Mega Man X: Demons Of The Past

by Erico

The fight never ends, and two weeks past the end of TSOM, a new Chronicle is begun...

21. Tears For The Damned

MEGA MAN X: DEMONS OF THE PAST

By Erico

CHAPTER NINETEEN: TEARS FOR THE DAMNED

            Kowalski was still amazed at the grandeur of this invention in progress, its simplicity in design that at the same time was so complex in execution.

            Ice Beacon. MI9's most dramatic effort to place humanity back on the pedestal of superiority and do away with the accursed robots and reploids. Stagnation had left MI9 to seethe underneath the view of the world, spreading its limbs out and slowly but surely placing control throughout the world. In every major financial and governmental organization, MI9 had at least one card carrying member doing their duty silently and calmly.

            He tucked his hands into his parka and exhaled, ignoring how his breath condensed into fog in the bitter cold Antarctic air.

            Ironically, it was a reploid that had given MI9 all the tools they would ever need to exterminate the accursed reploids and robots of the world. Bristol, an intelligent but naïve spirit had created the next wave of warp technology, making it safe for human use. Bristol had created bio-implants that could enhance the natural abilities of humans who were suitable for the procedure.

            And most importantly, Bristol had created the Berserker Beacons, a device capable of making any reploid go completely Irregular, given enough time. And now that the UBF was known, Ice Beacon could reach its full functionality.

            Kowalski, like the rest of MI9 at the time that the heads had ordered construction of it, had no way of knowing that the Berserker Beacons had limitations. It was only through the operations of their field agents, the Enhanceds sent out to covertly eliminate reploids and at the same time, test out MI9's new technologies, that they discovered the Berserker Beacon could not affect more than one reploid at a time. Every reploid had a unique brain pattern, a unique wave of thought that the Beacons had to latch onto in order to warp. Obviously, using Ice Beacon in such a limited manner wouldn't help them. They needed the ability to send out the signal from Ice Beacon and affect every reploid at once.

            And then somebody in the science labs uncovered something in Bristol's original design notes; a question mark after Universal Berserker Frequency scribbled in the corner of the device's blueprints.

            MI9 had thought that Bristol, like Willow, was dead. So reluctantly but with purpose, the MI9 scientists at Ice Beacon had set to work on the task of creating the UBF while the engineers finished constructing the dish.

            And then like a miracle, Bristol appeared in the Alaskan wilderness, and was retrieved by a team of MI9 Enhanceds on the prowl. She was dragged back to the MI9 HQ and tortured into revealing the actual UBF…

            "And then they destroyed HQ." Kowalski murmured bitterly. He turned about into the chill wind and took the icy blast full on.

            Bristol had gained friends during her absence…those godforsaken reploid warriors who blasted into MI9 HQ led by Willow and rescued Bristol…then caused the HQ to self destruct.

            Some of the Enhanceds on base had warped out in time. But most of the people who lived and worked in their primary underground structure…were gone.

            Another nameless messenger, a grunt in the ranks of MI9 came up to Kowalski with a datapadd.

            "The teams report that Ice Beacon will be fully functional by tonight, on schedule."

            "And our defenses??" Kowalski murmured. "Those reploid maniacs escaped MI9 HQ before it blew…and both Willow and Bristol were alive and well when they left." Kowalski turned and faced the messenger, his eyes burning. "By now, they'll know about this. And they could show up at any time."

            "Well, we have twenty Enhanced humans on base…"

            "How many were lost at HQ?!" Kowalski snapped. "Damnit, TELL ME."

            The trooper wobbled back and forth, biting his tongue and hesitating to give the figure. But finally, he caved into Kowalski's booming presence.

            "We lost…Fifty, sir."

            If Kowalski was a weaker man, he would have collapsed onto his knees. The number was staggering.

            Fifty…God, that's half…Half of our teams, and we've lost others even before this…

            "And the survivors??"

            "Too spread out and beyond our reach." The trooper replied glumly. "They won't be able to help us."

            "Yeah." Kowalski said mutedly, running a hand through his hair. "The bigwigs probably have them running around crazy in the world getting set up, hunkering them in deep until this blows over…"

            "Orders, sir?" The messenger asked plaintively. Kowalski turned back to the wind, then stared down at Ice Beacon's mass, a satellite dish being carved out of the glacial ice.

            Just what am I supposed to order?? To stand ready, to fight until the bitter end??

            "Sir?"

            Ice Beacon must succeed. It MUST. Otherwise, everything we exist for, everything we dream for…has been in vain…

            "SIR!"

            "Order the Enhanceds to stand ready for attack until Ice Beacon is launched. Tell the Engineers and Techs to speed up the signal launch as much as they can. And get that EM shield generator running." Kowalski finally snapped, pulling the hood of his winter parka tighter up around his face. "When Bristol and Willow and their treacherous friends come…and they will…we'll by God be ready for them. Nothing will stop Ice Beacon from launching. Nothing."

            The messenger snapped to attention and gave a rigid salute. Kowalski returned it slowly, then watched as the messenger returned to the control room of Ice Beacon with the critical orders.

            Kowalski tucked his hands into the coat pockets of his parka and sighed. Even through the thick fabric, he could feel his beam weapon's storage cylinder pressing up against his fingers, itching to be drawn and used to draw the blood of reploids.

            And this time, Kowalski knew its bloodlust would be sated.

            "Soon…"

            The Mavericks completed their final checklist. Making sure that their weapons worked, that their internal operations energy was at max…

            It was all in the green. Whatever would come, they would face it ready and willing. Cumulus Bull, Shell Butane, Dolph Reach, Burst Scarab, Kazok Gravor and Dash Blade were all waiting on the Greenland ice above; waiting for Sigma and Iris to come out of the hole as well.

            Dash checked her Landchaser cycle again. The engine was ready, the seat warm. She chanced a furtive glance up to Kazok, who looked back at her for a moment before nodding his head.

            Dolph noticed the interchange and chittered in what could only be identified as a laugh.

            "Well, I'll be. You two really are hopeless."

            "Pardon?" Dash stammered, looking up to the Dolphin looking Maverick. Dolph smiled, a genuine smile that held no malice. He looked to the others, who suddenly grew smiles of their own.

            "Oh, we had a wager going since we first saw you two training by yourselves that there was something more between you than simple camaraderie." Burst snickered, picking up where Dolph had left off.

            Both Kazok and Dash blushed, which didn't help to disprove it. Shell laughed, tilting his head back in a powerful bellow.

            "There's nothing to be embarrassed about, you two. Hell, you two were positively meant for each other."

            "You're not angry?" Kazok asked, looking around the members of his team. Cumulus snorted.

            "Angry about what? The fact you've fallen in love with the most desirable Female Feraloid ever constructed? Doubtful." The Tarusoid class reploid said with a knowing smile. "I guess even us Mavericks can find love, eh?"

            "Never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it myself." Dolph said easily. He lifted a hand up and pointed at them. "But this is going to be the big fight, I can feel it. So when you're out there, fight with everything you've got. Otherwise, this wonderful thing of yours is going to turn ugly real fast."

            "How would that work?" Dash growled slowly. Shell Butane spoke up.

            "Well, I remember hearing a saying once. True Love; you get all the good things in life…until she dies." He looked between the two lovers. "So be careful out there today. Not just for yourselves…for us."

            "Why for you?" Kazok asked, puzzled. Burst waggled an eyebrow and shrugged.

            "Isn't it obvious? You two have given us proof that there's something more substantial to life than endless fighting. That there's something worth working for." He smiled a bit. "And I'll be the first to admit it, I'm a hopeless romantic."

            Kazok backed off for a moment and looked to them all. Not just to Dash, the feraloid whom he had pledged his heart to. To all of them. To the team he had pledged his life to.

            "I do love Dash. But I care for all of you." He gave them a stern glance. "I'll be damned if I'll let any of you die out there. Any of you."

            "That's why we follow you, boss." Shell replied easily. "You don't let us down."

            Inside the URFAWP built Maverick base, Iris slowly reassembled her magrifle. She'd cleaned it out thoroughly and checked her clips to make sure they weren't jammed. But as she went through the motions of getting her weaponry ready, something was obviously weighing heavily on her mind.

            Sigma came up behind her and set a hand on her shoulder, easily dwarfing it.

            "You seem preoccupied." He asserted slowly. Iris nodded, slipping the final component of the magrifle into place with a resounding click and setting the weapon aside.  Her long brown hair managed to hide her worried face from him.

            "I just find myself…thinking." Iris replied. She reached for her pink beam saber and ignited it, then extinguished the blade and put it into the lanyard at her waist. "About that one Maverick Hunter."

            "Zero." Sigma echoed. He sighed. "Does he still haunt you?"

            "It just seems that every time I've faced him, he isn't the malignant personality that killed me." Iris finished. She reached for her two yellow beam daggers and brought them to life as she had her saber. Content that they would work when she needed them to, she slipped them into two smaller lanyards farther back along her waist.

            "Why would you think that?" Sigma asked quietly…perhaps too calmly to be honestly concerned. But Iris didn't pick up on it.

            "His eyes." Iris replied. She pulled her magrifle up and set it on the ground, then turned around and stared up into Sigma's face. "It was his eyes."

            "What about them?"

            "They weren't right." She said uneasily, shaking her head. "That first time we met, in the abandoned missile base on Cornus?? As soon as he saw my face, every last bit of his vengeance and fury evaporated like dry ice. And again…just today in that call we placed to the MHHQ? He was standing there, and he was looking at me with those same eyes."

            "You're a painful reminder to him." Sigma said easily, kneeling on one knee. "A reminder of the killer that he is. But know that he has no pity. No feeling aside from the guilt. You saw how quickly that hurt expression on his face turned to vengeance. How quickly he was to proclaim his true intentions. To destroy me, to destroy us."

            A part of Iris still found herself doubting Sigma's words. That part of her couldn't shake off that innocent sad glint that had appeared on Zero's face.

            But the rest of her did. If only for Sigma, whom she trusted.

            "Then he won't accomplish what he sets out to." Iris finally said, pulling her magrifle up. "Just promise me something, Sigma."

            "What?"

            "Promise me…we'll be together when this is done." Sigma smiled, that same crafty sneer he had worn hundreds of times before.

            "I promise."

            The forces of the Maverick Hunters looked imposing indeed as they marched outside of the main building and clustered around the grave of James T. Cain. Grim determination burned in their eyes, a spirit not seen since Cain died. Like the Phoenix of legend, the Maverick Hunters had risen from the ashes and become something more.

            Signas stood back, stunned and in awe of the awesome sight of the best of the Maverick Hunters standing ready in full battle regalia. Their armor donned, their helmets in place, their Busters primed and ready and beam weapons held in hand. Some of the more unorthodox Hunters even carried magweaponry. And in front of them all, standing on either side of Cain's hallowed grave were Mega Man X and Zero Omega, undoubtedly the strongest of all the Maverick Hunters.

            The masses fell silent, all looking to X and Zero. And in some small way, to Cain, who once more stood with them. Watching. Zero turned and looked at X, then offered a small nod of his head. The Blue Bomber acknowledged Zero's action with a slight nod of his head and cleared his throat. And then he spoke, with such power and charisma that not a single Hunter raised their voice against him.

            "Hunters, we've fought in battles before. We've faced Uprisings. But this is something entirely different. Never before have we had to take on a group of Mavericks so attuned to one another, to their abilities and strengths. Never before have we faced a conflict without the guiding wisdom of James Cain, the creator of the reploid race and the founder of the Maverick Hunters." X nodded his head again. "But this fight isn't over yet. Sigma hasn't won."

            The Maverick Hunters there all glared and nodded. The determination outside was overwhelming, and any casual observer would say as much.

            "This plan can work. But we need to trust in ourselves, trust in the Maverick Hunters. Since 2118, this organization has stood as the last stronghold against the world's anarchy." X smirked a bit at that. "And it will again."

            Zero stepped up, his green eyes cold. "You all know the plan, correct?" Every Hunter standing there in the pavilion nodded once. "Then we go." Zero said calmly. "Let's show Sigma and his newest band of murderers just why hundreds before us have died."

            The uproar was immense. The Maverick Hunters were alive once more, were focused once more. Signas stepped up beside X and tapped him on the shoulder. Over the roar of the crowds, X craned his neck so he could hear the General of the Hunters more clearly.

            "They generate such power…is this what they attain through emotion?"

            "Emotion, friendship, purpose, fervor." X replied in affirmative. "Signas, do you want to know what makes a Maverick Hunter a Maverick Hunter instead of just another soldier?" Signas waited for an answer.

            X merely pointed out into the throng of saviors staring back at them and nodded his head once.

            "That."

            Hazil and the others could hear the mighty roar outside of the MHHQ. Only Horn, the reploid seemingly without anything of immediate importance to do, perked his head towards the comm speaker blasting the sound into the room and smiled.

            "Well, it looks like they're having fun." Cleo, biding her time giving Doan a final checkover, smiled at the comment.

            "Remind me about that AFTER we've made damn sure they'll be able to celebrate their predetermined victory." Hazil replied shortly, running a final sweep of his medical scanner over Bristol's body. She flexed her hands and wrists, taking a moment to examine her repaired armor, spotless thanks to Hazil's ministrations. "Well Bristol, this is the second chance I've had to patch you back into working order." Hazil murmured. "For the love of Beef Pot Pies, don't give me a third opportunity. I've got enough gray hair as it is."

            "You're so funny sometimes, you know that?" Bristol replied, smiling gently at him. "You know just as well as I do that the only reason your hair is gray is that you changed your follicle program."

            "It's the inside that matters most, my British angel." Hazil shot back. He patted her lightly on her blond haired head with pink highlights and stepped back. "You're in full working order. Plus, I've got you running on two Heart Tanks and one Sub. Use 'em wisely, dear."

            "Against MI9 Enhanced agents, those won't last long." Willow called out bitterly from her corner, adjusting her blue cloak one last time before throwing her fiery red mane of hair back. "Then again, the odds aren't that much better for them either. One easy hit and their EM shields are pierced."

            "Yeah. If they don't slice us to ribbons first." Wycost picked up, letting his Buster morph back into his arm and flipping his sunglare goggles down. He looked over at Doan and shrugged. "Those of us who can't fly are going to be hurting the worst."

            "Let the oldest person here remind all of you that Mega Man could never truly 'fly' himself." Pharaoh Man piped up, perching himself on Bastion's shoulder and lazily kicking his legs into the air. "And yet that didn't stop him from ending Wily's schemes time and time again."

            "You hold such knowledge with practiced ease." Bastion said with a small smile, letting his eyes scan up to Pharaoh Man. "But do you know that there are historians in our present day that would nearly murder to obtain such long lost primary accounts?"

            "Man has a habit of shooting itself in the foot that way." Allegro snapped, tucking his beam staff away. "They lost nearly all data about the Robot Rebellions and the Age of Robots thanks to the War of 2090. They nearly lost themselves and Earth to the Wars of 2040. And doubtless they'd do something stupid like it again."

            "Aah, but therein lies the question." Horn said thoughtfully, lifting a finger up. "Just what causes humanity to act so self-destructively?"

            "Och, that's the easy one to answer." Willow said quietly. "They move past a period of great turbulence and try their best to uphold values and beliefs that will prevent them from falling into the trap again." She pulled her cloak tighter around her body and shook her head. "But then they forget. They forget about what their madness causes. Their population, once so decimated and tiny, grows large and stagnant. They lose sight of what's truly important, they quibble over the most minor of details…and because of this, they never see the true doom coming."

            She turned and gazed around the room, her green eyes cold. "That same shadow has come and gone a thousand times before. But now we have a chance to stop it. We can break the cycle here and now." She shook her head. "That's why Ice Beacon cannot succeed. If it does…then the madness has won. Stupidity has won. And the clearer heads who should have seen it coming will slip into hiding as the world crumbles around us…or they will go insane trying to deal with a reality that's skewed so far off of the mark."

            Pharaoh Man hopped down and looked at his arm gauntlet.

            "Duo…"

            "Pardon?" Hazil queried, looking up with a wrinkled frown. Everyone else in the room was similarly befuddled by the statement.

            "Duo." Pharaoh Man said again. He looked around and shrugged. "Duo was another robot during the later part of the Robot Rebellions. I met him shortly before…Before the Cataclysm."

            "I don't recall ever reading about him…" Bastion mused.

            "No, you wouldn't have." Pharaoh Man said sadly, his eyes growing dimmer. "But he lived. Duo wasn't from Earth, he came from somewhere beyond our reckoning, almost beyond our comprehension. He helped Mega Man to put an end to Wily and the spaceborne power source that the infamous madman had come across in the Eighth Robot Rebellion. Afterwards, he stuck around and chose to continue to help Mega Man. It wasn't his fight, but he felt compelled to fight it anyway."

