Chapter Twenty-Nine: Nightmare

            Repliforce did not bother much with décor, Zero noted as he raced through the hallway of sorts. That, or they just hadn't had the chance to bother with it yet. This project had been fairly rushed, and for good reason, the Hunter thought with a smirk. Too bad that haste hadn't made a difference. Except, of course, that the whole place was more rickety than it would have been otherwise…and given where he was, that didn't make Zero feel very good.

            Electronic cables ran along the steel barriers that passed as walls, forming the hallway Zero passed through now. Artificial gravity was in action, rooting the Reploid to the ground so that he could fight properly. Of course, this also worked with his enemies, though Zero decided that the first such foe didn't count as an example—it floated.

            The mechaniloid eye was one used by hundreds of security systems back on Earth, and its function was simple and easily activated: it unleashed an extremely highly concentrated laser beam at anything that moved within its line of sight, and that laser would continue firing until the eye's battery was depleted. It would then go inactive for a bit and recharge for a second round. If the target managed to survive the laser attack, the chance to strike was when the floating eye was dormant.

            Zero knew all this already—he'd dealt with plenty of these things before. He stood in the open long enough for the eye to lock onto his position. Then he threw himself to the ground, and predictably the thick laser erupted from the eye's cannon and passed harmlessly over him. The eye wasn't famed for its adaptation to new circumstances; once it fired, it couldn't reposition itself without turning off the laser, which its programming would not allow it to do until the battery died. Zero waited for the few seconds it took for the machine to defeat itself, and then he leapt to his feet and charged the device. His lightsaber hung freely in his left hand, and he jumped at the last minute, pulling the blade up with him. The eye fell to the ground in two smoking halves. Its destroyer touched down a moment later, running off without even a glance behind him to acknowledge his victory.

            The Hunter allowed himself to hope. If the security inside Final Weapon was all like this, meaning all composed of the machines he'd fought on Earth, then he and X would be done here in no time. They'd smuggled themselves aboard with several select members of their units, who were now holding the fort in the Final Weapon's docking bay.  This vaguely worried Zero. He knew that he and X could take care of themselves, but would the other Hunters be able to make The Decision soon enough? The Decision, of course, was when to bail. Final Weapon was going to go boom in the end, Zero knew, and he hated initiating such a process knowing that his comrades were still in the area. But, he supposed it couldn't be helped, and that it was probably a foolish thing to worry about. These Hunters, after all, were the best and sharpest that they had.

X was infiltrating through another set of corridors that would probably lead him to General, judging from the maps that the Hunters had hastily downloaded before their assault. Zero had already admitted to himself that he hadn't the slightest idea where his path was taking him, but he'd guessed roughly that he was going towards the cannon chamber, which was the important part of the ship. The whole reason Final Weapon needed to go down was because of that cannon, which could wipe out entire cities with one blast. It was the Repliforce trump card, and while Zero doubted that General could bring himself to ever use it, others might not be so reluctant. And even General could suffer a breakdown, Zero knew. After all, he'd lost all eight of his commanding officers. He'd also lost Colonel, but...Zero didn't really want to dwell on that.

            His musings ended when he beheld his next obstacle. Two more floating eyes were flanking a large, squat machine equipped with duel rocket launchers. Perched on its back were two heat seeking missiles that it could fire while it reloaded its rockets. The whole scene was set in front of a tall wall…that wasn't really a wall at all. Zero did a split second analysis and saw that the top of the "wall" leveled out before it hit the ceiling…this was more of a road block than anything else, and scaling it would be no problem. First things first, however…

            The first eye locked onto him almost immediately. The Hunter rolled to the side to avoid the oncoming laser and charged towards the wall. Immediately the larger adversary fired off two of its slow-moving rockets. Zero adroitly leaped over them, spinning like a top in mid air and extending his sword arm fully. He sliced the first eye in two before it finished its laser attack, but didn't quite hit the second, which was turning to look at Zero with a most unforgiving glare as the Hunter latched onto the half-wall using mechanisms in his boots.

            The launcher bot, suddenly without a visible target but knowing there was still one in the vicinity, let loose its two missiles. They immediately floated upwards and locked onto the heat emitted from Zero's moving body. The Hunter dropped from his perch and passed right through the two missiles just before they converged on his former position together. The resulting explosion neutralized the second eye, which was just about to fire, but had unfortunately been just a little too close to its target.

            Never one to leave a battle unfinished, Zero cried "Hyouretszuan!" as he fell. His saber became encased with plasma-laced ice, and smashed through the launcher bot's armor. The mechaniloid's central computer was destroyed almost instantaneously, and Zero removed his weapon from the disabled machine, allowing himself a brief smile for his troubles.

            The crimson Hunter scaled the half-wall again, this time making it to the top unharassed. He stopped as soon as he saw it: a door. But not just any door. This was the door that most security teams installed to guard special rooms, and therefore it was the door that Maverick Bosses from the first uprising on had used to guard their sanctuaries. Zero couldn't blame them; the Hunters used the same system. Curiously enough, however, no one ever bothered to lock the damned things. More often than not, the only people who wanted to enter the guarded rooms were people with legitimate reasons for being there, and since the locks were extremely complex, it was often viewed as a waste of time to activate them. I thought the Repliforce would know better, Zero thought as he approached the door—really it was more of a thick purple pillar—and rested his hand on the activation pad. Tough break, guys. The door emitted some churning noises as it began to spin, coming apart at the center and exposing its internal circuitry to the Hunter who'd seen it all a hundred times before. Zero stepped through quickly. Once he was a few steps inside, the door sensed via infrared beams that the way was clear, and slammed shut again, locking itself into place, securely waiting for the next trespasser with a single functioning brain cell to foil it.

            The room was predictable. It was a slim corridor with a low ceiling, the kind of passage that always stood between a sanctuary and the outside world. And, of course, it ended with another purple pillar. Zero stopped before proceeding. It was always worth it, he thought, to prepare himself for the battle that would probably be waiting for him. X did it every time, and though he hated to admit it, X really did have a hell of a lot more experience with this kind of thing than Zero did. What was behind that door? A power source, he hoped. He needed to start taking those out. One of the potential plans was to make General totally helpless, and hope the big 'bot was still sensible enough to know defeat when he saw it. Still, power sources were inevitably defended, so a fight was probably before him. Feh…since when had a fight ever turned him off?

