THE TENTH DISK
By blackhart
copyright MM Abacus Fiction, revised 6/26/2001
Chapter Sixteen
X
The dropship set ground finally, and I practically leaped out the door.
Everything was just as Zero had said: a little pod of a fortress poking out of
the lake, and the main entrance open. When I looked closer, I realized it had
been forced open. Had there been a fight already? My low-frequency neural
net gave me two signals from inside. If there had been a fight, it hadn't
resulted in a death.
I started moving towards the blips, not knowing what to think. Roll,
Iris, and Enker trailed closely behind me. I thought better of their coming
immediately. Ordering the three to stay and guard the atrium, I continued
my descent into the base. Netrix and Argyle followed me and watched my
back.
I suddenly noticed something--no drones. The lack of security was
extremely worrysome, at least for me. I radioed HQ. Thankfully, there
wasn't an electromagnetic dispeller in here, or my call would've been for
naught. "Chakra, do you have the serial number on the tenth disk?"
"As a matter of fact, yes," he said back. "It's CAP-0734-COM. Any
reason?"
"I'm suspicious," was all I said in return. Setting my radar to search
for a disk with that number, I began to look mentally for it. My search was
for nothing, as I suspected. The disk wasn't here.
"Hunters!" I called over an open radio. "This mission has just taken
an easier turn. Our only existing objectives are to find Zero and destroy
Sigma. My neural radar sweep has confirmed there is no disk here. Sig's
keepin' it locked up somewhere else. Heck, there may not even be a tenth
disk. God, I wanna find Sig's source code one day and type some complete
$#!& into it..."
"Copy that, X," came Skyler's voice, with a chuckle.
"One more thing," I said. "I'm goin' this alone. Get everyone else
outta here and back to base. Keep one dropship close to here in case Zero
and I need backup, and give the new Hunters my apologies for not being able
to test their new toys."
"Sure thing."
I made my way back to where I'd left the new recruits to give them
their new orders, but found no one. Strange...
"Skyler, are Iris, Roll, and Enker aboard one of the ships?"
"I'll check, but I didn't see them come out of the place."
"Thanks, keep your eyes peeled."
I glimpsed movement out of the corner of my eye. Turning, I saw a
vent grating swinging slowly and creaking. I frowned, and wiped my hand
down my face in exasperation. Greeeeat. I was afraid of this... they're going
for Sigma.
Using my radio as I made my way towards Zero and Sigma, I opened a
channel to call the three Hunters. "Guys," I called. "Iris, Enker, Roll, answer
me, please."
Iris responded. "What is it, X? We're busy."
I heaved a sigh. "You guys, listen up. I've got no problem with you
guys taking Sigma out. Just hold off until Zero and I get in a few shots at
him, will ya?"
If the three could've smiled over the radio, they would've. "I hear
you, X," came Enker's voice. "Go ahead. We'll stay behind for a while."
"Thanks for not making this mission any more of a headache than it
already is," I said back. "I'll see you later."
* * *
Zero
I looked around. The world around me had shifted and warped itself.
I heaved a sigh. Sigma had done this. This must have been the state X had
found himself in when Sigma had blacked him out those times. I donned a
steely glare and continued looking around. "Come out wherever you are,
Sigma!" I called. "If you're gonna draw me into a world with your rules, at
least show yourself!"
A pair of glinting blue eyes opened from the shadows and swooped
down to the floor, where their owner, the one Maverick that had caused so
much destruction and killed so many innocents revealed himself to me finally.
"You know where you are?" he asked in a quiet bellow.
I nodded, narrowing my eyes. "This is where you talked to X before.
It has to be."
"Correct. Have you thought about why you are here?"
"I've only been conscious a few seconds," I said, "but I can guess
why."
"And...?"
"You want to infest me."
"Correct again. X is approaching the room where we are. Can you
hear him?"
I strained my ears to listen. Sure enough, the familiar tpp, tpp of
X's boots echoed into even this place.
"Yeah," I said. "So how and where exactly does this place exist?"
"This is a place in your mind, Zero. I am here for now only as a
spectator in what is to come. Your thoughts are still racing about, and you
are still unconscious in the real world. For now, time is at a virtual stand-
still. This conversation between you and I is occurring in thousandths of a
second."
"So I'm here to be infested?"
"You were here to be infested, my friend, but luckily for you, your
roots of sigmae mavericus have shrunk too deep for me to replant. If I were
to infest you, your will would oppose mine too greatly. Without total control,
your mind and body are useless to me. Be thankful for that, I would say.
Some time in the future, those roots may regrow somehow, but for now..."
"For now, I'm safe."
He nodded, throwing his head down in defeat. With a heavy sigh, he
sat down. "Even this magnificent body will not last forever," he said, staring
at his hands. "I pushed Wily to finish it as quickly as possible. He had to
meet only the most pressing demands on the armor's workload to complete
it in time. He had to make a weakness for it."
