Chapter 43: Valhalla Rising

            Malevex hadn't given up hope quite yet, but he was toeing the line enough that Arson, the fiery Reploid manning the control center with him, was getting nervous. All the trouble had started when the presence that appeared in Teytha's arena turned out to be Zero rather than Mega Man X. Then Teytha hadn't warped out as planned, and her life signals had come to an abrupt end. Malevex had tried to raise her on the communicator many times, but he'd met with nothing but static. Next came the alert that X had destroyed Cyber Peacock and was advancing towards Mortar's chamber. Finally, Diavus wasn't responding from the lower levels. Everything was falling apart around Arson's commander, and the young Maverick was growing wary of the situation. He'd seen Reploids snap before—his brother, after a series of events implemented by humans, the very reason, in fact, that Arson had joined the Mavericks—and he didn't think Malevex had much more time before his mind went downhill.

            It was at this moment when someone finally came on the communicator, cutting through the thick silence with a voice that wasn't Teytha's or Mortar's, but one that Arson hadn't heard in what seemed like forever: Commander Gredam's.

            "Gredam to Seraph," the voice was saying, with an edge of panic. "Gredam to Seraph, come in. Is anyone there?"

            Arson looked to Malevex, but the ebon Maverick had merely turned his head to the sound of the voice and offered no reply. After listening to Gredam repeat his plea for attention a few more times Arson finally took action and approached the console. "Seraph to Gredam, we hear you."

            "Who…who is that?"

            "I am Arson, sir. I'm helping manage the command center in Sigma's absence."

            "Absence? Where'd he go?!"

            "Nowhere!" Arson quickly responded, his head spinning. He wasn't prepared for this. "He went downstairs, that's all. He's dealing with X and Zero."

            "Zero? Wasn't he—"

            "He escaped," Malevex finally cut in, with a very flat voice.

            "Malevex?" Gredam asked in some relief. "Is that…?"

            "I'm here, Gredam." Malevex approached the console.

            "Oh, shit," Gredam recognized his friend's tone of voice instantly. "What happened?"

            "She's dead, Gredam."

            At the other end, Gredam visibly recoiled. Even the sounds of battle outside died in his ears. "You…you can't be serious…"

            "You think I'd joke about it?!" Malevex snapped. "A fine punch line! Funny as hell, isn't it?" He caught himself. "Sorry…"

            "…You're sure?" Gredam asked after a very awkward and terrible silence.

            "I can't reach her," Malevex responded, trying to keep his voice under control. It was the first time he'd acknowledged it out loud. "Her signal is gone…that bastard Zero must have…" He slammed his fist on the console. "Damn him!"

            "And Mortar?" Gredam pressed. "What about him?"

            "I can't reach him either." Malevex spun away from the console, pacing back and forth in an attempt to control his conflicting emotions of rage and despair. "X must be doing the job as we speak."

            "God damn you, you bastard…" came the whispered reply. "You arranged it all…and it worked." It was the most sorrowful words to ever leave the field commander's lips.

            Malevex noticed the sentiment and returned to the console, as alarmed as his numbed emotions would allow. "What are you talking about?"

            "I have to talk to you," Gredam said, his voice now frantic with haste. "In person. Now."

            "You mean—"

            "I'm coming back. We're being decimated out here…we need the Marauder."

            "And what about Seraph Castle?"

            "We'll escape. Evacuation is the only goal now…we need Marauder to buy time. Meet me at the garage on the second ring. Try to reach them, Malevex…there may still be a way."

            "We can't leave the bodies," Malevex agreed. "We can't do that to them, can we? It's just like before."

            "You have no idea," the harried Gredam replied, again to Malevex's mystification. "I'll see you soon. Please hang together that long."

            The Terrornova assassins had been discussing, in all plainness, desertion, both of them forgetting that there was another presence in the room. Arson couldn't believe his ears. Only Sigma could give the order to scatter. How could The Team be doing this? The most loyal of Mavericks were now going to…leave them all out to dry? After all they'd done together, they would abandon their comrades to X's wrath?

            Malevex turned slowly to Arson, whose fury was visibly building. "Get out while you can. He'll be here, soon."

            "You can't do this." The words were out of Arson's mouth before he even realized that he was saying them.

            Malevex stopped dead in his tracks and fixed Arson with a very curious stare. "And just why can't I?"

            "You put this unit together," Arson said forcefully. "You and your comrades…you knew you might die, you knew it from the beginning! Now it's happening. Big deal. It's a risk you took! If it weren't for you and your plan, we wouldn't be here…Sigma would not have been able to launch this offensive! And now you're just going to run off because things aren't going your way? You're going to leave all the soldiers you recruited to die?"

            Malevex continued to stare at Arson for a few unsettling seconds. The younger Maverick began to feel a slight chill run down his spine when he saw the look in Malevex's eyes gradually begin to change. His superior began to twitch with silent laughter that soon received a voice, its owner's dark frame tilting back and dispensing the loudest, creepiest string of laughter Arson had ever heard. "That we recruited? You're way off, Arson. Way off. You came here of your own accord…Sigma recruited you. We merely trained you." Malevex took a few steps towards his belligerent underling, who took a few steps of his own away from his unstable commander. "And now, Arson, you will stand down."

            "I will NOT!" The Maverick pointed his arm cannon at Malevex's chest, again scarcely aware of his actions until after the fact. "You'll leave us all to die!"

            "You're young," Malevex responded with a dismissive wave, still approaching Arson, who was guarding the door. "You don't understand how it works. Sigma launches an uprising, gets his ass kicked and scatters all his forces. Who runs, lives. Every Maverick knows that."

            "You're wrong," Arson declared, charging his cannon. "That's why we keep losing…because no one here has any goddamned balls! Sigma gives the orders around here, not you!"

            Malevex considered Arson for a while longer, surveying him with eyes of green and blue, each of which contained a light that put Arson on guard. He'd seen it before…it was the light of madness, the light that shone from the eyes of Reploids who had become fully errant…

            It was the light of a true, original "maverick".

            "I'll stop you!" Arson declared once he realized what was going on, unleashing a spray of devastating fire energies that crashed into Malevex, shrouding him in a cloak of flames. Arson continued the storm, roaring with determination but stopping when he realized that his victim was laughing again.

            "Please!" Malevex said in between fits, clutching his side. "Enough! I can't breathe!" And then Arson watched with horror as the bright red flames that bathed Malevex slowly mixed with other fire of a darker color, until the ebon Maverick was fully enclosed in a swirling mass of black pyrotechnics.

            "Jesus!" Arson exclaimed, backing into the door. Malevex stayed riveted in place, still chuckling to himself and looking Arson dead in the eye, the mad glint in his optics more prominent than ever.

            "You're just young and idealistic enough that you might make something of yourself," the former assassin declared as the flames around him began to spread. "One day, you'll thank me for this." Arson had no time to react before the curtain of flames exploded outward, slamming him back against the closed door.

            Shortly afterwards, all the lights in the third ring went out.

            The halls of Seraph Castle were getting darker, Mega Man X noted as he stole his way through the cold steel corridors in pursuit of his Maverick prey. It was as though a certain mood of despair was settling throughout the building, but X could not tell and wasn't sure he wanted to know if the despairing party was the Hunter force or the Maverick force. It had to be some illusion, he told himself, but the lights got dimmer and dimmer, and in the distance X could see them nearly going out. He was running into the darkness of the first ring, and still wasn't entirely sure what awaited him.

            Maverick defenses leapt from every shadow. He encountered less tanks now and saw more of the floating eyeball lasers, the sort he'd first seen used in the Repliforce War. They posed absolutely no threat to him, and he used them mainly as target practice while he sped down the halls towards the guardian chamber. If Ares had spoken true, Mortar would be inside that chamber. X went over feasible situations in his mind. He didn't know what exactly the old Reploid could do, but he had a hard time imagining the man—who he'd never actually seen, and only knew about from Zero's descriptions—as a stellar soldier. Of course, X reminded himself, Mortar had been in Terrornova, and no doubt he'd picked up a few tricks along the way.

            Whatever the situation, X knew it was his job to shut Mortar down. Regardless of his past, the Maverick was a nuclear terrorist, and deserved only the severest of punishments. He just hoped there really weren't any surprises waiting for him.

            But of course, there were surprises. X hit one head on when he raced into a corridor that was slightly wider than the others. He almost missed them coming, but the gleam of the faint light on a claw tipped him off just in time to stop himself from running himself through a long, serrated fingernail belonging to a bulky reptilian Maverick. X jumped into the air and reversed his direction by kicking his legs out in front of him and activating his thrusters, pushing himself away and burning his would-be assailant in the process. The Maverick let out a yelp that turned into a squeal as X unleashed a midair blast of plasma that struck its target dead on.

            When X landed there was no time for rest. Two more pairs of red eyes were rushing towards him, and this time he didn't have a chance to escape. Acting quickly he switched to his Double Cyclone program and unleashed a burst of wind at each charging foe, carrying them back and slamming them into the nearby walls hard…but not before their claws raked X's alabaster Fourth Armor. Glowering, X charged the Double Cyclone and sent huge green tornados horizontally towards the Mavericks. One rolled to the side, but the other was crushed again against the wall, and this time he was left in serious condition.

            The lizard that'd dodged sprang at X with remarkable agility, catching the Hunter off guard and throwing them both into a tumble across the floor. The Maverick sank his teeth into X's shoulder, invoking a cry of pain from the Hunter champion. The encouraged Maverick continued gnawing, and didn't notice X press his cannon into his scaly belly.

            A second later the enemy was lying on the floor in a bleeding, writhing heap. X got to his feet with a look of hatred and revulsion in his eyes. "Freaks," he hissed, and unleashed a charged bolt of plasma that incinerated the wounded Maverick.

            "The feeling's mutual," another reptilian hissed.

            X's head snapped front and center—it was the first Maverick, the one he'd burned and shot right at the get go. "Your opinion's cute and all, but it doesn't matter to me." His cannon charged again. "You're all the same."

            "Tell me," the Maverick asked, slowly getting to his feet. He made no move to dodge or to spring. His claws hung limply at his side. His shoulder armor was burned and torn from where X's shot had hit. "Would you say the same things to a humanoid? Would you blow them away as easily as you did my freakish friend there?" He motioned to the smoldering corpse.

            The comment caught X by surprise. "Don't be ridiculous," he snapped. "Mavericks are Mavericks, no matter what they look like."

            "But you would not call a humanoid a 'freak'," the lizard persisted, taking slow steps around X. "You would never tell a humanoid that his opinion doesn't count." He laughed, a raspy, throaty sound. "You're one of those Reploids who thinks he's at one with the humans." His red eyes narrowed. "You think that because you look and act like them that you are superior to the others in your race."

            "Where are you getting this from?" It was X's turn to laugh. "I fight to stop terrorism."

            "Wrong!" the Maverick hissed. "You fight to perpetuate it! How long will you allow your sons to be oppressed, Father?"

            "Don't call me that," X said darkly. "The Reploids are my copies. They are not my descendants."

            "Call it what you will, Father." The Maverick chuckled. "Your son's name is Cutter, for your information." He grinned a sharp toothy grin. "Is it any harder to kill something with a name? Or maybe if I had a more human name, like James or Robert, would you maybe hesitate?"

            "Your name doesn't make a difference to me," X said flatly. "You are a Maverick and you are in my way. It is that simple." Then his eyes darkened further. "And it is never easy to kill, whether the target has a name or not."

            "You killed him easily enough," Cutter said of his dead colleague. "He was my brother."

            "I weep for you," X said coldly. "Now get out of my way, or join him."

            "What? And let you in to kill Mortar?" Cutter laughed again. "Don't be ridiculous!"

            "What is Mortar to you?" X asked. It seemed to him that killing this Reploid would somehow grant him a victory, and he wanted to avoid that. "What is he but another blind, foolish commander leading you to your death? I've seen it time and time again, and it always has the same result."

            "Because of you," Cutter seethed. "You'd kill anyone who challenges your flimsy pacifistic ideals. Hell, it's a disgrace to real pacifists that you call yourself one of them!" He spat. "You don't know what that old man has done for us—he, and his colleagues!"

            "At the expense of God knows how many innocent lives," X declared. "And for that there is only one penance."

            "I agree," Cutter said mysteriously. "Now take yours." Before X could react Cutter shot forth with his claws extended towards X's throat. X frantically fired off his charged blast, but it flew off to the side, burning Cutter but not much else. X twisted and fired off another level one shot that Cutter actually dissipated with a swipe of his claws. Then he sprang again, his serrated teeth ready to tear X apart. The more experienced Hunter resorted to a special attack—the Rising Fire. He let the Maverick approach from above and then fired off the rising splash of flames. It caught Cutter in the abdomen and burned a hole clear through him.

            Cutter landed in a smoking heap, amazed at how quickly his battle had ended. He glowered up at X, who was just staring at him. The ruthless Maverick flicked his forked tongue out at X in some strange gesture of respect. "You're…as good as they say." He cackled one last time. "Here's to the…long life of slavery, eh…Father?"

            X said nothing. He just passed up the dying Maverick, leaving him to his own end, and continued down the hall. A short distance later he found and passed through the doors leading to Mortar's chamber.

            As he walked X reflected on Cutter's accusations, despite his common sense ordering him to do otherwise. X did not see the humans as the oppressors…sure they were a little unfair, but the Reploids were a new thing. It would take time, but things would smooth over. Why didn't the Mavericks understand that? Why did they insist on war after war, accomplishing nothing but to further antagonize the humans? X could not understand that, and whenever he thought he could the Mavericks pulled something crazy like this and there went all of X's sympathy.

            When the gate slammed behind him there was a strange feeling of finality that went through X. It unnerved him, because that finality had only hit him when he was about to confront someone major, like Sigma or Vile. How could Mortar be that major of a villain? Or was it something deeper than that? X hated these little omens. They made him think way too much.

            X found himself in a very large, multi-leveled arena that wasn't much more decorated than the others had been. The place had to be three stories high, with balcony type floors above X that someone could easily be hiding on. To his greater dismay there were also things that looked like doorways up on the balconies. Did that mean this guardian could summon reinforcements?

            "Yo!" X barked, charging his imposing cannon to the maximum level. He was in no mood for beating around the bush. "Anybody home?"

            His response was a whirring sound from one of the upper doorways. X quickly leveled his cannon at the door and released the shot when it opened…but what came out caused his heart to skip a beat, because it took most of the wall with it. The Chimera ride armor certainly did not fit standard doorframes, but that never stopped them from passing through anyway.

            X's screaming wave of plasma hit the blue behemoth in the chest. The pilot, a drone Maverick, kept right on dashing, rocketing off the balcony and crashing down onto the arena below. X glowered and prepared for evasive measures, but his auditory sensors picked up something else and he braced himself for what was to come. Sure enough, two more Chimeras exploded out of high doorways and careened off the balcony, landing dangerously close to X. The combined quake would have rocked X off his feet had the Hunter not activated the hover function in his boots, keeping him about a foot off the ground. He touched down as soon as the ride armors had landed and wasted no time rushing right in the middle of the fray.

