Maverick Hunter HQ's dock went from being under-filled, to overflowing with ships and Reploids in a matter of minutes. Restraints weren't used, but several units of Hunters were present to escort the surrendered Repliforce airmen to the newly fabricated stockades. It was tense, awkward, but peaceful. X got a few glances, especially for his arms that were clearly upgraded, but it was such a busy rush, no one really wasted the time to question or cheer the victory.

Airstrike himself, however, got a few quick cheers from crews, and he smiled, but tried to get them to quiet down. He verified if any crews needed an extra hand, but they unilaterally told him to take his rest after what he'd done for the fleet.

This allowed him to do what he really wanted to do.

Storm Owl had only been in his new holding cell for minutes when Airstrike appeared in front of him. The crimson Repliforce admiral squinted a bit at the new face, but appraised Airstrike carefully rather than dismissively. "...The leader of the Hunter ships?"

Airstrike tipped his head. "Honored by the guess. I'm Airstrike. You lead your people well."

Storm Owl noted the use of present tense to himself. He eyed the inhibitor plant on his turbine buster for a moment, then looked back to Airstrike. "...You lead like Storm Eagle."

Airstrike shrugged faintly. "I've been told that."

"You didn't learn from him, though."

Airstrike raised an eyebrow.

"The way you moved your capital ship during the telefield breach. You used a double-twist barrell roll. Normally suicidal... unless done exactly in proper timing with the enemy cannons. Storm Eagle refused to teach it to students, and never met anyone else he considered experienced enough to hand it down to before his... demise."

Airstrike bowed his head, but had to smile faintly. He'd taught it to ONE person.

"Other than me, that is."

Airstrike looked back up. "Most training and combat is public record, of course."

"No one learns like that. Not that level of detail. Who are you, Airstrike?"

Airstrike chuckled faintly. "...I can only give you one answer to that question, Owl... but I'll say that you're no fool. I just wanted to make sure that my... rival was being treated with proper respect despite the situation."

Storm Owl showed confused shock, though he controlled it. "...Well enough, I suppose," was all he muttered.

Airstrike nodded once more, and started to step away. "See you soon, old friend."

It left Storm Owl pensive. The situation was far more complex on the Hunter side than he'd thought...

X wasted no time returning to the command center. Even Signas was somewhat surprised, Zero, Alia, Dex, and Iris all focusing on him as he marched to the holo-table, seemingly still ready for battle.

"What's the status at the starport itself?"

Alia jerked faintly, switching gears in her mind. "U-uh, quiet for the moment, sir. Perimeter teams confirm no movement in or out since their fleet engaged ours."

"Do we have confirmation of Colonel or General's location?" X persisted.

Iris spoke up quickly. "My brother would be the rear-guard for them. If they intend to fully leave Earth, he'll be the last one off the ground."

Zero glanced to her more sympathetically, X simply focused on her with the same gravity as before.

"Would you bet lives on that certainty, Iris?"

Iris stiffened a bit, and Zero eyed X darkly, but then Iris straightened, strengthening herself. "I know my brother, sir. The General I can't speak to."

X simply nodded, and looked back to the others. "We have to stop this as soon as possible. Do we have any data confirming General's whereabouts?"

Dex raised a hand, and everyone focused on him.

"Sorry, but I have an educated guess that he's already on the Final Weapon station."

X pinched the bridge of his nose. "Humans aren't subtle about their naming conventions, are they?"

It caused an awkward pause as no one could really disagree.

"Go on?" X prompted after that brief pause.

"There was one troop transport that went up with fighter escort. No others received that protection. Even if it was a dummy to distract enemies, it implies that they were moving a VIP up around that time. If it wasn't Colonel, I'm not sure who else it could be other than the General."

Zero folded his arms. "Still just a guess, though I get your point."

Dex only nodded.

X rubbed fingers along his forehead, his eyes closed, clearly thinking through his frustration with the situation. "...I did play too defensively. We should have more intel, and that's on me."