I raised an eyebrow. "What went wrong?"
He looked up at me. "The energy supply is very limited. Every ounce
of power will be drained from this body in no more than an hour."
"I can see where that would be logical," I said. "If you cut Wily's work
short, he couldn't make the final adjustments on the distributors. With the
lasers on the shoulders, the eye lasers, and the energy release function on
your saber, it'd sap energy worse than leaving a car's headlights on. That's
the flaw to your suit there, Sigs."
He looked indifferent. Glancing down again, he began to mutter
aloud. "I never understood, because of my programming... I never
understood why I was never able to think logically... My thoughts are always
garbled, and all my thinking can never add up. You remember the thing with
Wily back there, and then me forcing him into finishing... This suit will never
hold up for that long. I am doomed to go through yet another period of
dormancy. My subjects will once again lose all ties to me, and you and X will
be able to take out this body no problem. I despise losing."
There was a long pause. Both of us seemed to be looking for
something else to talk about. Why, though, was he keeping me, of all people,
here to talk to? A good question. I spoke up. "Were you telling the truth
when you said that Iris still talked about me? About what we had together?"
He smiled, not evilly. I frowned puzzledly, but sat down next to him.
"I was telling the truth. She pines over you, truly. When another being is a
part of you for so long, you begin to feel effects of their emotions, and are
able to take apart their thoughts, eventually."
I paused before saying anything else, thinking. "Could you tell her
something for me, Sigma?" I asked.
He cocked an eyebrow at me. "What is it?"
"Just tell her she meant a lot to me, and that I think of her
everyday."
Sigma closed his eyes for a split second, then opened them and said,
"She said to say she feels exactly the same way, Zero. She loves you."
I lowered my head now, fighting back the tears.
"In pain now, Zero?"
"Just remembering what happy times we had. It didn't matter to us
how few there actually were. Amidst the war going on around us, the
humans' uneasiness towards us, there wasn't a lot of time for love, or
anything much more than fighting."
He nodded. "And for the first time, I feel as if I should take blame
for that." I felt a surprised look creep onto my face. "I'm sorry, Zero. Sorry
for all the pain I've caused you, and sorry that I was created the way I was."
I just stared at him a few seconds, trying to discern exactly what
he'd just said. The being, the virus that had caused so much trouble for
Reploids and humans alike, had just related to me an apology. I smiled
instinctively. "I knew you had in it you." He looked up at me curiously. "Ever
since I'd been a part of you, I knew there was a slice of your being that has
wanted to say that for so long."
He smiled, chuckled. Again, not evilly. I kept that smile on my face,
baffled as to what had finally brought this out of him. His shortness with
Wily? His possession of X? His realization of his only weapon's short life-
span? God only knew. Nevertheless, for one moment in this war, we, the
bitterest enemies opposite each other, had called a truce.
* * *
X
I crept along the corridor leading to the room where my friend and
Sigma were fighting (I had found out that it was a software extraction
chamber, actually). Keeping in touch with the three rogue Hunters in the
vents, I continued to give them kind reminders about not busting in and just
finishing Sigma immediately. I didn't mention why I requested this, but they
agreed nonetheless.
Finally outside the main portal to the chamber, I checked back in
with Iris and company one last time: "Guys, you close?"
Enker's voice projected itself: "Yeah. I can see Sigma now. He's
leanin' up against the wall furthest the vent. Zero's unconscious, I guess,
and he's layin' on the opposite side of the room."
"I suppose Sigs figures a live worm attracts more fish than a dead
one," I muttered. "Listen, I'm taking this nice and easy. You guys got that?"
"For the freakin' 97th time, YES!" Roll said back.
I chuckled. "Sorry `bout that, Roll. You know if it were in both our
best interests for you to have every hit on Sigma, I'd give him to you."
"So why are you holding us back, X?" Iris asked. "I've been
contemplating that ever since you got us to hold off."
Well, the truth had to come out some time. "I just wanna get in a
few hits first. I'm entitled to that for being possessed by big, bad virus
here, I think." Now was not the time. If they knew I was keeping them back
to keep them from going re-Maverick on me, they'd get headstrong and I
couldn't talk any sense into them. If I had to predict anyone going down first
in a fight, it'd probably be Iris. I can't let that happen. For Zero's sake, and
for the sake of anyone that depended on the Hunters, I'd have to keep them
away for now.
"Alright, I'm opening the door," I said as I touched the door control
pad on the frame. The backlight flashed from blue to green, then glowed a
gentle yellow. The door split in half and slid open almost noiselessly, and I
prepared myself. I had no idea what kind of state Sigma or Zero could be in.
Go strictly by the books on this one, X, I told myself. Nice, easy stealth.
Keep yourself invisible until something happens.
Sigma appeared lost in thought, leaning, as Enker had said, against
the far wall. I spotted a sliver of Iris's armor in the vent grating, and gave
her a thumbs-up. "M'in," I said softly to them. "Now let's just wait to see
what Sigma'll have to say when he wakes up."