            There was a first time for everything, though he wasn't thinking of that as he passed through that final door. Shortly after he dropped to the floor and the gate snapped shut behind him, however, it all became clear as day.

            The room was, for the most part, no different than the ones he'd just come through. It was much larger, with a very high ceiling, and another purple gate sat at the other end. The décor was no different—exposed cables on the walls, but the same solid, sturdy steel floor, which was a reassuring thing. His saber was out and clenched firmly in his right hand—he, like most Reploids, was ambidextrous—and his eyes were sweeping the large room in a cool, collected manner. No power cores. Nothing much at all, it seemed. Was this meant as a storage room? If so, General was being lax on the supply deliveries—

            A sharp intake of air from the middle of the room, where it was shaded due to a faulty ceiling light, commanded his attention. His saber immediately came to a fighting position. Whoever it was, he'd caught him off guard.

            "So…you actually came." And just like that, the tables were turned.

            Zero recoiled as though struck. His arm lowered and his weapon with it. He blinked at the shadows and the figure within became more recognizable, even though the voice had already served as proper identification.

            The figure turned and walked slowly to the other side of the room. There it picked something up, something that glowed a dark, purplish color. It calmly returned to its position at the center of the room, but didn't proceed any further. All this time Zero just stood and stared with his mouth slightly agape as he searched his mind frantically for something to say.

            "Nothing to say…?" the voice observed. It was delivered in a dull, emotionless tone, but still it cut like the coldest, sharpest wind. "I guess it's not a surprise."

            "Iris…" he finally managed to whisper. He lowered his sword completely, staring at his friend. He was silently horrified to realize that he didn't recognize her. She was bathed by the eerie purple glow emitted from the strange crystal she carried in her arms. It distorted the blue/red color combination on her armor, which had been broadened out at her waist to resemble the bottom of a dress. Iris had not been built to fight, so her creators had justifiably spent little time making her look like a warrior. Her petite frame looked somehow larger, though, and her pretty face was now totally devoid of emotion. It was the eyes that really got to him. They were dead, cold, and blank. It was as though she were staring right through him, though at the same time they were locked onto his face. It was a creepy dichotomy, and one that he found he could not handle for long. This was nothing like Iris…this could not be the girl he'd known for so many years.

            "Iris," he said, louder. "Iris, I know…"

            "You know?" she echoed in what should have been a spiteful tone, but was just as neutral as the rest of her, making it worse somehow. "You know…what?" She waited patiently for a response Zero could not give. Finally she lowered her head and seemed to stare through the floor. "So…you fought with my brother."

            "Iris," he said immediately, "I didn't have a choice! Colonel wouldn't back down, he wouldn't listen to reason…!"

            "And you did?" she asked, still without emotion.

            "Iris…" It frustrated him that he couldn't think of anything else to say. He'd gone over this speech in his mind a hundred times since that bloody, horrible moment at the Spaceport. Even now he could feel Colonel's body slumped against him as Zero tried to keep him kneeling upright. He could hear his old friend's dying words ringing through his ears as loud as bells, even though they'd been delivered in a rasping, labored whisper: "Zero…tell Iris…that her brother died happily." And Zero supposed that was the truth. Colonel's last visage was of the Repliforce vessels leaving for space, where they would defend General and activate Final Weapon, ensuring Reploid independence. And so, Colonel had died with his mission completed, and Zero had lived to confront Iris and tell her that he'd broken her trust and fought again with her beloved brother, and this time he'd gone and killed him. However Iris hadn't been there. She'd been on one of the vessels, headed here, Zero realized now.

            "Iris, I didn't have a choice," he repeated, somewhat helplessly.

            "Then it's over," she said, as simply as announcing the time of day. "Everything." She referred to so much. It was the end of their friendship, of course, but also the end of Colonel's life…and her own, Zero realized. At that moment he understood exactly what he had done; he remembered what Colonel and Iris were to each other. Iris depended on Colonel and Colonel depended on Iris. They were linked. That was why they referred to themselves as siblings. Their creators had intended to build the yin and the yang, the face of war and the face of peace, and link them as one. Colonel was built to head up Repliforce and serve as a tactician and soldier. Iris was built to represent life's remaining innocence. The link was supposed to ensure a perfect balance, but the fourth uprising had upset that balance, and Zero had gone a step further and destroyed it. He'd destroyed Iris's second half…a half that she couldn't stand to live without. The gravity of the deed was worse than any horror Sigma had ever put him through.

            "I didn't want to kill him," Zero tried again. "He was my friend."

            "He was my brother!" The only positive thing, and it wasn't really positive, was that emphasis had returned to her words.

            "And he launched a war that leveled cities and put hundreds of innocent people in their graves!" Zero's prerogative had become defending himself. "I had to fight him!"

            "You butchered him!" she hissed, accusation flooding her eyes. "I saw it…Double was there, Zero, he showed me!"

            "Double?" This was news. "What was he doing there?"

            A simple, disinterested smile appeared on her face for the briefest of seconds. "His job. I expect X will be meeting him right about now. He did a good job as a spy…I didn't suspect him at all, and I was around him all the time. Who knew he was working for the Repliforce?"

            That bastard! "If Double's a sneak, why would you trust him? That battle was…"

            "It was brutal! I saw your eyes! You weren't holding back, neither of you were…you were just…monsters!" Her words drilled a hole through him. "You killed him without thinking, you only thought about it after he was dying in front of you!" Her voice cracked and she had to stop.

            "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry…" And he was, but what did that help? "You think I'm proud of it? I'm not…I'm not! It's the worst thing I've ever done!"

            "Oh, that was hard!" She was spiteful this time, and Zero found that he preferred her monotone. "What about me…? I asked you…I begged you! Both of you! You were his friend! Why didn't you reason with him? Why didn't you even try? It's all swords with you people! There's no time for anything but death!"

