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Pandora's so evil, isn't she? Trying to put doubt into Vent's head while slowly pulling the couple apart. Anyways, a new obstacle is going to arise in Zero's lovelife soon thanks to the suggestion by omni.

Pandora exaggerated her story a whole lot to get Vent to feel sorry for her, and if you guys want the real version, I can put in a little part where Pandora and Prometheus talk about if you want. All of this was made up by me, so don't expect to see any of this in official Capcom books.

Remember to Read and Review :).