Iris smiled, winked, and returned the thumbs-up, saying nothing. I
took a walk to the center of the chamber, where sat an extraction device. In
its core was a glass case, empty. "Where Sigs had the disk, I suspect. Or at
least what he used as a fake disk." I glanced around. Either they'd been
playing with each other, or neither of them got in a lot of good hits. I saw no
signs of struggle around the chamber, no burn marks, no sliced-open walls,
no nothing. After thinking that "no nothing," however, my eyes came to rest
on a no-doubt Z-saber-sliced holographic projector. Walking over to it and
checking out its most recent image, I knew what the virus had used for the
phony disk. A hologram? Equally smart and risky for him, I thought. If I'd
gotten here first, he'd've been screwed because of my radar, but to the
naked eye, it's as real as any other of the disks we've collected. He was
counting on Zero or anyone else to get here first. Good thing for him he was
right, or we could've finished this a lot sooner.
I stopped thinking for a sec and waved to the vent for the three
others to come on in. There was something mysterious about this whole
thing. For some reason, though, I felt as if Sigma was being lenient on us.
As we started to sweep the chamber, I kept a sharp eye on both the
fighters, making sure neither of them woke up with Sigma's persona about
him.
* * *
Zero
I could hear X enter the room from beyond my thoughts. Sigma
noticed it, but said nothing. "As long as I stay with you here, my armor's
activities are suspended, as will be the energy drain."
"Do you plan to keep me here forever?" I said. "Or have you
decided?"
"I want to keep you here," he said, "but at the same time, my staying
here would get nothing accomplished. I can't leave without you leaving, and
vice-versa. I am debating with myself at this point."
I stood up. "If you do have anything inside of you beyond your viral
programming, Sigma, and I know you do, in the form of your AI brain; then
you can make this decision for yourself. You can start right here, right now,
trying your best to break through your code. If you can do that, you won't
have to be a slave to your viral tendencies anymore. Whoever created you
originally put you in a Reploid body, I know. From that body, you gained a
sense of power, but also gained something else your maker hadn't counted
on: the ability to think for yourself. Until now, the code has kept that, and
any, logical thinking under control. You can fight it, Sigma. I can help you."
He looked up, question all but screaming from his expression.
Standing up, his body held up at least two heads higher than mine. As bitter
and evil as I had felt to this being before, as threatened--it had fled from me
now. Now, he was simply a larger version of any other Reploid. I was
doubtful of what he would choose, and how and why he would choose, but I
kept an expecting look in my eyes, waiting for his answer.
Throwing his head skyward, a chuckle escaped his mouth. "Never
thought I'd be in this position, getting help from one of--of you."
I nodded. "I feel strange about this, too, Sigma. Somehow, though, I
can feel that you're being sincere about this. Will you let me help you
destroy the virus within you?"
He sank down to the floor again, needing its stability to think, I
suppose. "A trillion calculations are running through my head, Zero. A trillion
thoughts, and a trillion things to say. I need only jar us from this...this vision
to easily destroy you, and more likely, your friends as well. With both you
and X gone, the others could hardly pose a threat to me. On the other hand,
however, I could ask for your help, admit that I've done wrong yet again, and
try to find my maker, to get him to rearrange my code."
I bent my head down, trying to see his expression. To no avail,
unfortunately. His face was blackened by the shadows in this room.
"Needless to say, this decision will be somewhat nerve-racking for
both of us, no matter which way it turns out."
I nodded, saying nothing.
He sighed. "What have I to lose? If you are still willing to help me,
Zero, I accept your offer."
He stood up and offered a hand to me. I pinched myself, just in
case I had been dreaming this whole thing. After finding I was very much
awake, I extended my hand with a smile to his and took it firmly.
"This opens up an entirely new chapter in the little story of this
war," he said.
"You always were the poetic one," I said as I shook his hand. "Just
get us out of here so I can explain all this to X, if I can."
"Done," he said as he retracted his hand and snapped his fingers.
* * *
Swirling around, the world slowly reverted back to the chamber
where we'd fought not minutes before. I picked myself up from where I'd
passed out when Sigma had tapped my mind, and waved X off as he came
over to help me up.
"Are you hurt, Zero?" he asked as he backed away.
"I'm just great," I said. "And I think we've made a new friend."
"What do you mean, Zero?"
"I'll explain in a minute," I replied, noticing Iris and the others in the
corner. "`Scuse me," I said, walking over to her.
Throwing my arms around her, I spoke softly into her ear: "Hey,
you. What're you all doing here?"
She chuckled silently, whispering back: "We're your newest
teammates, silly. After Dr. Cain checked with each of us, he found out we all
wanted basically the same thing after a rest period: we wanted to fight
again."
"And he sent you here?" I asked, surprised.
