ZERO

Chapter 8

Signas Fights Back

Senya Starseeker

twilight_rhapsody@hotmail.com

A/N: I know you're all thinking . . . finally an update!! But really it's only been, what, three months or so? *sweatdrop* Seriously I am soooo sorry to everyone reading this, but I really have not had any time! I'm surprised I'm even able to be writing this now! And also I must find time to write the next chappy of my other Megaman fanfics 'Time Loop' and 'My Maverick Lover' sniff! I have no time! The world isn't fair!!

"Amazing! Absolutely amazing!" Cain gasped as the nurses frantically wheeled in two figures. Each horribly battered. First of all was X, the wounds and fractures to his body were astounding, considering this was a reploid who had saved the world and bested Sigma on more than one occasion. Cain knew that he would have to be repaired instantly before permanent stress-damage set in.

But what had truly amazed the aged professor and caused him to exclaim was not X, but the second figure, the female. She was unmistakably human, not reploid. Yet the wound to her shoulder revealed protruding wires and fractured thin metal tubes and rods. They broke through the human flesh in a mess of blood and oil.

"I don't believe it . . ." He murmured, leaning over and examining the wound. "A true cyber-organic . .. " He was so lost in thought that he was not even aware of the medical reploids slicing away May's clothes in sections to treat her wounds.

But what they saw was amazing. In small areas across her body wires and hints of metal showed through under the skin and were clearly visible. Over her heart was a large metal plate interconnected with her flesh.

"Cain, Sir . . ." Murmured one of the nurses. "I . . . I don't think we can deal with this . . . it is a foreign system to us. We would not be apt to deal with the human aspects of her anatomy."

"I . . . I know." Dr. Cain sighed. "I know. We should have alerted the human paramedics. Call a human doctor right away, but do what you can to stop the blood--oil--both of it. And you," He directed another reploid. "Get to work immediately on X."

Lifesaver, however was already on the job, "My god . . . these wounds. . . they're so terrible!" He murmured. "We need to preform an emergency override to his back-up life support systems!"

In a flash the room suddenly went dark.

"A power shortage?!" Lifesaver exclaimed, "At a time like this?!"

"It couldn't . . . just be that." Signas told them quietly. "Be on your guard, everyone."

Suddenly the observatory window behind them smashed. Reflexively, all of the figures spun around. Glass had shattered across the floor and lay glittering in tiny shards. Standing were the window had once been, silhouetted against the light of the moon, stood Zero Omega.

"Zero?!" Dr. Cain cried, "W-what are you doing here?!"

"What do you want?" Lifesaver asked, his eyes narrowing.

The former Maverick Hunter remained silent, still . . . Then, slowly, a smile spread across his face. There was nothing Cain like about that smile.

"My dear Dr. Cain," Zero began, droll, in a voice dripping with sarcasm, he slowly spun the Z-saber around with a flick of his wrist, and cassually eyed their group. "How nice it is to see you again."

"Zero--"Cain began, but was cut off by Signas, who stood between them.

"Dr. Cain, Sir, get back! Get the wounded out of here, now!!"

"But Signas--!" Alia gasped.

"But nothing--GO NOW! I'll hold off Zero!"

"Ha ha ha ha . . . ." Zero laughed dryly. "YOU hold off ME? Really? Is that what you think? However . . . I will be kind enough to give you a chance to prove to your friends what an utter weakling you are. So . . . go ahead, run if you like. As soon as I'm done killing your leader I'll just come after you again."

Signas ground his jaw, his brow creased stressfully. "GO! NOW!" He repeated.

"Alright . . ." Cain nodded slowly, he motioned to the others and they hurriedly filed out through the doors.

"You know what you're doing is just SO pointless . . . or are you trying for the 'tragic-hero-sacrifices-himself-to-save-his-troops' thing? Whatever it is, it's pathetic, truly." Zero taunted, his emerald eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Zero . . .I don't want to fight you!" Signas said.

"Well, of course not. I mean, it's not like I'm going to grant you a painless death, after all." A twisted smile crossed Zero's face.