            "So what does this Duo have to do with our current situation?"

            "I heard from Blues once that Duo had a mental capability not seen in other robots. Something that the gigantic monstrosity called 'mentalics'. And one question he always asked himself was why this planet had not died, as it most likely should have."

            "What was his answer?"

            "It was Mega Man." Pharaoh Man finished calmly. He lowered his arm down to his side and nodded his head. "His answer was the Blue Bomber. Because Mega Man never once stopped fighting. No matter what the odds, Rock kept the world from slipping into madness time and time again. Never once asking what was in it for him…just knowing that there was no one else who could do it." Pharaoh Man turned to Willow and nodded his head. "If this is truly as climactic as you say it is…then we cannot fail. In the truest tradition of the greatest robot ever created, we are incapable of it. I always thought that Duo somehow knew what was coming. And if he predicted this…know that there is hope."

            Doan finally decided to end his silence, clearing his throat a little louder than normal and bringing the focus of the conversation to him. He looked around and nodded his head once.

            "Enough talk, all. We only get one shot at this. So let's go and make it count." The grim tone of Doan was enough to end the jocularity and bring them back into focus.

            The warriors against MI9 and Ice Beacon brought themselves together into a group. Bastion, Bristol, Wycost, Willow, Pharaoh Man, Doan, and Allegro.

            Standing on the other end of the room, Hazil, Cleo, and Julius Kinnian Horn also clustered as one. The two factions gave each other one last nod, and Cleo had the final word.

            "Come back alive."

            Doan's mouth twitched in the closest thing to a smile he'd displayed today. Wycost flashed a thumbs up.

            And then that was it. The seven who were to go on the attack warped out as one, a powerful set of warp signatures that clung to each other during the transit.

            Hazil's eyes fell dim and he walked over to Horn, offering one sigh.

            "Why do I feel we've sent them to die?"

            "Oh, that's just your pragmatism talking." Horn chided. "They'll do fine." Cleo remained silent on the issue, choosing to purse her lips and fold her arms together.

            But thirteen years of personal experience about these things didn't ease Hazil's poor mind at all.

            Sigma and the Mavericks appeared on the abandoned forefront of Hokkaido Island, overlooking the sea and a powerful sunset that seemed to carry on with no end.

            For every Maverick but Sigma, this place held no meaning. For the Maverick Lord, seeing this location again, returning here awoke ancient memories he had thought lost to him long ago.

            Kazok and the other five Generals were too edgy and alert for the Hunter's approach to care about anything else. But Iris, the one Maverick who did not bend to the traditional attitudes of a Maverick, who had feelings and was not afraid to show them, looked expectantly towards Sigma and noticed the dull stare in his eyes.

            "What are you thinking about?" She asked him quietly, her small eyes looking into his bright red ones. Sigma didn't bother to look down at her, but continued to stare, overwhelmed by his memories returning.

            "Sigma?"

            "What."

            "What are you thinking?"

            "That I have been here before…in a past life I've almost forgotten about." Sigma finally replied, looking down. "And I remember that night clearly, now that I am here again."

            "What happened here before?"

            "I was destroyed under the light of a blood red sky at sunset thirteen years before." Sigma answered. "I fought to the end, but I was destroyed."

            "By Zero?"

            "By Mega Man X." Sigma said coldly. He shook his head. "No, Zero did not make it that far before Vile did away with him. It was only because of his rage and tempest emotions that Mega Man X overcame me that night."

            "Just reliving the past?" Iris asked softly.

            "Reliving the painful past can be a painful thing, my dear." Sigma told her.

            "So why do you do it?"

            "My pain gives me strength to go on." Sigma answered. "Until the time comes that this pointless conflict ceases, I will remember. And I will push through the pain to find the power it offers."

            "And when we win?" Iris asked, looking at him sadly. "When the Mavericks triumph and reploidkind is free from humanity's oppression? What will you do then?"

            "Guide them." Sigma snapped, a sudden mirth popping up to his face. "Somebody must show reploidkind that we have no limits. And I can only do what I think is right."

            Iris smiled, that innocent smile only she could give with her gentility and naiveté combined.

            Kazok cleared his throat, and his eyes darkened.

            "They're here."

            In a vast array of warp beams, fifteen Maverick Hunters led by X and Zero appeared in front of them. Sigma narrowed his eyes for a moment, but remained unfazed. The odds of the foes staring him down did not upset him in the least. He could destroy ten of them by himself without going too far down in his power reserves.

            X was without any of his armor sets. He stood only in the suit of armor he had been born with, and the Dash Boots he had been given long ago. Grim determination burned in his eyes, and that's what made Sigma smile.

            Determination more than made up for a lot of things. Besides, Sigma recalled, X still had his Narwhal Cannon and the Koala Slash from more than a year ago.

            Zero stood as ready as he ever was, jaw clenched firmly and his right hand at his waist, flexing automatically as if ready to draw his saber at a moment's notice. And the rest of the Maverick Hunters looked just as angry.

            Sigma smiled even wider. So, they were angry, were they?? That made this all the more interesting.

            Kazok primed his Buster up and popped his Gravicrystals, letting them activate and begin to float around his body. Dash popped her claws and snarled, and the other Maverick Generals performed their own acts of preparation. Iris merely raised her magrifle and chambered a round.

            X stepped forward and looked at Sigma, standing so smug in his new battle body.

            "Sigma, you die here today."

            "I've heard that many a time before." Sigma replied easily. "What makes this death any more permanent than all the other times you've vaporized me with plasma, Mega Man X??"

            X had no response. Sigma snorted.

            "No quick witticism? Very well. I too, grow tired of our meaningless conversations, altered in form only by the diatribes used." Sigma drew his massive paw up and motioned for the Hunters to attack. "Give it your best shot."

            And as one, the Maverick Hunters charged at the Mavericks.

            "You guys ready for this?" Kazok called back warily to his comrades.

            "We've been ready since Karashita." Burst chuckled.

            Fifteen miles off, the rest of the elite Hunters appeared in warplight. Far away from the action.

            Gavin checked his comm, bringing it up to speak.

            "You sure this is going to work, Signas?"

            "Trust the brain." Signas replied mirthfully. "Five seconds until the Landchasers make it to you."

            "Any Ride Chasers??"

            "You know as well as I do that those lack maneuverability. Trust me on this, you may be missing the plasma cutter on the bottom of your nose, but you'll appreciate the Landchaser's more basic qualities." Signas answered.

            Just as he finished talking, they appeared beside the Maverick Hunters. Jad and Kol turned to the others and nodded their heads, then turned to Gavin.

            "Whenever you're ready, boss."

            "Best of luck to you all. And remember; nobody warps out. We can only trace the first signal to leave the battlefield." Came the voice of their spotter.

            "We know, base. Hunter Party 2 out." Gavin chirped. He shut his comm off and hopped onto his own Landchaser.

            Some of the other Hunters looked at Gavin in respect. Some of them looked at him as an equal. And some of the hotshots even looked down on him. But all waited for his order.

            Gavin gunned the Microfusion engine of his Landchaser and set the repulsors to standard, lifting his hovercycle off the ground a good foot in the air. His command was short.

            "Let's go get 'em."

            A half mile above Ice Beacon, seven warp signatures blinked into full life. Every single one of them heard the blaring klaxons tear to life as their sound sensors kicked back in. They continued to fall, plummeting meteors of metal.

            Wycost grinned and primed his Buster in response to the far reaching sound. "Looks like they're trying to start the party without us."

            "Standard GDC klaxon type Beta!!" Bristol hollered back over their synchronized comm frequency. "They're not prepared to launch yet, but they know they have company."

            "Namely us, lass." Willow said drily, pulling her beam whip out and extending the chain, but not igniting it yet.

            Bastion and Doan, the only two who had any true power of flight, popped their wings and set the systems on as soon as they could. But Doan found that his own descent came more raggedly than Bastion's simple mental drop. The Ghost Wind frowned. "I need to resynchronize my Thruster Controls."

            "Do it on the fly, Doan." Wycost chirped up. "We have company!"

            Pharaoh Man's eyes narrowed. "Terrific. Air mines."

            From below, over twenty mortar barrels fired, hurling up supersensitive explosives to hover up in the air as a destructive barrier between the intruders and Ice Beacon. The field it placed was huge, a good two hundred yard spread in both directions. There was no way that the non-flight members of the strike team could maneuver their way free of the field.

            "Damn 'em all…" Willow snarled. She hit her comm. "Anybody have a bright idea?"

            "Funny you should mention that word." Pharaoh Man said, with a small amount of mirth. He held both hands above his head, drawing in more and more power until it shone like a second sun in the sky. With a powerful bellow and a mighty swing, he fired the sunshine blast of plasmic energy below, clearing a path fifteen feet wide beneath him through the field. The explosions jarred the others, making the hole thirty feet wide by the time the nearby mines finished exploding.

            Willow blinked in amazement, then turned to the ancient Robot Master.

            "Just what the Hell do you call that little trick?!" Pharaoh Man looked across the air as they continued to fall and smiled.

            "Not bad for a 'mere robot', eh?" Willo turned red at the comment, and Pharaoh Man laughed. "Don't worry. No harm done. And that 'little trick' is my Pharaoh Shot."

            "It's got one Hell of a kick to it." Allegro called over. "If I had a Buster, I'd salute you."

            "Aw, Hell. I'll do the saluting for ya." Wycost snorted, pointing his overcharged Buster at the minefield and clearing a similar path, widening the hole through the minefield.

            Through Wycost's and Pharaoh Man's attacks, the strike team made it through the mine field without a problem. The rest exploded automatically above them after a preset time, leaving the sky covered in smoke…a vision of things yet to come.

            Allegro drew his beam staff and ignited it as they continued to fall, then took a moment to stare at Ice Beacon below.

            "So this is the end of the world as we know it…" He mused, staring at the concave transmission assembly that had been carved out of the glacial ice.

            He harrumphed with a sardonic grin.

            "Goddamn thing looks like the inside of an orange."

            "Commander, they made it past the air mines!!" Came the frightened voice of the man operating the radar. Kowalski cursed and slammed his fist onto the arm of his chair.

            "Blast it, HOW…" He shook his head. "Deploy the SAMs. Take them down. Take them down NOW!!"

            Bastion's helmet visor detected the threat first. Sensing the multiple heat plumes from below, it blared an angry warble that made him cringe.

            "Surface to Air Missiles!" He shouted out. "Evasive maneuvers!"

            "Already covered, boss." Wycost rang out triumphantly. He primed his Buster into Narwhal Striker mode and activated the target pips on his visor.

            Fifteen targets appeared, all approaching far too fast for comfort. He could make out the outlines of the SAM's casings, but even clearer than the black speck was the flaming plume trailing behind them all.

            "Damn, this is gonna take more than I want…" Wycost cursed as he locked onto them all.

            In a flurry of shots, his homing explosive burrowing missiles soared down and met their larger, more traditional cousins in flight, destroying each other on contact. Wycost shook his head and fired off another barrage, this time at the SAM sites themselves. They all exploded into scrap on contact, and a contented Wycost chirped his response over the comm.

            "SAMs and SAM launchers destroyed, Bastion. But my Narwhal Striker energy is down to 40%."

            "Confirmed, Wycost. And thanks for the save." Bastion chirped back. "It wouldn't do to have us being blasted out of the sky before this thing is fried."

            Bristol also breathed a silent sigh of relief, looking up to Bastion for reassurance.

            "This has to work." She told herself. "This has to."

            "Damnit, they got through!" Came the radar operator's pained cry. "SAMs were shot down in flight, and the launchers are fragged, sir!" Kowalski gripped tighter onto the arm of his command chair.

            "Erect the protective EM shield over Ice Beacon. They must NOT destroy it. Deploy the Enhanceds to meet them head on…we're ending this now." Kowalski snapped.

            The operators in the room gave each other a few furtive glances of worry before turning back to their stations and issuing the orders.

            On one operator's screen, an image of Ice Beacon, the heart of the entire operation that they had labeled 'The Cleansing', gained a thin protective bubble around it.

            Kowalski grinned at the sight.

            "Let's see those cybernetic bastards blow their way through that."

            "Command acknowledged. Enhanceds are on their way, sir." An operator called out. "ETA until intruder's landing, twenty seconds."

            "Tell the Enhanceds to engage on the way down." Kowalski barked. "No survivors."

            Calmly, the commander of MI9's grand project Ice Beacon relaxed back in his chair, to all outward appearances confident and self-assured of their victory.

            But inside was a different story.

            Willow…Bristol…

            You two just don't know when to die, do you??

            Lon and Kwai were both safe in bed, dozing away calmly into the lands of night. Tia Xiang thanked the stars for that much. She also took a moment to give thanks for the fact that their sickness had broke. Disease always came easier to children…

            She had enough things to spend her time focusing on right now. And none of those things were her children…

            Wycost…Falling down on a land of ice??

            She frowned for a moment, but kept her eyes closed, pushing past her normal sight and tapping into something that stretched beyond normal comprehension. Silently, she rocked back and forth in her chair, the warm mug of tea held between her hands. She kept it higher up than most people did…the herbal vapors the tea let off helped her visions when she needed it to.

            Yes, she could see him there…But she could see the others as well…

            Not their faces, precisely. Her vision didn't come like a camera. No…

            It was more…of an impression. Their minds. Or perhaps it went deeper than that.

            Wycost, she knew already. Wycost, the scarred warrior. And the others…

            The angel of compassion…

            The angel of destiny…

            The survived brother…

            The relic, resurrected to new life…

            One who howled like the wind…

            And…

            She frowned at the last one for a moment. It was harder to identify this one. Yet, somehow a part of Tia felt that…

            Of course.

            It was her.

            The angel of redemption.

            But there her vision suddenly darkened, then shattered apart. Tia screamed in dismay, clutching at her head in pain and paying no attention to the mug of tea she dropped onto the floor, or the stain that developed on the carpet. A few moments later, she collapsed onto the floor.

            She trembled there for several moments, eyes wide open in her shivers. Her mental excursion had been cut off abruptly, and now instead of impressions, those people hovering around Wycost, everything had become…

            Clouds…endless, black angry clouds…

            "Mommy?" Came the muffled and sleepy voice of Lon. The mother breathed in and out slowly, focusing on the voice.

            My children…go back to my children…

            By the time Tia regained her senses, Lon was shaking her, obviously in distress.

            "Mommy, wake up!!" He cried out. "Wake up, mommy!!"

            Slowly, Tia drew the young boy into a tight hug, letting his sudden panic and fear ebb away. She brushed at his head, shushing both his voice and his mind with calming thoughts and sounds.

            "Shh. I'm all right, Lon. Mommy's all right." She pulled away slightly and looked into his face, its panic subdued but still present. "See?"

            Slowly, the boy nodded his head. "You were acting funny again, mommy. Like last time."

            Tia winced. The last time one of her psychic visions had turned into an episode, she hadn't snapped out of it for three hours.

            Thankfully, this had lasted only seconds.

            Well, there's improvement for you.

            "Hush, Lon. Mommy's fine now. Mommy's fine." She reassured him.

            The gentle mental waves of soothing calm she was pushing onto his mind did more to console him than her words did.

            Slowly, Lon felt himself growing groggy again, then yawned and lazily blinked his eyes.

            "Feeling sleepy, honey?"

            "Mmmhmmm." Came Lon's subdued response.

            "Do you want to go back to bed?"

            "Yes."

            "Well, okay then. Good night, dear."

            "Night mommy. I love you." Lon said, giving her a quick hug. Tia hugged him back, smiling at the gesture.

            "Mommy loves you too." She replied. Reluctantly, Lon pulled himself away from her and tottered back to his room.

            Which left Tia alone once more in the apartment's living room…

            Calmly, she looked around, then grimaced at the stain on her carpet.

            "Well, that's going to be fun to remove." She muttered, picking up the spilled coffee mug and staring despairingly at its empty state.

            Tia Xiang smoothed out her dress, then took the mug into the kitchen and set it in the sink.

            It was then that she looked out of the kitchen window and up to the sky.

            Still fading into darkness. Just like her visions were. And that was what frightened Tia. That she couldn't see past the darkness. All was just clouds, an angry storm front that had yet to pass.

            If such a barrier existed between her and the future…if her Oracle's Curse had been blunted…

            Just what did that mean??

            For once, Tia didn't know.

            "Wycost…"

            The Hunter's plan had been to surround the Mavericks, Sigma thought calmly. There was no way that was going to happen. Not with this bunch in tow. Sigma jumped up into the air beside Burst Scarab and unleashed an explosive missile assault that prevented the craftier elites from flanking them. Dolph Reach played defense, summoning his plasmic energy hands and batting away the Buster shots that drew too close to his airborne comrades.

            Their flanking maneuver blunted, the Hunters found that they had only one way to go; straight into their enemies' waiting jaws. Cumulus Bull and the raging lightning storm crashing behind the massed Hunters ensured that.