"Why wouldn't he?" she said louder, pulling away and looking in my
eyes. "Is there something you're not telling me?"
"X?" I asked. "Didn't you tell them?"
"Tell us what?" Enker asked.
X shook his head, rubbed a hand exasperatedly down his face. "I
was gonna have to tell you sooner or later, guys. I really didn't want you
coming along, but I can't go against Cain."
"Why didn't you want us to come?" Roll asked.
He gave a sidelong stare at me, pained. "I was just afraid that if I
told you why earlier, you'd've gotten unreceptive. You wouldn't listened to a
thing I or Zero said."
"So what is it?" asked Roll again.
"We wanted to keep you three out of this because Sigma can
possess recently Maverick Reploids much easier than he can Zero or I," he
blurted.
The three looked around at each other, taking this in.
"Besides that," I said, "we didn't want you rushing into any fighting
with Sigs here," I gestured to his still-unmoving form. I began to think there
was something wrong, but restrained myself. Thoughts right now were too
optimistic to spoil.
"Any of you could've very easily killed yourselves going up against
Sigma. Zero was worried about Iris, of course, and everyone else about you
other two. We couldn't run the risk of any of you going back to Sigs again or
falling to him."
"I'm just loathing Sigma for what he did to us all," Enker said. "I feel
as if I'm obligated to help destroy him."
I closed my eyes. "I know," I said with a smile. "I felt that way, too.
However, I'm glad to tell you about what happened while Sigs and I were out
over there," I gestured.
"Yeah, what was with the unconsciousness bit, Zero?" Roll said.
"You had us worried."
"Sigma pulled me into that world he pulled X into before he infested
him."
Iris interrupted quickly with a gasp. She took hold of my arm,
dragging me to stand right in front of her. "Let me see your eyes, Zero.
Stare right into my eyes. Try not to blink." I looked intently at her as she
had asked, then she breathed a sigh of relief. "He's not Sigma."
"I knew that," I said, kissing her cheek and giving her a smile.
"Well, if he didn't infest you, what did he do?" asked X. "This is
news to me."
"Strangely, he and I talked. No insults. No threats. No attacking.
Just discussing this whole thing truthfully and candorously."
"You got Sigma to carry out an honest conversation with you?"
Enker asked, his jaw slack.
I nodded. "I have no idea how, but he just started it, and we
followed through."
"And he started the conversation, too?" Roll asked. "Go home and
bury yourself in a bomb shelter, the end is near!"
Ignoring her, X spoke: "So what did you find out?"
"Most of what I already knew--Sigma has logical, AI roots in his
code, somewhere. He told me he wants to find that part of himself and lose
his viral properties."
Everyone gaped. "He...wants us to help him?" Iris finally managed
to struggle.
I nodded again. "Just like I said. I couldn't believe it at first,
either."
X frowned. "So why's our new buddy not out of his trance yet?" he
said, gesturing to Sigma's still-limp body.
Now I was worried. "Good question." Walking over, I checked his
status CPU on his arm unit. "The body is still operational," I said, "but every
trace of the ol' guy himself is gone." Noticing a light blinking in a corner of
the readout, I tapped the CPU to see what was up. From the body's shoulder,
there slid open with a hiss of air a small panel, and out popped a mini-disk,
much like the ones we had hunted down from Pi, Delta, and Epsilon. The label
read, "For X and Zero: Read-only, for your eyes only."
X walked up behind me, glanced over my shoulder. "Must've just
burned it while he was sitting there," he muttered. Reaching down to touch
it, he nodded with certainty. "Yep. Still warm."
"Uh, X? There's something else," I said, pointing to another flashing
icon on the CPU's interface. Tapping it, I stepped back as the two shoulder-
mounted lasers turned to face each other and fired two bolts: one blue, one
red. Moving around ever quicker, they started to form a picture: Sigma's
face. His voice boomed from his body's mouth, though it didn't move. The
mouth of the laser-hologram was in sync with the words he spoke:
"I'm unbelievably sorry for this, Zero, X," he said. "My persona has
left this body to another location. I can't tell you where; my code restricts
it. As logically as I now think, I can, however, tell you where to find the time
machine to return Wily. There is a secret Maverick outpost elsewhere in
these mountains, in fact very close. Check in the lake under this base.
There is an underwater tunnel that leads there."
X smiled. "I knew that tunnel meant something!"
The projection continued. "To Pi, Del...uh, Iris, Roll, and Enker, I
give my utmost apologies, as to all my...my victims." The three exchanged
uncertain glances, but emerged with smiles. "And now, a final note: you may
like to leave, now." The face morphed into a clock, and began a countdown
from five minutes. "I suggest you leave as soon as this recording is finished.
Anything I've not discussed with you here is contained on that disk, and
concerns only X and Zero. They may share its contents with the other
Hunters at their own discretion. Goodbye for now, my friends. I feel we will
meet again soon." Then the clock faded out, and we were left to run again.
