All characters belong to Capcom. Asaki Kai and Blind belong to me. I'm not making money off of this. It's for entertainment only. Dedicated to the few who know me and are *not* disgusted with the male/male inserts. Now, have yourself a nice day. ^^

Chapter 9



"Whee. Back in Nasagi and its haunted houses," was Zero's dry response to the sight of the vacated building. Both X and Zero were battle prepped, in dire hopes of another encounter with the reploid Blind; it was one encounter Zero wasn't looking foward to.

X nodded. "But this time, we're better equipped for its ghouls and goblins."

The door, like last time, wasn't locked. The main overhead light had been left on and the interior wasn't as foggy looking like last time. There was an opening on the far wall, the camouflaged door slowly drifting open wider, like someone had gone through it and hadn't closed it properly. The two Hunters exchanged inquisitive glances. That hadn't been there before..

Beyond the door was a steep stairwell, no light reaching past about four steps. Zero made a grand sweeping gesture. "After you, Yakasa."

X only rolled his eyes. "Scared cat." But he went down anyway, igniting the flare-like torch he brought along. Zero was right behind him.

After a seemingly endless trip downward, X touched down on a solid platform, but the room was no less illuminated than the stairway. Except for the other end of the room. The corners and walls were lined with all sorts of small lights and dimly lit monitors, one corner seeming to be alive with electrical activity... and even through the dencity of the dark, you could tell whatever was over there was massive. But beside it, as stated before, was the only real light. It was low, but enough to work by. And in it, sitting at the single chair within, was the second man in question.

Dr. Asaki Kai.

"Asaki-san!"

As the scientist turned around, the reploids carefully erased most of the distance between them. But they stopped when they reached the edge of the light... X recoiled. They could see Asaki's death wish in his eyes, the slouch his thinned body had, the translucent pallor of his skin. But he had a small smile on his face, a genuine one. "So, I finally get to meet the two Hunters I've heard so much about. It's an honor, really it is."

Now that was puzzling. You'd think that an evil mastermind with the power to control time would be ranting and raving about having his plans foiled. This... was like handing out tea and crumpets.

"Um.. excuse me, sir," said X, thoroughly baffled. "You /are/ Dr. Asaki, right?"

The human nodded. "Yes, I am."

"The man obsessed with time travel?"

"The very same."

Zero sighed, irritated, and pulled X aside to try his hand at this. And with an over-exagerated expression, he leered, "What're your evil schemes for this device?"

All X did was hide his face. "Oh, Zero.." he whispered. "Grow up."

Asaki shook his head. "I have no schemes for my machine. It was done to prove to everyone that they were wrong and that time travel is possible."

X looked up and shushed Zero before he could embarrass himself by acting like some American investigator. "Then why did you bring the bioroids here?"

"That was /my/ doing."

X and Zero whipped around, but couldn't see the source of the voice. However, it wasn't hard to guess who it belonged to.

"Show yourself, Blind!"

"Certainly. Doctor, kindly cover your eyes."

With a snap of Blind's fingers, the room was flooded with the same dim light. The red and blue reploids squinted at their optics undilated, but Asaki quietly whimpered in pain behind them.

And there was Blind, the same as last time, but with a not too promising attachment beside him. Zero growled. "Vile."

"Oh, so you've met?" Blind's voice was covercoated in sweetness, but there was mockery between the lines. "Well then, no need for introductions."

X grimaced as he looked between the red-with-rage Zero and the troublesome duo. Something didn't add up here.

Asaki was /nice/. Blind (who was first thought to be cynical and sadistic) could be /polite/, if not a little sarcastic. Vile was apart of the whole plot, which no sense whatsoever. And /Blind/ was the one that pulled the bioroids to this time. No, no. Nothing made sense. There had to be missing pieces to the Grand Scheme puzzle.

So, he halted Zero before he could perform a tranditional Ranting Baffoon attack and gazed harshly between the purple Maverick and the jagged rogue. "I want answers. What could be possibly achieved by all this. Chipping Blues' files, bringing them here in the first place. They could /have/ died here-- they still could!-- and what would history become then?! Tell me!"