            "What was I supposed to do?" He was desperate now. The situation was getting out of hand and he did not like where it was going. "He was leading a caravan of ships up here, to build this! This is worse than swords! This will cause a lot more death than swords can! Was I supposed to let him? Was I supposed to let him kill more people?" He already hated himself for the words. Colonel's mission was not to kill. The Repliforce was idealistic. They fought not to kill humans, but to establish peace, which always ironically required war. "Reason failed! You think I would have fought him if I didn't have another choice?"

            Iris shook her head in a trance. "You didn't even try," she whispered. "You didn't even try…" She was shaking now. The purple crystal jittered in her hands. "He was my second half…I need him! What do I do? What do I do now?" Her tear-rimmed eyes looked right into Zero's own, and the Hunter could not stand the sight, but could not bring himself to look away. She was hurting, she was in agony, and he'd caused it, he'd caused every last bit of it, and there was nothing he could do to help her.

            "Iris," he said in a voice just as shaky as hers, stepping forward. "Please…"

            "No…!" She shrunk back away from him, tears running down her cheeks, her face a mask of desperation and confusion. She clutched the purple crystal to her chest as though she was a mother guarding her child, and the light illuminated her features. Her eyes seemed to be begging for answers, begging for reasons. She needed to know why, why had her best friend and most trusted confidant done this to her, why had he betrayed her and murdered the brother she depended on for emotional stability, and furthermore why he had discarded her pleas and ignored her most vital needs, this person he was supposed to care about? Zero truly had not wanted to kill Colonel. Colonel had given him no choice. The Repliforce officer had intended to do absolutely everything to ensure that the Spaceport Evacuation succeeded, and if that meant killing Zero, so be it. Zero had not tried to reason. He had begun to fight, thinking that if he could wound Colonel early on he could end the battle and then try to reason with his friend. Why? Why hadn't he tried to reason beforehand? He did not know, and so he had no answers for Iris, which in its own way was a worse blow to her than her brother's death had been.

            Iris straightened up, holding the purple crystal out in front of her. She looked up at Zero one last time. "I guess…that's it, then."

            That's when the Hunter finally got it. "Iris…what do you think you're doing?"

            She tried to look at him with resolve, but instead conveyed the shaky half-certainty that she truly felt. "I have to save him."

            "Iris, no!" Zero dropped his sword and started towards her again. Purple fire flared up from the crystal, blinding Zero and stopping his approach. He looked desperately through the flames and found her eyes, still fixing him with that agonized stare. "That's Colonel's power source…isn't it?"

            "Double brought it back," she said distantly. "Don't you understand? I have to save him! I have to keep him here…I can't let him leave, Zero!"

            "You weren't created for war, Iris! You can't handle that power!"

            "It doesn't matter!" she half-screamed, her long brown ponytail flapping behind her as the purple fire spread out from the crystal onto her body, creating some strange wind. "I can't lose him! I won't lose him! And I won't let you stop me!"

            Oh, my God! He was paralyzed both by the horror of the moment and the dread of what was to follow. Iris wasn't thinking clearly. There was no way she could properly manage Colonel's power. Her body was not meant for that. Who knew what this crystal would do to her?

            But at the same time there could be no stopping her. She held in her hands the only remaining essence of her brother, and nothing in the world would make her pass on the chance to keep that essence with her forever, no matter what the cost. Her mind was gone, Zero realized, replaced by an insane desire for something she could not have.

            And he was to blame.

            Iris raised her hands and the crystal with it. Her legs trembled slightly but she held herself upright. The crystal left her hands and hovered above her. Purple fire flowed from it, surrounding her figure with an eerie outline. She looked at Zero one last time with a gaze that was just as confused and desperate as the others, but this time she was almost apologetic. She hadn't done anything to apologize for. That meant that it was yet to come. Oh, no…

            The crystal hummed and sent a bolt of electricity down that locked Iris in place with her back arched inward and her head hanging directly underneath the mysterious power source. "Stay with me, brother…!" she begged of the crystal, just as it flared with the brightest light yet. The electricity brightened also, and then something strange happened.

            Zero hadn't noticed any spare parts lying around when he'd entered the room, but all of a sudden there they were. They were pieces of something, he realized…pieces of a robot ride armor. A mecha. They were all light purple in color, and rather jagged. They attached themselves around Iris, encasing her small, energized body in a cage of her own creation, and one that she had no desire to escape from. As the final pieces fell into place, sealed with that freakish purple flame like it was some kind of glue, Zero made out the image of a gargoyle, complete with horned headpiece and huge wings that really served no purpose, since the main jet propulsion of the ride armor was controlled by an active engine below the wings. In place of a right arm, the gargoyle had a huge cannon that Zero immediately dreaded. The crystal itself lodged in a compartment between the wings, and the entire machine hovered slightly above the ground. Then it stretched out its stiff limbs and awoke to Iris's command.

            Zero didn't snap out of his trance until the gargoyle started his way. He stepped backwards, his eyes widening at the scene. "Iris…Iris, stop this! You don't know what you're doing! You're going to wind up—"

            "No!" her voice echoed from within the mecha. "You won't do it! You won't take him from me again!" The cannon raised, leveling in Zero's direction. "I won't let you…!"

            Though Zero would later try to think of a hundred other reasons why he just stood there while Iris prepared to kill him, the only answer that still remained was that he simply couldn't do anything but watch. The cannon surged with purple energies even as Iris commanded the mecha to dash backwards, where it had more room to ready the shot. Zero made it easy by just standing there.

            The laser was as thick as one fired from one of the mechaniloid eyes Zero had dealt with earlier. It hit him square in the chest and carried him clear across the room. He landed hard, looking up at the ceiling, or where it would have been: the laser was still going. It was huge, he realized now. The biggest laser he'd ever seen. The only reason it hadn't been that big when she'd started was probably because she didn't know how to handle this new power. That sure had changed fast…

            The Hunter shakily got to his feet, staring down the room at the monstrosity that encased his irrational friend. "Iris! This…this is not what you think it is! I'm not trying to take him away from you!"

            "You already did!" her voice challenged him. "You did once and you'll do it again! I know it! You won't listen to me; you'll do it again! I won't let you!" The cannon came up again.