By blackhart
copyright MM Abacus Fiction, revised 6/26/2001
Chapter Sixteen
X
The dropship set ground finally, and I practically leaped out the door.
Everything was just as Zero had said: a little pod of a fortress poking out of
the lake, and the main entrance open. When I looked closer, I realized it had
been forced open. Had there been a fight already? My low-frequency neural
net gave me two signals from inside. If there had been a fight, it hadn't
resulted in a death.
I started moving towards the blips, not knowing what to think. Roll,
Iris, and Enker trailed closely behind me. I thought better of their coming
immediately. Ordering the three to stay and guard the atrium, I continued
my descent into the base. Netrix and Argyle followed me and watched my
back.
I suddenly noticed something--no drones. The lack of security was
extremely worrysome, at least for me. I radioed HQ. Thankfully, there
wasn't an electromagnetic dispeller in here, or my call would've been for
naught. "Chakra, do you have the serial number on the tenth disk?"
"As a matter of fact, yes," he said back. "It's CAP-0734-COM. Any
reason?"
"I'm suspicious," was all I said in return. Setting my radar to search
for a disk with that number, I began to look mentally for it. My search was
for nothing, as I suspected. The disk wasn't here.
"Hunters!" I called over an open radio. "This mission has just taken
an easier turn. Our only existing objectives are to find Zero and destroy
Sigma. My neural radar sweep has confirmed there is no disk here. Sig's
keepin' it locked up somewhere else. Heck, there may not even be a tenth
disk. God, I wanna find Sig's source code one day and type some complete
$#!& into it..."
"Copy that, X," came Skyler's voice, with a chuckle.
"One more thing," I said. "I'm goin' this alone. Get everyone else
outta here and back to base. Keep one dropship close to here in case Zero
and I need backup, and give the new Hunters my apologies for not being able
to test their new toys."
"Sure thing."
I made my way back to where I'd left the new recruits to give them
their new orders, but found no one. Strange...
"Skyler, are Iris, Roll, and Enker aboard one of the ships?"
"I'll check, but I didn't see them come out of the place."
"Thanks, keep your eyes peeled."
I glimpsed movement out of the corner of my eye. Turning, I saw a
vent grating swinging slowly and creaking. I frowned, and wiped my hand
down my face in exasperation. Greeeeat. I was afraid of this... they're going
for Sigma.
Using my radio as I made my way towards Zero and Sigma, I opened a
channel to call the three Hunters. "Guys," I called. "Iris, Enker, Roll, answer
me, please."
Iris responded. "What is it, X? We're busy."
I heaved a sigh. "You guys, listen up. I've got no problem with you
guys taking Sigma out. Just hold off until Zero and I get in a few shots at
him, will ya?"
If the three could've smiled over the radio, they would've. "I hear
you, X," came Enker's voice. "Go ahead. We'll stay behind for a while."
"Thanks for not making this mission any more of a headache than it
already is," I said back. "I'll see you later."
* * *
Zero
I looked around. The world around me had shifted and warped itself.
I heaved a sigh. Sigma had done this. This must have been the state X had
found himself in when Sigma had blacked him out those times. I donned a
steely glare and continued looking around. "Come out wherever you are,
Sigma!" I called. "If you're gonna draw me into a world with your rules, at
least show yourself!"
A pair of glinting blue eyes opened from the shadows and swooped
down to the floor, where their owner, the one Maverick that had caused so
much destruction and killed so many innocents revealed himself to me finally.
"You know where you are?" he asked in a quiet bellow.
I nodded, narrowing my eyes. "This is where you talked to X before.
It has to be."
"Correct. Have you thought about why you are here?"
"I've only been conscious a few seconds," I said, "but I can guess
why."
"And...?"
"You want to infest me."
"Correct again. X is approaching the room where we are. Can you
hear him?"
I strained my ears to listen. Sure enough, the familiar tpp, tpp of
X's boots echoed into even this place.
"Yeah," I said. "So how and where exactly does this place exist?"
"This is a place in your mind, Zero. I am here for now only as a
spectator in what is to come. Your thoughts are still racing about, and you
are still unconscious in the real world. For now, time is at a virtual stand-
still. This conversation between you and I is occurring in thousandths of a
second."
"So I'm here to be infested?"
"You were here to be infested, my friend, but luckily for you, your
roots of sigmae mavericus have shrunk too deep for me to replant. If I were
to infest you, your will would oppose mine too greatly. Without total control,
your mind and body are useless to me. Be thankful for that, I would say.
Some time in the future, those roots may regrow somehow, but for now..."
"For now, I'm safe."
He nodded, throwing his head down in defeat. With a heavy sigh, he
sat down. "Even this magnificent body will not last forever," he said, staring
at his hands. "I pushed Wily to finish it as quickly as possible. He had to
meet only the most pressing demands on the armor's workload to complete
it in time. He had to make a weakness for it."