            The Chimera was a monster of a battle body. It was one big armored torso with the fists of death. One direct punch could send a Reploid in full battle dress flying clear across the room and imbed them in the far wall. X knew from experience, most of which had come from a little fellow named Vile, the same little fellow who would have killed him years ago had Zero not turned himself into Reploid confetti in order to destroy Vile's hybrid Chimera. But X had proven himself against Vile's later mech, the Goliath, and these three runts were no match for the demonic incarnation Vile had sat in during his second attempt to end X's life.

            The Chimera X had already damaged became his first target. The Hunter used his greater agility to weave in and out of the dashing ride armors' paths, luring them in and blasting as he went, focusing especially on the first Chimera's sparking torso. An idea came to him that he doubted would work, but hey, these were drones. X darted quite suddenly in between the first and third Chimeras and simply stood there, charging his cannon. As he'd hoped, the pilots merely locked onto their target and sent both their machines flying in X's direction. The Hunter's lips curled into a grin. "Toro." His boots flared and he sped out of the way.

            The results were so much better than he'd expected. The third chimera threw its fist with full power into the first one's torso, crushing the weakened armor and tearing into its internal structure. The first machine delivered a powerful shoulder rush that disjointed the third one's arm. That was two wounded, X thought, and now he just had to worry about—

            Almost getting killed was something that really annoyed X, and sadly it happened to him a whole helluva lot. In this case he used his mad skills to dive out of the way, sans grace, flailing his arms and legs like a fish out of water. He landed on his stomach and knocked the wind out of himself as the last Chimera sped past him, its sneak attack a failure. Quickly getting to his feet, the angered Hunter raised his cannon and fired the shot he'd been charging. The blob of plasma ate into the Chimera's upper back, toasting its rider somewhat, something X made a mental note of. He prepared himself for another attack, but a voice stopped him cold.

            "Weeeeelll, hot diggity damn! It's been fun, sonny, but it's too one sided." The voice was strong, masculine and coarse. It came from some point above X. "How about some sentience in this fight?"

            No sooner had X locked onto the source of the voice than a fourth Chimera fell from the sky. This Chimera had been roosting at the very top of the arena on some hidden platform, and this time X really was thrown off his feet. While the Hunter recovered from the shockwave he realized that this Chimera was quite different from the other three—it had red armor instead of blue, and the chest had been fitted with a cannon of sorts. Sitting in the cockpit was a Reploid in maroon and silver armor, his gray hair unkempt but his mild beard straight. He reminded X of Doctor Doppler, only rougher around the edges. He did not appear to have any built in weapons other than a probably arm cannon, but then he didn't exactly need them when he was sitting in a behemoth like the Chimera. The most notable thing about him was his facial expression—his lips were curled into a confident smile and his eyes radiated a smugness that X took for genuine until he realized that in fact his opponent was in fact just as nervous as he was.

            X straightened up into a battle stance and threw the Maverick chieftain a look of poison. "Mortar, I presume."

            "Whoa boy, look out!" Mortar chuckled, leaning forward and activating a protective barrier around the top of the Chimera. "We got Einstein, here!" The other three Chimeras, though damaged, slowly straightened up as Mortar began sending commands to the drone pilots from his master unit. "Havin' fun yet, Hunter X?"

            "Not as much as you are, Sergeant Smiles," X replied with a raised eyebrow, watching the other mechs getting ready to rush him. "I've got news for you, grandpa. The spiel about the great Maverick cause is lost on me tonight. Don't waste your breath."

            "I had no such intentions, my boy," Mortar responded easily, punching some buttons on his console in a perfectly casual manner. "I don't wanna mince words with you and you don't wanna mince words with me. I figure, why bother pissing each other off when we can just kill each other and get it over with?"

            X blinked, somewhat taken aback. "I like it, Mortar. Very direct and to the point."

            "Ain't it, though?" Mortar grinned with considerably less good humor. "I got my orders and you got yours. Not my idea of how to spend a nice night like this, but hey, what are you gonna do?"

            X shook his head. "We can small talk all you want, grandpa," he used the word all too mockingly. "But sooner or later we're gonna have to get to the part where you fall apart."

            "That a fact?" Mortar said scathingly, powering up his Chimera. "Well look out, cuz this grandpa's about to make someone his bitch!" X barely had time to dodge the flaming plasma bolt that erupted from the Chimera's installed chest cannon. It exploded into the wall behind him, leaving a little crater. X was properly intimidated. "You all!" Mortar snapped to the drones as his Chimera started moving towards the chastised X. "Don't just stand around! Bring that little boy DOWN!"

            The drones didn't need any encouraging. Four Chimera mechs sped towards an overwhelmed X, who was forced to take immediate evasive action. He ran back against the nearest wall and let the Mavericks converge on him before jetting to the right, unloading plasma shots as he went. The blasts exploded fairly harmlessly into the Chimera armor, causing curtains of electricity to flare up around the mechs but not much else.

            "Gimme a break!" Mortar was laughing. "You and your little pea shooter'll never defeat me!"

            "Famous last words," X grumbled in reply, reminding himself that Mortar's show of overconfidence was more or less intended only to piss him off…and so far it was working, he admitted. The only upside was that Mortar couldn't really use his cannon now, since he'd run too much of a risk of hitting his comrades.

            At first X decided to focus his attention on the critically wounded first Chimera. It became quite obvious that a few more shots would disable the ride armor, but things were just too frantic for him to line up the proper shots. Mortar's Chimera was not only stronger than the others but faster as well, speeding with annoying agility around his henchmen towards the sprinting X. The Hunter ran through his options. His Nova Strike wasn't quite up to full power yet, so he couldn't use that. Most of his other special weapons were fully charged, due to the godsend of a helmet that Dr. Light had installed in the Fourth Armor, which contained a built in generator in the helmet gem that through a recycling of power cells made it possible for X to continuously use his special attacks. The only time he lost weapon energy was when he charged the attacks, which he'd already done to a few of them. He didn't know how any could help him in this situation, though. The Aiming Laser wasn't strong enough and he didn't have time to line up the shot. A Double Cyclone wouldn't move a Chimera unless it was charged, and even then it'd just pin them against a wall for a few seconds. The Rising Fire was obviously useless, and the Ground Hunters were useless against the Chimera feet. A charged spray of Twin Slashers might help, but they wouldn't do enough damage to destroy the Chimeras. Soul Bodies would just take up too much energy for no real advantage. That left the Lightning Web and the Frost Tower…now wouldn't THAT be a combo to remember!

            "Well whuddya know?" Mortar mused as X's armor changed to a black and yellow combination. "He's a frickin' chameleon." The import of X's move was not lost on the assassin, however, and he discretely backed his Chimera up a few steps.

            Seconds later a storm of yellow lights filled the room as a giant twisting web of golden electrical energies spread throughout the center of the arena. The three henchmen were rendered utterly helpless as their machines locked up from the charged Lightning Web's interference—Mortar was just barely out of range and only had to tug his machine free from a few stray bands of light.

            X was hardly finished, however. He leapt into the air and the hover thrusters in his boots activated, but he pushed them a bit past their limits, actually dashing upwards through the air. As he rose his armor changed to a light blue and his arm cannon charged. No sooner had he touched down on the balcony than a series of giant ice shards materialized in the air above the Mavericks, who all looked up with the same pitiful expression. X merely smiled and watched the ice fall, smashing into the defenseless Chimeras from above, their one weak spot. To X's great joy, the pilot of the least damaged Chimera got completely crushed by a direct hit, and his machine slumped into disuse. The other two reeled, stunned by the attack. Mortar, however, had backed his Chimera underneath the balcony above him, and was thus spared any damage.

            "You think you can come through with cheap tricks, X?" the old Maverick roared.

            "You bet," X retorted, reverting his armor to purple and black while charging the Twin Slasher. "What's to stop me from just sitting up here forever?"

            Mortar answered him with the Chimera's chest cannon. The wide-eyed X only had time to fall flat on his face before the fireball exploded into the metal wall behind him, showering his armored body with burning shrapnel. Yelping in pain, X rolled off the balcony as Mortar prepared another shot. The old soldier redirected the shot at the grounded X, but this time the Hunter was well in the lead. He dodged Mortar's attack and stepped up to the unmanned Chimera, raising his cannon at the remaining two henchmen. He fired the charged Twin Slasher, a purple storm of energy blades that ripped into the Chimera armor. This was the straw that broke the first one's back, and the Chimera collapsed into uselessness. The second one reeled, sparked, and came at X again, albeit with much less spring in its step.

            X, however, now had an edge of his own. The champion Hunter hopped into the Chimera and was pleased to learn that his Frost Tower had not destroyed much of the controls. He powered up the machine and it stood up just in time to receive the full brunt of the remaining drone's fist. X held on tight as his mech shuddered and stumbled, and didn't even have time to close the protective cockpit barrier before he surged forward and punched the attacking Chimera in its own torso. That pilot was a little less skilled and allowed his machine to stumble awkwardly for a much longer period of time.

            So ensconced was X in gaining control of a ride armor that he didn't notice Mortar speeding in from the side. He caught the Maverick out of the corner of his eye when it was too late, and managed to turn his mech to brace for impact. It wasn't enough, and the armor protecting the mecha's inner workings cracked and split. X himself was nearly thrown from the cockpit by the force. Mortar let out a short bark of a laugh and swung the other massive fist in X's direction, but this time the Hunter counterattacked, dashing to the side while sending out his own punch. X's fist caught Mortar's fist from the side and spun the enemy Chimera around, foiling all sense of balance for the old Maverick.

            X had little time to celebrate. The other Chimera was coming at him at full speed. Rather than meeting the henchman dead on, X reversed his thrusters and sped his Chimera back away from the Maverick. As they approached the wall X gradually leaned the machine to the right, and as he suspected the Maverick followed him, not prepared to let his quarry escape. X held his breath and did something very daring—he stopped, reversed his thrusters again, and sped suddenly to the left. At the same time he began charging his X-Buster. Luck was with him, because not only did the Chimera thrusters hold out against the sudden grating change the Maverick did not have time to redirect himself and slammed awkwardly into the wall. X finished charging while the Maverick redirected himself and sent the huge burst of plasma at the top of the Chimera. If there was a protective barrier it didn't hold, because when the smoke cleared there wasn't much left of the Maverick pilot. Another one bit the dust.

            Again X had no time to celebrate. He turned just in time to watch Mortar's chest cannon fire a little comet straight at him, and he knew full well that his Chimera could never dodge fast enough. There was no escape. X braced for impact but he was still unprepared. When the shot hit the Chimera was rocked back on its heels, and would have fallen over had X not been so close to the wall. Instead it rebounded off the wall and staggered back onto its feet. X, on the other hand, was not so well off. He let out a scream as his limbs burned with pain. His armor was singed, and he was getting worried. His armor had received remarkably little damage thus far, but he only had one Sub-Tank left after the Cyber Peacock fight. He didn't want to use it now.

            Mortar didn't take any time to celebrate either. He rushed X with full intent to kill, and it was all X could do to force his ride armor into a defensive stance. He surged forward to meet Mortar and struck a blow in between the enemy's fists. Before Mortar registered the hit, though, both his fists struck X's mech, one hitting a shoulder. X remembered sullenly that this was the Chimera with the disjointed arm. That arm was now useless.

            Both combatants staggered back, glaring at each other with as much malice as they could muster. "Not bad, gramps," X spat, tasting blood. The fire attack had hit him harder than he'd expected.

            "Likewise, Hunter," Mortar retorted. "I just bet you're having the time of your life tonight."

            "I know you are," X shot right back. "All those lives you vaporized…you must have loved it. Do you even care?"

            "Did you care?" Mortar snapped. "You know what it's like to be a slave, X? Of course not. You were the pretty boy masterpiece of the human race. You got pampered and protected while the race you fathered was forced into slavery!"

            "I fathered nothing!" X fairly roared. "Dr. Light fathered Reploids! I'm merely his prototype!"

            "Yes! Dr. Light! A human!" Mortar roared back. "Humans tried to mass produce a slave race! But I don't even care about that. All I care about is my own unit…it was the only world I ever knew, and it was hell. And you all stood by and let it happen! You defended the humans when Sigma wanted justice!" Mortar's eyes darkened. "And for that, X, you're nothing more than a pawn! No better than us!"

            "I thought you didn't want to mince words," X cut him off, powering up his Chimera for a charge.

            "I—" He blinked and actually smiled. "Well it's just so much fun!" A second later his Chimera shot forward towards X's at blinding, inexplicable speeds. X knew he couldn't dodge and so he met Mortar's charge head on. The two ride armors collided, each with their fists in full swing.

            The end result was recoil beyond belief. Both ride armors actually flew back the ways they'd come, each machine sparking furiously to demonstrate its wounds. X was clearly the worse off, however, and Mortar gave him no quarry. Another torrent of fire exploded from the Maverick's ride armor cannon and sped on a collision course with the Hunter, who realized with no small horror that he could not escape.

            X was nearly thrown from his mount, and he immediately wished he had been. Blinding pain coursed through his body as the plasmatic flames ate through his bodysuit and into his synthetic skin. He cried out in pain, but quickly became aware that he had been spared the full brunt of the blast, which had struck his Chimera in the chest. X didn't want to think about what would be happening to him if he'd been hit dead on. His Chimera, anyway, was useless, barely able to stand. X had a sneaking suspicion that the power core might explode any minute.

            "You call that an attack?" Mortar was living it up. "I'm still going very strong, my friend. Matter of fact, I could keep this up all day! But I won't." X wondered then why Mortar, an experienced assassin and seasoned fighter, would be making the always-fatal mistake of gloating when he could be killing. Then he realized that Mortar was indeed interested in killing, and he'd only been stalling for time while his ride armor took on a reddish flaming hue. It was charging…Mortar wasn't playing games anymore. "You came here for justice, right? Well so did I, and I'm gonna have it one way or another!"

            "You're murderers!" X exclaimed, pulling his Chimera to its feet. He had one last trick up his sleeve, thanks to Mortar's flame attacks, and all he needed to do now was set up the situation by buying his own time. "Your 'justice' has left innocent people dead!"

            "There is always collateral damage, you fool!" Mortar's eyes smoldered. "It's a war!"

            "It's genocide!" X shouted, diverting all the Chimera's power to a charge in Mortar's direction.

            "It's revolution!" Mortar countered right back. "It's true justice, for what the humans have done to the Reploids! Our day in court never came, X, but our days on the battlefield have never ceased! And what about you and your own little extermination campaigns? You kill anyone who disagrees with what you and the humans think. It's tyrannical, and just as evil as anything we have done. And you call that justice?" Mortar of Terrornova set his own glowing ride armor for a death rush at X. "It's time to end this. Let's see which 'justice' is still standing in the end. Now come on!" His Chimera surged forward like a burning meteor. "I'll crush you!"

            X set his own machine in motion, meeting Mortar's charge at very high speeds. He resisted the urge to cry "FREEEDOOOM!" and instead chose a simple yell to voice his dedication. The two massive suits of walking armor approached each other, and it seemed clear that Mortar's attack would devastate X. Then, however, at the very last second…X leapt out of the cockpit. Mortar's eyes widened and his breath caught in his throat as soon as he realized that something was dreadfully amiss.

            There was a loud cry of "NOVA STRIKE!" and the whole room went white.