Signas growled low in his chest, "So be it!" He lunged towards Zero, his former greatest Hunter, now his most dangerous enemy, and placed all of his strength into the blow, he knew it would be fatal to hold back now. "Forgive me, Zero!" He screamed as his fist smashed into something, shattering it.

". . . For what. . . ?" A voice asked cooly.

"W--what the hell?!" Signas opened his eyes, his fist had collided with the metal wall, which had broken and splintered from the force. Pain suddenly ran through his hand and arm, which were now stuck in the wall. He cried out in pain. "You dodged me?! That's--that's not possible!" He cried, desperately craning his neck around to get a look at the Maverick. His eyes found Zero, standing calmly, illuminated by the light of the moon, his long golden hair billowing out softly behind him like a grand cape. His saber was drawn, and the red glow reflected in the millions of glass shards under his feet. It would have been beautiful, and it was, but doom and death hung in the air, Signas could feel them.

"Z--Zero . . ." Signas gasped in pain, pulling his hand from the wall.

The figure of Zero only chuckled, "You truly have no IDEA what my body is capable of, do you?"

Signas fought back a sudden fear inside of him, it was true that Zero's and X's programming were complete mysteries. He DIDN'T know what they were capable of. What sort of power might reside within them.

"After all . . . how many reploids are there that beat Signas, come back from the dead, and crush entire buildings?"

"ENOUGH!" Signas screamed angrily, "This ends NOW, Zero!" He charged his own buster and fired at Zero, the Maverick dodged, seemingly effortlessly.

"You're right, Signas, it does." Zero said softly, he through his Z-saber into the air, Signas saw it tearing swiftly towards him, all it took was a split second.

A horrible blinding pain shot through Signas chest, it was worse than anything he could ever remember feeling before. It blotted out his visual censors and his audio sensors for several seconds, it flooded his entire system and rang throughout his being. It overloaded his mind, he was not even aware that he had fallen to the ground until he opened his eyes to see Zero standing overtop of him.

"Ugh . . ." He groaned, the youngest commanding officer of the Maverick Hunters, possibly, some said, the greatest Reploid ever built, with unsurpassed potential. Zero grasped the end of the Z-Saber. He pulled it out, and lifted it above the general for the finishing blow. The greatest reploid ever built, no more.

Before Zero brought the saber down, the young general fought back all of the pain as much as he could bear, and looked to the surveillance camera above them in the corner, were he knew the others were watching. "Do not give up! X you are still our strongest Hunter, our greatest hope! You can succeed, Zero's programming may surpass all of ours, but remember that yours does to!"

There wasn't time for anything more. The saber came down in one glistening ark, and the horrible pain in Signas' chest ended.

*

Alia muffled a quiet scream as they watched the surveillance tape from the helicopter. She turned away, tears streaking down her face. Douglas placed a hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner, and she buried her head in his shoulder. Cain looked away gravely, as the figure on the monitor brought the shining saber down on the wounded and battered, but defiant, and brave, young general. Horrible quietness followed, and then a sickening thump.

X and May were on a separate helicopter, being repaired, they would not have to watch the horrible scene. Cain shuddered. The other reploids in the aircraft had begun to weep solemnly for their fallen leader. But the gruesome scene continued, Zero didn't stop with severing their leader's head. Cain closed his eyes, Alia continued to scream and cry quietly against Douglas' chest, but Douglas watched the scene soberly, solemnly, the details etching themselves into his mind.

Zero dug his fingers into Signas' chest plate and yanked it off roughly, tossing it away. He began to rip out the internal wires and systems, in a mess of oil and sparking tubes and frames. Like a hungry animal devouring his pray, Zero tore through the mangled mess of what had once been a proud Hunter. Until he found what he had been looking for, the glowing sphere lodged deep within Signas' chest, the matrix, the life source, the chip containing Signas' emotions, personality, memories, the very core of his being--and he held it up, and crushed it.

And he laughed. It was the most hideous sound any of them had ever heard.

"His memory chip, his personality . . . it's all. . ." Douglas said sadly, "It's done, he's gone, Signas is dead."

"Oh god . . ." Alia gasped between sobs. "What are we going to do now?!"

"We are going . . ." Cain told them gravely, "To repair X and May, and we are going to have them KILL ZERO OMEGA once and for all!"