Signas raised an eyebrow, Alia showing concern at X's self-deprecation.

"Considering how few casualties there have been, and the extent to which we've dismantled Repliforce's territory, I think you're being overly harsh, sir," Signas stated openly.

X cycled his respirator softly. "I appreciate the sentiment, but now our people will be going into unacceptably severe risks without solid intel." He glanced to Zero. "Any advice?"

The entire command center went quiet at that. Zero blinked, openly shocked, and finally spoke, "You're asking me how I'd approach this situation?"

"Yes. Being more aggressive here may be the right call, I'd like to hear how you'd handle it specifically."

Zero smirked. "So it's just because I'm the 'slash first, ask questions later' Hunter, hm?"

X just gave him a dismal stare. Alia and Signas rolled their eyes subtly, while Dex and Iris just watched in open confusion.

"Fine, fine," Zero started afresh. "I'd send whatever ships we can out over the starport first, let them know they can't flee up without risk. Then have the perimeter teams start pressuring the edges. That should expose what kind of firepower they have still on the ground. With that exposed, a strike team could get to their command center, if we can identify it, and neutralize them here, just like the other Repliforce bases. I'd assume that means dealing with Colonel?" Zero asked Iris with a softer look.

Iris was stressed by the context, but nodded. "Most likely, yes, sir."

X glanced between them, faintly smiling at last. He liked the effect Iris had on Zero. The smile faded to seriousness as everyone focused back on him.

"Zero's plan is sound to me. Airstrike has earned his rest, so reach out to Blast Squirrel. I think we have three ships that can still fly properly. Once they're in position above the port, the perimeter units can engage to draw out their defenses. With that started, we need to analyze their comms and dispersal to try to identify a target for the strike team."

Everyone started to move to comms or turn back to their stations with a clear plan of action, but Alia jerked as an alert went across her screen. She checked it, then her optics widened. "X! The geothermal plant just spiked into critical power surge!"

Everyone quickly focused on her, Dex and Iris switching their datafeeds to check the plant as well.

"Holy slag, she's not joking!" Dex blurted out. "If it keeps that up, the whole thing will meltdown. It makes no sense!"

Iris checked larger map areas instantly. "No civilian facilities in the danger zone if it goes off, but if it blows, it will destroy several hundred acres of forest around that volcano!"

X growled, bowing his head. "An environmental disaster... this is a distraction." He straightened. "Move forward with the starport operation. I'll handle the geothermal plant myself."

Zero actually gripped his shoulder. "Would you quit running off without backup!?"

X met his eyes firmly. "I can handle a plant meltdown easily enough. We can't let the starport go uncontested any longer. There's no excuse to delay."

Iris clenched her hands together, and then twisted. "Sir, you promised you'd bring my brother in alive!" she blurted it out, and then cringed, afraid she'd just doomed her ability to help.

Instead, everyone was just looking between her and X, Zero stepping back, startled, but very curious how this would play out.

X clenched his jaw. "I have standing orders not to harm Repliforce-!?"

"Only if they surrender!" Iris retorted desperately. "My brother won't! You're the only one who can force him to!"

Zero had to add, "Iris, I wouldn't kill your brother."

"Even if you thought you had to?" Iris challenged him, clearly afraid, but using it for strengthening her resolve.

Zero was silenced, clearly upset by her retort, but not sure how to respond to it.

X was caught, frustration at his own confliction making his fists clench. "...Iris, I can't ignore the geothermal plant, but the starport is vital. I trust my teams to take Colonel alive."

"But I don't!" Iris had to shout back, snapping up to her feet. "I don't care if this means I get put in the stockade. You promised me! It's the only hope I have that my brother won't die because of his pride!" Tears welled up in her eyes.

Zero normally would have been angry at such an outburst, from anyone else... but Iris' was so obviously sincere, he just couldn't find anger in himself. He wasn't even sure what to tell her.

Signas was grim, but also silent, not reprimanding her. X had put this moment in motion, he saw that much.

Alia eased to her feet, but hesitated to speak, anxious. Dex just watched in growing concern.