            Sound was crushed in the arena, and it seemed to be taking a while for the white haze to vanish. Chimera guts were scattered all throughout the room, some of them still glowing with Mortar's curious fire. In a far corner of the room a battered Mega Man X picked himself up to his wobbly feet, slowly regaining his balance and senses. His audio receptors had just been damaged by the sounds of three consecutive explosions at point blank range, and his optics were still adjusting back to the darkness. Almost as soon as the Hunter stood up straight, however, his body began to ache with pain, and after a quick diagnostic check he learned why. His Nova Strike had taken him clear through the enemy Chimera's lower torso, snapping the machine in half like a twig. Its internal generator had exploded shortly after, but not before X's own Chimera, which was still speeding along behind him, came up and impacted Mortar's dying ride armor before X had cleared the

area, jarring him between the two exploding bodies and badly damaging some of his armor and most of his internal systems. It was all made worse by the fact that Mortar had been preparing for some kind of super attack, the effects of which aided in the size of the explosion that had thrown X across the room. Left with no other choice, X drained the last of his two Sub-Tanks, recharging his internal energies up to full capacity.

            Once this was done X's senses returned to him far more quickly. He examined the arena and saw: scrap. There was lots and lots of scrap, all of it from four Chimera ride armors and their former riders. X looked around the room for any sign of his Terrornova adversary and was pleased when he found no sign of him. Mortar was now a permanent resident of the Reploid junkyard, left to rot with all the other murderous Mavericks who'd failed in their attempts to—

            And there the bastard was, rising from the ashes of his ride armor, charred and coughing, but for the most part intact.

            "Not bad!" Mortar declared in mid-cough. "You're as good as they say."

            "Flattery won't get you anywhere," X said tiredly, raising his arm cannon and charging it. "I'm sick and tired of all this…I want it over with."

            "Well aren't you the selfish one." Mortar shrugged and activated his teleporter. "Anyway, that's enough for today, I think."

            "Not a chance," X shook his head. "You're not getting another chance to pull a stunt like this. You can surrender now, or you can die."

            "I think we both know that I'll never surrender," the Maverick made his choice, activating his transporter. Nothing. An unmistakable "What the hell?" look spread over his face, but Mortar had a reputation for putting two and two together very fast. It was stunning and it was unbelievable, except for the fact that it made perfect sense: Sigma was boxing him in to take a fall, so the others would go berserk. "You son of a bitch," he breathed.

            X, misinterpreting Mortar, smiled thinly and finished his charge. "It was your choice."

            Mortar didn't move—it would have been pointless. X for once had no thoughts of mercy or pacifism…he just wanted to end the fighting, and years of war had taught him that the only way to do this was to destroy those who created the fighting. Still, he couldn't look at the nuclear terrorist when he shot him, and fired his cannon with his eyes closed.

            This made him all the more surprised when something jarred him sharply, foiling his aim and sending his blast up at the balcony, the balcony neither of the combatants had been watching. X's eyes snapped open in shock as he tumbled down on his ass, and he was quite shocked when he beheld his new enemy…

            "Zero?!"

            "Impossible!" Mortar yelped, but a strong grip from behind stopped him from taking any drastic action. The old Maverick spun sharply and his face took on its own shock.

            "Stop," Teytha said, holding him with a vice-grip. "Dear God, stop…"

            "What…?" Mortar stood in shock for a full minute as it fully dawned on him that he had almost died. Then it occurred to him that Teytha had probably seen it all, since Zero had arrived only in the nick of time, and he wrapped his "daughter" in his arms. "Oh, my God…"

            "X," Zero said to his stunned partner, fixing him with a glare that was both stony and uncertain, "Stand down."

            For a long time X just stared at Zero as the logic circuits in his mind systematically shorted out. "WHAT?"

            "I know you don't understand," Zero pleaded, in a stark contrast to his former force. He had no idea how he was going to do this. "But—"

            "You're damn right I don't understand!" X fairly shouted, scrambling to his feet and looking at Zero as though he were a triple-headed ferret. "What did they do to you here? You've never acted so…"

            "Merciful?" Zero snorted. "You've never acted so viciously, unless you were fighting Sigma."

            "They might as well be Sigmas! All of them!" X thrust his pointer finger towards the huddled Mavericks. "They nuked us, Zero!"

            "I KNOW!" Zero shouted. "I can explain it to you later, X, but now we don't have time! Trust me! I know it's stupid and makes no sense, but just trust me!"

            "How?" Mortar was asking Teytha. "How did this happen?"

            "I can't fully explain it," she replied, still shakily, examining Mortar's wounds with a grimace. "He came instead of X, and we fought, but…"

            "But what?" He took her by the shoulders and looked right at her. "Why didn't you retreat?" Her voice caught in her throat, but all Mortar needed to see was the look in her eyes to confirm his own suspicions. "Sigma…that bastard…that son of a bitch!"

            "He wants us dead," Teytha whispered. "He wants us to die so Malevex and Gredam will…"

            "I know…" Mortar hugged her again, though his eyes remained wide open. The weight of Sigma's betrayal was absolutely crushing—he was the hero of Reploids, the champion of the oppressed…the man to whom they'd pledged their allegiance, and the man they'd even dropped nukes for…now he was putting them out like the cat, just for a better chance to destroy X and Zero? But, Mortar realized, was that really so surprising? The Terrornova cadre had just spent over a year planning a massive campaign for revenge—revenge was all they'd lived for. Was Sigma really any different? Could they really have expected him to be the same person after several disastrous, demoralizing defeats? All he must care about, Mortar now knew, was destroying his archrival X and his meddlesome sidekick Zero…and Mortar and his friends were just pawns to be used and sacrificed to lure the enemy into the checkmate. It was the same thing they had done with the Mavericks, moving them in position to achieve their own ends, Mortar admitted—but that didn't make him any less pissed off about it.

            "What's next?" X snapped. "Are you going to tell me not to kill Cyber Peacock and Sigma? Because I've already done in one of them."

            "No," Zero frowned, getting annoyed. "Not at all. Peacock was an absolute monster all throughout his existence, and Sigma…there are no words for the pain that animal should experience. But it's not their fault Sigma exists to twist all these Reploids."

            "It's their fault Megacity 5 was just nuked," X retorted, absolutely amazed that there was even another side to the argument. NUKES, for crying out loud!

            "Was it their fault?" Zero challenged, and all of a sudden X froze stiff. "Yeah. It would never have happened if humans hadn't had a stick up their asses to begin with about our kind."

            "It doesn't excuse what they did," X insisted still. "Nothing can."

            "If not them, it would have been someone else! Don't you get it, X?" Zero tore his helmet off and ran his hand through his hair, trying to come up with a way to put his sentiments into words. Why, why did it have to be so hard for X to understand? That all Zero wanted was to change…to at least make an effort to do what he should have done during the fourth uprising. "You want to stop the evil? The evil is in our government, not here. The government fashioned the soldiers—Sigma merely put the guns in their hands."

            "So what? We're supposed to excuse every Maverick action from now on because the humans started it?"

            "Christ, no!" Zero gestured randomly in his frustration. "But is it necessary here? Do you really think these people will try this shit again?"

            "People said the same thing about Sigma—"

            "Sigma betrayed them!" Zero roared, silencing X. "He left them to die! Just like everyone else! But I'm not going to join that crowd. For once," he added quietly, but X heard it nonetheless, and he saw the look in Zero's eyes—it was there only for a second, but X saw it and it lasted forever. It was a look of intense grief, mixed with fear and self-loathing…a desperation X had only seen once before in his partner's eyes. The fourth uprising had just ended, and Zero, devastated by the "murders" of Colonel and Iris, had suffered a breakdown that X had accidentally witnessed. It was the only time he'd ever seen Zero lose it, and though he'd managed to talk Zero back to his senses many of the things his friend said then sprang back into X's mind. Zero still saw Iris in his dreams, dead on the floor and staring accusingly at him; he saw Sigma mocking him and berating his efforts to reform; and most curious of all, he talked about a "Doctor" who kept beckoning him to his true fate. Zero and Sigma had spoken alone aboard Final Weapon, and X had little idea as to what had been said, but he could take guesses, and they weren't reassuring. But Zero had improved, and as far as X knew he never shed another tear over the incident…publicly, at least.

            Now, though, the look was there again, and though X didn't fully understand it he knew that Zero's mental state depended on this…and Zero, for all his unpredictability, was rarely wrong about Mavericks. "All right," X said at length. "But if they ever even breathe the wrong way around me, I'll—"

            "Thank God!" Zero cut him off, showing what was probably too much of his gratitude. "You don't have to worry about them."

            "Why did he spare you?" Mortar asked Teytha quietly, aware of the other conversation now.

            "I don't…really know," Teytha confessed just as quietly, staring past Mortar at Zero, who had turned to acknowledge them. "But I think…we can trust him."

            "A Hunter?"

            "Yes," Zero answered for Teytha, prompting Mortar to turn around. "You're lucky, old man. That story of yours stuck."

            "About time," Mortar commented dryly.

            "Listen," Teytha urged, "there's not much time."

            "Yeah," Zero agreed. "I don't know about Gredam, but Malevex is still in here. I'm going to see that he gets out of here all right."

            "'You'?" Mortar frowned. "You're not going anywhere without us. He'll never believe you."

            "No," Zero said firmly. "You two have to go. The longer you're in here, the more of a chance there is that Sigma'll do the job himself."

            "Like hell!" Teytha stepped forward. "He's our comrade. We're not going to just leave—"

            "I'm not asking you to leave him," Zero interrupted decisively. "I'm asking you to help him, by not putting yourselves in a position to drive him mad."

            "Sigma can just lie to him," Teytha pointed out. "He controls all the computers—he can just make it look like we're dead! What difference does it make if we are or not?"

            "It does make a difference, because it's possible to convince him that Sigma's lying. It's NOT possible to convince him when one or both of you is in a body bag." Zero shook his head. "I'll let you go, but you've really gotta go. Otherwise this was all for nothing."

            "I don't think you know what you're asking," Mortar said slowly. "Every time we've trusted a Hunter, we've—"

            "I'm not Kitao or Chartreuse," Zero pointed out. "I'm a Hunter, but I'm not here to Hunt…not for you, anyway." His vision shifted from Mortar to Teytha, and he read her ambivalent face like a book. "I know…how you feel," he managed to say, actually resting a hand on her shoulder. She surprised him by not pulling away, tilting her head upwards to meet his gaze, and for the first time Zero saw shyness in a Maverick's eyes. "I've been there. But I'm gonna get him out. I promise you that. But you have to promise me that you'll get to safety."

            If Teytha gave him an answer it was with her eyes, and though they didn't change much Zero thought he saw some kind of acknowledgement there. Mortar took his younger colleague by her other shoulder and answered for them both. "Triangle Rock. I know, all the mountains look like triangles, but…he'll know what you mean."

            Zero absorbed this and nodded. Whatever Triangle Rock was, that was the meeting place. He looked again at the assassins, and smiled inwardly as he realized he understood them perfectly. Teytha was very much like X, confounded by this impossible mercy and uncertain whether to be grateful yet or not; Mortar was much more practical, and was interested only on capitalizing on this rare and unexpected opportunity. Zero could appreciate both attitudes.

            Quite suddenly, a small tremor shook the room. There was a sound in the distance like steel grating against more steel, and immediately the Mavericks' eyes changed.

            "Impossible," Teytha whispered.

            "The Marauder?" Mortar spun towards the origin of the sound. "Now?"

            "The Marauder?" X perked up at that. "Marauder X74? The ride armor?"

            "One and the same." Mortar smiled sheepishly. "It's our 'Weapon'. Gold Serpent stole it from the Megacity Army…and we bought it."

            "Could it be…Malevex?" Teytha worried aloud. "Could Sigma have already got him thinking that…?"

            "Whoever it is," Mortar declared, "it's a problem for you Hunters."

            "Then let's solve it." X stepped cautiously towards the assassins. He no longer looked at them with outright contempt, but there was still a definite mistrust conveyed through his eyes. "I'll have a look at this Marauder. Zero, you go find your friend."

            "X," Zero said warily, "Marauder is a monster. You can't take something like that yourself—"

            "I beat Sigma in all his demonic incarnations…don't tell me what I can and can't destroy," X retorted, still somewhat bitter over his relative powerlessness in this situation. "Anyway I don't plan on fighting it…I just want to know what's going on for when we do launch our attack. And this Malevex dude is probably better off in your hands than mine, Zero."

            Zero pondered it for a short while, but he pushed his worries aside and jammed his helmet back on his head. "Right. Watch what you're shooting, X." He turned next to Mortar and Teytha. "Please…go. Get out of here the easiest way you can, and get to that Triangle Rock place. I'll find Malevex."

            "He'll be in the third ring, if he's not the one activating Marauder," Mortar informed his unlikely ally. He didn't sound too happy about it, either. For Mortar, Zero surmised, there was still something ugly about working with Hunters, not from a Terrornova standpoint but from a Maverick standpoint. Even if Sigma had stabbed him in the back, Mortar was still against selling out the other regular Mavericks. Again, Zero could appreciate that.

            "All right then." Zero nodded and turned towards the balcony. X turned wordlessly and exited the room from the gate he'd come in from. Zero prepared to fire up his boots for a burst to the top, but Teytha's voice stopped him. He turned to see her advancing hesitantly, but obviously with a purpose. "What is it…?"

            "It's…about Malevex," she explained haltingly. "He…he really won't believe you, if Sigma does what we think he's going to do."

            "I'll find a way around that," he assured her, but she wouldn't let up.

            "You say so, but…" She lowered her voice, and Zero's interest peaked. Secrets were cool. "Tell him…about the Diceman incident."

            Zero blinked as the name came back to him. Winston Diceman had been a weapons developer in the days before the first uprising. He'd fitted several outfits with their firearms, but the only really notable thing about his practice was the way he'd died—cut to ribbons in his office. "What do you have to do with that?"

            Her head fell slightly, and he could easily detect the shame in her voice. "Everything." She inhaled slowly and continued. "Diceman used Terrornova as a test group for his new wares…sometimes they backfired. Diceman was given more and more power, which he abused like the bastard he was, and finally…" She broke off and clenched her fists. "It was when we were all together…Diceman, Chartreuse, and the whole unit…none of the superiors could figure out how I did it…hell, none of the unit ever figured it out either. I just…snapped."

            Zero let out a very long breath. As much as he hated to hear that, there was a little voice in the back of his head that told him he couldn't blame her without being a hypocrite. "What does this have to do with Malevex?"

            "He's the only one who knows." She looked up at Zero. "The only one I ever told."

            Zero was about to respond with another question, but he closed his mouth and nodded as he began to understand. "I couldn't have gotten that from you if I'd killed you…and only you could have known that. It's proof that you're alive."

            She nodded and backed up, as the grating sound grew louder in the distance. "We'll go. Just promise me you'll…"

            "No worries," he assured her. "Just keep your noses clean this time, dammit. Or I'll never hear the end of this." He turned away and leapt up onto the balcony, dashing down the hall he'd used to come here. There was a little known path to the third ring there—Teytha had shown him on the way. "Malevex," he whispered as he ran. "Please tell me you haven't gone batshit already…"

            Teytha stood there after he left, her head spinning with far too many conundrums. Mortar broke the silence with a rush of relieved laughter. "Jesus H. Christ, I dunno what that boy's been smoking, but we gotta get it dealt throughout the whole Hunter corps!" He rushed over to Teytha, taking her shoulder. "Come on, T."