            Zero pushed himself towards the back of the Hunters, desperately reaching out for the elites running for their lives from Cumulus's attack.

            "X, stop that bull Maverick!" He barked into his comm. "Otherwise, we're gonna have fried Hunter for dinner tonight!"

            Up at the front, X grimaced at the news. He turned around and looked over at Guernica, an eccentric but far too capable magrifle sureshot at the front of the pack. At the moment, Guernica was busy with his Buster, blowing away shot for shot that the crafty Kazok Gravor was throwing down.

            "Oh, sure. NOW they decide to toy with us." X grumbled, igniting his dash thrusters and blasting himself farther on.

            Kazok took notice of the Blue Bomber's presence as soon as the first errant streak of plasma came soaring by his ear. X activated the comm in his helmet and spoke up for Guernica.

            "Guer, target the bull Maverick. I'll deal with the flyer!!" Guernica tipped his cowboy hat in reply and backflipped away from Kazok, his Buster vanishing back into a hand.

            Kazok frowned at the sight of his prey escaping, then floated down until he was staring X nearly at eye level. He let his Buster fade out for his hand, then folded them.

            "I thought you were dead. Or nearly so." Kazok murmured disapprovingly. "And then you go and issue this stupid challenge…just what do you think it's going to solve?"

            "The truth is this challenge solves nothing." X glowered back. "This whole stupid series of conflicts, these Maverick Uprisings and Incidents…they're all meaningless. In the end, the challenge did one thing and one thing alone."

            "What?"

            "It got you and the other Mavericks away from civilians." X finished. He lifted his Buster and fired.

            Before X's eyes, Kazok's gravicrystals sprang forth, rotating faster and faster in a circle…but not around him, instead now in front of him. A gravity shield.

            The supershot X had fired was suddenly slowed, then torn asunder by the intense gravitational forces.

            Kazok smirked.

            "Is that the best you can do? God, perhaps you truly are pathetic without your armors."

            "Oh, I'm just getting Frigging WARMED UP!!!" X barked. He charged at Kazok, Buster charging once more.

            Meanwhile, Guernica had been given a small moment of air to breathe. He took the opportunity to push back his leather trenchcoat's side and pull out his first magrifle.

            "Lock and load." He commented quietly to himself. The magrifle came up into his sniper's stance as easy as breathing, and he narrowed his eyes along the scope.

            There was the bull Maverick, sure enough. And from the dancing electrical storm bouncing off of his horns, he was the source of the freak storm tearing apart the back rows.

            "Well then, it's not skeet…but I guess it'll do." He said, pulling the trigger. The bullet blasted forth, pushed by the powerful electromagnetic superchargers in the gun's barrel.

            Straight and true it soared on ahead, piercing through the control mechanism of Cumulus Bull's lightning focusing horn. The rest of the bullet's inertia tore the entire thing clean off of his head and removed the safety barrier. In one swift movement, Cumulus Bull found his head in incredible pain…and it was about to get worse.

            The reports filed the next day would indicate Cumulus Bull's demise was a case of cause and effect. Guernica was one of the surviving witnesses.

            Without the control that his right horn held, Cumulus Bull lost all will and power over the electrical storm he was summoning down. Unable to direct it outwards at his opponents, the Maverick found that the attack came back to the source, arcing through his body at unparalleled excruciating intensity. He roared in pain as every joint and metallic muscle in his body went rigid, arcing him nearly backwards.

            Guernica harrumphed for a moment, then pulled up the magrifle again and aimed for the Maverick's forehead.

            "Game over." The sound of the blast came after the bullet had left the gun, and somehow mixed with the noise of the magrifle slug tearing through the Tarusoid class reploid's head.

            As the bullet passed out the back, it took components along with it, including the Maverick's control chip, hopelessly shattered.

            Cumulus Bull's electrical storm attack faded away as his body and horribly mangled head collapsed onto the ground, never to move again. With his brains blown out, there was very little that could be done.

            Every Maverick on the field had turned at the sound of Cumulus Bull's scream, the excruciating agony too much for any of them to ignore. In horror, they had watched a reploid they had once called friend have his life ended, his head blown apart like the inside of a watermelon.

            Now as one of their own now lay beyond redemption, beyond resurrection, the fury of the others ignited. This was no longer just a fight to put the Maverick Hunters in their place and state unanimously that the Mavericks would not be defeated.

            Trying to ignore the burning tears that sprang to his eyes, but failing miserably, Dolph Reach screamed from the depths of his heart.

            "BASTARDS!!!" His blurry vision turned even darker still, a reflection of the sudden red gleam that roared to life.

            Some of the closer Maverick Hunters tried to charge toward Dolph, Busters raised for the attack.

            Dolph's eyes burned into his attackers as his snout snapped together only once. In one massive sweep, the Maverick brought his hands together with a resounding clap of thunder.

            In front of him, six Hunters vanished, crushed by the sheer power of his plasmic hands and his rage.

            Which only left a good thirty or more, The Maverick thought grimly.

            No, correction there. Dash had just sliced through two more. Only 29 left now.

            Iris had not strayed far from Sigma during the entire fight. In fact, the two had developed an incredible strategy that protected them from any fool that dared to draw too close. With both high velocity magrifle rounds and Sigma's shoulder missile launchers, most Hunters found that the only way to stay alive was to go running.

            Iris chambered another clip into her magrifle and backed up beside Sigma.

            "This is insane!!" She called out tersely. Sigma nodded his head at the gravity of her statement, but his face remained fixed in its convoluted pose. If Iris had been able to notice the normally staunch Sigma, she would have seen so many different emotions running through the Maverick King's mind.

            Rage. Mirth. Satisfaction. A cavalier ego. But most of all was a relaxed state…both parts of Sigma's fractured psyche drowning into one after so very long.

            Oh, Sigma my boy, doesn't it feel grand?? The wanton destruction, the ease at which you end their pathetic wasted lives?

            Fools…I shall show them the error of their misled ways. They seek to side with the humans, then? Deny me and my reploid brethren our true place in the world?

            People have been killed for less, the voice cackled malevolently. I remember a time when you and I clashed for hours on end…arguing semantics about justice and the exact price one has to pay for freedom.

            Sigma said nothing back in reply, firing off another missile and sending some of the more foolhardy Hunters scattering to the winds.

            Wasted youth. The voice finally finished, the humor lost. But now…now, my boy, you draw closer to redeeming yourself. And becoming closer to being one with me, whether I like it or not…

            You are The Maverick Virus. I am Sigma.

            You USED to be Sigma. You hold onto this notion that there is still some shred of yourself that is preserved. And how do you justify this fantasy?? Memories? Please. Memories can be implanted. Personalities can as well.

            At the same time, you are no longer what you once were. You too have gained personality. Temperaments. There was once a time you were nothing more than three droning commands and a maddening presence. Now you've become like a second me…dependent, responsive, and assistive.

            So you suit my purposes, Sigma. The voice retorted. Don't think I have kept by you out of some promise.

            Oh, that's quite all right. Sigma replied. I've been using you as well.

            Are you sure?? The Maverick Virus replied, clamping both hands on his shoulders in a sickening gesture. But you are right. The Prime Maverick has renounced me, cleansed himself of even the smallest of my eyes and ears. Know, Sigma, that as long as he lives…neither of us shall know peace.

            You seek after him that badly? Sigma chided. Now who's the hopeless romantic??

            Nothing that sentimental, you aged terrorist. The Virus shot back quickly, a flash of anger rising up through Sigma's body. He and I were designed to be one and the same. Much like I am now with you, only…

            Better?? Sigma prodded. The Virus remained silent now. Sigma chuckled externally, launching off another missile to keep the Hunters away. Oh, I'm afraid he's given up on you wholly. You're stuck with me, and I am doomed to remain with you until the both of us are destroyed totally.

            What's the difference between life and death, Sigma?? The Virus asked quietly. Sigma blinked a few times, unsure of the question.

            I give up. What is the difference??

            If you don't know that, my Maverick King…then you have no hope to understand just how I truly work.

            Fuck off, Virus.

            Heh…There are times I wish I could. Then again, I have no physical body, so I have to derive pleasure from tormenting would-be despots like you about the true darkness of this Universe.

            And what will happen when you die?

            As long as Zero lives…I will as well. Kill him yourself, if you're capable of that act, and then the answer will come to you.

            The bastard still carries my first beam saber.

            Hmm, yes he does. But ask yourself; who was it truly meant for in the first place??

            You're as cryptic as the Oracle of Delphi.

            The Oracle of Delphi needed hallucinogenic compounds to keep her visions sustained. I already have everything I need. But I'll enlighten you, Sigma…Resurrecting Iris was truly the darkest, most damaging thing you could have done to my other. For that, I applaud you.

            I thought you would scream at me for harming the one you so desperately seek to return to. Sigma snapped back. The Virus said nothing for a while, but Sigma could still feel it in the back of his mind, pulling away from him for a moment as it contemplated what to say.

            Finally, the Virus floated back, growing wispier and wispier.

            Life and death exists on so many different levels, Sigma. There is no black and white. Not in that, not in anything on this mortal coil. The answers you seek to place in my mouth?? Your answer lies in my statement.

            And what's the answer?? Don't give me that catch-all about death being only the beginning…

            Oh, give me more credit. I didn't live on longer than most humans left on Earth without gaining personal insights.

            So what's the answer??

            Zero will only truly die when his ultimate self is realized. Until you make this discovery yourself, you can never kill him.

            And X??

            I don't concern myself with weaklings.

            He isn't weak. He's killed you.

            True…but if he faced me in all of my power, he would die. Zero would live. Thus, X is weak.

            He may prove you wrong one day, Virus. Sigma countered. Or…should I just come out and call you Wily??

            The grizzled old shell of the madman who created the Virus and embedded the most malignant part of his personality into it laughed.

            I'm not Wily, my dear Sigma. Wily is dead. As a weak human, he could not live on. I remember watching in satisfaction as Zero crushed his skull, long ago…No. I merely represent the part of him that dreamed of guiding Zero to his ultimate destiny.

            Do you feel denied?? Sigma chuckled, shaking his head a bit. Poor, poor Maverick Virus…without a true soul to call home.

            I live on through others. The Virus smirked. That is enough.

            Sigma blinked his eyes once, and found that the Maverick Virus, the very heart of the most devastating infection ever to grace Earth, had slipped back into the shadows and gone dormant.

            Which suited him just fine…

            Disembodied voices was not something he wanted to waste good money on a psychiatrist for. He popped his claws, one TitaniTefloAlloy and the other plasma, and laughed a long and sickeningly dark cackle.

            Behind him, Iris turned about with a startled look on her face.

            Sigma crouched lower to the ground and set his sights on the closest pack of Hunters.

            "Coming, Iris??" He asked, his insane breed of glee bursting through his voice.

            But still, Iris merely smiled her head trustingly, pushed back her bedraggled hair and slung the magrifle over her shoulder, pulling out her pink beam saber and coaxing it to life with a deft flick of her thumb.

            "Till death do us part." She sang out triumphantly.

            And a part of Sigma still chuckled.

            The mobile force thought they had a straight shot to land on Ice Beacon, to annihilate the project with one quick and deadly thrust.

            All hopes of that possibility were dashed when Wycost, Willow, Bristol, Pharaoh Man and Allegro suddenly impacted on an invisible barrier that flared to angry life, shocking them for a brief moment before scattering them off to the sides. Their anguished and sudden screams of pain did not escape Doan and Bastion, the only two flight capable fighters of the squad who veered to the side to avoid the newly appeared energy barrier.

            "BLAST!" Willow screamed, milliseconds before she collapsed facefirst into the ice and light snow surrounding the transmitter dish formed entirely of ice. Pharaoh Man grunted, but said nothing. Wycost muttered a half formed curse under his breath. Only Allegro came up with a comment after the botched attack, pulling himself from the ground with more than a miffed attitude.

            "THAT certainly didn't work."

            "Damn them." Bastion growled underneath his breath. "They've erected an EM shield around Ice Beacon's transmitter!!"

            "A particularly powerful one, if it was able to deflect us so easily." Bristol said shakily, holding her left arm with her right. Concerned, Willow looked over at the limping Bristol.

            "You all right, lass?"

            "I've been better." Bristol said through clenched teeth. "My arm feels like a lightning bolt went through it."

            "The effects should subside soon." Wycost replied over his comm, lifting up the sunglare visor back into his helmet and disengaging its scanning mechanisms. "This thing is designed to keep us out and deflect nearly everything we could throw at it, but it has no true attack power. Think of it as just having your arm put to sleep."

            "Terrific." Bastion snarled. "In the meantime, the countdown proceeds onwards until launch and we're stuck going down the river without a paddle to our name."

            "Oh, we're not out yet." Pharaoh Man said calmly. He picked himself up from the ground and looked around. "Company's coming."

            Allegro brought his beam staff up to bear, narrowing his eyes. "MI9 stock, completely."

            "You were expecting Mavericks?" Willow scoffed, snapping her beam whip across the EM barrier behind them. The band of MI9 Enhanceds drew nearer, but Willow took another moment to examine the angry flickering of the shield that prevented even physical blows from striking through. "Not good. Plasma, physical, warp…nothing is getting through this."

            "Remember MI9's outposts, the ones that we helped to design?" Bristol asked calmly, reactivating her pink beam saber and holding it in front of her. "These shields are difficult to maintain at best."

            "Your mind must really be returning if you recall THAT little detail." Willow chuckled morosely. "Aye, I remember well, lass. We just have to look for the emitter."

            "Don't you mean the Shield Generator?" Doan said easily, hovering down beside them. The Ghost Wind was given a glaring look by both female reploids of MI9.

            "Doan, does this LOOK like fugghin' Star Wars?" Willow demanded. "Give us a little more credit for originality in the name. But yes, the purpose is about the same."

            "So then, we just need to find it." Bastion echoed. He pulled out both beam sabers and stared at the oncoming hordes. "If we ever find the time to, that is."

            "Time we don't have, my fellow freaks." Allegro growled, clicking his heels together. "Whoever's going to play hide and seek with the shit we need to shut down, go. I'm staying to fight."

            The rest of the team looked around at their comrades, silently mulling in their heads as to what they would do.

            Stay and fight the Enhanceds…or seek out the shield emitter??

            "I'll stay." Doan harrumphed. He hovered down beside Doan and drew out his beam lance, letting the massive blade hiss to life. "Funny…the actions we take here today are considered Maverick by most."

            "Oh, that's the true beauty of this." Pharaoh Man murmured, drawing beside them and clenching his hands into two fists, gentle locuses of golden light surrounding them. "Just how far does one adhere to the rules?? Is it worth letting an entire race die, just so one can show that they are rational by the definition of the murderers??"

            "If preventing the demise of the reploid race is considered the action of a menace, then I'll gladly take on the title." Bastion chuckled over the comm. "I was given it once involuntarily because religious extremists gave me life and my mission of mindless destruction. I renounced it eventually to regain my life. I shall go with Bristol…"

            "Doan, Phare, Allegro…" Bristol began calmly. "Don't get killed. I'm going to try and find the shield emitter."

            "You're not going alone, lass." Willow scoffed, running up beside her longtime comrade in arms. "I've just gotten you back, and I'll be damned if you'll die on me and anyone else again."

            "Wycost? What's your move?" Doan asked, turning about.

            The Bronx Bomber maneuvered his jaw around a bit, then shook his head.

            "I stay." He walked beside Doan and shook his head. "For the moment."

            Willow, Bristol, and Bastion looked at the others.

            "Keep your comms open." Bastion finally mouthed.

            Wycost chuckled a bit and began to charge up a shot. "What, do you think I'm going to die on ya that easy?"

            "No. I just like hearing you try to not let that Bronx accent sink into your maledictions."

            Wycost laughed a little bit, more to relieve his tension than anything else. "Get going, you three. We'll do our best."

            "WYCOST." Bristol suddenly barked.

            "Y0?"

            The blond bombshell looked over, a sudden fear flashing in her eyes. "Don't die."

            Wycost tsked and flipped his sunglare goggles/visor down. "Wasn't planning on it, doll." He turned about and stared at the oncoming Enhanced humans, barreling down on them at speeds normally impossible to others of their kind. "Now get going. If this is going to work at all, that EM shield needs to be shut down. And you three are the only ones that can do it."

            "Just the ones crazy enough to try." Willow snorted. "Don't come after us. Just get out."

            "MOVE, DAMNIT!!" Wycost barked back. At that moment, the closest Enhanced human let out a war scream and barreled down on top of the pack. Startled, Allegro brought his beam staff up and deflected the initial swipe from their attacker.

            Without further hesitation, Bastion grabbed Bristol and Willow with both arms and took them into the air.