X cycled his respirator slowly, holding Iris' gaze. "...Iris, are you demanding I face your brother alone?"

Iris winced. "I... wouldn't... phrase it that way."

"But is the meaning any different?"

"I'm begging you to!"

Alia closed her eyes. She knew there was functionally no difference for X. A beg from someone like Iris... would be stronger than an order from Dr. Light himself.

X lowered his head, and wiped a hand down his face slowly, almost grinding down his facial features. "...Alia, best estimate for intel on a command center at the star port?"

Alia sat back down, turned, and ran a few simulations at high speed. "...Thirty-to-forty minutes from start of operation for best results."

X nodded, and started for the door. "Be back in thirty minutes, start the operation."

Zero twisted, everyone looking after X.

"What are you doing?" Zero demanded in controlled alarm.

X paused at the doorway as it opened. "Dealing with the geothermal plant, then Colonel. If I'm not responsive on comms in thirty minutes, Zero, I want you to handle the strike team."

Iris was caught, both relieved, and deeply guilty for causing this situation. Zero started to march after X.

"You can't just run off alone! You're the commander now, X! This solo-flying nonsense has to stop!"

"When you're the commander, you can put me in the stocks for disobeying that order," X retorted simply, and then flickered out of view with a flash of thruster light.

Zero growled, grabbing his head. "He's such a naive brat! I'm following him!" he stated sharply, dashing for the doorway himself.

"But you're the leader if he goes down, Zero," Signas pointed out quickly, before Zero could vanish, too.

Zero glanced over his shoulder. "If he goes down, Repliforce is gonna have me to worry about. ...I'll keep your brother safe," he added softly, glancing to Iris, and then dashed out of view himself.

Signas groaned, facepalming openly. "The pair of them..."

Alia had to smile a little, despite her shared worry. "Hopefully it doesn't get them killed this time, either. Orders, sir?"

Signas blinked at her request, and then chuckled. If both Zero and X went silent on comms, he was the logical fallback. "We have our orders. Time to apply the pressure." He specifically looked to Iris, "Ready?"

Iris blinked, startled and blushing that she wasn't being sent to the stocks. "Y-yes, sir!" she chimed, twisting back to her station, and setting up data feeds.

X poured out of a telefield on rocky ground that was already trembling with the pressures and heat of the over-charged facility. His helmet-gem pulsed, and he narrowed his optics. He'd known there was an armor capsule here, but hadn't intended to prioritize it. Now, it was practically on the way to his objective. Regardless of Dragoon, he had to get to the command center of the facility and stop the overload.

He snapped both arms into busters, energy starting to pour into his frame as he burst forward at full speed. Parts of the ceiling and floor were breaking apart already, burning boulders crashing down from above, and gouts of metal-melting flame exploded out from the ground. If he was human, the sulfur likely would've killed him already. As it was, the heat of the ambient air was forcing his body immediately into emergency cooling processes, his respirator not able to cool anything with cycling normally.

X blitzed between exploding rocks and fiery jets, letting the flows of power into his body trail off, yet he never fired yet. He just never stopped.

Doing a full-body flip over a chunk of ground collapsing down into a lava river, his legs rammed down with full-power thrusters, letting him practically leap off empty air to finish the distance. He continued dancing around burning rocks, especially snaking between down-hill tumbling ones that shook the entire space around him as they thundered past.

As he leaped clear of a ledge that was about to collapse, his optics snapped to the massive mechaniloid already taking aim at him.

It was a heavy-siege bot, rigged with missile launchers, grenade launchers, and heavy forward armor plating. It started to pump out rockets and grenades in rapid stoccato. X didn't waste his charge on the ammo. He flickered forward, gliding between explosive warheads mid-air, and boost-flipped over the mechaniloid. Just as he was angled behind it, head toward the ground, he snapped both arms down, firing once each.

With the stored power in his frame, both shots were larger than his own body, and merged together before crashing down on the mechaniloid like a raging purple-blue comet.