            "You trust him?" she asked, still hesitant.

            Mortar put on his best confident grin. "Of course! Blondes aren't clever enough to lie like that!" He chuckled, even though he wasn't in a laughing mood, and gestured towards their exit. "Trust the man. He went through a lot of trouble to stop X from tearing me a new one. I don't think he did it just for show."

            Teytha finally nodded, and Mortar took off for the gate. She took one look behind her, where Zero had exited. Hearing Mortar's urgings for haste in the background, she mouthed a belated "thank you" and started out the door.

            Delates laughed triumphantly. At long last, they were at their destination—the floor of Seraph Castle where the foundation was most vulnerable. Lyon had his charges out already, and Tyclammel and Cort were bringing up the rear, on guard for anything. Acrystos, still unnerved over her recent capture, stuck close to Delates, her stun pistol out and ready. "You know," she said quietly as they approached the chamber, "if it were Castle I was working with, we'd already have this job taken care of by ourselves."

            "Really?" Delates smiled smugly. "And then you could even share a kiss as your carnage unfolds behind you. How very James Bond."

            "Whatever works," she chuckled, glancing about her for threats. "You've worked with Damia enough. Tell me you've never pulled that with her."

            "We are professionals," Delates insisted, reddening. "Not teenagers!" He frowned and glanced curiously at his scout. "Ever wonder how this is? That we can be going into the deepest darkest part of our mission, with our comrade Feldspar dead behind us, our bodies spattered with blood already, and still we're making small talk?"

            "I used to wonder a lot about things like that," she replied dismissively. "Then I realized it's much more distracting than the small talk itself. I choose what's less likely to get my ass blown away."

            "Well said."

            "Boss," Lyon said, falling back. "We're in the zone. Sticking with the plan?"

            Delates looked ahead. They were entering a very large rectangular area that from above looked like a box with a cross inside. Hallways ran along the four edges and in the center of these hallways were cross-paths that led up to the center of the area. There were strategic points—the four corners, mainly—that Lyon wanted to hit, and it was their job to cover him as he did so. "Looks good to me. All right guys," he said to the small cluster of elites. "Let's get going." Tyclammel armed his Gatlin gun and nodded calmly; Acrystos checked to make sure her energy daggers were in place and then readied her stun gun to immobilize anything she came across; Lyon had his cannon deactivated and was busying himself with the charges; Cort merely twirled his pistols patiently.

            The Hunters spread out into the labyrinth, covering the entrances to the north and east in this rectangle inside a rectangle. Lyon hurriedly set his charge, and against all odds…nothing happened.

            "Dandy," Tyclammel cracked a grin. Delates nodded and looked to Lyon, who gestured north. They'd have to cross a long hallway to get to the next room, with the next extreme corner. The Hunters filed out, moving cautiously but quickly. About halfway through, as they came to the cross-path…

            "Hahahahaha…"

            The sound echoed ominously throughout the corridors, freezing all the Hunters in their tracks. Delates shook his head violently to clear it—had he really heard that? Cautiously, he moved towards the path, turning sharply with his weapon at the ready to make sure he could attack if there was anyone to shoot at…but there was nothing. Only a long hall leading off into darkness, and what seemed like a central chamber. Motioning for the others to follow, Delates crept down the hall, his buster charging. As the cadre got closer to the large, domed enclosure at the center of the basement, they made out a lone figure standing in the middle of the area. It was a tall man shrouded in a blood red cape, and who sported a chrome dome that was all too horribly familiar.

            "You're late," Sigma stated. "I've been waiting for you for quite some time."

            "Jesus!" Delates exclaimed, jumping back and firing his charged blast. Sigma merely smiled and shimmered out of existence, reappearing to the right of his previous position. He evidently had a short-range warping system. Appearance-wise, though, he was very similar to his first form, with his jade green armor and monster lightsaber sitting in his belt. His boots, however, were dark black instead of brown, and lines of gold snaked up the right half of his body, while silver trimmings adorned his left half, merging at his chest in a cross of sorts.

            The Maverick King chuckled and shook his head. "Zero's protégé…every bit as fiery as his commander. Well, the more rage, the better, I always say."

            "I'm not interested in what you have to say!" Delates snapped, deactivating his cannon and drawing his lightsaber. "Lyon, get to it! The rest of you, help him out!"

            "What?!" Acrystos was in disbelief. "You can't handle him on your own!"

            "This isn't our mission!" Delates shouted. "Our mission is…you know what it is! Now accomplish it!"

            "Oh please," Sigma sighed. "Do you really think I can't figure out what you're doing on this floor, of all floors?"

            "Do you really think I care what you know or don't know? Go!" Delates needn't have said it—Lyon was already gone. The others followed, even Acrystos, leaving Delates and Sigma alone in the central chamber. "Now die, you bastard!" Delates didn't even give his enemy time to draw his weapon. He launched himself forward, slashing his saber towards the Maverick's throat. Sigma, without flinching, simply kicked Delates in the chest when he got close enough.

            "Don't feel too bad," Sigma grinned as he cracked his knuckles. "No one ever sees that coming."

            "Cheap," Delates coughed, pulling himself to his feet. Sigma shrugged and activated his own saber, a pulsating concentration of neon green energies. Delates made the move again, rushing Sigma with a combo already selected. Sigma parried every blow with an almost half-assed demeanor before throwing out his own string of attacks with blinding, overwhelming speed. Nevertheless Delates managed to hold his own, much to Sigma's surprise.

            "Impressive!" Sigma clucked, jumping back. "How long did you practice that?"

            "Eat shit!" Delates replied, not at all in the mood for conversation. Sigma just laughed and warped out of the way. "Stand still and fight, you coward!"

            "To what end?" Sigma asked him calmly. "You barely managed to defend yourself. You couldn't even get in one attack once I started trying."

            "So you got lucky," Delates snapped, refusing to give the Maverick any satisfaction. "We're both just getting warmed up!"

            At this moment a rumbling filled the room, followed by the sound of a freight elevator grating its way upstairs. Sigma frowned and lifted his gaze to the ceiling. "The hell…?"

            Delates, seeing his chance, surged forward and struck out again, but Sigma, with his annoying nonchalance, deflected the blow heavily and sent Delates staggering backwards. How did X and Zero ever defeat this monster?

            Sigma shook his head and smiled slowly. "So, Gredam, you've come home." He looked back at Delates and his grin grew wider. "I guess it's time to get this show on the road." He shimmered, and was gone. Before Delates could raise the alarm Sigma's voice erupted from the shadows: "ATTACK!"

            Seconds later a shot exploded to the right of Delates' head. The Hunter whirled, but saw nothing. His infrared flashed on, partly because of instinct, and he spun around searching for his foe. He finally picked up on his opponent, a limping infrared form, and smugly he switched off his sensors and beheld—nothing. Cloaking shields! He realized it just as another shot crashed into the wall right behind him, shooting debris up at his face, leaving a thin cut. "Dammit!" he raged as he reactivated his infrared and sped directly towards his enemy, who was running away to set up for another ambush.

            For his part, Diavus was glad for the cloaking shield Sigma had provided when he'd finally shown up. Loader and Gerritt had them too, and were around here somewhere. He located Loader when Tyclammel fell flat on his face with a surprised "ULF!" Sure enough, Diavus saw the cricket Maverick via infrared leaping off of Tyclammel's stunned form.

            Cort saw it too. He snapped his pistols up at Loader's moving form and began to fire, placing dots in a line across the ceiling but missing the agile cricket every time. The Maverick, a big infrared blur, landed near Cort and shot him with a bolt of electricity from his optics. The Hunter shivered as the harmful energies coursed through him, but still he managed to raise a pistol and fire once into Loader's chest. It was the first wound the Maverick had taken thus far, and it unsettled him. Cort snarled and prepared to finish the job, when all of a sudden the sharp bark of a machine gun broke out behind him. The Hunter slumped to the floor, bleeding from several wounds.

            Loader let out a crackling laugh as Gerritt shimmered into existence, his gun still smoking. Before either could capitalize on Cort's misfortune, however, a storm of small missiles zoomed their way at lightning speed, exploding into the walls and floor and driving both Mavericks slightly mad.

            "Eat this, you cocksuckers!" Tyclammel raged as his blaster ring whined, the barrels preparing to unleash another explosive storm.

            "Jesus!" Loader exclaimed. "Run!" But Gerritt needed no encouragement—he was already gone. Loader followed his example, hopping away and ducking down a cross-path. Tyclammel approached the coughing Cort, helping him against a wall. The silver-haired Hunter pushed his comrade away, however, forcing himself to his feet.

            "I'll live."

            "You better," Tyclammel ordered, ignoring the severity of Cort's chest wounds.

            Gerritt had fled, but he was being followed. "What now, bitch?!" Acrystos shouted, firing bursts of her stun gun ahead of her. Gerritt avoided the crackling rays to the best of his ability, but the speedy Aegis agent was gaining on him. Suddenly an explosion to Acrystos's right demanded her attention. She spun to the left to confront the source of the shot, but Diavus had already ducked back into hiding. His back wound prevented him from getting directly into the fray, but he was quite content staying in the shadows. Growling, Acrystos spun back to Gerritt, but he, too was gone. "Double teamed and ditched," she shook her head. "What next?"

            "LOOK OUT!" Delates answered her question, rushing out from the nearest side corridor.

            "What…?" Acrystos had turned halfway around before Sigma materialized behind her. The big Maverick smashed her across the face with a brutal backhand, spilling her flat on the floor. Reacting quickly despite her pain, the Huntress pointed her gun at Sigma and fired. Sigma merely extended his hand, clouded by a bluish mist, and the golden ray of crackling energies dissipated upon contact. "That's…not possible!"

            "There's a counter for every attack," Sigma reminded her, just before hefting his sword into the air. "Now, let me show you a real paralysis move!"

            "Move!" Delates shouted at her, but he was too late. Sigma jammed the blade into the ground, and a shockwave of energies shot through the floor. Delates, sensing the nature of the attack, leapt over it, but Acrystos, flat on the floor, was hit full force and encased in chains of agonizing electricity. "You bastard!" Delates shouted, unleashing his charged blast in midair. Grunting, Sigma ripped his sword from the floor and held it in front of the blast. Most of it dissipated, but the Maverick still found himself charred. With another grunt, this one of dismissal, he leapt backwards away from the stunned, moaning Acrystos.

            "About time you started trying," the master terrorist sneered, his blue-globe optics glowing even brighter. A laser shot out of each one, and Delates had little time to react. They struck him in the chest, blowing apart a small chunk of his armor and knocking him down. "That's it?" Sigma laughed. "This is the best you can throw at me?"

            His gloating was silenced when the ground beneath his feet exploded violently, throwing him headfirst into the nearby wall.

            "Lyon!" Delates cried jubilantly, getting back to his feet. "Nice shooting!"

            Lyon didn't even acknowledge him, continuing to work hard on setting the second charge. He finished up shortly after his attack, but no sooner had he done so than a hot wave of pain shot through his lower back. Diavus had shot him. "You bastard," he hissed through clenched teeth, grateful for his heavy armor. His arm converted back into a bazooka-buster, and he searched for the slinking Mavericks.

            Cort followed close behind Tyclammel, who was heading towards Lyon and the others. Loader, seeing his chance, let out an angry cry and landed hard on Cort, causing the wounded Hunter to roar with pain. Tyclammel, however, roared louder with anger and spin-kicked Loader into the nearby wall. "Damn cricket," Tyclammel seethed, pointing his cannon at the horrified Maverick, whose attack had gone totally awry. "A goddamned cricket!" His blaster whirred and spun, and a storm of explosive projectiles bombarded Loader's pinned body, tearing the unfortunate Reploid to pieces. "I hate the bastards," Tyclammel spat as his cannon died down. "Keep me up at night."

            "I am in such pain," Cort redirected his friend's priorities.

            "Right." Tyclammel helped him up and brushed off some Loader guts. "Come on," he gestured towards Sigma. "Del's calling us."

            Gerritt had seen Loader's end, and it had reduced him to a shivering wreck. He backed into a wall, his assault rifle clattering in his hands. The raccoon nearly jumped out of his fur when Diavus tapped him on the shoulder. "Easy," the sniper hissed. "Don't worry about it…" He motioned towards Sigma. "Something's happening over there."

            "All Hunters," Delates was saying on his communicator as they all clustered together, "focus your firepower on Sigma."

            Sigma merely harrumphed and jammed his sword into the ground, crossing his arms over his chest, the very picture of arrogant indifference. Acrystos climbed slowly and painfully to her feet, the coils of energy sliding off her at last, and drew her energy daggers; Tyclammel started his Gatlin gun up; Cort managed to reload his pistols and level them at his target; Lyon took time away from his task to level his bazooka at Sigma; and Delates readied his charged cannon. "Eat this!" he shouted, unleashing his blast at the same time Lyon did his.

            The result should have been predictable—Sigma warped away, and the Hunters were rocked by their own projectiles. This time, however, the Maverick King reappeared behind Acrystos, lashing out with his saber. It was all the Huntress could do to fall before the blade felled her, and she drove an energy dagger into Sigma's thigh. Yelping in pain for the first time, Sigma kicked her square in the jaw and warped again as Tyclammel's salvo sped over Acrystos and exploded into the wall behind her, showering the unfortunate Huntress with shrapnel.

            Sigma reappeared further down from them, laughing all the way. "Is that it?" he taunted, tearing the dagger from his leg and letting it clatter to the floor. "Is that really all you've got? You're despicable. And you call yourselves elites!" As he spoke, coils of energy began surrounding his body, running up the silver and gold trimmings on his armor. The energies clustered around his fists and lightsaber, and he grinned maliciously at his opponents. "Fine, then. I'll just have to show you how it's done!"

            He threw the lightsaber into the air, where it stayed, by its own power, and hovered about the Maverick at increasing speeds. After a while the dancing blade was spinning so fast that there appeared to be several of them…and when they slowed down, there were several of them, all charged with that eerie blue energy Sigma radiated.

            "What's that?" Cort breathed. "Some kind of devilry?"

            "You should be so lucky!" Sigma cackled, thrusting his hand towards the Hunters. "Now meet your fate!" The sabers all shot towards the frantic cluster of Hunters, pointing the tips of their blades at their targets. Bursts of blue lightning began to fly from the swords, tearing up the ground at the Hunters' feet and punching holes in their armor. Cort, desperate, rolled himself painfully out of the line of fire, came to his knees, brought his guns up and fired off six shots, three from each gun. Sigma, surprised, dashed to the side, his cape billowing behind him, but his growl of pain indicated that some of the shots had found their marks. "You bastard!" Sigma seethed. "Why can't you just die?"

            "You're a fine one to talk," Cort retorted coolly, despite his heavy breathing. The fire in his chest was getting worse.

            The sword dance ended and the clones vanished. The real one returned to Sigma's hands—probably due to magnetism—and the Maverick King prepared for his next attack…

            …But then, something colossal happened.

            No one could tell why Sigma's eyes suddenly went wide, and why his head snapped up as though to look through the ceiling to the floors immediately above them. No one knew what had transpired up there. But Sigma did. Sigma knew everything that went on in Seraph Castle. The Virus made sure of that.