Blind bowed his head with a little smirk, looking off to the side like it was a joke and he was trying to hide his laughter. He brought up a black-gloved finger and rocked it back and forth. "Sore wa himitsu desu*, Yakasa-sama. Judgement hasn't been proclaimed by the jury yet. Until then, the verdict is still unknown. But once the sentence is passed, you'll know the conviction."

A bewildered 'huh?' came from a very disturbed Zero, who took a moment to lean closer to X and, with a hand infront of his mouth and suspicion-laddened eyes, said, "You get the feeling they're missing a few screws in their modems?"

X nodded, dilated eyes the size of beads from the puzzle pieces in his mind scattering about the shallows of his circuitry. Can't we ever run into anyone /sane/?!

And it didn't help any when, with Vile holding his ground, Blind walked up and brushed past the two Hunters without even a word. It doesn't need to be mentioned that Zero was all the more ready to cut Blind's hand of should one stray too far to either of them as the reploid approached.

Yet, it does need to be mentioned that no such action was made and Zero was most disappointed. He just wanted an excuse to /hurt/ Blind.

"Kai." The old man's face was blank as Blind, out of respect, dropped down onto one knee, bowing his head like a knight before his king. He spoke softly, so different. "It's over, like I promised."

"I'm glad..." His own voice had changed. It sounded as if a millennia had passed, brittle and ancient.

X's heart wrenched. These two couldn't be the ones they were after. They couldn't be.... Ah, my head hurts.

"It's seemed like more than the allotted time has past, my friend." He chuckled dryly and took his eyes away from his servant, smiling sadly up at the reploids beyond his own. "I have spent most of my life in a machine, although if you were to ask my colleagues, they would be confused.

"I once had a family. Children, a loving wife. My dear Mikato, she was the essence I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. But God took her. They stole her precious soul in one of the very early Maverick attacks and placed her among the choir of angels in all their splendor.

"And I was left with my two children. So hard to watch them like she did, with my job and all. I struggled to keep them within my custody, and the fight was hard. But in the end, I kept my young ones.

"The disease struck them first. Poor, frail Kakito fell first to a terrible fever and was dead within the month. Hiza was gone soon after, but he smiled for me in his last moments. And the same disease attacked me soon after.

"The doctors in the hospital new what was wrong then. An agent discharged from reploid weaponry in the air had triggered an allergic reaction in our bloodstreams; you may or may not have heard of the Colindosa syndrome. My two boys were like sacrifices for information from the gods and because of them, my life could be saved.

"My blood was replaced with circuitry and electric pulses that stimulate my heart to keep it beating... but that system is nearly deteriorated and my death is inevitable.

"I built this machine, with Blind's assistance, in honor of my family. Now that it's complete, I can pass on." Asaki looked down at his withering hands. "But I will not see my wife, nor my children. I'm coated in the blood of damnation and will ultimately go to hell. And that's fine for me. It's one thing to be a world apart... it's more painful to be an existance apart. The Asaki name will stop here and to the person who picks it up.. well, I'll pity that poor fool. He'll be destined to ruin."

His hand reached out to Blind and the red reploid caught it with his own, placing the cracking skinned hand against his cheek, Asaki's fingertips touching the soft material of the bright blindfold. "Judgement will go on. I know the answer, for I know the legend of the falling skies. ....Blind, take care of her and the others for me, if you will."

"Always, doctor."

Behind them, X was trying to dry his eyes on his armored arm... and not getting very far. Zero was sobbing like a sissy, creating a growing puddle of salt water at his feet.

Further back, Vile was making the weirdest noises, like a cross between whiny sniffles, garbled laughter, and lots of choking. Needless to say, he also had a puddle at his feet, tears soaking his one red eye, and was holding a kleenex beneath his bucket to catch said tears.

You just have to wonder about that guy.

But the moment was over and Blind stood up and, still holding Asaki's hand, switched off the life support embedded into the console; the hard flick rattled the walls like the echo of a gunshot.