            And then everything hit him at once. Iris had attacked him. She was doing it again. She was not rational. She wanted to kill him. If he did not do something, she would succeed. This was it. It had actually happened. He now had to fight Iris. How could this be happening? He asked himself the same question over and over as he watched the cannon gather energy for another blast. How did I allow this to happen…?

            The cannon flared, but this time Zero moved. He leapt up and extended his legs in front of him. The thrusters inside them flared and he shot backwards, latching onto the wall and scaling it quickly, which proved to be unnecessary, as Iris's laser impacted the wall well below his position. Like the floating eyes, it seemed that she had to turn off the cannon to reposition it, and Zero took advantage of this. He jumped down as soon as the purple laser dissipated and his leg thrusters flared again. He dashed to the spot where he'd left his lightsaber and scooped it up in his hands. Okay, he thought. Now what?

            "I knew it," her voice reached him yet again as she saw him take the sword. "You want to stop me. I knew it!" She aimed the cannon a third time.

            The mecha, he realized. That was his target. His friend was in there, and she might not think of him as a friend anymore, but she still meant something to him, despite what he'd done to her, and he had to save her. He had to get her out of there and away from that crystal. The crystal was messing up her mind. Colonel's presence was like a drug in the presence of an addict: it was far too tempting, and the end result was a warped mind in both cases. The crystal…it was between the wings, wasn't it? He had to dislodge that, and then maybe she would come to her senses. It was something to hope for, right?

            The laser screamed its way towards him, and the Hunter hit the deck. Immediately Iris lowered the cannon to cook Zero on the ground. The Hunter rolled to the side, wincing at the pressure on his wounds from the first laser, and continued rolling till he was well clear of the falling beam. He was just in time, he realized, as the laser hit the floor with a sizzling sound. He jumped to his feet and charged pointedly yet cautiously at the gargoyle monster in front of him, ready to put his plan into action.

            Iris saw him coming and panicked. She deactivated the laser and tried to turn, but that took too much time, she saw. She activated the thrusters on the gargoyle's back and it sped both forwards and upwards, though too slowly for her liking.

            Zero jumped up towards the mecha and slashed his sword into its chest, driving it back slightly but otherwise doing no noticeable damage. He landed underneath the machine and decided on a ploy that would be sure to discharge that crystal. "Rakkuoha!" he cried as he slammed his energy-laced fist into the ground. Immediately beams of power exploded up from around him, most of them going right up into the mecha's body. Zero counted several hits before he rolled away for fear that Iris might drop down and squash him. That sure jolted the monster, he thought. That should—

            No less than eight small, floating objects were homing in on his stationary position. They were mines, Zero realized, and tried to roll out of the way, too late. Several exploded into his body and the rest detonated around him, wounding him and sending him again across the floor, though not as far as the laser had. Zero lay there and surveyed the wounds. The gargoyle armor, he realized, must store those things, and must release them when it was impacted…in order to discourage fools like Zero from trying to dislodge the crystal. Great.

            The Hunter checked his generator and found that he didn't like it. He had two full Sub-Tanks, but he didn't want to use those just yet. Energy pellets were hard to come by, and harder still to convert to the tanks. If things got a little harrier, he'd use a tank, but for now, he had to concentrate on—

            She was on the ground again, turning the mecha his way. Zero got to his feet shakily and just stared, waiting for her to repeat her mistakes. Iris was not a combat Reploid. She probably would not learn quickly…unless being out of one's mind enhanced one's combat capabilities. The pain of his wounds was affecting his performance, he knew. He felt himself getting somewhat woozy, and a red mist lurked behind his eyes. He shook it off, and the slight rage that boiled within him died a little. Not now, he thought, this wasn't the time for fury.

            Sure enough, the cannon leveled and gathered energies at Zero's apparently paralyzed form. The Hunter immediately dashed to the right, coming around the mecha from the side. Iris saw this and again panicked, shutting off her cannon and trying to turn the mecha to face Zero, but she did not have the know-how needed to make the machine operate properly.

            He had to move carefully, Zero knew. He kept moving around the slow-turning mecha, trying to get a clear shot at its back. Iris, not knowing where her enemy was and afraid because of it, decided to get back into a position where she could see the entire room. The thrusters on the gargoyle flared and it surged backwards towards the far left wall…much to the crimson Hunter's dismay.

            Zero's thrusters were on just a second after the gargoyle's were, and his body thankfully took action faster. He was at the wall and halfway up it before the gargoyle arrived, thanking his training and reflexes for not allowing himself to be splattered all over the wall. Below him, Iris was turning from side to side, a slow, cumbersome process for the gargoyle. She was looking in every direction but up. Zero could see the crystal, but he feared that his ice lance would do more harm than good.

            The gargoyle was perhaps three feet away from the wall. It would have to do, Zero decided. The crimson Hunter dropped to the floor directly behind the mecha and right away started back up. "Ryuenjin!" he said as he dashed straight upwards, his sword coated with fire. The flaming "uppercut" knocked the crystal out of its hiding spot very easily, damaging both the crystal and the gargoyle's back.

            The mines exploded into Zero instantly, pressing him against the wall. Even through the sound of the explosions, though, Zero made out Iris's agonized scream. The crystal, he realized. The crystal was linked to Iris. It provided her with the power she had never been meant to wield, but at a price: she felt pain for it.

            Iris wasn't sticking around to repeat that episode. The thrusters flared again, burning Zero in the process, and the mecha zoomed to the other side of the arena where it began the slow process of turning.

            He had no choice, he realized as he wiped the blood off his chest. His armor was damaged, and a lucky shot would damage his generator more than he could afford. Zero activated one of the Sub-Tanks within him and drew half of its contents, recharging himself somewhat. He was reenergized, but Sub-Tanks couldn't repair armor, could they? This was getting hard and painful, and the pain and blood were starting to cloud Zero's senses. The fury boiled up again inside him, and he didn't try to suppress it this time. He needed the adrenaline, he decided. It was a poor decision, as he was to find out.

            He realized that the cannon would be pointed his way soon, and so he decided to repeat his earlier tactic. This time he waited for the purple beam to start coming before he scaled the wall, stopping halfway up and hanging on tight, looking for a better vantage point.