            "X," Sigma breathed, in total disbelief. "Against all his wishes…you've gone and done it." Offering no explanation for his enigmatic words, the terrorist began to shake with laughter. "Oh, god…ha ha ha…it's too perfect! Zero," he added in a whisper, "you're just going to love this!" He tilted his head back to let out a full-fledged evil cackle, snapping his head down to fix the bewildered Hunters with an excited glare. "Well, it's about time for me to make my exit. Before I go, though, I suppose I should at least kill one of you…and I piiiiick…"

            "What are you…?" Delates started to ask, but his eyes went wide when Sigma disappeared again. "SCATTER!" Cort threw himself from the wall, madly searching for a sign of his enemy, ready to shoot him at an instant's notice, but he never had the chance. A flash of energies erupted from behind both him and Delates, followed by a masculine scream…

            "…You!" Sigma finished his last statement, his sword impaled clear through Lyon's body.

            "You BASTARD!" Tyclammel exploded, throwing himself at Sigma like a wild animal. The Maverick merely surged forth and grabbed Tyclammel by his head, and a powerful current of electricity flowed down from Sigma's gauntlet to bathe the wild Hunter with immeasurable pain. The same electricity invoked agonized shrieks from Lyon as it traveled down Sigma's weapon, which was jammed under Lyon's left arm and protruded from his other side at about the same point.

            Roaring with rage, Delates stormed Sigma and shot him repeatedly at point blank range, but with normal power shots. Cort wanted to help, but Delates was in his line of fire. Sigma finally stopped shrieking with laughter and tore his sword bloodily from Lyon. The Hunter clattered to the ground, and Tyclammel was thrown back limply into the wall. Sigma then spun around, his cloak flapping suddenly and powerfully, snapping off of his person and flying into Delates's face. The Hunter madly fought his way out of it, looking for a fight, but Sigma…was gone. "You son of a bitch," Delates choked with anger. "You son of a BITCH! Get back here, you monster! You animal! I'll kill you, you hear me? You won't leave this place alive!"

            "Oh, but I will," Sigma's laughing voice taunted him from its safe refuge in invisibility. "I always do. Enjoy the party, my friends…it's just getting started, after all." Then no essence of him remained.

            "You bastard," Delates repeated, sinking to his knees. He was going to lose another one…first Feldspar, and now…

            "Delates," Acrystos said sharply, prompting him to turn around. She was supporting the woozy Cort, who Delates realized was bleeding from the chest and looked paler than ever. "Your E-Tank. Now."

            "Jesus, no! Not him too!" He jumped to his feet and removed the E-Tank from where it was linked to his torso, inside his chest armor.

            "I think he'll make it," Acrystos said quietly, helping to infuse Cort with the life-saving energies. "I don't know about him, though…"

            Delates looked over to Lyon, whom the charred Tyclammel was supporting shakily. "Lyon," Delates said, kneeling down to examine the wound. "How bad is it?" He really didn't have to ask. The hole was complete, and it was nasty. Many vitals were charred and broken, though somehow Sigma had missed Lyon's generator.

            Lyon surprised his temporary commander by grabbing him by the throat, mostly because it was the nearest thing to grab. "The charges," he wheezed, pulling Delates close enough to hear. "Set…the charges!"

            "We don't know how!" Tyclammel protested.

            "Sure…you do!" Lyon insisted with his characteristic annoyance. "You press…the buttons until…the green light turns on. S'all I do…"

            "How many are left?" Delates asked, indulging his doomed comrade.

            "Two." Lyon began struggling. "Get me…get me over there. I can help you guys still…he didn't kill me, not yet!"

            "Give him your E-Tank, Ty," Delates ordered. Tyclammel did so, despite his insensitive but natural worry that it would be a waste. "Come on. Let's get to the other corner. We're halfway there."

            "Set…the other one while we work," Lyon ordered, coughing up blood, though some vitality did return to his face with the new energy. "We've…gotta hurry. Something he said…it…bugs me."

            As though to confirm Lyon's suspicions, a loud whirring noise was heard from the central chamber, where they'd found Sigma. Delates turned towards it cautiously. "What's that…?"

            "I'll check," Acrystos volunteered, ever the scout.

            "I'm going with you," Delates insisted, looking to Tyclammel. "Take care of these two. Look out for…where the hell are those other two jokers anyway?"

            "I haven't seen them, sir," Tyclammel responded, referring to Diavus and Gerritt. "I think they left with Sigma."

            "Bastards," Delates growled. "All right, let's do this quickly."

            "Get me there," Lyon ordered sternly as the others left. "Get me there now."

            "Easy there," Tyclammel replied, helping the big Hunter to his feet. It turned out that Lyon could walk just fine, if someone supported his wounded upper half. "You all right there, Cort?"

            "I'll manage," the gunman replied, following them slowly as he let his nanomachines go to work.

            Delates and Acrystos ran cautiously but pointedly to the chamber, where they saw something they hadn't noticed before—the room was rounded, but one section of it was actually a cylinder…and it was opening, like a capsule. Hisses and whirrs were heard as smoke blew out from the opening hatches, and Acrystos recoiled in shock. "What is it?" Delates asked her, powering up his blaster in alarm.

            "It's…it's…" She couldn't finish, staring into the dark chamber gradually being revealed. She was getting power readings from inside…and they were immense. She hadn't detected them before on any Reploid…or mechaniloid. "Whoa, buddy…" she breathed.

            "…What are you?"

            The mass of green light solidified into the stocky Maverick field commander—his warp-in had been successful. Gredam of Terrornova looked around his reception spot for any sign of trouble. Finding none, he proceeded forward towards the entrance to the second ring—he was sitting right in the middle of it. As a matter of fact, the garage he was heading to was right above where Delates and company were having a picnic with Sigma. His assault rifle at his side and the safety off, Gredam moved purposefully enough, though his mind was spinning.

            They were dead. Malevex had said so, and that wasn't a joking matter. Teytha's communication was offline and her life signals had ceased…could there possibly be any other explanation? Gredam went over it all in his mind, but everything he came up with was so farfetched that it would be foolish to trust to hope at this point. Mortar's signs had ceased as well. Mortar…God, why had they gotten him involved in all this? He'd been living a decent life, the only one of them to succeed in that area.

            "What have I done?" the Maverick asked himself, stopping in his tracks. He'd killed them…Chartreuse had set them up, and he'd played right into their hands. It was just like the last time, in the Chancellor District. Teytha was dead again, and this time Mortar was dead with her. Malevex…he was alive, but he must be devastated, Gredam thought. He'd never seen Malevex openly intimate with Teytha, but he knew attraction when he saw it. What did he have left? Revenge?

            "Yes," he admitted weakly, not reflecting on the oddity of talking to himself. "Revenge…that's all there is. Why couldn't I just…let it go?!" He slammed his fist into a nearby wall, and the bang resonated throughout the chambers. He'd been the one pushing for revenge, he'd been the one pushing for the nukes, he'd been the one pushing for Gallagher…and now they were all going to die because of him.

            But no, he thought, straightening up and shaking his head. Not yet. They had to live…he and Malevex, at least. They'd find what was left of the other two and…yes, it had worked before, hadn't it? There was still a way…there had to be a way. And if nothing else he and Malevex could at least chase down Chartreuse.

            He resumed walking and soon spied a figure standing motionless in the center of the hall—Malevex. The averagely built Reploid was watching Gredam as though he were a man walking out of an open grave. The dim ceiling light outlined Malevex's sleek black armor and its silver trim, but what light it shed on his face revealed a blank, uninterested visage, despite the emotion clear in his multicolored eyes. "You're alive."

            "I am," Gredam replied, matching Malevex's flat tone. "In a manner of speaking."

            "So am I…" His eyes betrayed all. "…In a manner of speaking."

            "Jesus Christ," Gredam whispered, approaching his friend. "It's the truth?"

            "I can't…I can't reach them." He shook his head slowly but finally. "They're…gone, Gredam. Both of them."

            The silence was the loudest thing either of them had ever heard. Then Gredam spun with a mighty roar and punched the wall again, this time leaving an indentation as well as fracturing a knuckle, but he didn't even notice. "It's not over," he seethed, shaking his head firmly. "Not yet."

            "What now?" Malevex asked tiredly. "Revenge? Look how far that got us…we were better off as fugitives."

            "I know…Jesus, I know!" The big Maverick rubbed his temples, his eyes unable to focus. "We can find them, can't we? We can patch Teytha up like the first time…and Mortar, too."

            "It's not that easy. You know it's not that easy."

            Then Gredam blinked as his eyes did notice something—a reddish smudge on Malevex's armor. "Is that…blood?"

            "Huh?" The dark Reploid raised his arm to view the blotch, and his lips curled into a frown.

            "Where have you been?" Gredam inquired, as curious as Malevex was.

            "I was in the control room, with Arson. When I got your message, I…" Then his face went even blanker. He looked up at Gredam with wide-open eyes and blinked them once. "I don't know."

            "You don't…know?"

            Malevex stared again at the smudge and shook his head very slowly, his face still a mask of confusion. "I remember we…Arson was upset about something, and…" He shook his head again. "Then I was walking here. I know that can't be all that happened, but…that's all I remember." He continued to stare at the blood, clearly haunted by the thought that he really was losing his mind.

            Gredam began to feel his insides squirm with suspicion. But no, he thought, that couldn't be…Sigma wouldn't do that. Why would he need to, with them? "It doesn't matter," he took charge, taking Malevex by the shoulder. "We've got to get out of here."

            "Why…?"

            "Because the bastard who did this is still at large, that's why."

            "What are you talking about? The people who did this are—"

            "Chartreuse, Malevex." Gredam's eyes were stone. "It was Chartreuse."

            Malevex's eyes went wide for a different reason. "Chartreuse? What does he have to do with this?" Then he finally noticed the sword wounds that criss-crossed Gredam's torso. "Oh, my god…"

            "Yeah…I fought him." Gredam touched his hand to the cuts in his armor. Malevex's eyes widened as he saw the extent of Gredam's torso damage—the armor was more or less spent. Cracks spread out from the gash marks like rivers on a map, and the camouflaged suit looked like it would fall apart at any second. There was something ominous to Malevex about this sight…he hoped it wasn't an omen of some sort. "And guess what—our old friend is better known in the underworld by the title 'Gold Serpent'."

            It took approximately eight seconds for Malevex to process that information and to decipher the full brunt of its implication. Then he physically recoiled from Gredam. "No! Not again! That…that bastard!"

            "I'm sorry. I pulled you all into this, and now…"

            "He got us again," Malevex finished. "Jesus Christ, we thought we were free from him…"

            "Isn't it worth it, Malevex? Isn't it worth it to live, just to get that bastard?"

            Malevex, who'd been staring at the floor for a while, raised his head with a rather sad expression on his face. "We'd never get close enough…I think you know that." He fell back against the wall. "If we escape they'll broadcast our images everywhere…no, Gredam…there's no hiding for us this time. If we want revenge…" He tilted his head towards the halls of the second ring. "…We'll have to get it from in here."

            Gredam slowly nodded, and with the bowing of his head came the destruction of his dreams for vengeance, the only thing that had been keeping him alive. Even when he'd been faced with a peaceful life with his friends, he'd been too fixed on violence to see the goodness of what he was being offered. What did that mean for him now, he wondered without really caring?

            Suddenly there came a sharp buzz from the security network—someone had tripped an infrared beam and was heading this way. The first thing the two Mavericks heard was the tapping of metal claws on a metal floor. Behind it were the heavy footsteps of a running Reploid.

            "What is it?" Gredam asked, converting his rifle to the grenade launcher and approaching the hallway.

            "One of the wolf sentries," Malevex discerned, also peeking out into the corridor. "And—"

            "And what? What's it running away from?" Gredam turned to see why Malevex wasn't answering—his friend was staring down the hallway like a cow looking at an oncoming train. As soon as Gredam saw who it was, his shoulder armor slid back to reveal the missile pods and his eyes burned with rage. "Come on, you wretch," he whispered.

            "Come and get what you deserve."

            Mega Man X had seen some strange things in his life. He'd seen an ostrich take over a military base. He'd seen a penguin in the northern hemisphere. He'd even seen a sponge take over the weather. But nothing could have prepared him for Zero showing mercy to Mavericks.

            For as long as X could remember, Zero had been the belligerent one. He'd always been looking for a fight, whether to do his job or to just have fun. He'd lectured X time and time again about the thrills of combat when X himself was content to think of combat as a horrible thing. Now here he was, turning loose some of the most dangerous Mavericks to date—including a man he'd chased since Mea's death all those years ago—all because of…what? X didn't understand Zero's change of heart. He assumed it had something to do with Colonel and Iris, but for the life of him he couldn't think how Zero had linked the noble Repliforce officer and his innocent sister to nuclear terrorists.

            Nevertheless, X had to admit that there was no choice for him but to support his friend. Zero may have been erratic, but he was as well known for his practicality as X was known—perhaps unfairly—for naiveté. Zero had a reason for this, and X would stand by him. It meant a lot to him, from the looks of things, and X couldn't rightly just disregard a sentiment from the man who'd been willing to die in his place in Sigma's first fortress years ago.

            But that didn't stop him from being angry.

            Everything was a big mess now. He'd come here to destroy the Maverick bosses and tear down Seraph Castle. He didn't know how Delates was doing—he couldn't communicate with them, probably because of some trick of Sigma's—but his own objective was getting considerably more difficult. Now he wasn't allowed to kill the Maverick bosses? Well what was he supposed to do?

            The answer revealed itself in the form of a wolf sentry. The small but ridiculously fast mechaniloid leapt out at X from behind a corner, scaring the bejesus out of the Hunter and rewarding his lack of vigilance with a gash on the arm. Frowning, X boosted himself to the side of the room and opened fire on the wolf, which darted out of the line of fire as soon as it realized it was in danger. Sighing, X came to the conclusion that try as he might, he would have to use some practicality here too. He couldn't just sit around and wave peace signs if people were shooting at him—that was foolish and suicidal. He had to fight back, though perhaps not as vigorously as any other time.

            Knowing that he was near his destination, X darted after the wolf, unwilling to let it alert anyone guarding the Marauder garage. His buster cannon began to charge, and he darted around the corner into a long hallway with two exits in sight, one to the left and one on the right—

            —And from the right door there came a plume of fire and smoke that crashed into the wall next to X's head.

            The Azure Hunter tumbled onto the ground with a yelp. Ahead of him, the wolf yelped as well when it realized that one of its front legs was gone. From the same doorway there came a sword-wielding Maverick in black armor, who leapt clear over X's head and came down behind him. X rolled himself hard to the left to avoid the Maverick's downward strike and came to his feet with his right leg extended, catching the Maverick's wrist. Before X could make this mean anything another grenade crashed into the floor nearby, pelting him with shrapnel and…doing nothing to the swordsman, who somehow wasn't there anymore.

            "All right," X growled, his blaster fully charged. "Let's have it, then!"

            "As you wish," a cold voice whispered behind him. X didn't even look, and dashed forward away from the blade that came swiping at his back. He turned and prepared to destroy the Maverick, which was when he noticed the dark purple suit he wore underneath his armor. That color combination…it was…

            "Malevex!" he exclaimed. "God dammit!" He immediately downgraded his buster charge one level. He had to get the hell out of here as soon as possible, or things could get bloody…for all of them.

            "Flank!" the other Maverick, a well-built commando shouted to his comrade. "You know the drill!"