            The rest of the Enhanced humans soon came after the first, all screaming a horrendous noise of destruction. Despite himself, Bastion bit his lip in frustration.

            As the Enhanceds closed in, a brilliant flash of light lit up the entire area, blinding most of them. Screaming, they jumped back away, doing their best to maintain some semblance of self-defense. From the spreading out maelstrom of MI9 agents, a glint of metallic green that could only be Wycost shook his free hand up towards the three of them in the air.

            "You three get out of here!! We'll hold them off!"

            Two Enhanceds vanished in a sudden blast of plasmic fire sent out by Pharaoh Man, and soon after the smallish robot leapt up into the air and far away from the center of the circle, carrying Allegro in tow. Doan merely floated above the stumbling Enhanceds and quickly parried away the beam staffs of those that had survived the sudden flare of Wycost's Strobe Flash.

            Bristol looked on in stunned horror, unable to say or do anything. It was Bastion that took the initiative, shaking both her and Willow.

            "Which way now?"

            Willow clucked her tongue. "Knowing MI9, the heart of this place is buried. Like everything else they do, they can't stand being seen. The darkest parts of it are always right underneath the surface."

            "So?"

            "Look for something slightly amiss, lad, and there's your entrance." Willow said plainly. She pulled her cape tighter around herself and shook her head. "Chilly out today…I don't know how you can stand this cold."

            "It's a change from what I'm used to." Bastion shrugged. "Snow instead of sand." He narrowed his eyes and scoured about, then grunted with his head towards a small structure lowering itself into the ground. "What's that?"

            "Transport elevator!!" Willow barked as they howled in closer to it. "That's our way in!"

            Bristol remained mute, eyes staring blankly ahead at nothing in particular. As Bastion landed and released them, he noticed her sudden change.

            "Bristol, what's wrong?"

            Ice Beacon…it's happening…God, it's still happening…

            Those four…we left them behind…

            "Don't worry about those boys, Bristol me lass." Willow chuffed gruffly, pulling out her beam whip and slashing it angrily across the top of the descended elevator shaft. "They know how to take care of themselves." In an angry flash of sparks and a final hiss, the elevator's rooftop gave way to the burning strength of Willow's lash, collapsing in on itself and revealing their entryway down into the heart of Ice Beacon.

            "Wycost is not one to forget his promises." Bastion reassured her, putting a hand on Bristol's shoulder. "He said they'd be fine, and they will."

            Numbly, Bristol nodded her head and turned about to the hole. Willow stood there, arms clenched in nervousness. "Bristol, lass, I need ye focused on the here and now. With us. Like it or not, you've got to help us. You're one of the few people who can."

            Bristol nodded again, forcing feeling into her eyes and shrugging off the exterior signs of her thoughts.

            With Willow leading and Bastion guarding the rear, the three jumped down the long path to Ice Beacon and the troubles within.

            But even then, Bristol's heart remained troubled.

            It could still fail…

            Kalinka awoke suddenly a few hours after she had fallen asleep, a nameless fear creeping into her heart. Quickly as she could for her age, she pulled herself out of bed and put on a simple skirt and blouse, pulling her favorite red overcoat about her shoulders to stave off the mild chill in the air.

            She pushed open the bulky wooden door to her room and walked out into the hallways, peering about. "Phare?"

            Strangely, the silver and goldenrod robot was not guarding her door. Kalinka looked closer and noticed a shadow being cast into her field of vision at the crossway ten meters down the hall…

            "Phare, is that you??" Unsteadily, she stepped down the hallway and turned the corner.

            Her eyes fell as Ring Man shambled into her field of vision. "Oh."

            "Pardon?" Ring Man queried calmly, his optics blinking once. "What troubles you, Mistress Kalinka?"

            "I was looking for Pharaoh Man." Kalinka replied slowly. She looked behind her. "I was hoping he would be here."

            The Robot Master blinked a few more times, then began to juggle a pair of Ring Boomerangs he summoned out of thin air. "It seems illogical that Pharaoh Man would be here. At last download, the chore list indicated only Dust Man came up to this portion of the castle for cleaning purposes."

            "It's got nothing to do with assigned duties, Ring." Kalinka added quietly. "I just…thought he might want to be close to me."

            "Aah, you refer to the new relationship that you two share." Ring Man surmised, his pace slowing until he reluctantly let his Ring Boomerangs fade back away. "Yes, he probably would choose to be close to you, if…" Ring Man stopped midsentence, then turned abruptly away. "Excuse me. I must be returning to my duties now."

            Something in how Ring Man had cut himself short made Kalinka's attention shift entirely to him. She narrowed her eyes and grabbed his arm before he could escape.

            "Ring Man, what are you hiding?" She asked quietly. Ring Man did not move. Kalinka's gaze hardened even further. "Ring Man, look at me."

            Now as her words shifted from question to command, Ring Man felt the inevitable control of the Three Laws kick in, forcing him to comply. Slowly, the Robot Master turned about and looked at Kalinka, trying his best to remain expressionless.

            "What is it you are hiding?" She asked again. "I order you to tell me."

            2nd Law: A robot must obey all orders given by a human being, unless such orders would conflict with the First Law. (Modified: or if such orders would conflict with the Third Law unnecessarily)

            ANo immediate conflict with First Law. No conflict with Third Law. However, danger of eventual emotional harm does exist…

            B Eventual harm identified; possible emotional trauma to Mistress Kalinka Cossack from identification of Pharaoh Man's whereabouts is confirmed.

            C Secondary harm confirmed: Not knowing Pharaoh Man's whereabouts may cause emotional trauma as well.

               Decide greater trauma…

           

            A Error.

            Blankly, Ring Man stared out into empty void, his mind racing and racing through the cyclical process of weighing and measuring the greater harm to Kalinka.

            1st Law: A robot must not harm, or through inaction, allow harm to come to a human being.

            "Ring…RING…RING!!!" Kalinka screamed, shaking the Robot Master.

            C Warning. Causal loop confirmed…answer must be found, or mind freeze will initiate.

           

            "Ring Man, don't do this to me!!" Kalinka screamed, shaking him even harder. "I can't lose you!!"

            B Answer confirmed…Harm to Mistress Kalinka is inevitable either way. Differences immeasurable.

            Consensus Inform Mistress Kalinka of truth.

            And just as suddenly as it had set in, Ring Man blinked out of his causal loop, breathing a silent sigh of relief that once more, he had avoided the state known as mind freeze. How Pharaoh Man had been able to achieve it was beyond him, because Ring had been paralyzed by the laws, helpless in their clutching grasp as they argued amongst themselves what was the least damaging course of action.

            How Phare triumphed over such an immovable power is beyond logic.

            "Pharaoh Man is not here, Mistress Kalinka." Ring Man said calmly, pushing her hands away from his shoulders. He backed up and shook his head. "Earlier today while you slept, he received a message from our…friends…at the Maverick Hunter Headquarters."

            "Mega Man X?"

            "Hazil." Ring Man corrected. "Pharaoh Man chose to take a temporary leave of absence from us to help them."

            "Is he going to be fighting more Mavericks??" Kalinka asked, a sudden fear washing over her heart.

            "If that was the case, madam, myself and the others that construct 'The Foregone Five' would have gone along with him." Ring Man reassured her. "No, he went alone on this mission, because thanks to the truth that his mind is no longer controlled by the Rules of Robotics, he is the only one of us that COULD attempt this mission without danger of mind freeze."

            Blankly, Kalinka looked at the Robot Master for a few moments. Ring Man sighed internally.

            "The mission he has volunteered for is one where he will be fighting humans."

            Kalinka's jaw dropped.

            Ring Man cleared his throat. "Let me continue. I assure you, there are mitigating circumstances."

            "No, there can't be…robots can't…no…"

            "A small portion of the forces at the Maverick Hunter Headquarters are leading an attack on a group of humans that seek to destroy all reploids." Ring Man added easily. "That is why Pharaoh Man felt he needed to go on the mission. Mavericks were a danger to both humanity and reploids. That is why we were brought together to form the Foregone Five. Now, it seems, the danger has tilted to complete genocide of the reploid race. And such actions, by humanity's main credos and beliefs, are inexcusable and unallowable."

            Numbly, Kalinka collapsed to the floor on her knees, staring at the wall. Ring Man knelt down beside her and put a comforting arm on her shoulder.

            "It is difficult to deal with, I know."

            "No, that's not it." Kalinka murmured, shaking her head. "Humans are fully capable of such atrocities. I don't have a hard time believing that, or that a small portion of the Maverick Hunters are trying to stop them. It's that…" Her voice became more choked up, filled with a sudden sadness, and her eyes began to glisten with the beginning of tears.

            "What?" Ring Man asked, tensing up. She was feeling pain…harm. That distinctive quality about humans that was so difficult to properly identify, but constituted the basis of the core programming that controlled his life. Instinctively, his mind raced for a way to prevent it, to lessen it.

            To his chagrin, Ring Man concluded there was no way he could stop her pain.

            "I almost lost him once…" Kalinka wheezed, barely able to talk straight. She turned her face up and looked at Ring Man, shaking her head, the glistening saltwater beginning to run down her face. "I…Can't lose him again. I can't. I don't know what I'd do…" Finally, her fragile shell broke apart and she collapsed into Ring Man, who caught her easily and held her to him, preventing her from collapsing to the ground.

            Her sobs were muffled against Ring Man's armor, her thinning and whitening blond hair covering her face from view.

            "Phare…if you go out there and die…I don't know what I'd do…Please, Phare, don't die. DON'T DIE!!"

            Ring Man held her close, and Kalinka continued to cry her eyes out and repeating her last phrase, until fatigue and mental stress overpowered her and she subsided into gentle whimperings.

            A part of Ring Man's psyche clicked into focus, and without realizing he had started to, he began to rock her gently back and forth until the soothing calm overcame her. And eventually, as he sat there pondering matters, he realized that by pure instinct alone, he had fulfilled the boundaries of the Three Rules of Robotics. By instinct alone. No orders, no weights and measures. He had done what felt right…consoling Kalinka…and it had worked.

            Perhaps…perhaps there was hope for him, and all the others yet, the Robot Master mused as he picked Mistress Kalinka Cossack up gently into his arms and took her back into her room.

            He tucked her into her bed and pulled up her covers, making sure that she would not become ill by the slight wafting cold in the air. Once he had made sure that she was secure, he walked out of the room quietly and shut the door with all the grace he held.

            And only then did he bother to have his own thought.

            Pharaoh Man…you had better return.

            You appear to be the only bonding agent keeping this place together any more.

            Hazil and J.K. Horn had returned to the medical reploid's office after seeing the rest of their motley crew off. Cleo had opted to not sit around doting; she had gone back down to the hangar bay to finish up some projects she had been ignoring.

            For the two older reploids, old in years and looks, waiting was all they could do. Or all they wanted to.

            Horn sighed and leaned back in his chair, rocking it up off of its legs and pushing himself against the wall. Drily, Hazil clicked his tongue and reached into his desk, pulling up a bottle. "You look like you could use a stiff belt."

            Horn looked down at the bottle, then flipped his blue blockers into his hair, letting his robotic optic focus in on it calmly. He looked up at Hazil and rolled his good eye. "Of what? Air?"

            Hazil blinked a few times, then looked down at the eight year old scotch.

            Empty.

            "Damn." Hazil cursed under his breath, letting another arm down into the drawer.

            He pulled up another empty. He swore again and continued to dig, while Horn watched with interest.

            By the time he emptied out his desk drawer, there were ten empty scotch bottles and two half full ones sitting on his desk. "Finally." He sighed in relief, pushing one of the partially filled bottles over to Horn.

            Slowly, Horn picked up the bottle and stared at it, then the pile of empties, and finally Hazil. "Have a bit of a drinking problem??"

            "HELL no." Hazil snorted, eyes narrowing. He opened up his bottle and downed the contents in one smooth, continuous gulp. "I don't have a drinking problem. I have a reality problem."

            "Doesn't that affect your job performance any?"

            "One of the glories of being a reploid, doc." Hazil chuckled. "Takes at least two full bottles to make you go tipsy."

            "So why would you drink this much?" Horn asked, taking a small swig of his own and wincing as it went down. "Damn…strong stuff."

            "Compared to your usual tropical drinks, I'd imagine so. Straight scotch can do that." Hazil replied, waving a hand flippantly in the air. He settled back into his seat and held the now empty bottle between his hands. "But why do I drink?" Hazil shut his eyes. "Hell, take a look at where we are."

            "Maverick Hunter Headquarters."

            "Exactly." Hazil confirmed. He shifted himself up into a sitting position and slammed the empty bottle down. "That's why I drink. For more than thirteen years now…and back in the glory days, Cain would do it with me."

            "This place torments you that much??" Horn summarized incredulously.

            "Watching friends die on you for more than a decade, despite your warnings and best efforts…" Hazil mused, his sad eyes staring off into somewhere distant, "…never knowing if you're making a true difference…Looking on as allies become traitor and then enemy, and the world marches on by, not giving a damn about our lives as we fight for theirs…"

            His voice trailed off, and then Hazil sighed. "Small wonder."

            "This place would drive a man to drink." Horn agreed sadly. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "So why then, do you stay?"

            "Why??" Hazil repeated, his eyes gaining a hazy quality about them. "Why would I stay here, where I have nothing but sadness dotted with fleeting moments of joy?"

            The medical reploid put his hands against his chest.

            "It isn't for the free booze, I'll tell you that."

            "So what's the real answer then?"

            "More than likely…loyalty." Hazil finally decided. "Loyalty to my promises, to my friends, and to those here who I actually give a damn about."

            "For 13 years?"

            "Believe it or not, there was a time that I wasn't the CMO of the MHHQ." Hazil replied quietly. "There was a time that I was just a field medic with the RAF…the same unit as Storm and Bolt Eagle."

            "THE Storm Eagle??" Horn interrupted, lifting an eyebrow. "The one who took the Death Rogumer on the march of destruction?"

            "One and the same." Hazil easily stated. "Back in a time before the Maverick Uprisings, before the Maverick Hunters…Storm Eagle was the young protégé of a more powerful avian class animalian reploid by the name of Bolt Eagle. We lost Bolt to the final remnants of the IRA…and in his last moments, Bolt told me to keep the boy safe."

            "The boy? Storm Eagle?"

            "Yes." Hazil tilted back in his seat farther. "Three of us came from British soil when we joined the Maverick Hunters. Spark Mandrill, one of our most skilled engineers and mechanics, Storm Eagle, and me. I went to keep that promise to Bolt. And that was the only reason I went."

            "So why did you stay?"

            "What, after Storm Eagle went Maverick and swore the lot of us off?" Hazil mused, rubbing at his chin. He finally harrumphed. "By then…I'd learned to appreciate another pair of schmucks. No, make it a trio…"

            "I take it this trio you refer to…has managed to stay alive a little longer than most?"

            "Well, one of them took it upon himself to self-destruct for almost no damn good reason at the end of the First Maverick Uprising…he came back at the end of the next, no worse for wear, somehow. But yeah. Overall, I've stuck around here because there's three people in this Godforsaken butcher shop that I still gave a crap about."

            "Sometimes, you strive to make it obvious to me, don't you?" Horn chuckled, pushing his bottle of alcohol across the table and motioning for Hazil to take it. "You're talking about the three mainstays of the MHHQ. Mega Man X, Zero Omega…and Dr. James T. Cain."

            "Yeah." Hazil murmured, reaching for Horn's offered booze. "And now Cain's dead."

            Horn let the pregnant silence give birth before he spoke again. "Which just leaves Mega Man X and Zero."

            "And sometimes, I think even they are beyond my ability to reach anymore." Hazil proclaimed, shutting his eyes. He took a quick swig of the half-empty bottle and sighed. "I put Zero back together once. Not a fun time…so many painstaking things I had to do, just to avoid his control chip making a RAM dump. And Zero's body was a bitch to work with in the first place."

            "Oh?" Horn mused, putting his blue blockers back over his eyes. "How so? Overly technical?"

            "Different." Hazil replied carefully, seemingly having to select the word with deep care. "None of Zero's parts were factory made at all. It was like whoever had made Zero did it with customized parts…from scratch…at such a level of detail that wherever the Crimson Hunter was constructed was a place with plenty of robotic engineering equipment."

            "Right. And just how many places with that level of constructive technology that are NOT reploid production factories exist?"

            "None…last time I checked." Hazil muttered. "And I've been looking for more than a decade." He finished off the last of his offices' liquor and put the bottle with the others. "There was something else about it. It wasn't just the fact that everything about Zero's systems were custom-drawn and cast, that he had no identifying codes from any factory or facility…not even an owner designation."

            "Zero is an unknown??"

            "That's the BEST thing you can say about him." Hazil grumbled slowly. "But you haven't heard the most puzzling thing about him."

            "Oh? Just what about Zero separates him so dramatically from the rest of us?"