I raised an eyebrow. "What went wrong?"
He looked up at me. "The energy supply is very limited. Every ounce
of power will be drained from this body in no more than an hour."
"I can see where that would be logical," I said. "If you cut Wily's work
short, he couldn't make the final adjustments on the distributors. With the
lasers on the shoulders, the eye lasers, and the energy release function on
your saber, it'd sap energy worse than leaving a car's headlights on. That's
the flaw to your suit there, Sigs."
He looked indifferent. Glancing down again, he began to mutter
aloud. "I never understood, because of my programming... I never
understood why I was never able to think logically... My thoughts are always
garbled, and all my thinking can never add up. You remember the thing with
Wily back there, and then me forcing him into finishing... This suit will never
hold up for that long. I am doomed to go through yet another period of
dormancy. My subjects will once again lose all ties to me, and you and X will
be able to take out this body no problem. I despise losing."
There was a long pause. Both of us seemed to be looking for
something else to talk about. Why, though, was he keeping me, of all people,
here to talk to? A good question. I spoke up. "Were you telling the truth
when you said that Iris still talked about me? About what we had together?"
He smiled, not evilly. I frowned puzzledly, but sat down next to him.
"I was telling the truth. She pines over you, truly. When another being is a
part of you for so long, you begin to feel effects of their emotions, and are
able to take apart their thoughts, eventually."
I paused before saying anything else, thinking. "Could you tell her
something for me, Sigma?" I asked.
He cocked an eyebrow at me. "What is it?"
"Just tell her she meant a lot to me, and that I think of her
everyday."
Sigma closed his eyes for a split second, then opened them and said,
"She said to say she feels exactly the same way, Zero. She loves you."
I lowered my head now, fighting back the tears.
"In pain now, Zero?"
"Just remembering what happy times we had. It didn't matter to us
how few there actually were. Amidst the war going on around us, the
humans' uneasiness towards us, there wasn't a lot of time for love, or
anything much more than fighting."
He nodded. "And for the first time, I feel as if I should take blame
for that." I felt a surprised look creep onto my face. "I'm sorry, Zero. Sorry
for all the pain I've caused you, and sorry that I was created the way I was."
I just stared at him a few seconds, trying to discern exactly what
he'd just said. The being, the virus that had caused so much trouble for
Reploids and humans alike, had just related to me an apology. I smiled
instinctively. "I knew you had in it you." He looked up at me curiously. "Ever
since I'd been a part of you, I knew there was a slice of your being that has
wanted to say that for so long."
He smiled, chuckled. Again, not evilly. I kept that smile on my face,
baffled as to what had finally brought this out of him. His shortness with
Wily? His possession of X? His realization of his only weapon's short life-
span? God only knew. Nevertheless, for one moment in this war, we, the
bitterest enemies opposite each other, had called a truce.
* * *
X
I crept along the corridor leading to the room where my friend and
Sigma were fighting (I had found out that it was a software extraction
chamber, actually). Keeping in touch with the three rogue Hunters in the
vents, I continued to give them kind reminders about not busting in and just
finishing Sigma immediately. I didn't mention why I requested this, but they
agreed nonetheless.
Finally outside the main portal to the chamber, I checked back in
with Iris and company one last time: "Guys, you close?"
Enker's voice projected itself: "Yeah. I can see Sigma now. He's
leanin' up against the wall furthest the vent. Zero's unconscious, I guess,
and he's layin' on the opposite side of the room."
"I suppose Sigs figures a live worm attracts more fish than a dead
one," I muttered. "Listen, I'm taking this nice and easy. You guys got that?"
"For the freakin' 97th time, YES!" Roll said back.
I chuckled. "Sorry `bout that, Roll. You know if it were in both our
best interests for you to have every hit on Sigma, I'd give him to you."
"So why are you holding us back, X?" Iris asked. "I've been
contemplating that ever since you got us to hold off."
Well, the truth had to come out some time. "I just wanna get in a
few hits first. I'm entitled to that for being possessed by big, bad virus
here, I think." Now was not the time. If they knew I was keeping them back
to keep them from going re-Maverick on me, they'd get headstrong and I
couldn't talk any sense into them. If I had to predict anyone going down first
in a fight, it'd probably be Iris. I can't let that happen. For Zero's sake, and
for the sake of anyone that depended on the Hunters, I'd have to keep them
away for now.
"Alright, I'm opening the door," I said as I touched the door control
pad on the frame. The backlight flashed from blue to green, then glowed a
gentle yellow. The door split in half and slid open almost noiselessly, and I
prepared myself. I had no idea what kind of state Sigma or Zero could be in.
Go strictly by the books on this one, X, I told myself. Nice, easy stealth.
Keep yourself invisible until something happens.
Sigma appeared lost in thought, leaning, as Enker had said, against
the far wall. I spotted a sliver of Iris's armor in the vent grating, and gave
her a thumbs-up. "M'in," I said softly to them. "Now let's just wait to see
what Sigma'll have to say when he wakes up."