            You must be Gredam, X thought as he beheld Sigma's second-in-command for the first time. As he did so, he caught sight of the missile pods in Gredam's shoulders and the grenade launcher in his hands. Shit. At the same time, Malevex darted to the left hallway entrance and took on a defensive stance. Coils of fire began to snake around his person…fire that was inexplicably black. Mega shit.

            Without a word, both Mavericks attacked at once. Thundering explosions rocked the hallway as Gredam let loose with all his firepower. Malevex stepped forward and slashed his sword once, sending a wave of that eerie Dark Fire flying X's way. Great repulsive heaps of donkey shit.

            His mind turned to mush by the explosions, X knew he had no choice but to incapacitate at least one of his opponents. He held his breath and threw himself into a forward roll, barreling through the flames and shrapnel, rising right in front of Gredam, who immediately switched his launcher to its rifle function. "You bastard!" the Maverick roared, opening fire. "We'll take you with us!"

            "No one's going anywhere!" X shouted back, and fired his shot.

            Gredam had been advancing when the shot was launched; he stopped and was jerked backwards. It was though he'd been punched hard in the chest…his actual chest, not his armor. He realized what that implied when he saw, in slow motion, the scattered fragments of his protection flying through the air…intermingled with drops of blood. Weakened by the bout with Chartreuse, the armor had been no match for a point blank X-Buster shot, even one that wasn't at full charge. The Maverick choked on something; it annoyed him, because he was still trying to attack. He continued to squeeze off rounds, but he realized that they were going all over the place. Why couldn't he aim? He was a stellar shot. He tasted something, and then realized what he was choking on: blood.

            "Gredam!" Malevex cried, his eyes fixed on the gaping hole in his best friend's chest.

            "Oh, that is such bullshit!" X protested, a sick look coming onto his face.

            A bubble of blood spurted out of Gredam's mouth, and the Maverick, his eyes glazing over, collapsed against the wall, sinking down to the floor. His chest was wide open, sparking and bleeding profusely. His generator hadn't been destroyed but it had been broken—his life energy was seeping out slowly, rather than in one explosive burst. His rifle clattered to the ground next to him, and that was when the shit X had been thinking about hit the fan.

            "Oh, you bastard!" Malevex exploded, and before X even knew what was happening the Maverick had sprung like a wild animal, cleaving gashes into X's already damaged armor. "You monster! You killed them all!"

            "All? Hey, wait a minute! You've got it all—whoaaaa!" He threw himself to the side, landing badly on the ground as Malevex's sword crashed into the wall. "I didn't mean to…you have to calm down, the others are ok!" It became clear to X that reason was not going to work when he saw the Dark Fire cover Malevex again. It grew into a cloak of sorts around him…and grew, and grew, and grew. "Jesus Christ," X breathed, snapping to his feet and scanning quickly for an exit—the left hallway. He diverted all his energy to his Emergency Acceleration System, forgetting about the safety levels, and just bolted away from the flaming demon.

            "You can't get away," Malevex promised his fleeing foe, his eyes blazing as brightly as his aura.

            "Malevex," Gredam choked out. His voice shattered Malevex's cloud of frenzy in an instant. The curtain of fiery energies extinguished with almost comical speed and the Maverick dropped his sword, rushing over to his stricken friend.

            "Gredam," he said as he kneeled down, examining the wound. His stomach convulsed, and if he could have retched he would have. It wasn't that the wound was all that gruesome…it was the concept of what was happening that was worse than anything even Terrornova had done to him. "Hang on, Gredam, you've gotta hang on…"

            "To what?" the Maverick asked weakly. "No…I think this is it…" He coughed again, leaning his head back against the wall. It was a curious sentence, the one he'd just spoken aloud. He had never suspected the opportunity to say it would ever come. After spending his life just trying to remain alive, the concept of death was…it was just too unreal. But at the same time he knew it was here, and for the first time in a long time his mind was free—free of all schemes, free of all vengeful desires, free of all pain…everything was laid bare before him. He looked up into Malevex's disbelieving face, and realized sadly that there was much to be done…and he didn't think Malevex could handle it. But there was no choice, was there? Things had to be said. "Malevex…it's over…I don't want to be revived."

            "What?" His spirits died completely as his last shred of hope was torn. "It doesn't have to be over—"

            "But it is." Gredam shook his head, now aware of the pain. He gritted his teeth and continued, however. He could hardly do anything else. "We've been soldiers all our lives. You at least have been able to find some happiness in life with Teytha…but I…I had nothing but my anger." The pain was severe now, and he winced despite himself.

            "Take it easy," Malevex ordered, sitting Gredam in a less haphazard position. "Don't waste your strength."

            "Oh, why the hell not?" He grinned without much humor. "Listen…to me. This life…isn't about fighting. It's about everything else…everything I never bothered to look for. You…you still have…a chance. You…can live…"

            "For what?" he demanded, trying to keep his voice under control. "She's gone, Gredam…she's dead and so is Mortar, and now…" His head snapped away. "I…there's nothing left for me to live for. Only to die for…"

            The pain was gone. Gredam noticed it and knew what that suggested—his time was almost up. He used his force of will to make what remained of his energy enough to raise his arms and clamp them on Malevex's shoulders, forcing his friend to look right at him. "If you die…then your death better be worthwhile."

            "You mean vengeance?" He frowned. "Didn't you just say it wasn't about anger…?"

            "I don't know…what I said." His breathing grew coarse and heavy. "You've lived…through hell. Do yourself a favor and…" His eyes bored holes into Malevex's skull. "…Die satisfied."

            Malevex absorbed this quietly. When he sensed Gredam weakening he lowered his friend back against the wall. Gredam sucked in a few more breaths. They would have to do. He opened his eyes once more and said the hardest words of his life. "Malevex…it was Chartreuse. He's responsible for this." He met his comrade's eyes one last time. "You know…what you have to do."

            "No," Malevex protested, the sickness in his stomach growing. "Not that…"

            "It is…the duty…" Gredam ordered in a wheeze, "…of the assassins. Find the others…and…deliver them." Exhausted, the Maverick slumped over, his eyes closing. "I'm sorry," he whispered. "I was your commander, and I…failed."

            "No." Malevex shook him by the shoulders. "You're wrong…don't think that, dammit! Gredam! Gredam!"

            There was no answer. Gredam of Terrornova had gone to join his comrades at last. His mission was over.

            For a very long time, Malevex just kneeled there and stared at his best friend's corpse. As he did so, the pillars supporting his already fragile mind began to collapse one by one. Teytha…Mortar…and Gredam. All vanquished by the Maverick Hunters, the tools of the humans, after the scene had been set by Chartreuse, the fiend who'd started it all. Every ally Malevex had ever known had been systematically eliminated. His closest comrades were dead, after all their promising dreams of freedom. He had no idea where Diavus, his business associate, was or if he was still alive. In fact, Malevex could only think of one comrade in the world…

            …Sigma.

            But this did not involve Sigma, he told himself as he rose to his feet. This involved the Hunters…X, that monster, that blue devil in white armor, the destroyer of all Malevex had worked to create. But as guilty as X was, Zero was infinitely guiltier, because the blood on his hands was the most precious to Malevex. Teytha would be avenged…as all the others would be avenged.

            "Die satisfied," Gredam's voice repeated in his mind.

            "But not yet," he whispered, staring at the rifle next to his fallen friend. With hands that did not shake, he gripped the rifle and stood with legs that did not wobble. He stepped backward with paces that were methodical and calm, and when he was a safe distance back he looked at Gredam with a face that was devoid of any emotion. Behind it all, his mind was frozen in place. Everything else was overpowered by one command: duty.

            In the days of Terrornova, suicide was always a threat to the commanders. Rather than going through the ordeal of enslaving new Reploids, they would revive suicidal Reploids for the sole purpose of putting them to death in a more painful manner before all their comrades, thus discouraging the concept of suicide altogether. Chartreuse was also rumored to have revived some assassins and even regular Reploids and squirreled them away to his own undisclosed locations, and no one had ever wanted to think about what happened to those unlucky few. To counteract this, the assassins had adopted the practice of destroying the bodies of downed comrades, specifically eliminating the control chips so a revival was impossible. This horrendous duty was the hardest thing in the world to perform, but it had always been done and Malevex knew that it could not be avoided now. More importantly, Gredam had requested it, and he could not disregard his friend's final wish.

            Malevex raised Gredam's rifle and switched to the secondary grenade launcher function. There were three rounds left. That would do. Malevex focused on Gredam's head, where the control chip had to be. This was where his hands began to shake and his legs wobble. His brain contorted and fought violently against what the body was about to do, but Malevex's sense of duty prevailed, and he pulled the trigger…and he pulled it again, and again, and again and again and again even though only three shots were left. When the smoke cleared there was nothing left of Gredam's form except a jumbled pile of charred parts. The former Maverick was unrecognizable, by some kind act of fate, and his control chip was certainly gone. So there it was then—Gredam was officially and forever dead.

            A single tear rolled down Malevex's cheek, but he made no sound to accompany it. No other tears followed it. Instead of depression, a cloud of anger began to envelop the dark Maverick. His body took on an outline that could best be described as neon black, and around him his mysterious fire burned freely once more. The voices of vengeance returned to his shattered mind.

            They are dead.

            Murdered.

            Butchered.

            "Murdered," Malevex whispered his agreement.

            The murderers are here.

            They must die.

            Must scream.

            Must burn.

            "Must burn," Malevex said, and his voice had totally changed—it was a cold whisper that seemed not to come from his lips but from the walls around him. It was an echo, but if anyone heard it they'd have to describe it as a whisper echoing off its source, odd as it may have seemed. They would also have noticed that while the fire around Malevex was growing brighter and brighter…the hallway was growing darker and darker.

            "You can't run," he said, turning to face the hallway X had used to escape. It led to the third ring. "Not from me." Without moving his eyes from the path, Malevex raised Gredam's rifle and switched to single fire. The rifle had a scope, and that was all Malevex needed—he had been his unit's best sniper.

            "Mega Man X…and Zero. Your power levels…surpass the acceptable level. You are a threat to society." A blinding black flare exploded from Malevex, and just like that all the lights on the floor went out.

            "Terrornova is coming for you."

            Zero bolted down the darkened hallways of the third ring, his infrared on and his mind alert. He kept his lightsaber in its sheath for fear that running around with a weapon wouldn't look good if he did encounter Malevex. He hadn't gotten any reports from X—probably Sigma's fault—but he assumed that Malevex was still in the area. He also couldn't help but wonder what that rumbling had been about. He'd have to ask X later, he supposed.

            In the meantime, he admitted that he was sufficiently creeped out by the total lack of security forces in the third ring. Typically the third ring was the most guarded one, since it was all that remained before the core of a fortress built in the four-ring fashion. This time, however, absolutely nothing stood in Zero's way except the darkness and the walls. Infrared didn't help him see the said walls, since they gave off no heat, and he ran into more than one of them.

            His running came to an abrupt halt when he sensed another presence in the area. It was nothing he could explain…it was just a battle sense he'd developed after years of war. Someone was there…even though Zero didn't see anyone at all.

            But he didn't have all that long to wait before the presence identified itself.

            "Ha ha ha…Zero…so you managed to escape."

            Zero went ramrod straight, and he did draw his lightsaber. "Sigma."

            "Oh, put that away," the Maverick King's voice ordered. "We're not going to fight, you and I. We're just going to talk."

            "Like hell we are," Zero spat. "You're going down, Sigma. Right here."

            "Heh heh heh…oh, I'm sure you think so. You always think so. But you're always wrong." His laughter grew a bit more sadistic. "Doubly so this time, I'm afraid…heheheh…"

            "Say it to my face, you big giggling freak."

            "Hold your horses. We'll meet again, Son of Wily. But not today."

            "You're not leaving this fortress alive!" Zero declared.

            "In case you've forgotten," Sigma's scathing voice reminded him, "your efforts are slightly divided. On one hand, you want to play the knight in shining armor, taking the Terrornova group from the hands of death. On the other hand, you want to be the angel of death, striking me down once and for all." He chuckled. "You can't do both, Zero. You'll have to throw your efforts one way or another to accomplish anything." He started laughing again, and this time it was really harsh. "But, unfortunately, that choice has already been made for you!

            "You bastard," Zero whispered. "What did you do?"

            "Nothing!" Sigma positively shrieked with laughter. "That's the beauty of it! The best part! I didn't have to do a goddamned thing! X did all the work for me!"

            Zero was standing still, but it was like he'd run into another wall. "Oh, God…"

            "God!" Sigma scoffed. "Who are you to call on God? We're above that, Zero! We are Reploids!"

            "You'd better hope that's the truth," Zero growled. "Because that's the only way you're gonna escape Hell!"

            "Then at least I can content myself with the knowledge that you'll be there with me."

            "At least I'm fighting against it!"

            "Ha!" Sigma laughed richly. "And won't that be something to see! Heheheh…it won't be long now, Zero. He's coming. Those four always were punctual. Yes…I'd have to say they were my most useful pawns. Excluding Repliforce, of course. They're the chump champs."

            "You son of a bitch!" Zero roared. "You use everyone! And you still call yourself a revolutionary?!" He spat on a nearby wall and glared indignantly at the darkness. "No, you're no revolutionary. You're not even worthy of being called a terrorist. You're just a computer glitch…just a lousy, insignificant error!"

            "Maybe," the Virus hissed from within its host. "But always remember, Zero—you're the one who brought me here. You introduced me to this world, and to this body…and for that I am grateful. Soon, you'll embrace me once more. I am your past, present and future…the final legacy of Albert Wily!"

            "That's what you say," Zero challenged. "But I can defeat you. I've already proven that. Now, I'm going to finish the job, whether you like it or not."

            The Virus chuckled. "And I thought X was supposed to be the naïve one. Well, go ahead and try. It's only more entertainment for me, after all. Yes…I think I'll stay after all. I wouldn't miss this show for the world!"

            Zero didn't give Sigma the dignity of a response. Soon enough, he sensed that Sigma's presence had retreated, wherever it had been. But there was something else in its place…something not quite right.

            A second later, the wall near his head exploded as a round from an unseen sniper found its mark.

            "Shit!" Zero exclaimed, darting out of the way. He looked ahead with his infrared, but saw absolutely nothing. "What the hell?" He darted around the corner where the shot had come from, prepared to duck, but he saw nothing. It was a long hall, but Zero's infrared could certainly reach all the way. Then another shot came, missing Zero's head only by inches. The Hunter cursed himself and broke into a roll, rushing to the other end of the hall and looking round the corner to behold—nothing.

            Malevex, he determined, remembering Sigma's words. But if it was indeed Malevex…well, Zero knew from experience that Malevex was the kind of sniper that did not miss. Those were two misses, though… Jesus, Zero realized. He's messing with me! That was a very bad sign. If Malevex was feeling sadistic enough to freak Zero out before killing him, that meant something big had happened. Could Sigma have done what they'd feared and told him Teytha and Mortar were dead? If so, Zero had a lot of work to do.

            Another crack rang out, and Zero cried out as his arm began to sting. He jerked it up and beheld a slice on his upper arm, guarded by a suit and not armor. Yes, he was definitely being messed with. That meant negotiations were useless at distance. Zero sprang into action, deactivating his sword and sheathing it while racing down the hallway towards the sound of the blast. "Malevex!" he roared, hoping to catch the Maverick before he could line up another shot. "You're making a mistake! You—MOTHERFff…grrrah!" He'd run into another wall.