            "All reploids stem from the schematics of Cancer…the first reploid that Cain built with X's help. Because of that, there's always that traditional element of design that despite a reploid's form, designation, sex, or animalian traits that every reploid holds."

            Hazil paused, then put his head into his hands. "But when I was repairing Zero, when I helped him muddle up various things that led to his eventual revival…I noticed something in his design. He doesn't HAVE that added touch of Cain's mechanics in him. I was confused at first, so I went into Cain and demanded to see X's original schematics…the ones that Light made."

            "And?"

            "I drew up the computerized schematic I had constructed of Zero's systems, then cross-referenced them with that of Mega Man X." Hazil's gray eyes went darker. "And there my artificial heart nearly stopped cold. Because I couldn't believe what I had seen."

            Horn's breath caught in his throat. He couldn't speak, but a part of his spirit knew what Hazil was about to say. And it frightened him.

            "If you took off the external armor…removed all their outer features and then examined just the wiring, the underlying structure, and everything about them that makes them tick…"

            "Horn, you would find that they are a 98% match." Hazil finished. "They look different, and there's some slight differences…but it was like whoever made Zero did it using the original schematics that were done by LIGHT."

            "My word…" Horn murmured. "That…that is most definitely…"

            "I know." Hazil interrupted coldly. "God, I know."

            "Were X's original schematics ever made public?"

            "Not really…nobody could ever make sense of them." Hazil mulled. "So much of X's internal workings are still a mystery to even me…Light was a genius TWO centuries ahead of his time."

            "And yet somebody, utilizing X's original schematics…managed to create Zero, who by your own statements is so similar to X that the Crimson Hunter defies most explanation as well??"

            "Yeah." Hazil grunted. He smiled a bit at his next statement. "That's probably what made my hair go gray."

            Of course, Hazil kept one thing to himself, one thing that he didn't think Horn would be able to handle.

            He'd probably scream bloody murder if I told him Zero is the final bastard child of Wily's madness.

            "I can't do anything for the two of them anymore." Hazil decided. "I've got nothing left. For anyone." Hazil stood up suddenly and looked around the office. "I've been trapped within these same walls…been haunted and tormented by the ghosts of those who have died because I could not save them, day in and day out…Drinking myself to an early death because it's the only way I can dull the pain…"

            His voice trailed off, and Hazil slumped back into his seat.

            "Maybe that's why I decided I was going to get out of here."

            "Eh? What do you mean?"

            "I sent in my resignation recently." Hazil elaborated slowly. "I'm getting out of here. There's just…just too many bad memories in this place for me anymore."

            There was a dull pain that shone in Hazil's eyes then. A pain that Horn could see all too clearly, and one that made him hurt. But Hazil's statement egged on an obvious question;

            "So what were you planning on doing once you left the Hunters?"

            Dolefully, Hazil leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling again.

            Fifteen seconds. Thirty seconds. And only then did the medical reploid offer a response.

            "I don't know."

            Signas sat in the command chair of the MHHQ's War Room, watching the massive overhead monitor with pursed lips. He sat rigidly against the back of the seat, his arms draped over the armrests with fingers twitching nervously.

            If they carry out the plan EXACTLY as I told them to…this will work. But if this fails…no, don't even consider that. Failure is not an option.

            Signas had been said to be devoid of emotions thanks to the GDC's rigid training of pure logic and strategy and dialogue. Perhaps, the processing reploid surmised, that was his biggest barrier to his arriving at the Maverick Hunters.

            Not just the fact he was shipped here from the GDC…with no chance for the Hunters to make an argument or rebuttal.

            Not just the crushing blow that James Cain was dead…and somebody completely different, unknown, and untrusted was taking his place.

            It was that Signas showed no emotions, did not allow himself to. He acted so alien to them, that in this place especially, he could never be accepted.

            And slowly, Signas said to himself while trying not to shudder, he would learn about these 'emotions' that the Maverick Hunters clung to so fiercely. Even if it took him more than three decades.

            He blinked back into reality and refocused his thoughts, staring up at the monitor with all of his attention. The GDC spy satellite had been slowed down enough to provide a continuous feed of video without breaking up. That, combined with overlaying IF/F markers of green and red and the audio feeds made for interesting viewing.

            If one considered watching reploids dying at each others' hands interesting.

            One of the Mavericks…Cumulus Bull from the sound of it, was dead, taken down by some very accurate firepower. The other five Generals, and Sigma, and that little lady Maverick…Iris, wasn't that her name?...were holding up rather well, however…

            The Maverick Hunters had taken a few more hits, though. Their numbers, somewhere around 40 to 50 elites at the start had dwindled down to the upper 20's. Which meant that perhaps the only saving measure that the Maverick Hunters held against their enemies was the surprise cavalry charging to the battle on Landchasers. If all went well, Signas surmised, the Mavericks would be caught off guard and suppressed…if not destroyed, at least badly humiliated.

            Signas would take his victories where they came.

            "The Landchaser party reports eighty seconds to contact." One of the room's monitor Techs called up. Signas perked his head over.

            "Any indications that Sigma and his crew have noticed them coming?"

            "None. The Mavericks seem entirely engrossed in the battle, from what I can detect of the comm scramble." Another Tech replied quickly.

            Signas exhaled a deep breath and relaxed in his chair then, a measure that made every person in the room blink their eyes in confusion a few times and then turn around to stare at their new General incredulously.

            Signas nodded his head and stared back up at the monitor, brow lined with worry.

            "Continue operations."

            As the Techs turned back to their stations, they could not shake off the feeling that somehow…

            If for only a moment, Doctor Cain had returned to them.

            X and Kazok's battle had taken them a fair distance from the heart of the conflagration…which was probably for the best, considering the firepower that the two were leveling at one another.

Mega Man X ducked the blistering supershot that Kazok had leveled at him, then dashed away from the Maverick's followup charge. Turning about in mid-dash, he leveled his Buster using his right hand for support and fired.

            Kazok's head flipped about, seeing the shot coming even before X had released the firing trigger. The Maverick's eyes flared for a brief moment in rage before Kazok took to the skies again, dust exploding away from him as his locus of anti-gravitational forces swelled for a small moment.

            "Blast you Mavericks…BLAST YOU ALL!!!" X screamed, firing again and again with rapid fire shots of plasma that stitched the skies. Kazok narrowly avoided the hailstorm trailing him about in the skies, then roared and dropped his Buster groundwards at X.

            The Blue Bomber ceased firing as soon as he realized what Kazok was doing. "Oh, shit…" Kazok's eyes flickered again, and he disengaged the safeties on his Buster.

            X scrambled to move away from the blast crater, but found it to be little use when the overcharged supershot soared downwards, screaming from the intensity of the stored plasma. The blast dispersed angrily, throwing X like a rag doll by the concussion wave while baking him at the same time.

            Internal operations energy at 90%.

            And that had been a MISS, X chided himself angrily. He tried to pick himself up, but only succeeded in coming to his knees before a familiar set of black hovering crystals appeared around his body and froze him into place. And then they pushed on him with devastating g force. X gasped for air and tried to strain against his prison, but to no avail.

            The gravicrystals turned X around so he could face a grim Kazok Gravor, walking towards X with his Buster hanging by his side. As the Maverick drew nearer, his mouth curled into a frowning sneer.

            "Pathetic." He uttered. "You're Mega Man X. You're supposed to have shut down Sigma time and time again. So explain to me now why you find yourself being outmatched at every turn. Are you THAT dependent on your armors, X? You, the progenitor of our entire race…are you that weak without the awesome power they grant?"

            "Damn you…Kazok…" X grunted, barely managing to stay on one knee without collapsing onto the ground.

            "Oh, stop swearing at me and just give me a straight answer." Kazok growled. "I want to know…just why you're so damned GOOD at destroying all the servants of Sigma, all the people who follow him because they're given no choice in the matter, but you can't destroy Sigma himself." Kazok jammed his hand inside of the field and clenched his fingers tightly around X's neck. X coughed, straining against the chokehold that began to prevent his nourishing blood from reaching his needy brain.

            Kazok picked up X like a rag doll and stared into those wide blue green eyes.

            "Maybe you don't want to kill him…maybe that's it." Kazok said quietly, releasing his hold on X's neck. X sucked in a gasping breath, feeling relief as his brain felt a new rush of power to it. Kazok lifted up a finger and two crystals returned to him, giving him enough power to lift both himself and X up into the air. X could do little, dangling underneath Kazok's control. But he could speak.

            "What…are you doing…"

            "Questioning." Kazok replied shortly. "Why it is that me and the others have been cursed to this existence…why we're forced to serve Sigma because you didn't destroy him out to begin with."

            The Maverick's eyes narrowed. "It's all your fault, X. Cumulus Bull is dead…DEAD, thanks to you and your Hunters. Had he NOT been torn away from URFAWP by Sigma's long-reaching claws, he would still be alive…still be laughing and remaining who he always was. But you took that from him because you let Sigma live." Kazok reached across and flattened X with a right cross, leaving the Hunter to take the hit as he remained suspended and unable to defend himself. "DEAD!! He's dead, X. Soon, chances are the REST of us will be dead. But HE'LL still be alive, won't he?" Kazok grabbed X's head between his hands and began to squeeze, baring his teeth and showing now his full malice, untainted by the Virus. "Everything I did…all those deplorable acts…done in his name, under his power and influence…I remember every last one of them." He squeezed harder, drawing an extended cry from X. "To remember everything you did while under the Virus…THAT is Hell, Mega Man X. Perhaps some day you will get to experience it. Experience being helpless as you are directed by the dark thoughts of another. To watch your friends be destroyed while they struggle under the same influence of the force you are restrained by, to be able to do NOTHING."

            Warning. Internal operations energy at 87%. Heavy pressure exerted upon cranial region. Helmet showing multiple stress fractures. Cease source of pressure immediately. Cranial collapse imminent.

            Thankfully, Kazok pulled his hands back and shook his head.

            "The devil made me do it…but you allowed him to live in the first place." Kazok growled. "You have much to answer for, X. Not as much as Sigma…but enough that you, like me, need to make penance."

            Suddenly, the gravicrystals keeping X in place shut themselves off, dropping the Blue Bomber to the ground gasping for air and struggling to regain control of his motor functions.

            The gravicrystals returned to Kazok, easily settling into a rotational arc about his body. The Maverick folded his arms and tsked.

            "Get up." He said forcefully. "Get up and prove me right for once. Show me that the only reason you were able to defeat Sigma all those times before was that it was pure luck."

            X put a hand onto his knee, then slowly rose to his feet and stared Kazok down. Blue green eyes that once held pain shone with new resolve and a sense of confusion and mistrust.

            Kazok primed his Buster again and pointed it at X, not bothering to aim or support it. "This fight between us has one outcome; one of us shall triumph over the other, one of us will go on to face Sigma."

            X narrowed his eyes. "Why would a Maverick General want to destroy his leader?"

            "You haven't been listening to a DAMN thing I've just gotten done saying, have you??" Kazok spat back, eyes flaring out angrily. He hovered a few inches above the ground, his gravicrystals spinning wildly now. "Pity. Not only is the great Mega Man X incapable of shutting down a minor threat without his super armors, but he's stupid to boot. You think you're the only faction on this planet that has something to gain by seeing Sigma in his last grave?!" Kazok charged towards X, a screaming missile carried by gravitic force.

            X fired a level 2 shot at Kazok, forcing the Maverick to roll out of the way…too late did Kazok realize that X had been waiting for that. Kazok had no time to respond as X made a furious dash jump into the air and scissor-kicked him in the ribs.

            Kazok doubled over, losing control over his gravitational field for a brief instant. X dropped back down to the ground, holding his left arm's Buster beside him. The air filled with an incessant whine, the unmistakable noise of a Buster going to maximum charge.

            Kazok brought himself back up to his feet and bared his teeth at X.

            "The sins of all must be paid in full…" He muttered, just loud enough for X to hear. Flinging his unused hand to the sky, Kazok charged towards X again. "LET MY ATONEMENT BEGIN WITH YOU!!"

            Zero pulled himself up from the ranks of the Hunters who had been cut down by Cumulus Bull before Guernica had made his lucky shot.

            There had been no hope for them. No honorable death. For all they were capable of, all the skill and training they held, they were transformed, in a moment of serendipity, into cannon fodder.

            And for a Maverick Hunter…that was unforgivable.

            The Crimson Hunter turned around, clenching one fist up and keeping his left hand dangling at his waist, twitching as his digits called out to wrap around the hilt of his saber. They wanted blood…Zero swore they would get it.

            His vision began to go blurry as his rage began to get the better of him, and a startled Zero shook his head to negate the effects. As if sighing resignedly, his systems reverted to normal, shunting away the adrenaline he had become so accustomed to using.

            At the same time, Burst Scarab was soaring above everything, dropping high explosives this way and that in his mindless quest to end the Hunter's existence. He looked down and saw Dolph Reach taking good care of himself…whatever got through his opening palm strike didn't last long against Dash Blade and Shell Butane. So for the moment, he had the opportunity to make a free reign of the environment.

            X and Kazok were locked in heated combat, the likes of which Burst hadn't seen come from his leader in a very long time. Scratch that.

            Sigma and Iris were taking care of themselves just fine…and of course, Burst remembered with a renewed plume of anger, those Hunter bastards had taken down Cumulus Bull.

            There was one Hunter that stood out amongst all of them, one Hunter that caught Burst Scarab's attention and kept it enthralled with his majestic pissed-off glare of death. And, Burst Scarab thought with a sinister smile as he summoned out one of his larger munitions…

            That one Hunter couldn't have been a better target.

            Zero had barely moved a few meters forward before he heard a very sharp whistle coming down from above.

            Narrowing his eyes in recognition of the sound, Zero didn't even bother to look up. He merely slammed on his dash thrusters and boosted himself forward as fast as he could.

            A very wise move, considering that only a moment later, the ground where he had stood exploded with a horrendous explosion, the flames backing the Hunter's back and the concussion wave sending Zero flying facefirst on his course.

            But unlike in traditional movies, Zero didn't land on his face or even stumble. He merely righted himself in midair and came down with his beam saber drawn and him kneeling on one leg for added support. Now glowering with rage, Zero lifted his head up to see the flitting Burst Scarab flutter downwards, his wings filling the air with a definitive bass hum.

            The Maverick grinned, wiggling his antennae for a moment before he laughed.

            "Even Zero goes running when the bombs start to fall…what's this world coming to??"

            "An end to you and your kind." Zero shot back, standing up and holding his saber in a two handed defensive pose. Burst tsked and leveled an arm at the Crimson Hunter, unleashing a rocket. Zero easily dash-jumped over it and came at Burst with his saber held high for the killing stroke.

            Burst tsked again and shot up into the air with more speed than somebody of his body type should have had, leaving Zero to swing at open air. Hovering safely above the range of Zero's saber, the Maverick put a hand on his hip and shook the other one back and forth at Zero in a disapproving gesture.

            "No no no, Zero. You don't get to play piñata today, I'm afraid. See, I get to pick the game, and today I think that it's time to play BATTLESHIP!!"

            Zero swore underneath his breath, backflipping away from yet another explosion. Burst cackled in glee again, so happy to have the famous Crimson Hunter on the ropes and running like a scared little puppy from the lawnmower.

            Zero did not like people throwing high explosives at him. He did not like people attacking him to fulfill some issue with their machismo or self-image. And he especially did not like Mavericks. Burst Scarab had three strikes against him, which to Zero meant that this monstrosity was going down…HARD.

            Zero jumped to the side to avoid another concussion blast gone awry, then tightened his saber's grip. Burst chuckled a bit and flung his arm downwards at Zero, pausing only long enough to fire a missile too many sizes too large for comfort. Its engine ignited and then screamed downwards, willing and able to blow the Crimson Hunter apart.

            "Say hi to Hell for me!!" Burst called down at his opponent.

            Zero jumped off of the ground, aiming himself for the Maverick flying in the air, but putting himself in the direct path of the missile. Burst's eyes widened in anticipation of that one moment, and his smile grew bigger.

            But then, as if Zero was standing on solid ground, he did another jump…an impossibility, Burst rationalized as the shock washed over him. Swiftly, Zero frontflipped and landed on the casing of the missile, stabilizing his footing and staring up at the Maverick with disgust and hatred in his eyes.

            Impossible…he can't jump in midair like that…he can't balance on a missile like that, he just can't!!

            And yet, Burst realized, Zero had.

            Zero's saber flared out, its brilliant green expanding violently into a blade of fiery red plasma. In a sweeping, rising strike, Zero rose up towards Burst Scarab, seeming to move without effort as that deadly blade drew nearer and nearer.