            The purple laser took him from below, having caught him completely off guard. Where had it come from? It totally covered him with harmful energies for a second or two, and then he fell through it and hit the ground hard. He gasped, half-choking on blood, and tilted his head to see…

            The crystal. It was hovering, free of the gargoyle's body. It had come up underneath him while he hid from the horizontal laser and fired a vertical one. He'd be dead, he knew, if he hadn't just used that Sub-Tank.

            It was just too much. Zero got to his feet almost without conscious effort. His sword was clenched in a hand…which one was it? He didn't know or care. He saw that crystal right there before him, hovering up into the air to float casually across the room to rejoin its master, that gargoyle monster that had just almost killed Zero, the monster that wanted to kill him again, the monster that had his friend imprisoned within and was driving her insane—

            He was flying through the air, he realized, propelled by his own thrusters. The red mist was back, the fury was flowing freely. His sword was behind his shoulder, and he was bringing it forward with the most effort he could muster. He'd destroy that crystal. How dare it do these things? He'd destroy it. He'd tear it apart. He'd leave nothing left. He'd kill it, he'd kill that gargoyle, he'd…

            He'd kill Iris.

            That realization rang through his head as his sword crashed into and through the purple crystal, shattering it like glass. The sword flew from his suddenly numb hand and his body actually fell into the wall, making no attempt to stop itself. Zero fell to the ground in a heap, the mist clearing from behind his eyes, the red veil of anger vanishing. Conscious thought returned, and he regained his senses just in time to hear…

            …The longest, most horrible scream of pain he'd ever heard.

            The Hunter raised his head as though in a trance, watching the gargoyle spasm and jerk. It flared with the same purple fire that had coated the crystal that now lay in pieces near him. Zero turned his head and stared into the biggest fragment of the crystal, which still had a bit of glow left in it. In the glow Zero could see Colonel, he thought. He saw Colonel, and he saw the look of horror on Colonel's face.

            "What have you done?" Colonel asked incredulously. "Why did you do this? Why did you do this to my sister?"

            Noises returned his head to the gargoyle. Bits and pieces were falling off. It was trembling furiously, and sparking like a faulty wire.

            Then it exploded.

            The light was extremely bright, he thought as he stood, staring ahead like a zombie. The sound was…there was no sound. His hearing seemed to be turned off. His sight as well, he thought, until he realized that his optics were recovering from the flash.

            When the smoke and light cleared, Zero beheld a scene from a junkyard. Bits and pieces of the gargoyle were scattered everywhere. Internal contraptions lay in smoking, ugly piles. Unused mines lay dormant everywhere. In the back of his mind Zero wondered if this was what X had found, all those years ago, when another explosion had taken out another ride armor. The only difference was that a genocidal madman had piloted that first ride armor. A confused girl with destroyed emotions had operated this one. And this is what he'd done to her, Zero saw. He hadn't thought about anything but destroying that crystal. He'd let the sensation of battle take him. He'd done the same thing with Colonel, he realized with anguish. One minute they'd been firing off accusations, and the next they'd been fighting to the death. Zero remembered none of the bloodier moments of the battle. All he remembered was a brutally defeated yet still noble Colonel kneeling before him, leaning on his saber and then Zero himself for support. And now this. "What have I done…?" he agreed with the departed Repliforce officer.

            When he found Iris, she was half covered by rubble. Her body was in tact, surprisingly. There was nothing missing that Zero could see. He didn't remember anything about dragging her out of the rubble, or carrying her away from the main wreckage. The next conscious thought he had was that he was half kneeling, half sitting, cradling her still form, absently stroking her hair and staring down at her face, which was contorted by what surely had been terrible pain. No, he actually prayed, no, God no, tell me she didn't die like that…not in that kind of pain…God, I caused it. I killed her like that, I knew that the crystal hurt her, and I still… His mind nearly exploded at the realization that followed. Even Sigma has never done something like this.

            He didn't know how long he'd been looking at her like this before he noticed that she was moving. It was little more than a shiver, just the slight trembling of her small body, but it was still movement. There was breath, too, he realized, the breath that was not necessary for Reploids, but still signified functioning body parts. "Iris," he said, and then realized his voice was little more than a whisper. "Iris," he said louder, shaking her gently, "Iris!"

            Iris's eyes fluttered open with terrible slowness. Her eyes were still watery from the tears that must have come with the kind of pain Zero had inflicted on her in his moment of violence. Again the Hunter damned himself for it, damned himself to the worst fate that could await a Reploid, whatever that might be. Iris focused her eyes on his face, and there was none of the insanity that had been there previously. The crystal was destroyed. Colonel's unintended curse had been lifted. At least he'd done that for her, he thought. But no…no, that wasn't it at all. Colonel would have wanted him to save his sister, not kill her. Killing was not saving. Zero knew that now. He knew it like never before. He'd failed. He'd been presented with two of his closest friends, and he'd had the opportunity to stop their foolish behavior. But he hadn't. He'd just picked up his sword and fought. He'd failed his best friends, and now Iris was paying the price for his failure.

            "Iris," he said again, placing his palm on the side of her head and stroking her cheek with his thumb.

            "Zero," she whispered back, identifying him as her friend, and not her enemy. Then suddenly her eyes widened slightly and contorted with a new kind of anguish, and the look on her face was not unlike the look of absolute guilt Zero had worn at the battle's commencement. "I'm sorry," she sobbed as her eyes gushed forth fresh tears. Immediately Zero held her shaking body tightly against his chest, stroking her hair again. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry…" she repeated in the rapid whisper of one who has just done something unimaginable and wholly regretted it. "I'm so sorry," she said before finally burying her head in his chest and sobbing freely.

            "No," Zero choked out, hugging her tighter. He was crying too, he realized, and it surprised him. He was further surprised by the fact that he did not care. His head lowered and he spoke gently yet forcefully to his dearest friend. "No, don't you apologize, don't you dare apologize. This isn't your fault. This is not your fault, Iris, this is my fault…" He couldn't stop himself anymore. "I did this, I did all of this. I killed Colonel, I did this to you, and to him…don't you dare blame yourself, not for anything!" Her response was to move her head back a little and look up at him. He met her gaze, trying to convey that it was his guilt, not hers, trying to convey how sorry HE was, trying above all else to give her a reason to hang on. But they were past that, they both knew. Even if the gargoyle explosion hadn't finished her, her internal systems had suffered too much stress. They'd be failing shortly.