            For a while he just sat on his ass, dazed. "You hear me?" he called out again. "Look! I'm unarmed, dammit! I don't want a fight!"

            His response was a whole lot of nothing. Officially nervous, Zero slowly pulled himself to his feet. "Malevex," he tried again. "They're alive. I don't care what Sigma's been telling you. They're alive."

            And that got a response—from the distant right, Zero heard the faintest echo of a laugh. Zero bolted in that direction, holding his hands out in front him just in case any more walls decided to sneak up on him. The laughter got louder, and Zero came closer. Finally he came to a corner where he could see the faintest flicker of…light. Yes, there was light of some sort round this bend. Zero didn't draw his sword, but he made sure it was within his reach. The light danced and glowed dully…like the reflection of fire. Zero took a deep breath, and spun around the corner.

            "YAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!"

            "WHOA!" Zero exclaimed, jumping back and drawing his blade on impulse. He immediately damned himself for the act and looked up, prepared to meet Malevex's accusatory glare.

            But…that guy lying on the floor there wasn't Malevex at all.

            "Please," he begged, scampering away. He wore red armor, and Zero noticed a frightened look in his eyes. "Please don't kill me!"

            "Who the hell are you?" Zero demanded, holding out his saber and allowing himself to breathe. "What the hell are you doing here?"

            "I…I'm Arson," the Reploid said with a shiver, despite the warm aura of fire that danced around him. "You have to go."

            "I have to go?" Zero asked skeptically. It was then that he noticed the way Arson's armor seemed charred at the edges, and even a little melted. There was blood on his face, too. "What happened to you, pal? Speak quickly. I haven't got time for this."

            "You have to go!" Arson declared, rearing up on his hind legs. "He's still here!"

            "Who's still here?" Zero asked, lowering his weapon. "Malevex?"

            "Go," Arson ordered, getting shakily to his feet. Something had scared this guy shitless. "I've never seen…anything like…" He broke it off and shook his head. "S…sorry. I'm not that hurt, but…damn, man…"

            "Oh, boy." Coils of dread ensnared Zero's stomach. "When did this happen? How long ago?" The Maverick just stared blankly. "Arson? You there?"

            Instead of answering, Arson stared at something over Zero's shoulder. His eyes nearly bugged out of his head and without explanation he turned and raced down the next hallway.

            Zero spun around sharply and threw himself down at the same time, waiting for the crack of the sniper's rifle. It never came. "God dammit!" Zero grumbled, snapping back up to his feet and racing around the corner. "Come out! You don't know what you're doing! You—" He stopped again and froze as the rifle did fire…behind him. "Oh, hell no." Disbelieving, the Hunter turned and started haltingly back towards the hallway Arson had fled down. He stood there without entering for a second or two, scanning for some sign of life but finding none. The coils of dread tightened. Please, he thought, please tell me he isn't killing his own soldiers. If he is, then he's gone…and he isn't coming back.

            The hallway was longer than the others, but just as dark. Zero didn't see Arson's glow anywhere, nor did he pick up any signs of a Reploid. That disturbed him. Malevex had to be shooting from somewhere. Why couldn't he pick him up?

            Zero arrived unexpectedly at the end of the hallway…and Arson was nowhere to be found. Was that good or bad? The Hunter stared down the hall as though daring Malevex to shoot him. "So that's it, then?" he called out in challenge. "You terrify your own soldiers now? You've sunk that far? You and your great cause?"

            His response was a three-round burst from the end of the hallway. The bullets lodged themselves in the wall nearby, and Zero, now enraged, raced down the hallway, sheathing his sword despite his mind's urgings. No, he asserted. I can't fight. I won't do that again. Not when I'm this close…

            And this time he was really freaked out, because the hallway ended with a wall. "What…the hell?!" Malevex had fired straight at him—he had to be here. There was nowhere else to be! Finally feeling the weight of desperation, Zero slumped against the corner of the wall, staring blankly ahead of him. "Stop this," he pleaded. "They're alive, dammit! I went through hell to make sure they were alive! I can't kill you. Don't you get it?"

            Then there came the most bone-chilling spectacle of the chase so far. A voice found Zero, a cold whisper that let him know exactly what his conversation partner thought of him. The chilling part was that the voice did not come from any one direction—it seemed to come from all walls at once. Was this a Terrornova scare tactic? If so it was effective as hell, Zero confessed. The words further deflated his hopes for a peaceful solution.

            "You're a very good actor, Hunter…but the show's over."

            "It's not an act!" he retorted. "They're alive! Teytha and Mortar are out there! Why don't you understand? You're free to go!"

            The shadows emitted a rich, amused laugh. "Stop. This is too pitiful…it's not you at all. Why don't you just draw your sword and die like a man?" He got no response, and so continued. "Just Teytha and Mortar, eh? What's the matter, Zero? Gredam's not as important to you? We're all terrorists, but we're okay because we didn't actually drop the bomb. Gredam, though, he's expendable. Is that it? Is that how you think now?"

            "Gredam…" Zero refused to let himself understand. "He's no less important!"

            "You insolent bastard!" The darkness, enraged, actually managed to make a whisper sound like a bellow. Three holes exploded around Zero, one above him and one to both sides, provoking three startled jumps. "I was there, you stupid jackass! I watched it happen!"

            "What?" Zero finally asked, doubly bewildered by this mystery as well as the mystery of why he couldn't see, even in infrared, the man who had just shot at him from an angle that would put him directly in front of Zero's eyes. "What happened?"
            Malevex was silent. Something had attracted his attention. "Poor boy. You were late to the show, weren't you?"

            Zero's eyes widened as he beheld a startling feat. The shadows hugging the nearby walls began to dance and glow, which struck Zero as odd because darkness was supposed to be the absence of light. Yet this darkness was getting brighter, for lack of better explanation. It reminded Zero of Arson's fire, only dyed black. What in the world?

            "Go on," Malevex offered. "Why don't you ask Contestant Number One? Then we can have the Grand Prize Game."

            Zero finally noticed that the fire led to a gap in the center of the hall—a fork that he'd missed earlier. Apprehensively he started towards it, not bothering to talk to his stalker, who remained silent even though Zero could still feel his unnerving presence. What the hell kind of witchcraft was that bastard using to make himself invisible even to infrared?

            The halls were lined with that black fire, but as far as Zero could tell they were still just hallways. The third ring was a labyrinth. Even if he survived this, Zero had no idea how he was going to find his way out. After a while the hallway opened out into an actual room, a large, cluttered area lined with computers. Zero had been in enough fortresses to know that he'd just stumbled upon a command center.

            And there was someone there.

            "Hold it!" Zero shouted, coiling for a tackle.

            "Freeze!" the other one shouted in turn, aiming a gun. Zero threw sprang up and over the plasma rocket and came down two feet away from his target, launching himself into his opponent's midsection and bringing them both to the ground.

            "…X?"

            "Zero? Get off me, you asshole!"

            Zero just stared at his pinned partner. Then he grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him madly. "What the hell did you do?"

            "I couldn't help it!" X protested, violently twisting out of Zero's grip. "I used a low power blast, but his armor…I didn't know his armor was for shit!"

            "Shit…oh, shit…" Zero careened backwards, his fears confirmed as he remembered Malevex's words. "It was Gredam, wasn't it? He's dead, isn't he?"

            "I…" X got even more frustrated than he already was. "What the hell was I supposed to do?" he exploded, getting to his feet. "They double teamed me, Zero! I had grenades tearing up the walls and fire tearing up my feet! Should I have stood there and died?"

            Zero, unable to fight that logic, just spun around and punched a hole through a nearby monitor. The sparks that flew provided flashes of light that illuminated the room for half seconds. Zero watched it to let his temper cool, paying notice to the shadows the brief lights cast. There were so many objects in the room, casting so many varieties of shadows…

            …But none were able to cast the humanoid shadow that appeared after the sixth flash.

            "X!" Zero finally managed to say. "Get down!"

            "What?" X asked irritably, just before the rifle fired. He screamed as the adaman bullet tore a hole clear through his armored right forearm, and he crumpled to the floor both out of pain and precautionary measures.

            "Malevex!" Zero shouted, drawing his weapon. He felt he had little choice. "Where the hell are you?"

            "Violent bloody incidents, our victims wrought with fear

            Despite it all, no evidence, for we were never here."

            The darkness finished its whispered chant with a cold, harsh laugh. "That was our anthem. Did you like it?"

            "Where is he?" X said through teeth clenched in pain. His eyes were wide, because his infrared wasn't picking anything up. "He's gotta be in this room…but I can't see him anywhere!"

            "The infrared doesn't pick him up," Zero agreed, feeling sick.

            "What kind of technology is this?" X wondered aloud, pulling himself to his feet.

            "Oh come on," the darkness taunted them. "Your government hasn't shown you this toy yet? Ha! Well of course not. Your government keeps a lot of things from you, don't they?" The whispers turned into laughter again. "Terrornova was just the tip of the iceberg."

            "What do you mean?" Zero asked, but this time there was no answer.

            "He's gone," X said, stepping forward and clutching his bleeding arm. "I can just—"

            "Feel it," Zero finished. He glanced at his partner. "How bad is it?"

            "It's fine," X shook his head dismissively. "Hurts like a bitch, and I dunno how useful the arm'll be, but…it's not my buster arm, and that's all that matters." He stole a glance at Zero's face, reading it like a book. "Zero…come on, you don't seriously still want to—"

            "You're damn right I do," Zero retorted, still irritated. "Even if Gredam's down, the other two…if they lose both Gredam and Malevex, what was the point of saving them in the first place?"

            "That's a good question," X grumped. "Care to explain?"

            A door in the back of the room slid open.

            Zero stared down it, knowing his infrared was useless but using it anyway. "I will. But not now." He started for the doorway.

            "Zero, wait!" X called after him. "Don't you see what he's doing? He's baiting you into a trap. He'll—"

            "I know what he's doing!" Zero silenced his partner without turning around. "But that doesn't change anything." He tilted his head very slightly behind him. "If you don't want a part of this, I understand…get out before he finds you."

            "That's bullshit and you know it," X countered, forcing himself to follow his friend. "We're sitting ducks alone in this place, and if he does fight you, you'll need backup—"

            "I won't be fighting him to kill—"

            "—doubly so if you want to go through with this harebrained scheme. Keeping someone alive is a lot harder than keeping them dead…unless, of course, it's Sigma we're talking about."

            Zero let his emotions out in a breath. He knew how true that was. "All right. But please, X…this here is important for me."

            "I don't get it, but…I won't question it." He moved the fingers on his right arm, relieved to see that they still worked. His nanomachines were working overtime, partially because of the Fourth Armor helmet system. "I…really wasn't trying to kill Gredam. It just happened that way."

            "I don't get it, but…" Zero accepted it, turning towards the door, "I won't question it."

            The two Hunters started cautiously through the door, which despite their expectations did not slam shut behind them. They both noticed the fire lining the walls, and Zero saw X shiver at the sight. This hallway was longer than any other so far, and throughout the walk there was no sign of their would-be assassin. The hall emptied out into a large, round room lined with tall steel wall units, which upon closer inspection turned out to contain weapons. At the center of the room there was a rather spooky sight—a circle of the floor was painted white, and above this section there was a tiny circular window on the ceiling. Neither Hunter knew how bad the snowstorm was now, but it looked like moonlight was indeed passing through the window, vaguely illuminating the center of the chamber. All in all it was a thoroughly haunting place.

            "I think this is the armory," X said, just to break the thick silence.

            Zero said nothing. He didn't feel Malevex's eyes on him, but there still wasn't something right about this place. "What's in here?" he asked the darkness. "How much longer are we going to play these games?" He got no answer.

            "Zero," X piped up, looking around nervously and arming his buster. "There's something…"

            A second later and Zero would have died. The Hunter felt the air behind him shift ever so slightly, but it was enough to drive his ultra-alert senses into hyperdrive. He threw himself forward and on his face just as something swiped through the air where he'd been. Zero couldn't see the weapon but he could sure as hell hear it—it was a lightsaber.

            "Watch it!" X warned, firing off level one shots rapidly, trying to score a hit just to see where his enemy was. The invisible Maverick was unscathed, but X heard him moving, and unlike Zero he rushed the Maverick, firing his cannon all the while. Zero came up suddenly from the floor, inadvertently tripping Malevex, who flew into X. All three scrambled back to their feet, and X quickly looked down to where he knew the Maverick had to be, seeing… "That's it!" He exclaimed, leaping backwards. "Watch the shadows, Zero!"

            "The fire," Zero realized, seeing the dancing darkness that signified Malevex's position. The Maverick himself stood his ground, shaking with laughter that this time had a voice to it, coming from one spot rather than all around.

            "So you finally figured it out." He back-flipped into obscurity and both Hunters tried to pinpoint his new location. Before long Zero heard the lightsaber's hum change, indicating a swing. He swung out his own saber, miraculously making contact with the enemy's blade and driving him back. But when Zero tried to advance upon his target, he wasn't there anymore. "Give it up," Malevex taunted. "Even your infrared can't do the job."

            "Maybe not," X piped up from across the armory, his armor now purple. "But what about an Aiming Laser or two?"

            Both Hunters heard the sound of boots racing across the floor. A target box appeared on X's targeting grid that, thankfully, showed him what infrared would not. The Maverick was running in a circle around the room's perimeter…and he'd just turned to rush in at X. The Hunter fired off his wide, multicolored laser, and the results were very interesting. A wild array of light and colors emanated from Malevex's position, and a few blurry moments later the Maverick was in plain sight…though that didn't help them much. Malevex's armor was black as night.

            "Neat trick," the Maverick allowed, and without missing a beat surrounded himself with a curtain of his Dark Fire. "But I've got a better one." The Maverick dashed like the meteor from Hell, a blazing black fireball that X could only avoid by turning on his own thrusters and dashing for his life. Malevex missed, but a collision wasn't his intention. He lashed out with his saber, scarring X's right flank. The Hunter let out a cry as his side burned with pain—and it also burned in the literal sense. He frantically extinguished the fire, which had begun to creep up from the wound onto the rest of his body.

            Zero leapt into the air and let his boot thrusters close the distance between him and Malevex, coming down with a heavy strike. Malevex, quick as hell, spun around to counter it, parrying the blow and applying a combo of his own. Zero met every strike, but soon it became apparent that he wasn't trying to include any attacks of his own.

            "Don't want to play?" Malevex asked, propelling himself backwards. "Fine by me." He twisted around like a pitcher winding up to throw and then snapped his fist forward. From it sprang a geyser of darkness that struck Zero square in the chest. The Dark Fire began to cover him as it had covered X, like a parasite spreading out to investigate its new host. Zero found that while he fought the blistering energy, rolling on the ground like a pig in mud, he couldn't concentrate on anything else.

            "You son of a bitch!" X thundered, unloading on Malevex with normal shots.

            "Please!" Malevex laughed rather diabolically, flipping backwards away from the shots. "Even if you hit me, do you really think a crappy level one shot is the least bit useful?" He laughed again and shook his head, fixing X with a cold stare. "You don't have any balls at all, do you?"