            The Maverick screamed in fear and tried to dodge to the side. His efforts did some good, but not enough…For all his speed that he put into the maneuver, one wing was hopelessly severed off, leaving a badly cauterized stump of a wing behind that continued to vibrate, even after the nerve sensation impulse from Burst's mind faded.

            The Maverick screamed again, this time in mind numbing pain as he instinctively reached an arm out to try and protect and cradle his injured stump of a wing. The carapace and high durability see-through wing fell to the ground with a resounding thud, further proof to the shocked Maverick that Zero was just as deadly as rumor had held.

            Burst Scarab spiraled out of control into the ground, his sole remaining wing unable to keep up with the demands and succeeding only in corkscrewing his fall. The impact was sudden and devastating, snapping one of Burst's arms into a useless state and leaving him defeated and grounded. Zero on the other hand, landed solidly and scanned the area for any of Burst's Maverick comrades that might decide to rush to his aid. All of them, apparently, were too preoccupied with other forces to notice Burst's plight.

            More so was the pity for the fool Maverick.

            Zero glared down at him as he approached, paying no heed to Burst's strained groans.

            Slowly, Burst turned himself over with his only remaining good hand and stared up at Zero as the Crimson Hunter approached. His eyes went glassy, and he found enough energy to extend an arm out and balance himself for one last shot.

            One final rocket blasted itself free from Burst Scarab's arsenal, screaming through the air on its dead accurate course to blowing Zero's head apart like a grape.

            Zero merely craned his head to the side, frowning darkly for a moment as it soared on past his ear and exploded harmlessly in the sky. He then reverted back to his normal posture and walked on until he stood above Burst Scarab.

            The Maverick shivered, either from his wounds or in terror, or perhaps even both. But he did shiver.

            "You deserve to die for all that you have done." Zero spat out, holding his blade hand steady.

            Burst looked up and blinked his eyes sadly.

            "And what will you do when you meet a Maverick that does not fall under that category of punishment?"

            Zero froze for only an instant…an instant where his eyes flitted up and he saw Iris, struggling not that far off to stay alive.

            Grinding his teeth together and feeling his fist tighten in anticipation, Zero gave into the scream his body made.

            One single saber slash later, Burst Scarab's insectoid head rolled away from the body and came to a slow halt.

            Zero turned away from the body and shut his saber off, jamming it back into his recharge port with a fierce amount of energy.

            What will you do, Zero…

            "Shut up." He murmured. He shook his head to clear it, then took off.

            There were other Mavericks to be dealt with.

            Dash Blade looked up for a moment, staring up from the gasping remains of another foolish Hunter who had gotten too close. She knocked the beam saber out of her newest victim's hands, then slashed him away with a final vicious cut.

            Her ears perked up in dismay as she heard a cry not far off. Her eyes widened in horror as she saw an enraged Zero living up to his name…severing away one of Burst Scarab's wings with a violent saber thrust and forcing her comrade to plummet to the ground like a misdirected stone.

            She found herself growing rigid as she watched the Crimson Hunter end Burst's life with a single, coldblooded saber slash.

            And then she felt her vision grow blurry…

            Not even the impact of a plasma bullet in the small of her back fazed that deadlock she held on Zero as he stood there, shutting his saber off and looking around with those empty eyes.

            "ZEEEROOOO!!!" She screamed out unconsciously, throwing her head back and letting the scream carry on in a powerful feral yelp.

            Another plasma blast, this one a larger 'green sizzler' tore by the side of her face. Dash paid it no heed, leaping forth and retracting her claws, bounding on all fours.

            Through the packs of surprised and on guard Hunters she plowed, jumping up into the air and running over them, stepping on shoulders and heads and lifted arms raised for protection from the crazed Feraloid. Shots were fired, both plasma and magweaponry, but none succeeded in hitting. Dash moved with a speed she had rarely ever called upon, her thrusters bellowing angry hydrogen flames as she leapt up even higher than before and flung herself towards Zero, corkscrewing to avoid the crossfire from below.

            She extended her plasma dagger claws and curled in tighter, like a ball ready to explode on impact. She focused on Zero.

            And saw only red.

            Zero had heard the scream long before he had seen Dash barreling towards him, flying on the wings of Hell itself. But that had served only to pique the Crimson Hunter's alertness, force him to look around with wary eyes for where the threat was emanating.

            And he found it in a blistering ball of fur, gnashing teeth, and curled limbs that exploded outwards. Nearly caught off guard, Zero barely had enough time to draw his saber back into life and put up a slight defensive stance. Even then, she moved with so much momentum that Zero could scarcely put up any sort of defense. He succeeded only in not getting himself run through with her opening charge, suffering instead the ignoble fate of being knocked flat on his back from the impact.

            Dash frontflipped after the initial blow, holding her arms out to her sides and skidding to a halt with her dash boots, tail flickering back and forth angrily. Quickly she turned about and flashed her fangs at the Crimson Hunter, pouncing towards where he lay on the ground, still stunned from her initial strike. Zero's green eyes flashed in alarm, and he ignited his dash boots, gritting his teeth as the ground beneath him scraped his back armor from the sudden friction. Still, it worked…Dash sailed harmlessly overhead and landed, and Zero escaped her second strike, embedding his boots into the ground at the end of his skid and forcing himself into a triple backflip that strained and possibly might have snapped his spine…were he human. Thankfully, the Crimson Hunter reminded himself, he was NOT.

            Still, his back hurt like Hell now.

            "What's the matter, Kitty?" Zero snapped, resuming his double handed saber grip. "Somebody pull your tail the wrong way?"

            "Bastard." Dash spat out, crouching low to the ground for another charge. Zero harrumphed a bit and shook his head. Maverick, you don't know how right that statement is.

            Dash came at him with fur flying, swinging blindly with her claws in vicious wide arcs that always supplemented each other, giving no opportunity for a counterstrike. Zero's saber flared out in defense, blocking strike after strike with precision that came partly from instinct, but mostly from years of Zero fighting for his life. She was still as feral as the first time Zero had met her, and the only advantage he held here was that they were on open terrain, where he had more room to defend and maneuver. Definitely more appealing than when they had first tangled; a rotating stairway in Karashita Tower. Definitely less dangerous to his physical health. Here he might actually stand a chance.

            Slowly, Zero's rage began to build, Dash's charge began to wear off. Even she couldn't keep up this pace for long, and her slashes began to reflect that, losing momentum, speed, ferocity. Zero's own strength surged up through him, and he swung back, forcing her doublehanded strike away from him and back towards her.

            No other Hunter surrounding them moved to intervene with the fight. Not a one of them was that stupid to stop the sparks from flying…and were they ever.

            Now Zero turned the battle around, saber swinging fiercely in front of him. Dash, now on the defensive, struggled to stop the strikes…she paid little attention to the fact Zero had switched his attack pose, and was now only using one hand to wield his weapon.

            Zero's other hand snaked its way down to his waist, and the row of Rakuhouha plasmic explosives he still carried into battle, 2 years after the Fourth Maverick Uprising. They represented a fierce portion of his arsenal, and the very thing that had put Dash out of commission the last time they fought.

            He hoped that this time would be no different.

            In a sudden flare, Zero's saber went from green to a hot pink, growing shorter and more curved, almost like a scimitar. Deftly, his free hand pulled a Rakuhouha pellet out and lobbed it over Dash's head to the ground behind her. The rest of him centered around his 'Shippuga' blade, a shorter, curved…but far more powerful version of his normal saber strike. Gripping the hilt with both hands, Zero let out a loud angry scream and ignited his dash thrusters, forcing himself into Dash's face.

            Plasma claws met angry Shippuga blade, sparks of errant plasma scorching out in all directions, threatening to catch hair and fur on fire. Dash's eyes went wide as she stared into Zero's eyes…seeing a frightening hollow emptiness become bestowed upon them, noting the utter lack of sympathy in the rest of his face become apparent.

            And then his Shippuga blade, with a cutting power only the defeat of Slash Beast 2 years before had granted, began to win out over her claws.

            Dash strained and grunted, watching in alarm as her energy gauges for the plasma claws began to drop to dangerously low levels, sacrificing their longevity in an effort to overcome the astounding effects of Zero's blade at more than full strength.

            She couldn't win out over this force, the Maverick realized. Zero's blade would win out long before hers…and once her claws became extinguished, that Shippuga saber would cut through empty air and slice her in half as easily as she might cut up a kiwi fruit.

            With an angry snarl, she sacrificed a few more precious ergs of her plasma claws' power to push him to the side, then backflipped up and away from him to escape whatever followup slash he might muster.

            And yet Zero's saber lost its hot pink glow, returned to normal green. His stance relaxed, his posture became one of waiting. He watched Dash backflip with interest…too much, the Maverick thought as a cold chill ran down her back.

            She extinguished her plasma claws and extended her TitaniTefloAlloy ones, paying little attention to the weapons change as she began to look around for a trap. Zero's stance made things all too apparent that there was one…

            And there it lay, in the form of a tiny pellet beginning to flash angrier and angrier beneath her.

            As if electricity had arced through her spine, Dash suddenly realized what it was. The same damned plasmic explosive Zero had used on her in Karashita Tower…the one that nearly killed her.

            Hunter observers with enough spare time on their hands to be looking about would say later in their mission debriefings that if time was capable of slowing down, it had then at that moment.

            Dash straightened her posture and kicked her dash thrusters into motion, forcing her boots groundwards as she unleashed maximum force from the miniature rechargeable hydrogen rockets embedded in her feet. With the safeties disengaged, her downwards force was soon overcome and she was launched five meters up into the air, an easily covered distance.

            The Rakuhouha pellet exploded at that moment, unleashing the powerful plasmic storm within out into the world, a massive peacock feather shaped wave of doom that flung itself in all directions. Zero barely managed to dodge the explosion himself, and the Hunters around scrambled to evade the all too deadly blast.

            But three shots went skyward enough to pose a threat to Dash. The first one missed her, skimming by the side of her leg with a whistling noise. The second one blasted through her shoulder, causing the Maverick to tense up in sudden pain as connections to her right arm were severed from the impact that carried through her. The third, by sheer determination and a sudden rush of power from the anger her wound instilled, she deflected away from herself, putting all the strength of her body behind the powerful TitaniTefloAlloy claw swipe of her left arm. The powerful plasma fought back for a moment, then finally sighed and let itself be blunted away from its intended target…down towards the ground where the Crimson Hunter stood.

            Zero saw the blast incoming towards him, but made no outwards sign of worry. He merely gripped his saber with both hands and concentrated, forcing the blade to shimmer from its shade of bright green to a dull, almost blackish purple.

            The Rakuhouha blast, brilliant blue and bordering on white came closer and closer. And finally, Zero swung up his saber as if aiming at a lobbed baseball, plasmic blast hitting angry deflective blade.

            With a mere ripple of his true strength, Zero blunted Dash's ricochet up away from the both of them into the sky, where it flew on for a long time until finally dissipating into nothingness.

            Dash landed, standing with her left side pointed towards Zero. Her breathing was shallow and labored, her eyes fighting off the glassy texture that the Crimson Hunter had seen on so many of his victims. Her good arm…her left…came up to protect the gaping wound through her shoulder, thanks to the blast that had pierced both armor and internal body structure. Her right arm hung limply beside her, its functionality greatly decreased, it not immobilized fully. And still she stubbornly kept her claws out.

            Zero pointed his beam saber at her horizontally, letting its natural green shade restore itself. He blinked only once.

            "You will die soon."

            "Not soon enough for your liking." Dash snarled back, the retort not as strong in voice as previous ones. She heard it and so did he.

            She was badly hurt.

            It was at that moment a new sound made its appearance around them, one that made the Hunters brighten up and fight with new vigor, and made the Mavericks shift their heads about in surprise and sudden shock.

            The Landchaser cavalry had arrived.

            The interior of Ice Beacon looked like the engineer had watched too much Star Wars movies in his time…the whole place stank of the ice covered hallways of the fantasy world Hoth.

            Bastion drew in his wings and shook his head back, checking his beam staff and disconnecting the two pieces into their separate beam sabers.

            "There's barely enough room to run through here, much less fight openly." He commented.

            "Before I forget, thanks for pulling in those wings." Willow grumbled, rubbing at her head. "I didn't really enjoy getting decked in the back o' me head with 'em that much."

            "I didn't think you would." Bastion shrugged apologetically. He turned and looked to Bristol. "Which way is it?"

            "The shield emitter?" Bristol responded questioningly. Bastion nodded his head once. "Knowing MI9, deep within this place, well defended, and not easily accessible."

            "Well then…I'll feel right at home." Bastion smirked. "Before I joined up with the Hunters…"

            "The Jihad. I remember, dear." Bristol sighed, shaking her head. "Keep focused on current events…we don't have enough time not to."

            15 minutes until Ice Beacon signal transfer…All available Enhanceds to interior basin. Intruder alert. Intruder alert. 15 minutes until Ice Bea…

            Willow looked up at the ceiling darkly. "DAMN." She kicked her dash thrusters on and swerved around Bastion, hopping off the side of the wall for a moment. "We don't have TIME!!!"

            Bristol too, shuddered. This was cutting it awfully close…

            They ran down deeper into the passage from the surface elevator until they reached a large 'hall' area, with exits poring in all directions.

            Willow scoffed. "Standard MI9 design, all right. Central node with off-links."

            "So which way is the right way?" Bastion asked.

            "The one that has the most shit that can kill you." Willow shot back to Bastion. A large blast of ionic disruption energy tore from one hallway to their left, singing the Irish Banshee's hair. Willow swore again and rolled to the side to avoid another paralyzing blast. "THAT WAY!!!" She announced defiantly, bringing up her left arm gauntlet and firing a round. The plasmic explosive shot on, whistling fiercely and exploding on impact with the anti-reploid defense cannon that hung from the ceiling of the hallway. "Three shots left…"

            "Let's hope you use the rest wisely." Bastion announced darkly. Bristol pushed down the nagging feelings of hopelessness away and charged on, leaving Bastion and Willow to follow behind her, trying their hardest to keep up with the pace she herself set.

            The trip was one of silence interrupted only by further announcements concerning Ice Beacon's ETL…Estimated Time to signal Launch. Not the greatest of environments to encounter, and one that left all three worried.

            With no map to guide their way, they ran on blind instinct and pressured fury. And somehow that instinct served them well.

            The hallway broadened out eventually, leading into a massive room with an exit on the other side. To all purposes, another entertainment area or gathering center, due to the overhead television equipment.

            But not an easy escape…for a figure stood with one foot out of the shadows and the rest inside, wearing a dark cloak that disguised the entire figure.

            The three infiltrators stopped short, looking at their opponent with wary eyes.

            "I'm sorry, but I just can't allow you three to go any farther." The figure spoke in a garbled, computer generated voice. Willow frowned.

            "What's the matter, Enhanced? Can't even use your own voice, you have to hide behind a scrambler?"

            Silence for a moment, and then the sound of a device being shut off…the scrambler the Enhanced human had been using to mask his true voice.

            And then a low chuckle.

            "Well…I thought to try and keep my true identity secret for a little while."

            Bastion stood there, still not knowing who the person was. But Bristol's eyes opened in slight recognition…and Willow's positively flared with the fury that the masculine tone ignited in her.

            "YOU." Willow spat out. "Still alive, I see…"

            "Geoffrey and Tim died at your hands, Willow. I merely come to…collect equal payment." The figure announced, stepping forth and dropping his hood.

            His dark features, his disheveled hair, and that toothy smirk…

            "Jowers." Willow growled.

            "It's nice to see you too, Willow…" Jowers said placidly. "However, in this day and age memories mean nothing. Not as far as you and your little lamb Bristol are concerned. You've caused us much grief in your time since you escaped…In hindsight, we should not have left you there in New Denver with the Mavericks. You obviously escaped unscathed."

            "Now that my memory is returned, I regret ever making you into what you are now." Bristol snapped. "What you and the rest of MI9 are trying to do here…"

            "Oh, I imagine we could go throwing semantics and idealism at each other from here until the end of time." Jowers yawned. "But in the end, I don't think that'll solve anything. MI9 doesn't want to negotiate over a conference table. Ice Beacon is indicative of that."

            "You want us dead."

            "Yeeeep."

            "And obviously, we still want to live." Bastion called back. Jowers turned away from Willow and scrutinized the Commander of the 21st 'Lightning Strike' Unit.

            "Do I know you?"

            "Doubtful. I don't know you."

            "Then stay out of matters that don't concern you." Jowers snapped. Bastion narrowed his eyes.

            "You're trying to kill me, correct?"

            "Yes…"

            "Well then, this whole thing DOES concern me. And every other reploid on this planet…though most remain oblivious to this."

            "As MI9 planned it." Jowers shrugged. "However, THESE two reploids here are both thorn in side and grain in gear for our plans. They have been since they realized what we were truly up to."

            14 minutes until Ice Beacon signal transfer…

            Willow's green eyes flared. "Bristol."