Iris smiled, winked, and returned the thumbs-up, saying nothing. I
took a walk to the center of the chamber, where sat an extraction device. In
its core was a glass case, empty. "Where Sigs had the disk, I suspect. Or at
least what he used as a fake disk." I glanced around. Either they'd been
playing with each other, or neither of them got in a lot of good hits. I saw no
signs of struggle around the chamber, no burn marks, no sliced-open walls,
no nothing. After thinking that "no nothing," however, my eyes came to rest
on a no-doubt Z-saber-sliced holographic projector. Walking over to it and
checking out its most recent image, I knew what the virus had used for the
phony disk. A hologram? Equally smart and risky for him, I thought. If I'd
gotten here first, he'd've been screwed because of my radar, but to the
naked eye, it's as real as any other of the disks we've collected. He was
counting on Zero or anyone else to get here first. Good thing for him he was
right, or we could've finished this a lot sooner.
I stopped thinking for a sec and waved to the vent for the three
others to come on in. There was something mysterious about this whole
thing. For some reason, though, I felt as if Sigma was being lenient on us.
As we started to sweep the chamber, I kept a sharp eye on both the
fighters, making sure neither of them woke up with Sigma's persona about
him.
* * *
Zero
I could hear X enter the room from beyond my thoughts. Sigma
noticed it, but said nothing. "As long as I stay with you here, my armor's
activities are suspended, as will be the energy drain."
"Do you plan to keep me here forever?" I said. "Or have you
decided?"
"I want to keep you here," he said, "but at the same time, my staying
here would get nothing accomplished. I can't leave without you leaving, and
vice-versa. I am debating with myself at this point."
I stood up. "If you do have anything inside of you beyond your viral
programming, Sigma, and I know you do, in the form of your AI brain; then
you can make this decision for yourself. You can start right here, right now,
trying your best to break through your code. If you can do that, you won't
have to be a slave to your viral tendencies anymore. Whoever created you
originally put you in a Reploid body, I know. From that body, you gained a
sense of power, but also gained something else your maker hadn't counted
on: the ability to think for yourself. Until now, the code has kept that, and
any, logical thinking under control. You can fight it, Sigma. I can help you."
He looked up, question all but screaming from his expression.
Standing up, his body held up at least two heads higher than mine. As bitter
and evil as I had felt to this being before, as threatened--it had fled from me
now. Now, he was simply a larger version of any other Reploid. I was
doubtful of what he would choose, and how and why he would choose, but I
kept an expecting look in my eyes, waiting for his answer.
Throwing his head skyward, a chuckle escaped his mouth. "Never
thought I'd be in this position, getting help from one of--of you."
I nodded. "I feel strange about this, too, Sigma. Somehow, though, I
can feel that you're being sincere about this. Will you let me help you
destroy the virus within you?"
He sank down to the floor again, needing its stability to think, I
suppose. "A trillion calculations are running through my head, Zero. A trillion
thoughts, and a trillion things to say. I need only jar us from this...this vision
to easily destroy you, and more likely, your friends as well. With both you
and X gone, the others could hardly pose a threat to me. On the other hand,
however, I could ask for your help, admit that I've done wrong yet again, and
try to find my maker, to get him to rearrange my code."
I bent my head down, trying to see his expression. To no avail,
unfortunately. His face was blackened by the shadows in this room.
"Needless to say, this decision will be somewhat nerve-racking for
both of us, no matter which way it turns out."
I nodded, saying nothing.
He sighed. "What have I to lose? If you are still willing to help me,
Zero, I accept your offer."
He stood up and offered a hand to me. I pinched myself, just in
case I had been dreaming this whole thing. After finding I was very much
awake, I extended my hand with a smile to his and took it firmly.
"This opens up an entirely new chapter in the little story of this
war," he said.
"You always were the poetic one," I said as I shook his hand. "Just
get us out of here so I can explain all this to X, if I can."
"Done," he said as he retracted his hand and snapped his fingers.
* * *
Swirling around, the world slowly reverted back to the chamber
where we'd fought not minutes before. I picked myself up from where I'd
passed out when Sigma had tapped my mind, and waved X off as he came
over to help me up.
"Are you hurt, Zero?" he asked as he backed away.
"I'm just great," I said. "And I think we've made a new friend."
"What do you mean, Zero?"
"I'll explain in a minute," I replied, noticing Iris and the others in the
corner. "`Scuse me," I said, walking over to her.
Throwing my arms around her, I spoke softly into her ear: "Hey,
you. What're you all doing here?"
She chuckled silently, whispering back: "We're your newest
teammates, silly. After Dr. Cain checked with each of us, he found out we all
wanted basically the same thing after a rest period: we wanted to fight
again."
"And he sent you here?" I asked, surprised.