Even as heavily armored at the bot was, the sheer power X could unleash at will now flash melted between the heavier plates, and finally caused the thing to collapse and explode simultaneously.

X landed running between more exploding terrain.

Zero appeared out of his own telefield just a moment after X, in truth, but X had simply taken off so fast they were out of sight of each other. Seeing the hellscape X had flown into, Zero frowned, and then drew his saber. He burst forward, and cut a straight path across the wrecked terrain. Each boulder that started to crash down on him was sliced apart before it could actually hit.

Only slightly slower than X after all of his upgrades, Zero flickered, slashed, burst, and flipped along, starting to make out the signs of X's path more clearly despite how chaotic the environment was.

It was when he sailed past the wreckage-crater of the mechaniloid that his optics widened slightly.

The intensity of the blast needed to do that to a siege-bot... He really couldn't be stopped if he went rogue...

The affirmation of his older fears was unsettling, but he had too much to get done now. He raced after X.

X spiraled through a mass of flames and wreckage from another siege mechaniloid. The thrusters under his feet cut smoothly, and he landed on a rock ledge, his optics tracking around rapidly. The capsule was nearby, within twenty or so meters of him.

Several flaming rocks crashed down toward him the next moment, so he dove forward, realized he was feeling the capsule above, and thruster-blasted himself skyward. He barely cleared a blast of flame from the collapsing wall to one side, and fired off a chain-claw to get himself up over the higher ledge.

Once there, he was confronted with a just-crumbled wall. With how unstable everything was, he wasn't sure about his digging tools. With his sensors maximized, he realized the capsule was in a fairly large chamber, the crumbled wall just blocking it off.

"...Blasting it all out at once will tell me how stable the roof is..."

His colors flipped to blue-yellow hues, and energy poured through his frame once again. His busters rearranged into slitted emitters. Slash Beast's cutting waves, the same he'd used to handle Web Spider, were now further enhanced far beyond their normal functions.

X leapt skyward again, and aimed both busters before he fired. A shock-wave like blast of plasma ripped outward, far wider than it was long. It slammed into the loose rubble, blowing it apart explosively.

X landed, and looked around sharply. He had as much time as anywhere in this quaking volcano releasing the last pretense of being a power plant.

The capsule activated at his approach, Dr. Light's hologram appearing once again.

"X, this capsule is registering a dangerous change its environment. I won't waste time. This upgrade will allow you to focus the G-Crusher emergency discharge. Instead of a singular explosion last resort, it will allow you to guide your body with tremendous force and energy. I called it the Giga attack mechanism. ...And I pray you never truly have to use it."

X frowned, bowing his head, but then he took a breath, and leapt into the capsule.

A Repliforce soldier braced awkwardly in his ride-armor as the facility trembled again. "...What were our exact orders again?"

His partner had to spread his ride armor's legs as another quake pulsed. "Help guard Dragoon against Maverick Hunter assassins."

The first soldier looked around again, parts of the ceiling crumbling. "I don't see this needing protection from Maverick Hunters."

The silence from his partner made him assume the response was lost in the rumbles around them, so he turned, only to jerk in shock as someone materialized out of thin-air, holding his comrade's head back, with an arm-buster pressed to the temple.

X looked unusually dark, despite his glistening armor making him look even more like a knight than usual, with broad shoulder guards, and bladed fins running off various parts of his body.

"Why are Repliforce soldiers here?" X demanded flatly.

"Shoot him!" the held soldier barked abruptly.

The first soldier jerked his ride armor, the plasma blade charging to unleash a blast, but he froze there, watching X stare him down, completely unfazed by the threat of being shot.

"If I wanted you both dead, you'd already be melting into the lava that's about to burst through the floor here. Why are Repliforce soldiers guarding an AWOL Hunter?"

The one he was restraining managed, "Orders," despite the awkward angle of his head.

"Whose!?" X sharpened his tone.

"The General!" The first soldier finally shouted. "A special escort and guard task. That's all we were told!"

X nodded, easing his buster.