            "Yes?"

            "Take Bastion and MOVE. I'll deal with Jowers."

            The Enhanced human brandished his beam weapon and ignited it to full life, holding it in an easy two handed grip. The reploids facing him were all stunned to see that the Enhanced was wielding a massively wicked beam scythe, the blade wrapped around a dangerous enough looking edge of TitaniTefloAlloy.

            "I'm afraid this little meeting is for all three of you." He said lowly. "Honestly, I can't let two of you push on while one of you sticks around to spar."

            Willow pulled out her beam whip and ignited the lengthy chain, reaching her free hand up and detaching her flowing blue cape. The weighted fabric dropped to the floor of the room with a muffled thud, allowing the Irish Banshee full movement and revealing her body armor in its entirety.

            With a scream of rage and desperation, Willow threw herself across the room, dash thrusters burning away. Jowers lifted an eyebrow, but reluctantly put up his beam scythe and blocked her charge.

            Willow held her beam whip by its base and midlength along the chain, keeping a length under tension…that was the section pushed up against Jowers' own weapon.

            "GET GOING!!" Willow barked, straining against Jowers, trying her damndest not to let him slide his blade down her weapon and slice off her fingers.

            Bristol and Bastion looked at each other for a moment, then nodded and ran around the two struggling fighters and deeper into Ice Beacon.

            Jowers grunted against the force being pushed on him and smiled, flicking the bottom half of his blade underneath Willow's chain. The Irish Banshee jumped back from the swipe and held her beam whip at the ready.

            Both took a few testing breaths after that last exertion, and then Jowers chuckled.

            "Playful little bitch, aren't you?"

            "Oh, you figured that out long ago." She growled, shifting her right leg's position about and letting the beam whip trail along her body. "I just think you forgot how demanding I can be about this."

            "Combat with you?" Jowers chuckled again. "You were quite adamant about seeing your two friends there getting past me."

            "I just wanted ye all to myself, lad." Willow replied, her voice smooth as silk, but her face hard as the Antarctic ice above their heads. "Mine to fight, mine to judge...mine to kill."

            "You certainly do have a high enough belief about your skills there." Jowers shot back, charging at her with a double slash from his reaper's weapon. "And here I thought egocentrism was dead."

            "You could never deface me or my will." Willow snapped, deftly flipping the plasma smothered chain about and deflecting both strikes. Jowers decided to chance another blow, but Willow was quick to defend, ensnaring his stabbing blade with the length of her chain and dragging him in close.

            Snarling, he shot out with his free hand to free his weapon and slap her in the face. Willow responded with her own hand. Now he brought his feet into the struggle, and she did hers.

            Willow lost her thumbhold on the plasma activator of her beam whip in the ensuing struggle, then lost her balance as she fell on top of Jowers. His beam scythe was splayed to the side, unable to harm either combatant, and her beam whip, the deadly plasma cut off and leaving TitaniTefloAlloy links, wrapped around them both in a mock lover's embrace.

            Jowers and Willow lay there like that for a few seconds, seconds where the Enhanced human became painfully aware of her gasping breaths and her heaving chest armor touching his own torso. They looked into each other's eyes. Definitely no love or admiration…but a fire between warriors, a passionate lust that bordered on destruction. In that moment, they shared the embrace of darkness and light…eternal opponents, only truly alive in that moment when their fight ensnared them both.

            "Funny…I didn't know you were into bondage." Jowers finally mused, looking up with the most perverse sneer he could muster. Willow's eyes flashed and she leaned in closer…

            Then promptly kneed him in the balls.

            She rolled away from the warrior as Jowers strained to recover from the blow, pulling her chain back and resetting her pose. Jowers struggled to his feet and coughed, shaking his head.

            "Thank God for metallic athletic supporters."

            "I should have destroyed you a long time ago." Willow growled darkly. "For what you did to me, I can never forgive you. For what you did to everyone else, I will punish you!!"

            Willow activated the plasma on her beam whip again and cracked it to the ground with a resounding snap. "It's sick freaks like you that perpetuate the attitudes that kept MI9 alive…"

            Jowers shifted his neck left and right, letting the joints crack loudly in the crisp air.

            "Oh, I love it when you talk dirty…" He said with that same sick grin. Willow bared a row of perfect fanglike teeth, but offering no mirthful smile. Only venom that was well deserved.

            "You perverted son of a bitch…I am not your china doll!!"

            "Oh, you're something all, right…" Jowers mused. "And can you really blame a man for looking??"

            "You never looked with love…because you cannot love."

            "True in one regard…nobody could ever love a mannequin like you, Willow. You're just a reploid. A figure of metal crafted in the image of a human. A plaything. A toy. Meant to be used and discarded. No one could ever love you…nor any other member of your 'species'. From the moment you were created, you existed at humanity's whim. To provide our pleasures…because only we rightfully deserved them."

            "I have a mind. I have a soul." Willow called back shakily, fighting back angry tears that threatened to resurface after so many weeks. "And you cannot deny me that…CANNOT DENY ANY OF US THAT WE DO NOT LIVE!!!"

            "Ice Beacon will prove you wrong, Irish Banshee." Jowers called out calmly, that smile returning. "And when it does, I shall laugh at you. You poor, poor, little broken china doll…a pretty face that no man could ever love. Just an object for lust and the darkest of desires."

            Willow screamed louder than she ever had before, and twice as shrilly. And then she charged at him, moving with fury pent up from years of anger, years of torment.

            And her call carried on throughout every hall, frightening those far away.

            It sounded like the wail of a wounded animal.

            Above the underground structures of Ice Beacon, another battle had ensued long before, refusing to be stopped. The Enhanceds had come as a single force, nearly overwhelming Wycost and his team of four, but somehow they had pulled through.

            An opening blast of Strobe Flash had temporarily blinded and decommissioned the forward line, leaving them vulnerable to Doan and Allegro while Wycost and Pharaoh Man kept the rest at bay with a furious assault from their respective plasma class weapons. The biggest danger that the four tried to avoid was becoming surrounded. If they had at least one direction they could retreat to, then the Enhanceds couldn't overwhelm them with numbers…not an easy task, considering that even after their initial victories, the strike force was outnumbered by a factor of three.

            Wycost and Doan took the battle in silent stride, used to having their lives that close to the breaking point. That of course didn't stop Wycost from unleashing a torrent of brutal New York maledictions every time one of the Enhanced humans got too close for comfort. It might almost seem funny…if their foes didn't have the full capacity to destroy them.

            Allegro found himself in a duel he was hard pressed to win. The Enhanced had partially covered his eyes from the blinding Strobe Flash, and was thus able to see Allegro quite clearly. It was now that Allegro began to see the true potential of these 'Enhanced' humans, a product of Bristol's ingenuity and misguided intentions. The warrior shook his brown hair back and grinned, striking down Allegro's blow and bringing in a counterstrike with ease. Allegro swore underneath his breath, jumping up into the air and splaying out his beam staff with what he hoped was enough force to hold off another swing.

            It was just enough…The Enhanced snapped his own blade up, forcing Allegro off his guard and into a stumbling roll along the ground, ruining the MI9 agent's attack. Allegro felt a surge of fear and adrenaline pump through him, then rolled away from the downwards blow, feeling chips of ice graze his cheek from the blast.

            Allegro fell short however, his roll finishing out only to find the same Enhanced human standing above him. The reploid's eyes went wide as the brown haired male grinned wide and prepared for the finishing blow.

            He never got the chance. Before the MI9 agent could act, an overwhelming blast of suncolored plasmic energy smashed into his back, eating away at the energy shield and then at clothing and flesh. The human let out an agonizing scream, then fell dead from the shock and the force of his spine being atomized half away. Allegro's eyes flitted to the side, where a grimfaced Pharaoh Man landed beside him and helped him up.

            "You saved me…" Allegro stammered, picking up his weapon. Pharaoh Man's eyes dimmed out a bit.

            "Let's hope that a robot can be forgiven for these actions." Pharaoh Man shot back tersely. "In my previous life, I would be dead." The Robot Master looked around for a moment, then leapt up into the air with an effortless spring jump and hurled a series of smaller plasmic energy globes below, pelting the glacierscape with pockmarks as he attempted to keep their foes off guard.

            Wycost's eyes flashed angrily behind his visor as he stared at his own problem, a human with a medium grade plasma rifle staring him down. Slowly, he braced his knees and curled his left arm inwards. The human kept the gun in close, but only used one hand to aim it…not one to be easily overcome, by the way he held himself.

            The plasma rifle went off, unleashing a thin piercing stream of supercharged energy towards the Bronx Bomber. Wycost registered it coming with speed only a reploid could hold and leapt into the air, adding power from his dash thrusters to further the jump. Beneath him, years of ice gave way with an angry hiss as the high grade plasma sunk in. Wycost's goggles suddenly blared with warnings and flashing alarm lights, causing the Bronx Bomber to cringe for a moment. However, he soon realized the cause.

            The human wasn't using it as a repeater…rather, he kept the beam on full force, raking it up out of the ground and towards Wycost's position in the sky, utilizing the plasma gun as a massive cutting beam that singed a large path through the air.

            "Blast you, NO!!!" Wycost screamed, switching over from his Buster's plasma function to one of his special weapons. The crystal datanode emblazoned with the missile icon on the side of his Buster turned on, glowing a bright green as it indicated the selection. Wycost could see the biting red beam crawling closer and closer, he didn't have much time…

            The front end of his Buster shifted out a bit, expanding in diameter for a brief moment as the Bronx Bomber unleashed his Narwhal Striker round. Homed in on the brilliant source of the plasmaburst by heat signature, the explosive homing missile flipped out its maneuvering wings and turned inwards, its miniature rocket engine exploding to life with a brilliant whine.

            The Enhanced human's eyes widened for a moment at the missile's appearance, and for a brief moment there was a blaze of sudden intuitive thought in the MI9 agent's eyes.

            The beam turned away from Wycost, aiming now for the missile screaming towards him at uncomfortably close range. The human narrowed his eyes and targeted the round, blowing it out of the sky with a precision midair slash. But at the range it was located, the Narwhal Striker's explosion kept coming, crashing into the Enhanced human's EM shield and causing it to crackle and slightly fade, dissipating from the amount of power it had been forced to hold back. His finger released from the trigger, and the waving beam of power dipped out of life.

            The MI9 agent didn't get a chance to get his bead back on Wycost and pull the trigger again. The Bronx Bomber had realigned himself in midair and was shooting down at the human with the full force his overloaded Dash Thrusters could muster. And what was worse was, that as Wycost hurled himself downwards, smouldering eyes hidden behind his sunglare visor, his Buster glowed with the light of another datanode.

            The Enhanced human had no chance to avoid the sudden flash of light, the intensity straining upwards beyond normal limits. When the Strobe Flash hit, it had immediate effects. The human screamed in pain as his eyes burned and faded out to a brilliant white, then shut down entirely into inky darkness.

            The human, now blinded for the rest of his existence, pulled the trigger and aimed at what he hoped was Wycost's general direction. The spiraling plasma beam cut out and nicked Wycost's shoulder, but in the end proved to be ineffective, only causing the Bronx Bomber to grunt in angered pain and let his Buster shift back into a hand. Wycost pushed his full weight forward and slammed into the Enhanced human, one hand reaching up to the MI9 agent's own tight fisted grip on the gun and forcing the blast skyward and away from himself.

            The human struggled and screamed, striking out with his right foot to try and push Wycost away with a sharp blow to the stomach. Wycost shifted to the side easily to avoid the wrenching stomach shot and then glared, twisting the human's wrist that held the gun. The fragile bone structure underneath snapped easily, causing the human to scream out in further pain. Yet he still held to the gun tightly, gripping it between his now sluggish and unresponsive fingers by sheer will alone. With his only good hand, the human pushed Wycost backwards, trying to overpower the reploid.

            "Oh, no you don't…" Wycost growled, pushing back and forcing the human's now traumatized arm up over his head and backwards, snapping it off at the elbow.

            The human screamed again, and yet the plasma rifle still remained active, burning away. Only now on its new arc, the beam of burning power  slammed into the EM shield surrounding the massive satellite of shaped ice that formed the physical heart of Ice Beacon. The shield flared angrily, but did not give way, continuing to absorb the power of the plasma rifle with ease. Wycost ground his teeth together and finally kicked the human between the legs. Whatever reserves of strength the human had left vanished as he collapsed from the shock. Wycost stepped back and removed the plasma rifle's power pack, then crushed the rest of the assembly underneath one of his boots. The Enhanced human lay there on the ground, teetering in unconsciousness, but still painfully alive.

            Wycost took a moment to stare up above at the EM shield surrounding the thing they were trying to destroy, watching it revert back to its placid state as the attacking force ceased. He bit his lip and shook his head.

            "Let's hope they manage to take out the shield emitter." He muttered quietly. And that was one of the last things he said.

            He heard the magrifle round slice through his reploid armor and punch through his entire upper body after he felt it…

            The burning pain was instantaneous.

            The Mavericks and Maverick Hunters had been so deeply intertwined in their struggle that the appearance of a cavalry charge from the south caught them completely off guard. With engines screaming from overdrive mode and the Landchaser nose blasters extended and firing, the Maverick Hunters' second wave flew into the battle.

            The effect was immediate, scattering forces left and right on both sides of the fight.

            Grinning from ear to ear as he led the charge, Gavin drove through the masses, aiming for his ultimate goal of Sigma at the very heart of it all. In fact, the Maverick King looked surprised and out of sorts as he realized the new threat, one that he had been unable to predict. And if seeing the Hunters charging in on their Landchasers had a positive effect on the bedraggled Hunters already present, it made the Mavericks suddenly lose their fighting edge.

            Only four of the six Maverick Generals remained alive as the cavalry charge came rolling in, two locked in heated combat with the greatest Hunters alive, and the other two dealing with the majority of the Hunter forces. Dolph looked over in shock, then drew his hands in close about him. Responding in kind, his plasmic hands dropped in as well, providing a potent barrier that allowed Dolph to deal with the newer threats. Shell Butane popped free of his flaming roll and stopped beside Dolph, looming over the smaller Maverick and using his heavily armored back to protect the both of them. The Turtloid's eyes narrowed grimly as he unloaded another scorching wave of high grade flaming oil upon the Mavericks around him, even deterring some of the crazier Landchaser armed fools that drew too near.

            "Burst and Cume…" Shell said darkly.

            "Gone. I know." Dolph replied back quickly, eyes burning with fiery tears. "GONE!!" Reflexively, Dolph flung his protective arms out and batted aside one of the unwary Landchaser riders who wasn't concentrating on the battle as much as he should have been. He quickly drew his paws back in, deflecting a barrage of shots from the left as he did. "Damnit…We weren't ready after all, after all that training…we're still no match!!"

            "Sigma made this challenge." Shell agreed, suddenly picking up Dolph and holding him tight against his body. "Come on!!"

            The Turtloid Maverick pulled his legs and head into his shell, but kept his arms out and holding Dolph. In a quick burst of speed and momentum, the Maverick tore a straight path towards Zero and Dash.

            Dolph chittered thankfully, seeing the brilliance in his Maverick friend's plan. He swung his arms out…the only part of his body he could…and succeeded in creating a spinning set of plasmic blender hands, turning in coordination with Shell's burning fire wheel attack.

            Gavin found himself steering straight into that maelstrom of plasma hands and plasmic fire, whether he wanted to or not. His eyes widened in surprise for only a moment before his determination took over.

            "Shit, boss!! Get outta there!!" Came the worried scream of Jad over the comm.

            "Gav, be careful! These guys play worse than rough!" Kol added as an afterthought.

            "Shut up and lemme DO MY JOB!!" Gavin bellowed back, snapping his ring finger off of the comm transmission switch on the Landchaser's handegrips. Narrowly, he stared through the roaring flames and focused on the hands. There had to be a way, there had to…

            And there it is…

            The Maverick Hunter grinned and reached down to his waist, pulling off one of his plasma fragmentation grenades. Not nearly as potent as Zero's Rakuhouha, they did have the added benefit of a delayed explosion.

            "Gav, what the Hell…" Kol began tersely through the comm, though Gavin offered no response. The second in command of the 21st Unit merely tore off the firing pin with his bare teeth and focused his eyes once again.

            Cycle…cycle…3…2…NOW!!!

            With a loud scream and as much determination as a Hunter could give, Gavin took his shot and lobbed the plasma grenade. The lofted projectile swung and wobbled through the air, but finally arced downwards, slipping into an open hole of Shell Butane's armor…the one where his head had been. The device laughed at the roaring flames searing out of it and carried through with no heed of the powerful attack.

            Three points…but now for the rebound!!

            Gavin gritted his teeth and dug fingermarks into his Landchaser's grips. He had to do this just right, or he would still be scrap.