"Why wouldn't he?" she said louder, pulling away and looking in my
eyes. "Is there something you're not telling me?"
"X?" I asked. "Didn't you tell them?"
"Tell us what?" Enker asked.
X shook his head, rubbed a hand exasperatedly down his face. "I
was gonna have to tell you sooner or later, guys. I really didn't want you
coming along, but I can't go against Cain."
"Why didn't you want us to come?" Roll asked.
He gave a sidelong stare at me, pained. "I was just afraid that if I
told you why earlier, you'd've gotten unreceptive. You wouldn't listened to a
thing I or Zero said."
"So what is it?" asked Roll again.
"We wanted to keep you three out of this because Sigma can
possess recently Maverick Reploids much easier than he can Zero or I," he
blurted.
The three looked around at each other, taking this in.
"Besides that," I said, "we didn't want you rushing into any fighting
with Sigs here," I gestured to his still-unmoving form. I began to think there
was something wrong, but restrained myself. Thoughts right now were too
optimistic to spoil.
"Any of you could've very easily killed yourselves going up against
Sigma. Zero was worried about Iris, of course, and everyone else about you
other two. We couldn't run the risk of any of you going back to Sigs again or
falling to him."
"I'm just loathing Sigma for what he did to us all," Enker said. "I feel
as if I'm obligated to help destroy him."
I closed my eyes. "I know," I said with a smile. "I felt that way, too.
However, I'm glad to tell you about what happened while Sigs and I were out
over there," I gestured.
"Yeah, what was with the unconsciousness bit, Zero?" Roll said.
"You had us worried."
"Sigma pulled me into that world he pulled X into before he infested
him."
Iris interrupted quickly with a gasp. She took hold of my arm,
dragging me to stand right in front of her. "Let me see your eyes, Zero.
Stare right into my eyes. Try not to blink." I looked intently at her as she
had asked, then she breathed a sigh of relief. "He's not Sigma."
"I knew that," I said, kissing her cheek and giving her a smile.
"Well, if he didn't infest you, what did he do?" asked X. "This is
news to me."
"Strangely, he and I talked. No insults. No threats. No attacking.
Just discussing this whole thing truthfully and candorously."
"You got Sigma to carry out an honest conversation with you?"
Enker asked, his jaw slack.
I nodded. "I have no idea how, but he just started it, and we
followed through."
"And he started the conversation, too?" Roll asked. "Go home and
bury yourself in a bomb shelter, the end is near!"
Ignoring her, X spoke: "So what did you find out?"
"Most of what I already knew--Sigma has logical, AI roots in his
code, somewhere. He told me he wants to find that part of himself and lose
his viral properties."
Everyone gaped. "He...wants us to help him?" Iris finally managed
to struggle.
I nodded again. "Just like I said. I couldn't believe it at first,
either."
X frowned. "So why's our new buddy not out of his trance yet?" he
said, gesturing to Sigma's still-limp body.
Now I was worried. "Good question." Walking over, I checked his
status CPU on his arm unit. "The body is still operational," I said, "but every
trace of the ol' guy himself is gone." Noticing a light blinking in a corner of
the readout, I tapped the CPU to see what was up. From the body's shoulder,
there slid open with a hiss of air a small panel, and out popped a mini-disk,
much like the ones we had hunted down from Pi, Delta, and Epsilon. The label
read, "For X and Zero: Read-only, for your eyes only."
X walked up behind me, glanced over my shoulder. "Must've just
burned it while he was sitting there," he muttered. Reaching down to touch
it, he nodded with certainty. "Yep. Still warm."
"Uh, X? There's something else," I said, pointing to another flashing
icon on the CPU's interface. Tapping it, I stepped back as the two shoulder-
mounted lasers turned to face each other and fired two bolts: one blue, one
red. Moving around ever quicker, they started to form a picture: Sigma's
face. His voice boomed from his body's mouth, though it didn't move. The
mouth of the laser-hologram was in sync with the words he spoke:
"I'm unbelievably sorry for this, Zero, X," he said. "My persona has
left this body to another location. I can't tell you where; my code restricts
it. As logically as I now think, I can, however, tell you where to find the time
machine to return Wily. There is a secret Maverick outpost elsewhere in
these mountains, in fact very close. Check in the lake under this base.
There is an underwater tunnel that leads there."
X smiled. "I knew that tunnel meant something!"
The projection continued. "To Pi, Del...uh, Iris, Roll, and Enker, I
give my utmost apologies, as to all my...my victims." The three exchanged
uncertain glances, but emerged with smiles. "And now, a final note: you may
like to leave, now." The face morphed into a clock, and began a countdown
from five minutes. "I suggest you leave as soon as this recording is finished.
Anything I've not discussed with you here is contained on that disk, and
concerns only X and Zero. They may share its contents with the other
Hunters at their own discretion. Goodbye for now, my friends. I feel we will
meet again soon." Then the clock faded out, and we were left to run again.