            "You stupid bastard," X growled, holding his temper in check. "We don't need to be having this battle. We're trying to save you people!"

            "Just like you saved Gredam?" Malevex inquired innocently. "I'm not sure I want to be saved, then. And what about the other two, hmm? How safe are they?"

            "Very safe," Zero coughed from his position on the floor, struggling with all his might to stand up and break the chains of fire. "At…at Triangle Rock!"

            "Triangle…" Something flickered in Malevex's eyes, but quickly vanished. "You could have picked that up anywhere."

            Zero stood up straight and with a cry shook off the final embers. He gasped for breath, feeling drained, but there was now a shred of hope—he'd seen the brief look in Malevex's eyes. No longer were they frenzied and malicious, but instead there had been a spark of the assassin's own hope. For an instant he'd dared to believe that Zero was telling the truth, and his emotions had then canceled the feeling out. But it was enough. Zero could work with this. He had to. This can't fall apart now.

            "Listen to him," X insisted. "I didn't mean to kill Gredam."

            "Oh, isn't that a likely excuse!" The Maverick glowered at the Hunter. "You didn't mean to. That just makes everything better, doesn't it? Well, screw that!" He chuckled. "It's been a long life. What's one more duel going to hurt, hmm?" He saw how much it tortured them when he said that, and though he didn't understand it—his frenzy prevented any understanding—he kept it up because he knew it hurt them. Those bastards really would pay. Malevex grinned and back-flipped on top of one of the wall units, fixing the Hunters with a malicious look. "You like special attacks, don't you? Here!" He leapt into the air, and his own thrusters activated, keeping him hovering in place in the center of the armory, his armor appearing to be a ghostly color as the moonlight lit it up. X and Zero both backed away, voicing their protests and pleas but thus only encouraging their foe.

            Malevex started spinning like a top, and threw out three blasts of Dark Fire that landed on the floor in a triangular pattern around him. More fire began to cluster around them—and around Malevex himself—and the Hunters found themselves unhappily caught in the center. Powered up, laughing, and enjoying himself immensely, the revenge-thirsty Maverick thrust his arms out and pillars of fire erupted from the burning floor points. "Eat your hearts out!" Malevex shouted as the trio of infernos began to rotate in a circular pattern. "TRIPLE NOVA!"

            "Run," both Hunters said pathetically and in unison.

            Triple pillars of black fire encircled the Hunters, spinning rapidly and closing the distance to the wildly burning Malevex. The Hunters did run, but it was impossible to take evasive action. They threw themselves through the revolving door of fire, both of them scathed and thrown to different corners of the room. This was probably best. When the three columns smashed together into Malevex, a blinding column of violent energies resulted that consumed the whole central chamber.

            X pulled himself to his feet, charred and woozy. "Where is he?" he asked aloud, staring at the spot where Malevex had just been. Zero, too, rose to his feet in great pain, his saber shaking in his hands. The two wandered into the center of the room, underneath the ray of moonlight, both ready for almost anything.

            They weren't ready for two wall units on each side of the room falling over at the same time.

            "What the hell?" the Hunters both exclaimed, unsure of which way to look first. Then a final unit fell and Malevex leapt out from behind it, crashing down between the Hunters and kicking Zero hard in the side. The Hunter dropped like a sack of bricks. Malevex then lashed out at X with his lightsaber, which X now noticed was encased in the same Dark Fire that surrounded the Maverick himself. X prepared to attack, but hesitated because he didn't know what to use that wasn't fatal. Malevex capitalized on this and shot a large bolt of Dark Fire into X's chest, ensnaring him in the same cage Zero had worked to get out of. "Take a load off," Malevex suggested coldly, turning to Zero.

            He was too late. Zero rushed him with a hard elbow that found its mark. Malevex staggered backwards but immediately launched into his counterattack, meeting Zero slash for slash. Both swordsmen were impressed with their adversary's skills, but Malevex couldn't help but notice that Zero again would not use any attacks. He would only parry. "God dammit! Fight!"

            "No," Zero retorted loudly, sensing a chance. "I won't! This is foolish!"

            "Foolish! You killed them! It was your job! And now I'll kill you!"

            "NO!" Zero shouted, and the force of his voice actually stopped Malevex cold. "Teytha and Mortar are alive! We saved them!"

            "SAVED them, did you? And just who did they need saving from?" Malevex rushed him before he could answer, his blazing sword sizzling and clanging against Zero's own weapon. "God DAMN you!" The frustrated Maverick jumped clear over Zero, landing several feet away and turning with his sword pointed at his enemy. "Why won't you FIGHT?"

            "Because I can't kill you," Zero replied as calmly as he could, knowing it was working. Malevex's logic circuits couldn't handle the fact that despite all his efforts to kill Zero, the would-be victim would not be trying to do the same to him. It was holding the Maverick up, and that was Zero's one and only advantage. He had to use it well. "If I killed you it'd kill them too."

            "You…loony!"

            "Talk about the pot calling the kettle black," X rasped from the floor, fighting his way slowly but surely out of his fiery prison.

            "Make sense," Malevex ordered in a hiss, looking poised to strike but hesitating nonetheless.

            "Some things don't make sense," Zero said, going in for the kill. "Like Diceman."

            Malevex recoiled visibly. "What do you know about Diceman?" the remnants of his sanity asked.

            "Only what she told me," Zero said, approaching him slowly with his weapon lowered. "She was the only one who knew, wasn't she? I couldn't have just heard that anywhere, could I have?"

            "How did you learn that?" Malevex challenged, backing up and keeping his weapon pointed at Zero.

            "I needed proof, Malevex. That's my proof. She's alive…Teytha is alive. She's at Triangle Rock with Mortar, wherever that is. They said you'd know."

            "Wha…" He shook his head, glaring mistrustfully, though it was obvious that his mind was fighting hard to restore itself. "That's impossible…they died…their signals stopped…"
            "Of course their signals stopped," Zero said stonily. "That's what Sigma wanted! To make you think that they were dead, so you'd go apeshit on us, like you are now!"

            "Sigma…what?" The possibility of Sigma betraying him was harder for Malevex to comprehend than Zero letting his comrades live, and it shattered most of the credulity Zero had established thus far.

            "Wait!" Zero pleaded, sensing his window of opportunity vanishing. "Don't you see? It makes perfect sense!" Malevex still advanced slowly, his sword ready for an attack. Zero played one last desperate card. "For Christ's sake, why didn't they warp out like they planned to?"

            Once more, Malevex stopped in his tracks.

            "Sigma sealed them in," Zero said, with forceful relief. "He locked them in with us, but I couldn't kill Teytha. I couldn't do it, Malevex. I let her go, and she showed me where to find Mortar. We broke up him and X and we sent them out of here, so Sigma couldn't get to them."

            "That's impossible!" Malevex insisted, though he was clearly wavering on the big choice. "Sigma…he couldn't…that's not how he works!"

            "That's EXACTLY how he works!" X shouted, getting shakily to his feet. "He finds a pawn and sacrifices them. THINK! What were the X-Hunters? Tools! What was Doppler? A pawn! What was Repliforce?" His eyes narrowed. "And now he used you."

            "Leave this place," Zero said, looking Malevex in the eyes. "Find your friends and go. We're not going to chase you. Leave the System. Get out of our sight. We'll report you as dead…it's all going to be over!" He took a deep breath and took the big gamble—he deactivated his saber and threw it across the room. "Malevex. Kill me."

            Both X and the Maverick in question drew sharp breaths. "You…you make no sense!" Malevex hissed, holding his saber to strike but not going through with it. "Why would you die over something as stupid as this? WHY?"

            "Because I'm sick of it all," Zero threw it right in the open. "I'm sick of killing people and having nightmares about it. That's why, in a nutshell. I can't kill you and live with myself." He crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm giving you everything you ever wanted, Malevex. I'm sorry about Gredam. But are you going to fight us to the death about it? What happens to her, then, Malevex? God dammit, I promised her I'd bring you back alive!"

            Malevex of Terrornova blinked very slowly, staring at Zero with absolute incredulity but unable to ignore the hope tugging at his mind. It was all so unbelievable…Sigma, his commander, was the villain, and Zero, his longtime enemy, was the hero? What the hell kind of shit was this? And what about X? The Blue Bomber had shown no hesitation when gunning down Gredam. Who was to say that he—well, Malevex admitted, he'd had plenty of time to shoot already, but he hadn't. And Diceman…how else could Zero have possibly known about him? Teytha had kept it a secret…she'd had to. Could they…could they possibly be telling the truth? Then his practicality took over and asked the deciding question:

            What can you possibly lose by at least looking into this?

            "Malevex," Zero said after a while. "They're waiting."

            The assassin stared at Zero for half a minute longer. Then he gave the slightest nod either Hunter had ever seen and slowly lowered his sword. "Triangle Rock?" he whispered the question, still staring as though he expected Zero to jump out and cut his throat at any second.

            "Triangle Rock," Zero acknowledged, releasing a huge breath of relief.

            "Oh, don't make me PUKE!"

            A bolt of supercharged lightning erupted from the far corner of the room. It sped past the alarmed Zero and slashed across Malevex's chest. His saber clattered to the floor, and the stricken Maverick gave one cry before falling to the ground. He moved no more.

            "NO!" Zero thundered, scooping up his saber and spinning around with wild eyes.

            "SIGMA!" X shouted, immediately charging his buster to the maximum level.

            "Traitors!" Sigma shouted, his fingertips still crackling with energy. "Deserters!" He shook his fist at Malevex's body. "You joined us to fight and die for the Maverick cause! And you shall!" He turned to Zero, grinning madly, his shoulders twitching with laughter. "I told you, didn't I? You couldn't succeed. I am your past, present and future! You cannot escape me!"

            "You MONSTER!" Zero raged, speeding towards Sigma just as X fired his cannon. Both attacks met with thin air—Sigma had vanished. His voice still cackled loudly, though.

            "It's been fun as always, you two. But this round is over. I'll see you soon, though…very soon!"

            "DAMN YOU!" Zero screamed at him. "I'll meet you anywhere, Sigma! I'll kill you yet!"

            "That's the idea, Zero." Sigma chuckled as his voice faded. "You're such a good killer. Have fun breaking the news to Teytha and Mortar."

            "You son of a bitch," X whispered, frozen in place by shock. "You son of a bitch." All his animosity towards the Terrornova group had suddenly been supplanted by a colossal hatred for Sigma. He walked slowly to the seething Zero, deactivating his cannon and resting a hand on his friend's shoulder. Sigma had done monstrous things before, but at least in the past he'd been selling out people who weren't really affiliated with him. Now he had begun sacrificing his own soldiers…was there any worse evil, in the case of a commander?

            "We can't let him go," Zero finally declared, standing up straight. He looked like a dead man, X noted sadly. The blonde Hunter turned his head slowly to look his partner in the eye. "We have to intercept him somehow."

            "Will it even make a difference?" X asked in a monotone. "He always comes back."

            "Then I'll kill him every time," Zero vowed. "He deserves nothing less."   

            "I think…I finally…agree with you, Zero…on something."

            "You son of a bitch," X whispered, again frozen in place by shock. "You son of a bitch."

            Zero turned around slowly, scarcely able to believe it. "No way…"

            "Give me…some credit," Malevex said with half a laugh, on one knee and leaning on a wall. "You think I never learned how to play dead…?"

            "Holy Christ on crack, you little bastard!" Zero exclaimed, moved to the point of sacrilege. "Don't do that to us!" He rushed over to Malevex, sheathing his sword and helping the Maverick to his feet. Malevex was still a bit overwhelmed by the concept of being helped by a Hunter, but the gash on his chest required that he play along. "How bad?" Zero asked him.

            "It's just a flesh wound," the former assassin quipped halfheartedly. "Listen…I don't pretend to understand what the hell is going through your head, but…this isn't over yet. With Sigma, I mean."

            "You've got that right," X declared. "We'll follow him to hell and back. It's what we do."

            "No, you don't understand," Malevex shook his head and pushed Zero away, opting to support himself. "Sigma won't just warp out of the castle. He'll pick up a few things along the way."

            "Things?" Zero asked nervously, seeing the look in Malevex's eyes. "Things like what?"

            "Things like the Spare," Malevex forced himself to say. He explained, unable to meet their eyes. "Our airship carried two armed Buzzbombs, but…but we did fix another warhead."

            "What?" X stepped back, shocked again. "You mean…"

            "Yeah." He looked up, feeling like he was signing his death warrant but unable to hold the information back. "There's a warhead here…our spare…that's not attached to a missile. Sigma can make a regular bomb out of it..."

            "And then set it off whenever he feels like, wherever he feels like," X finished, feeling very sick. "Well, isn't that fine and dandy! It could be a worse crisis than the Buzzbombs themselves!"

            "But it can be fixed!" Malevex insisted. "Even with the Spare, Sigma won't warp out. He'll want to make his escape in another weapon…the Marauder."

            "The ride armor," Zero remembered. "Of course. He'll have both the world's nastiest mecha and a nuclear bomb for his next big scheme."

            "You guys have to go," Malevex urged. "Get to the second ring garage, where…" He couldn't say it. "…Where I fought X. You guys can stop Sigma right here in Seraph Castle…I mean, you really don't have a choice."

            "Yeah," Zero agreed, feeling his adrenaline rush. "Yeah…we can do it. He won't get away. And you, can you…?"

            "I'll be fine. I know what Triangle Rock means. Just get that bastard." He finally looked right at Zero and asked the question that had been bothering him the whole time. "…Zero, I gotta know…why? Why'd you go to all this trouble for monsters like us?"

            Zero took a deep breath and gave the Maverick—ex-Maverick now—the straightest answer he could. "Because I'm a monster too. And I wanted to change that. I think…I think you guys do, too."

            Malevex, in some very obscure way, was able to understand that. He extended his hand. Zero frowned at the gesture, but Malevex glanced up. "Do it." Zero, sensing there was something more to this handshake, grasped Malevex's offered hand. Almost immediately something jolted Zero's mind, and a thin wave of fire trailed down Malevex's body and crept up Zero's, embedding itself in the sword sheathed on the Hunter's back.

            "What the hell?" Zero exclaimed, pulling away.

            "It's not that hard," Malevex responded, tapping the side of his head. "Check your systems."

            Zero did so, and was pleased to find that in his weapons file he now had the program for a new sword technique: the Triple Nova.

"Use it," Malevex ordered. "Get him." He stepped back, nodding. "You'll know…where to find us."

            Zero understood what that meant, too—Terrornova was in his debt, and they weren't going to forget it. "I'll remember that." He looked to X, who'd been standing awkwardly nearby. "Let's go. Sigma isn't leaving this place alive…not with a nuke and a metal monster like the Marauder." He looked once more at the swordsman behind him, the man he'd deemed to be his personal incarnation in this place. He'd fought to save himself, and by some miracle it looked like he was going to succeed. "Don't make my mistakes," he said directly. Without waiting for a reply, which didn't come anyway, Zero activated his dash thrusters and zoomed out of the room, followed closely by X.

            Malevex watched them go and picked up his ignited saber from the floor. He disabled and sheathed it, walking slowly after the Hunters to where he knew a hidden exit was. "How strange…" he whispered to his fellow shadows. "But…maybe it's finally happened. Gredam…you didn't fail us at all…

            …Terrornova is dead at last."