            She knew it, but she gave no sign that she cared. Instead she managed to wrap her arms around his waist in an embrace that was awkward until he gently propped her up somewhat, returning the embrace almost automatically. He realized quite suddenly that he wished he'd done this sooner…before the war, before all of this had started. He didn't want to let go, he wanted to hang onto her the same way she'd wanted to hang onto Colonel. If only he'd acknowledged this sooner, he thought, he might have taken her more seriously. He might have had the incentive to really, really care about her, as he did now, and none of this would have happened. He and Colonel would not have overreacted at the Sky Lagoon. He would have stopped himself before delivering the deathblow to Colonel at the Spaceport. And above all else, he would never have been forced to fight General in this astral fortress, and as such he'd never have had to do this to Iris. But it was too late, he knew, hugging her tighter without realizing it. Now he'd never have that chance, that thing he wanted more than anything else. How, he wondered, was HE going to survive this?

            "Zero…" She was talking again, in between her labored, weak breaths. He forced himself to release his hold on her and eased her backwards enough that they could talk face to face. "Zero…" she started again, looking him right in the eye. "Stay…stay away from Repliforce. Let…let General…"

            "Iris," he tried to break in, tried to reason with her, but found that he no longer had the heart.

            "Please…what's…so wrong about it? General…is a good man…" Her eyes then seemed to clear somewhat. "Let's live together…in a world where only Reploids exist."

            It could later be said that it was a foolish request, but Zero wasn't thinking of such things then. All he saw was the look in her eyes that told him what she wanted to hear now, finally, even if she'd had to wait to the end of her life for it.

            "Iris, there is no world just for Reploids," he said, hating the truth. "It's just a fantasy. Nothing…nothing General can do will make that change."

            A racking cough took her and Zero found himself terrified that it would sap her remaining strength here and now. Instead she recovered and looked back at him, and then at that moment revealed her hopes from the beginning. "Yes…I know, I know it…but…" She closed her eyes and forced herself to stop crying. Her eyes still watered when she opened them again, but they were no longer full of anguish or pain. Instead there was a simple desire to be understood, and even more so to be accepted by the only person who mattered to her anymore. "I wanted to believe it!" she confessed. "I wanted it to happen…I wanted you to stop fighting my brother, so he would win…and then…I wanted to live in that world, a world where only Reploids exist…" Her shaking hand came out to rest on his chest. "…with you…"

            Both his hands clasped hers within a second. "Iris…" he started, not knowing what to say. It was a hell of a revelation, but what could he say back? Well that was obvious, he realized as he held her hand tight and supported her at the same time. He'd tell the truth he'd been afraid to tell anyone else in the world. Until now. "I do too, Iris. I want that world, more than anyone would guess. With you," he added, smiling at her.

            She blinked slowly, looking right into his eyes as her own optics brightened somewhat. Then she smiled, too, the first smile that had adorned her face since Colonel's death. It was the smile of someone who finally had what they had wanted more than anything, and even if it was only for this one last second of life, it was still enough. The smile remained as Iris leaned into Zero's body gently and rested comfortably, and all her movements stopped.

            Zero felt the hand go slack and immediately examined her still frame. In the future he'd recall with the tiniest of smiles that she'd died with a smile on her face, a smile that he'd given her, rather than the look of total agony he'd originally feared…which he had also given her. For now, however, all that mattered to him was that she was dead, he had loved her and she was dead, and it was his fault. He gripped her in a viselike embrace and just held her there, not crying, not thinking, not moving, just sitting…and knowing.

            "Why?" he whispered to her unmoving body. "Why does this always happen? I can't…no matter what I do, I can never…I can't protect anyone…" He looked at her calm, peaceful face and felt himself breaking down again. Everyone who came in contact with him got hurt. Even X, he knew, had been forced to fight him once. Mea, too, all those years ago. She'd been his friend and she'd died. Gradient, crushed under a deactivated ride armor…he hadn't been able to help him, either. He couldn't save anyone. He could only hurt them, he knew as he shakily set Iris's body down on the floor. He absently thought of recovering her control chip, but he lacked both the technical know-how and the time to do that, and so he would have to leave her behind forever. Besides, he knew, it probably wasn't fair to revive her anyway. Even if she had survived this battle, Colonel's absence would have proved to be too much for her in the long run.

            The shadow surprised him. It passed through the light behind him, a tall figure with a long cape trailing in its wake. Zero stiffened, glancing to his side to see his lightsaber still resting faithfully nearby. Something in the back of his mind that he couldn't identify told him that this wasn't a part of the sequence, and that something was wrong, but he couldn't explain it to himself.

            "And once again, he proves to everyone but himself what he really is."

            Zero stood bolt upright at the sound of the familiar, scathing voice, his saber activated in his right hand and his body positioned between the intruder and Iris's dormant form. "You!"

            "Me!" Commander Sigma mocked him, crossing his arms over his chest. Silver trimmings adorned a complete set of jade armor, and the outsides of his boots were coated by leather. His head was still as bald as ever, and his blood red cape hung well down from his broad shoulders to his ankles. This was the first body of Sigma, the one that had betrayed Hunter HQ all those years back and launched the first war against the humans. "I'd ask how you're doing, Hunter, but that seems fairly self-explanatory. So, you kill women now, too?"

            Zero flew at him, swinging his sword in a rage. Sigma confounded him by dodging the attack entirely, extending his foot into the crimson Reploid's chest and spilling him backwards and onto the floor.

            The Maverick King eyed Zero with pure disgust, and when Sigma of all people was disgusted with someone, it was saying something. "And you have the gall to wonder why? You sit there and you whimper and you curse yourself for your violent nature, you reflect on how important reason is, and then the very next thing you do is to brandish your sword and try to take out your anger on the nearest target."