Mikato... Wait for me.

And all that remained of Asaki Kai was his inanimate body.. and his smile.

"Sayonara, toshiyori no tomodachi**."

"There's no way to remove it without disrupting the trigger to the sonic amplifier. And messing with that will cause his whole mechanical larynx to collapse." Cain gave a heavy breath and dabbed a hankerchief across his brow. Alia had thankfully provided him a wooden cane to lean on, as he was still shaken up from the vocal assault. "And if that happens, he won't be able to speak until it's replaced, which it can't be. While it's more advanced than yours, it's ancient compared to ours."

On the counter across from the doctor, the med table, and his brother, Rock just shook his head mournfully. Everything was just going so wrong. Blues would know what to do. An empty smile twisted his lips. How ironic. He's right here in front of me...

Off into the corner of the room, shrouded in shadows, Forte sulked, a cross between seethingly enraged and miserably depressed. Gospel lay at his feet, thankfully unharmed by the sonic blast. It was a mild comfort, knowing that the one creature in the whole world that gave a shit about you was by your side. But even a companion can't soothe all the pain away.

I nearly kissed Rock.

Oh, if only a simple phrase could disappear, along with the blurry memory it came clipped to like a note on a picture. He had made a mistake and it was tearing him apart. It was one thing to actually kiss someone, a polar opposite to never do so, but being stuck in the middle, teetering on the edge of the road was impossible.

And now, all he could do was curl up and glare at the Blue Bomber's profile with excessive loathing. For Rock, for his brother, for himself.

So many could take the blame. Blues, for having that stupid internal whistle. Blind and Asaki, for inserting that stupid case file. Cain, for tampering with said stupid case file. All of those obstacles had stopped him from finding out once and for all if Rock was interested in him beyond the 'we are not enemies' routine.

And of course, Murphy's Law*** just /had/ to fucking occur. It couldn't wait another second or 60. It just /had/ to be then!

And now, Rock knew... Knew about his wishes, his hopes, his biggest kept secret --yes, he's aware Blues knew; there's nothing you can't get past him. Not even a cookie crumb-- and the world just seemed to do everything in it's power to make him suffer the humility of releasing that information upon Rock.

The one nail biting tidbit was that Rock acted like it never happened... or would have happened. Or-- whatever!

As blood-dry violet eyes continued to glower, the emergency lights flickered on as red alert sirens blared across the compound, knocking them all out of their current states of thought.

"Doc.. Dr. Cain? What's going on??"

The hankerchief swept faster over Cain's furrowed forehead. "Maverick attack."

"WHAT?!" was the two responses he received.

"No time to ask questions. We need to move. Now."

There was a painful silence as the reploids paid a quick respect to the deceased scientist, before Blind interrupted it with smooth metal sliding against the floor as he turned around, his lips tightly pursed together. "Time is coming short, Hunters. The finale is today, and tomorrow will be the grand start of a new age. Can you handle it or will you no longer function?"

"See, there you go again with the weird mumbo jumbo. Speak without the toothsaying!"

As Blind cracked a grin and Vile fell over laughing, X leaned up to whisper, "Ne, Zero... That's /soothsaying/."

"Eh?" Zero blinked down at him. "Are you sure?"

A eyebrow rose. "Would Vile be laughing his head off if it was?"

".....Point dully noted."

"Gentlemen!" barked the jagged reploid, back to his icy demeanor. "The countdown begins. Time to run along home now, Hunters. Momma hen's calling back her bravest chicks."

And with timed perfection, both Vile and Blind were gone.

Zero and X exchanged apprehensive expressions before dashing out of the lower levels by stairway and out the front door. Past the barrier that prevented most electronic signals to bypass, both of their commlinks were going wild with static. Over the fuzziness was Alia's voice frantic and desperate.

"--by half and request imidiate return by all field agents! Attention, all Maverick Hunters who have not reported back to base, we have a class S emergency! I repeat, class S! Mavericks have overwhelmed the defenses of HQ and are demolishing everything in their path! Our forces have been reduced by half and request imidiate return by all field agents! Attention--"

"Oh mother of all Saints..."