"This volcano is about to completely explode, and Magma Dragoon is much more resilient to lava than either of you. Run, right now, or I can't keep you alive."

"...You're letting us go?"

X flipped back to a crouch, his hand reverting. "We were never enemies, and I can't arrest you safely in this nightmare. Run!"

The two shared a glance, and then bolted, using their armor to carry them more safely through the morass of fire and rock.

X twisted, and quickly dash-leapt from point to point up a cliff above the guards' watch position. He found the remains of an access path that had partially collapsed from all the chaos. It led to the command center of the plant, and it was his best guess as to Dragoon's location.

Zero snapped his saber into firmer grip as he saw the two ride armors charging toward him, but his optics tightened at the panicked expressions on the two Repliforce soldiers.

"The place is coming down, just run!" one of them shouted at Zero himself.

Zero eased his sword down, but kept dashing forward, flitting between the two. He glanced after them. They never looked back, running for their lives. Mildly confused, but suspecting X's involvement in the odd event, Zero boosted back to full speed, rushing ahead through the exploding terrain.

X discovered the command center already partially in ruins. He leapt down from the opening that no longer had a catwalk attached. Landing harshly on open rock, he was on a platform of it amidst flowing lava that was churning out of the far wall already. The main consoles were off to his left. Several had already melted from proximity to the lava.

Scanning with his full sensors, he confirmed that the primary control systems still functioned. With obvious need to hurry, he started to run that way.

"Leaving so soon?"

X stopped, locking his eyes on Magma Dragoon, near the cracking, leaking wall.

"Why haven't you shut this down yet?" he demanded directly.

Dragoon leaned back with uproarious laughter. "Why would I? It did exactly what I needed it to do. It brought you to me, X."

X frowned, and slowly faced Dragoon fully, his fists clenching. "...What are you doing, Dragoon?"

"Challenging you to battle, Megaman X. I've craved this since I first heard of you with Sigma's uprising. Of course, you're as well known for how good you are defeating Mavericks as you are for being a pascifist otherwise. You don't spar in the HQ, nothing. Not that a spar would be enough for me. So I had to get you moving."

X bowed his head slowly, his eyes closing. "...The fail safes..."

Magma Dragoon sneered. "That's right. I let the Sky Lagoon fall! Everything happened just as he promised! And now, here you are before me."

X remained quiet and still for a moment.

"You're not infected," X finally stated. "You chose this. ...Repliforce never attacked the Sky Lagoon."

"Not even remotely. But the idiot humans fell for it perfectly."

X shivered. "...Thousands of people died, Dragoon."

Dragoon shrugged. "A bunch of sheep. Most of them would never amount to anything. Not like us, X."

His fists, his body, they were quaking with pain... and rage. His bowed head overshadowed his face from the light of the burning lava all around them.

A human woman bleeding out in his arms.

Zero's blowing himself apart.

Erasing Vile's head against a wall.

Alia's scream when her arm was torn off.

And his own body giving out, his mind flooding with the certainty that so many people would die.

"...You murdered..." X's voice bled out, deathly quiet, "all those people... for a fight with me...?"

Dragoon lifted his arms up. "There it is! Feel the rage, X! Show me how you can really fight!"

X's head just lifted enough for his eyes to snap open, only one visible from the odd shadow and light. It was dilated to a point, glaring with murderous fury of its own.

Dragoon saw it, and grinned fiendishly, snapping into a combat stance.

The next instant, he was reeling back, his optics panning up in that timeless moment. His jaw was already dented from the hammer-impact of X's knee under his chin, and his optics could focus up into X's optics... burning with a so-rarely unleashed, unrestrained fury.

Both carried up by the rocket-powered knee-strike, X wrenched his arms out, over, and down. It slammed Dragoon's head straight down into the rocks beneath them, cracking a small crater.

Most Reploids would've been out at that point, but Dragoon wasn't all bluster. He snapped his optics into focus, and rolled to one side. X dropped to his feet, tracking Dragoon with his gaze. The crimson traitor rammed his arms forward, flames bleeding out through armor plating and between the joints of the digits, before a gout of flame exploded out, racing toward X.