            "Shut up," Zero fairly spat, getting to his feet in a half trance. "You did this," he remembered from a future conversation…which seemed odd, since it hadn't happened yet, had it? "You manipulated Repliforce…you started everything, just so you could get Final Weapon…! You made me do it!"

            "Ah yes, let's blame Sigma for the world's ills. He does cause most of them, after all," the Maverick finished in a neutral tone. Then he gestured pointedly with his powerful fist at Iris's body. "I made you do that? No, Zero, that's not it, not at all," he added with a cruel chuckle. "Did I initiate the war? Yes, I did. Did I force you to fight Colonel? No, I did not. You could have used any number of other options to stall him, or to talk him out of it, in which case I would have been foiled before my plan even went into action. But you didn't, did you?" His eyes, icy cold blue orbs, pierced Zero like a sword while the Maverick's tongue lashed him like a whip. "No, you fought him, and you loved it. You fought with a swordsman every bit as skilled as yourself. It must have been a real thrill for you."

            "Silence!" Zero fairly roared, coming at Sigma again with a wild overhand chop. Sigma jumped easily to the side, watching with amusement as Zero tried to regain his foiled balance as he recovered from the attack. "You bastard, you know nothing! Nothing at all!"
            "Oh, but don't I? For instance I know that while you fought with Colonel, nothing else mattered but the fight itself. You lost control of yourself. You fought like the monster you are. I don't blame you; Colonel was doing the same thing. But you are the one who prevailed, Zero, and the moment of victory was savory, was it not? It was, as always, the best part of your day." He had to jump aside again as Zero tried once more to dismember him, and the Maverick was laughing all the way. "Oh, Zero, stop being such a fool. You're useless when you're like this. Nothing good ever comes of your little tantrums, as Iris here so recently discovered."

            "Shut up," he seethed in a voice that trembled with hate. "It was your schemes that started this…you start everything, and wait for the world to crumble around you…!"

            "I wait for change," Sigma allowed. "But am I the one who made you kill Colonel and Iris? No. You did that on your own. You wanted to do it." He grinned at Zero's reaction to that. "You were born to fight and to kill. You acknowledge that in battle and use it to defeat all of your opponents. Even me," he admitted. "But what happens out of combat? You don't know what to do with yourself! Tell me that you don't feel uncomfortable during peacetime." That caught Zero off guard, since the point was very valid. Zero never trusted peacetime. Until now he'd assumed that it had to do with a belief that a war was coming anyway, and that he wanted to be ready for it, and peacetime dulled his skills. Did he, in fact, actually want the wars to return? Was he actually eagerly waiting for the moments when Sigma would rise again and launch new attacks? Sigma saw the look on the Hunter's face and took it for what it was. "Everyone around you suffers, as you just observed. That is because, though you try to fight your natural tendencies, you fail, and by allowing people to get close to you, you set them up for the fall that inevitably awaits them. It's really quite simple. It's a shame Iris didn't catch on—"

            This time Zero nearly got him. The lightsaber sizzled through Sigma's red cape as the Maverick leapt nimbly to the side, tearing a foot long horizontal slash through the garment. Sigma spun around this time and, moving incredibly fast for a man of his size, delivered a powerful uppercut to the raging Hunter that both dislodged the weapon from his hand and put him back on the floor, dazed.

            "I'll never understand you, boy," the Maverick King said with a shake of his head. "You yearn for an explanation as to why everyone acquainted with you winds up hurt…and then when someone tells you, you discard the information. What more do I have to do to get it through your head?"

            "You know nothing about me," Zero countered, weakly, they both thought.

            "Oh?" Sigma grinned cruelly. "I happen to know, as I told you before, that you entered this world as a Maverick, in the truest sense of the word. You were a monster then, and you're a monster now, even if you've tamed your soul ever so slightly. But you can never tame it enough. Every once in a while, the monster breaks free again. Right, Iris?" he addressed the nearby body.

            "Stop it," Zero growled, "you'd say anything, anything at all to get me to join you. I don't care what I was…the past means nothing, it cannot be changed, it means nothing!" he repeated.

            "But doesn't it! What you 'were', Zero, is what you still are! A wolf in sheep's clothing! A killer in the guise of a priest." His cold blue orbs paralyzed Zero with their fixed glare. "The past is everything!" his voice reverberated throughout the chamber. "The past controls the future…it at least controls our future! You will never be anything but a killer, Zero, and no one will be safe around you. Iris died because she trusted you. Sure you can throw that back at me, and I expect it of you. You discard my information not because it is false, but because I am the one giving it to you!" He gave the Hunter a mockingly sweet smile. "Would it be easier to accept if it were X telling you this? Or maybe Dr. Cain? Good old Cain, always honest and full of advice. What would he say? What would you say, Zero, if he told you that you were a ruthless killer, a man who eliminated an entire Hunter unit single handedly before I brought you back to the HQ? What if he told you that your creator intended you to be the plague on this Earth from the very beginning? You were built with one purpose: to kill the man who has become your best friend, and you strayed from that path, and innocents like Iris died because of it."

            "Says you," Zero said with his own head shaking. "What could you possibly know about…?"

            "Surely, Zero," Sigma went on in an eerily neutral tone. "Surely you have dreams sometimes. Surely you dream about the old man, ordering you to destroy his rival. That is your father, Zero. That is his mission for you."

            How could you know? Zero's incredulous face asked. How could Sigma possibly know so much about him? Zero himself didn't know what to make of those dreams. How could Sigma…?

            "Don't believe me?" the Maverick King said in the same neutral voice. "Fine." His hand went to the clasps on his shoulder epaulets that held his cape in place. "Perhaps, then, from another?" he went on in a different voice that again set Zero bolt upright. The cape came loose and Sigma threw it across his body, discarding it as he'd done in front of X before their first battle. It flew about like a curtain in the wind, and when it passed, Sigma was gone.

            Zero stepped back in alarm. His confused eyes followed the cape as it hovered through the air seemingly of its own free will. Only, something was wrong…the cape was no longer red, it was…white?