"...It's a massacre." X's arm dropped to his side, dead weight. New pieces of the puzzle were slowly unshadowing and he began to piece the original ones back together. "....Sigma's going to be there."

Zero looked in the general direction of the base and growled. "The bastard would be."

"Time is coming short, Hunters. The finale is today, and tomorrow will be the grand start of a new age. Can you handle it or will you no longer function?"

Part of the picture formed and X's eyes widened, nearly choking on air that refused to leave his lungs. "Sigma /is/ there..."

"Wha... Yakasa, how do you--"

"What Blind said!" X grabbed at Zero's arms, an enlightened madness in his emerald eyes. "'The finale is today'! The war ends today!"

Zero cocked his head back with a distinct expression that screamed, 'Now you lost it.'

"Listen!" His grip tightened and Zero stiffened, feeling those fingers beginning to crack through the shell of his underarmor. "This will be the battle that decides everything! If we die, Sigma wins and tomorrow, the world will be his! If we win, Sigma is gone for good and we can begin to make everything right again!"

"....." The Crimson Hunter held his tongue, keeping the numerous replies under wraps. Blind was obviously affecting X somehow and Zero didn't like it. Not one bit. So out of all his sharp, cutting, and harsh answers, he picked the one that would cause no complications and keep the rogue off of Yakasa's mind. "X, the bioroids. We need to make sure they're alright first."

The insanity was gone and X blinked repeated, hearing his joints creak as he removed his hands from Zero. "You're right.... Let's go."

Cries of the slaughter rose above the battlefield, christen the ears of a dark lord of power. Sigma watched as reploids and humans were torn apart, whether Hunter or Maverick. It mattered not, after all.

The book was maxed out in the questions department for the next few hours, but those few hours would fly by like minutes, so long as he enjoyed its solid weight under his arm and the boiling anguish thirty feet below him.

Blood. Sorrow. Doom. These are the ingredients choosen to make the perfect world.

"Nice view, wouldn't you say, Epsilon? A full picture of your glorious victory over the Hunters."

"Too bad it won't last as long as you would like it to."

Sigma stiffened considerably, recognizing one of the voices instantly... and the other knew his prototype name. "I beg to differ, Vile." He spun around, cape flaring. "It will last, because traitors always get what they deserve in the end."

His ex-second in command and the rogue gave each other bare glances and then looked back. It was like a silent agreement as Vile out-stretched his arms in front of him, fingers cupped, but no limbs or digits touching. A light glow was starting to form.

"I'm sorry, 'sir', but don't underestimate the way of Fate. I've worked with her for longer than you've existed, for longer than there has been civilization on this planet. I've been her pawn and she's finally given me the break I've craved. My band is gone, my home destroyed, and all I have is memories... and the ones I love. She won't disppoint me now, at this moment." And the light flared, reacting to the scream of it's name.

"Sore wa himitsu desu.": The trademake saying of Xellos from The Slayers. It means, "That/It's a secret."

"Sayonara, toshiyori no tomodachi.": Literally, it means, "Goodbye, elderly friend." In my sense, it's 'old' instead of 'elderly'. ^_^ Live with me and my bad japanese.

Murphy's Law = "If anything can go wrong, it will."

And thus, the plot thickens as I turn your brain to mush while you try to figure out my devious plan. Mwaha! XD

**has been screaming over his blondeness getting his own game, knowing this would happen and X better kick his royally retarded ass**

Blues: Now is this really any way to be spending your birthday? Ranting and raving?

.... o_o You are absolutely right, Boo. ^_^ Get me my granny rocker! I'm old!

Blues: ¬_¬ You're not even 20 yet. How can you be old?

XD Give me another year and I /will/ be 20. .... @.@ *falls over* ;.; *cries* I don't wanna get older!

Moral of this little thing: ^_^ 1/31, my bifday! I'm 19! *plops on the granny-grey curly wig* Where's mah prune juice?!


We're slowly beginning to wrap this up,
folks. Enjoy it while you can. *grin*