X flickered to one side, then the other for the next fireball, then the other for the third, each time closing on Dragoon once again.

Dragoon dropped low, fire erupted over his right arm, and he leapt skyward with an uppercut just as X flickered into place near him. X flowed back, tongues of fire flowing out toward his chest, shoulders, and face in the wake of Dragoon's passing fist.

Knowing he'd missed, Dragoon coiled, swinging one foot around into a back-kick, flame engulfing the limb just like his arm had been.

This, X blocked, ramming one leg back, his left arm curled up, creating a wall for Dragoon's leg to slam into. Fire spilled forward around X's limb, but appeared to do little harm to his upgraded body.

Dragoon used the impulse of his failed strike to leap back to his haunches, meeting X's hard gaze around the still-raised arm. His surprise melted into a satisfied grin.

"This is exactly what I hoped it would be!"

Abruptly armor fins on Dragoon's back snapped up in his wake like air-foils. He hunched forward, arms dropped, and his jaw expanded open unnaturally.

X braced, his sensors giving him strange results for the heat-flows within the room. It was all swirling and rushing down... into Dragoon's back. X realized he'd wasted too much time, and jerked back, his boots thrusting him away sharply.

Dragoon roared, and the heat from the lava and air was condensed through his weaponry, then exploded forward in a massive stream of pure fire. It was so intense it was heavy, pouring through the air like it had weight and substance.

X couldn't move his body fast enough, though his perception knew exactly what was happening in fine detail. He leapt up, braced all his limbs forward, curled, and his personal shield pulsed up around his body as the first lashes of flame reached him.

Dragoon drove the stream forward, blasting into the far wall with thunderous force. Rocks and debris rained down all around the 'arena.'

/X, are you alright!?/

It was Zero.

/Fine. Leave this to me. Can you kill the overload?/

/X... Yeah, I'll focus on that./

Zero was hidden just behind a ledge that only recently exposed itself. He eased closer to the edge, his saber sheathed for the moment. He was intending to check Dragoon's focus, so he could drop to the command consoles swiftly, but he was distracted quickly.

Dragoon's stream-blast of flame finally died down, and Dragoon stared in wide-optic shock at the results.

X was floating there, braced, thrusters blazing under his feet, the air around his body shimmering violently from the heat, but he didn't seem damaged or melting. He only looked furious. An archon of outrage, wreathed in shorn rock and churning lava.

"What are you slagging made of!?" Dragoon roared out of fear and frustration.

X suddenly leaned forward, flickering forward, then leg-stride-blasting his thrusters. The heated air pulsed around him. Dragoon tried to rush to meet him, a punch driving forward. X snapped it aside, spin-kicking into Dragoon's flank.

The willing Maverick barked from the impact, stumbling to his side. His optics flickered trying to track his enemy, but X was faster. Flashes of thrusters and blurs of his pale coloring were all Dragoon could track, barely able to brace against hammering blows from every side.

Desperate, Dragoon suddenly ignited with flame over his whole body. It gave X just a bit of pause, X's optics still sharp and resolute, only analyzing.

Dragoon wrenched his body straight, then folded backward, his arms taut at his sides as he roared to the cavern roof. The heat waves pulsed, rushed into him, and then flame exploded up from his maw, smashing into the ceiling with thunderous force.

Zero flip-coiled down tight and sharp, reaching the consoles in just a moment.

The same moment that the roof cracked, shattered, pulsed, and then started to explode downward in lava, fire, heat, and rock.

Zero found the console damaged, but didn't hesitate. He snapped in a direct connection from his waist. /Iris! I need this command system shut down now!/

/Wha—Y-yes, sir! Transmitting through your onboard now! Hardware errors! Uh... yes, there it is! Bypassing, this should... Another error. One moment!/

/Out of time, Iris!/

Zero glanced over his shoulder, and the moment slowed for him. Actual shock lit across his face.