            It wasn't even a cape, Zero saw with shock—it was a lab coat, and someone was now wearing it, an old man with wild gray hair and eyes even colder than Sigma's. His arms were locked over his chest and his coat blew with some nonexistent wind. His entire outline was bathed in light from a source Zero could not identify. Still, he knew this man, he knew from his dreams who this person was, and he knew his identity from all the history books. He'd already made the connection, but Sigma's spelling it out for him somehow carried the same shock all over again.

            "What?" Zero asked his father. "What do you want from me…?"

            "Zero…"
            "Yes!" he said, somewhat desperately. "What do you want? Why do you keep appearing to me? What is this?!"

            The old scientist shook his head much as Sigma had done. "I'm disappointed in you, Zero. I hadn't expected it to turn out this way. I built you for one purpose, a purpose that you chose to ignore. That purpose is my life, Zero! It's all I live for! And it's all that you live for," Dr. Wily added, a bit scathingly.

            "I am a Reploid," Zero said firmly. "I will choose my own path. I am not bound to programming—"

            "Your programming is your fate!" Wily shouted. "Even humans cannot escape their fate! No one can! No one at all! To fight against fate is to doom yourself, and those around you!" The doctor's eyes narrowed at his final creation. "You are my son. You were built to defeat my nemesis, the scourge of my existence! No matter how hard you try, you cannot escape this fact. You know of whom I speak," Wily said truthfully. "You will kill him one day. Or, he will kill you. There can be no deviation from this. You cannot 'protect' anyone, my son. That was not your mission. Your mission was to destroy. Eventually you will come to understand this. Sigma can help you on this road, a road that will end in greatness for you. But if you can't bring yourself to work with Sigma, work on your own. You will do great things, my son. Fighting your fate, on the other hand, will just destroy you, as surely as it destroyed this meddling fool you claim to have loved."

            Wily's arm flicked out in Iris's direction as he finished, dismissing her as a troublemaker who'd almost succeeded in completely rerouting his son's path in life. At the same time, Iris's body burst into flames, her features melting into some freakish fire, and all identifying marks vanished.

            "Iris!" Zero cried in shock, running towards the scene but stopping when the flames blazed brighter, spreading out and drawing a circle around him, as though some god were using the place as a sketching pad with a flaming pen. Zero saw the fire around him, and while logic told him that as a Reploid he could pass right on through it without really hurting himself, some greater fear kept him rooted in place, even as Dr. Wily emerged, walking calmly and unhurt through the spreading sea of fire. The terrorist of years past eyed his masterpiece and smiled, sending chills through the Hunter's already shaking body.

            "My son," he said, appraising the Reploid like a work of art. "My greatest creation. Yes," he nodded, grinning shrewdly. "Yes, you will make the right choice. I am certain of this."

            Before Zero could protest Wily spun on his heel and walked back into the flames. Forgetting his fear Zero chased after him, running into the bright, hot field of fire and searching to no avail for the father he wished he'd never found in the first place, wondering why he wanted to find him again.

            The fire was everywhere now, Zero saw. He tried to find the empty circle where he'd begun the chase, but it was gone. He remembered where he was and tried to find the purple gate that would let him out of this hell, but it was not there. There were no walls anymore. The fire was eternal, and then to his horror he realized that it was not even red fire, but the purple inferno that had surrounded Iris and encased her in that gargoyle shroud, and now it was surrounding him, choking off his breath and bringing him to his knees.

            He was overheating, he knew, and his generator would start complaining about it soon. It seemed to be happening faster than usual, he realized as he fire gave way to darkness that he actually welcomed. His body was suddenly racked with nausea, or as close to it as a mechanical form can get. His head was spinning now, and he barely felt attached to the rest of his body.

            Then out of the blue came another explosion. It was silent, yet somehow Zero felt the shockwave. The sensation was just odd enough to chill him, and the event repeated itself again, and then one more time, before the final one hit him with real sound, and real pain.

____________________

            He was…on the floor? Yes, Zero realized, it was a floor. A hard, cold metal floor that didn't remind him at all of the Hunter medical ward. His body was slow to react to his commands, and by the time he got himself turned over sluggishly he realized that directly above him was a table of sorts attached to the wall…it must serve as a bed or something, a bed that he'd just fallen out of.

            A dream, he realized, though that hadn't been hard to decipher while it had been going on. A different dream, for sure, and one that he remembered every detail of. Every emotion remained in his mind, everything from the guilt to the anger, and the overall shame he'd felt after hurting those who'd trusted him. The Hunter struggled to get to his knees and off of the floor, which he deemed to be rather dusty after brushing off his face, which had touched down before the rest of him. Then he sat down on the hard, uncomfortable bed, where he had to recover some strength. What had happened to him? He didn't remember all that much, at least before his second arrival aboard Final Weapon. Actually, he'd relived the battle with Iris several times before in his sleep, but this was the first time in a long time that she had returned to haunt him. What did that mean?

            He shook his head hard to clear the remaining cobwebs and looked around at his surroundings. He was a bit surprised to learn that he was in a cage, a jail cell of sorts, complete with electrified metal bars. It was the size of a small closet, which was more than Zero could say for the tiny capsule Vile had kept him in before that fateful fight in the first uprising.

            His was the only cell in the room, which was a decent sized…what? Office? There were several tables and the chairs seemed to be a little too comfortable for the place to be an interrogation room. Also, as far as he could tell, he was alone—

            "Sleep much?" a voice finally inquired.

            Zero's head snapped to the right, where he beheld the only other man in the room, a figure from another nightmare, a figure he'd seen only three times before in his life; at a tournament tainted with blood years ago; at a quarry in weeks past during a brief yet brutal battle; and finally in the mountains where he'd come to reinforce his friends as they imported nuclear weapons into Maverick territory; a figure that was now sitting calmly in a comfortable looking chair and puffing distractedly on a pipe, of all odd things for a Reploid to do; a figure that Zero had loathed for nearly a whole decade, and they were now finally face-to-face once more. The man's eyes came up to meet Zero's, and the edges of the Maverick's mouth turned upwards in a small, emotionless smile.

            "Welcome to Seraph Castle, Zero," Malevex of Terrornova said in a neutral voice. "Here's hoping you enjoy your stay."