It was X. His colors were changed, a hint of green and soft whites. It was so alien to the violent burning colors all around him... being swirled violently out from him by cyclones he had just unleashed from his hands somehow.

In that moment, he had completely obliterated the catastrophe Dragoon had unleashed. Dragoon was just then leaning his head down, showing the same shock as Zero, and now starting to show real fear in his eyes as they locked with X's head-down glare.

/I have it!/ Iris snapped Zero back to reality, and he looked to the console. The various errors blinked away, and safety warnings returned, initiating a shut down fail-safe. Quaking rushes ran through the ruined facility.

/Oh no... W-we've stopped the meltdown, but it's too far progressed. You have to evacuate! That whole facility is going to melt into the lava!/

Zero disconnected from the console and twisted toward the fight. /...Understood!/

Working against his fear, Dragoon charged at X, fists and kicks flying in rapid succession. X snapped between blocks and parries during the bulk of the onslaught, then suddenly smashed both of Dragoon's arms outward, braced down, and full-thruster, shoulder-rammed Dragoon. The force of the impact and thrust sent the two rocketing into the far back wall.

Dragoon's chest plates were dented as he reeled amid shattering rock, but he started to twist into a tight kick. X snap-coiled over the kick, back-handed Dragoon during the spin, and then mid-air thruster-blasted into Dragoon by an elbow.

X rammed Dragoon through the wall toward the far side, digging a channel through the rubble and lava already leaking through it.

At last, Dragoon was able to get his head angled toward X, optics glowing, and his maw opened.

Just as the fireblast started to erupt, X's hand snapped toward it, and a cutting orb of cross-winds burst into form. It tore the fire apart.

X twisted violently, both arms swirling more wind, and one-two blitzed Dragoon into the wall even harder. The raw explosion of the wind-force sent X flying back from a blast of rubble, fire, and dust. X skidded back to a halt, his eyes already up and focused on the impact point.

Dragoon did leap out of the blast, but only barely. As his ruined body landed, his legs collapsed apart. An arm fell loose to the ground, and he dropped to the ground awkwardly, toppling onto his back as little more than a torso, head, and part of an arm.

X stood, and marched up to the remains of Dragoon, who managed a weak laugh.

"So... you r-really are... so strong... Even on my own turf-" he cut off into sputters and mechanical jams of his jaw system.

X was seething, barely holding himself steady, eyes burning through everything down at Dragoon. "All those people... All of those people just for this stupidity!?"

Dragoon managed a faint smirk. "Was... worth it... for a final duel."

X's optics shivered, and he suddenly roared, an arm snapping up to blow Dragoon apart with cross-currents.

And he would have, if a tight grip hadn't stayed his hand.

It jolted X out of his raging haze, and he glared in instinctive frustration at Zero, who was staring him dead in the eye, unmoved, around their arms.

Zero's voice was calm, focused, even soft. "You regretted Vile. Are you sure this is something you want to do?"

X twitched, but was silent, his eyes flicking from Zero to Dragoon and back with clearly manic rage still holding sway over most of his faculties.

"Seems more my style than yours," Zero added softly... and let go.

X tensed, his weapons priming up, but he froze again, even while glaring down at the now-confused Dragoon.

X gasped, as if he'd just burst out of a deep dive and needed air. He jerked away, shivering. "...Is it done?" jittered out of his vocal emitter.

"Shut down, but the facility is coming down on top of us. Shouldn't spread much, at least."

X managed to look over his shoulder to Zero, clearly unhinged from emotional shock, but barely holding a thread of focus together. "...Take him, please..." strangled out.

Zero nodded, and jogged to Dragoon's remaining body. "Iris, got a plus one, telefield ready!"

As they warped out of view, X gripped his head, growling as tension curled his entire frame down.

/...X.../

It was Alia's voice. Had she been listening the whole time? He'd not even thought about it until that moment. And her voice... it was so quiet... pained.

All he could really think to say back was, /Help.../

The telefield engulfed him the next moment.