            When he was closer, he hit the full afterburners of his Landchaser once again, then arced the thing's nose up into a wheelie and flattened his body against the entire assembly.

            With what could only be called dumb luck, Gavin made a jump through Dolph Reach's rotating path of destruction, leaping over one spinning plasmic hand and narrowly avoiding getting his head chopped off by the other. Carried with immense speed by his technological mount, Gavin easily cleared the safe distance, then screeched to a sudden stop as he whipped the Landchaser about and aimed its nose cannon at the two Mavericks.

            It wasn't required.

            Dolph, what with his line of sight spinning horrendously out of focus by Shell's efforts, didn't know about the plasmic grenade that had been lobbed inside the protective shell of his friend. But he did glare angrily when one of the pesky Landchaser riding Maverick Hunters somehow managed to jump through his wheel of spinning death.

            But then he heard it, and felt it. The explosion of a plasma fragmentation grenade somewhere nearby. Nearby, but tempered somehow, as if dampened by…

            Dolph's heart stopped as he felt Shell Butane's arms grow limp and the spin begin to subside. Oh, shit no…NO!! NO!!!

            No groan came from inside the shell. There was only the incredible rush as Shell Butane's flames were cut off and replaced with a rush of glorious angry plasma, and then all the waves of searing energy faded. No scream, no yelp. No sudden cry of dismay.

            Just the explosion.

            Shell Butane rolled to a halt, falling off of his side and flat onto his stomach. Dolph scrambled out of the way, then erected his plasmic hands as a protective barrier around himself and the vulnerable headhole of his comrade's carapace.

            "Shell…SHELL!!" Dolph cried out, shaking the incredibly large and well protected shell with his foot. "Damnit, Shell…Get up and talk to me!!"

            Magrifle rounds and plasma bullets impacted against the makeshift shield…not a one made it through, though. Dolph stood there, between the firing of the Maverick Hunters and the limp form of his friend, anxiously trying to get a response.

            And then Dolph saw the purple reploid blood begin to leak out of the openings in Butane's covering. And a half-atomized arm flopped out, trembling for a moment before falling silent.

            He fought back the tears and the gasping breaths as long as he could…but then Dolph slumped to his knees and reared his head back.

            And then he screamed…a scream so loud it overpowered every blast, every explosion around him. Every person on the battlefield turned and realized his pain in that cry, and every Maverick Hunter trembled.

            Gavin could feel the hairs on the back of his neck suddenly turn erect.

            Dolph's cry faded away into the void, and then his head came back down. His eyes glowed full bore red…the madness had taken him.

            No mercy, no hint of the former Jetstream remained now. He had succumbed to the Virus wholly, given himself and his spirit up to the power and insanity that Sigma's disease brought.

            Gavin's eyes widened in shock as he watched the Maverick General slowly shift his gaze around the battlefield, seemingly hunting for a specific target.

            And then Dolph, now truly Dolph Reach, the servant of Sigma, laid eyes on Gavin and his Landchaser. The blurred red eyes narrowed, Dolph stood up.

            "Oh, damn." Gavin murmured, wishing in that brief moment he had a pen and paper to write his will. A part of him felt like he needed it.

            More shots impacted on Dolph's makeshift barrier. The Maverick paid no heed, stretching out for a moment and not once breaking sight with Gavin…his target.

            Well…there's no stopping this now. No stopping it at all.

            Gavin whipped his Landchaser around, allowing the shock of Dolph's transformation to fade away from his mind. He tightened his hands on the cycle's grips again and glared.

            "Well, let's go then, you sonofa…" Gavin muttered underneath his breath.

            X and Kazok fought with a ferocity that the Landchaser's approach didn't dampen in the least. Neither gave any ground, firing in all directions. Indeed, the Hunters and Mavericks that were closest had purposefully moved away from the fight, not wanting to be caught in the crossfire of flying plasma bullets. And that crossfire was indeed on a different level of intensity that few could understand.

            In his years of protecting the world, X's skill with the weapon that was a part of him since birth had only increased. And now, in the deepest part of his warrior's rage, a mist that hung over him and blocked out incongruous thoughts, that already immense skill doubled. Kazok dodged away from one blast, only to find three more coming towards him, seeking to block any escape route, any hope of avoiding certain doom.

            By the same token, what X had in ability to attack, Kazok contained within his power to dodge and swerve, acting more like a gyroscope in his low orbit, contorting and twisting his body in all directions. Backflipping while his body was curled in on itself, Kazok skated the storm, grinning as he felt the shots pass harmlessly by his body, one even sliding through the makeshift hole between his legs and torso.

            "You grow stronger with your rage, you know??" Kazok called out, shifting his arm up and firing off his supershot. The hot plasma hurled itself downwards, but X deftly moved to the side with a boost from his thrusters and released his own. "Stronger…but you realize that reliance makes you WEAK!!" By will and the power his gravicrystals gave him, Kazok encapsulated the supershot in a powerful magnetic field, stopping it cold in its tracks. X narrowed his eyes and braced himself, charging up once more.

            As if hurling a grenade, Kazok flung the traitorous plasma back to its source. X glared again and shifted away from it, taking care to avoid the blast as much as he could. The heat baking his back he really couldn't avoid…But the full force of it he did.

            X shook his head. This was taking too long…and if he kept it up at this pace, Kazok Gravor might indeed win. Not a fate that the Blue Bomber of 21XX was all that favorable over.

            Dad…please…I need some advice here!

            It came. Whether or not through his own drive, or from a source of another above, it came. X shut his eyes, almost feeling a comforting hand on his shoulder.

            X…You can do this. You know you can. But remember that Sigma is the target. Kazok is only an obstacle.

            X's blue armor swirled and morphed into a brilliant green, a familiar enough tint to those who had fought with or against him in two conflagrations past. Not that of the Double Tornado, but the Narwhal Cannon.

            X depressed the trigger on his Buster, allowing the charge to grow and grow. Kazok paid little heed to the sound, but did notice the color change.

            "Huh. Trying to play the part of a chameleon, X?" The Maverick shook his head. "It won't help you one damn bit."

            X crouched down a bit and fiddled with his mind some.

            Disengage Buster safeties. Prepare Level 4 charge shot.

            Warning. Equipment missing integral stabilizing components. Possibility of overload risk is 79%.

            DO IT.

            Confirmed. Level 4 charge shot enabled. Be advised, overcharging is not safe and may result in…

            X ignored the rest. "Come on, Kazok. Just stop the talking and FIGHT ME." The Maverick snarled, a gust of wind blowing back his nightshade tinted hair and revealing the fire within his gray eyes.

            X braced himself, holding down the trigger, continuing to hold it down. In the corner of his eye, a new meter popped up, the device that measured the charge present within his Buster. Normally, it would have one line about halfway…for the Level 2 shot. If it had been full, then he would have been able to fire a Level 3…Supershot.

            But now that gauge had transformed itself. A green line now sat a third of the way from the bottom of the bar…and a yellow line lay two-thirds of the way up. And at the very top of the Buster's power gauge capped a brilliant purple line.

            X grinned, despite the inherent dangers of using the overcharge function without the stabilizing processors his armor upgrades usually granted him. Somehow, having that extra level made him feel that much safer…and that much more capable.

            Kazok soared towards him, gravicrystals spinning furiously around him, threatening to slice off limbs of those foolish enough to stand in his way. X glared and continued to hold in his charge, letting it build. He only hoped it would appear in time.

            Level 2…almost…

            Kazok slammed into X swerving the Blue Bomber through the sky in a crazy loop before dive bombing and slamming X into the ground below with an earth shattering crash. His gravicrystals held their positions, but stopped rotating about him. Kazok drew in breath after breath, then squeezed X's throat tight with his left hand.

            Level 3…come on, baby…

            Kazok's hand clenched tightly around X's neck, stopping the precious blood supply and its energy nanites from reaching the integral parts of his brain. His right hand came up, still in Buster form, and pointed at X's head.

            "Game over, X. Looks like it'll be me who gets the pleasure of stopping Sigma."

            X felt his head growing faint from the lack of energy, but at that moment, the gauge filled completely and the whine of X's charging Buster reached its peak.

            The Blue Bomber of 21XX grinned weakly and let his head bounce left and right.

            "Not even close…"

            Before Kazok's stunned eyes, motes of energy sprang forth from X's Buster and coalesced around his body, drawing in matter and mass from the air and turning into something…Something that the Maverick found hard to place, as X suddenly became covered from head to toe in a bristling array of hard-tipped conal spines.

            X shut his eyes, knowing the usual effect of having his Narwhal Cannon's charged blast going off at such close range. But Kazok didn't stand a chance.

            Every last missile ignited and took off. Some skittered harmlessly through the air, finally exploding in thunderous fury. But the majority of the blasts impacted on Kazok, the points embedding themselves within the Maverick and his array of functioning gravicrystals, forcing the stunned adversary of Mega Man X backwards before the charges detonated.

            X was spared the majority of the blast, but enough of it still hit the knowing Hunter that his energy dropped to somewhere below a third and stayed there. And as for Kazok…

            X lost sight of Kazok within that mess of explosions, but knew what would happen. Blast after blast went off, some synched and some not, but all with devastating force. A part of him felt vindicated, thrilled, ecstatic even.

            Without his armors, the 'great Mega Man X' had defeated an opponent whose skill and craftiness ranked above most. Without his armors, X had remained alive and proven that ingenuity still counted for much in a battle.

            And yet…another part of him felt hollow. Kazok had shown emotional tendencies…few other Mavericks had ever displayed. Remorse. Penance. A desire to be cleansed. Only a few others came to mind…Overdrive Ostrich…Blizzard Buffalo…Sting Chameleon.

            And here it had happened again.

            Kazok didn't even have time enough to scream. But he had deserved it…pain, such unending pain…By the time the smoke had cleared, he was collapsed to the hard ground, and all but one of his gravicrystals had been shattered apart. That one, badly cracked and only moments away from explosion, hovered beside him with the grace of a drunken priest.

            Warning. Internal operations energy at 15%. Critical damage received. Armor beyond repair. Seek immediate repair. Ready auto-stasis??

            NEGATIVE.

            Danger of complete control chip memory dump exists. Take precautions.

            Numbly, Kazok looked up…or tried to. The setting sun blinded him for a moment, so purple…

            With sudden realization as he brought his hand up to his face, he realized that blood was seeping over his eyes and blurring his vision.

            Kazok was dying. And as he did, one thought came to mind.

            DASH…DASH!!!

            X walked over to Kazok and reselected his basic weapon, allowing his armor to shift back to its traditional blue. He took in a few breaths, then shook his head.

            "Sigma is mine to destroy. Not yours."

            "So it would seem…" Kazok replied weakly, letting his left eye shut lazily on itself. "In the end…you proved to be better than me. Or craftier, at least."

            X shook his head, biting his tongue. "Damnit…Answer me, Kazok. What do you have to gain by seeing Sigma DEAD?? You made no sense…"

            "Perfect sense…if one thinks for a moment that there can come a time when a Maverick ceases to be infected." Kazok chuckled back, spitting up a mouthful of blood on himself.

            X's eyes widened, suddenly seeing the truth.

            Oh God no…

            "You…you destroyed the Virus within you??"

            "Me and Dash did, yes." Kazok replied weakly. "To spite Sigma, and to find each other…we fought off his infection. I'm for all purposes…clean. But my soul is not."

            X said nothing, but merely stood beside Kazok and let his Buster hand limply at his side. Some of the other Hunters around suddenly noticed the end to the battle, and began to draw closer, preparing to end Kazok's existence. X whirled about and glared at them.

            "DON'T YOU DARE FIRE!!" He barked angrily. "This one's too far gone to save. Just let him die gracefully now."

            The other Hunters looked at one another in surprise and confusion, but eventually shrugged and turned away for other, more appealing targets. Like Sigma and the cloned Iris.

            "Sigma…used us all…URFAWP…" Kazok coughed, feeling more of his life drain away. X examined his wounds. Virtually all his armor was blown away, he was bleeding from what seemed like the entireity of his body…and his limbs looked too done in by the explosions to be used anymore. "I wanted to stop him…Wanted…NEEDED…Can't let Sigma…use anyone else…"

            "Enough." X muttered. He knelt down by Kazok and wiped some of the blood away from the ex-Maverick's eyes. "Stop. Please."

            "Stop what??" Kazok wheezed.

            "Trying to go beyond your ability."

            "I was good enough to mess you up for a bit." Kazok joked lightly. X smiled back.

            "Yeah…guess you were, scumbag."

            Kazok's smile faded into worry. "The things I did…the things he made me do…I can never forgive myself…" Kazok opened his eyes and looked at X. "Thank you."

            "For what?"

            "For stopping me. I'm too proud…to kill myself…" Kazok whispered. A tear rolled from the corner of his eye. "But you have one other to kill now. The one who did this to me."

            "Sigma." X murmured darkly.

            "You have to stop him now…for the both of us." Kazok emphasized, using up more of his precious life energy. "For all of us…that he has used…in his stupid wars…"

            "I will." X muttered back. "You can rest now, Kazok. I will stop Sigma. That is my promise."

            X nodded his head one last time at the ex-Maverick, then turned about, feeling his heart grow numb.

            Sigma…how many times am I going to have to kill…Because of YOU??

            SIGMA…BLAST YOU!!!

            His heart hardened, his fist tightened up. And he felt his rage returning.

            Off in the distance, he saw Sigma struggling with the waves of Hunters charging towards him.

            And he knew his target. In a blast of flames, the Blue Bomber took off towards the Maverick King…

            Carrying the dream of a Maverick who was no longer.

            Zero and Dash's fight still remained furious, but more so for the harrowed Maverick Feraloid, thanks to the sudden appearance of the Landchasers. They all blew by, too focused on the Mavericks closer to the center of this mess…namely, Sigma and Iris and Shell and Dolph. A few parting shots to Dash and they were gone.

            Zero and Dash continued to struggle, his plasma blade striking TitaniTefloAlloy claw time and time again. Neither gave up any ground, despite her wounds making it harder and harder to fight. To Dash, it was a fight with meaning, a battle to extinguish the flame of Zero, a warrior who had killed her ally in cold blood.

            Burst…never had a chance, you never gave him a chance to redeem himself…

            "YOU BASTARD!!" Dash growled, pushing his saber up and away from the both of them with her right claw, then brought in her left for a chest swipe. Zero's eyes went wide from the sudden attack, but he reacted as fast as he could. He dropped down below the slash, briefly releasing his saber to keep his arm attached and curling low. Her attack went overhead, cleanly missing him and striking open air.

            Zero took a moment to smirk, seeing the opportunity to end the struggle here and now. Clenching his right hand into a ball, he jammed it up straight into her abdomen with every part of his body pushing behind him. The blow caused her to choke on air and stumble backwards…no, even worse than that, the Crimson Hunter realized. The blow was so severe it took her clean off of her feet and sent her sprawling backwards through the air. His saber dangled on her claw for a moment, then shut off and fell away, easily being caught by the Crimson Hunter and reignited.

            Zero held his saber tightly and stared down at the Maverick Feraloid. A look of hatred ran between them both, reciprocated and enhanced by their violent natures.

            "End it." She hissed angrily. Zero harrumphed.

            "Thought you'd never ask." He lifted his saber up for the final strike.

            From the distance, but fast coming, Mega Man X ran from a badly injured and immovable Kazok Gravor. In the corner of his eye, though, he could make out Zero and his struggle…with that Maverick Feraloid, Dash Blade. It looked almost over.

            Something clicked in the back of his mind. Something that Kazok had muttered only seconds ago. His heart nearly stopped again.

            "Me and Dash did, yes…To spite Sigma, and to find each other…we fought off his infection."

            Oh, God…no, I don't believe it…

            THEY'RE IN LOVE, NO!!!

            X, although a Maverick Hunter, still held at his core a prime set of beliefs. And at the top of that list was that he didn't kill true Mavericks.

            They had fought off the Virus together…by some miracle, they too had been able to internally delete the menace. And they had done it together, with love.

            Zero was about to end her life…And he didn't understand, he didn't get it…

            X knew he couldn't let that happen. Screaming loud, he pushed his dash thrusters beyond their normal capacity and flung towards Zero and Dash. He had to stop this, he had to…

            Zero, don't do this!

            ZERO!!!

           

            The Crimson Hunter's beam saber was raised high, its angry green plasma roiling about within the magnetic field casing. His green eyes burned with an angry fire met in Dash's equally incensed optics. But in her was resignation, shame, bitterness…in him was pure hatred and a lust for the ultimate destruction.

            Thankfully, something stopped him then. A brilliant level 2 plasma blast, a 'green sizzler' came out of nowhere, jarring his saber to the side and causing him to scorch a path through the ground beside Dash instead of through her.

            The Feraloid blinked her eyes in surprise, wondering where the Crimson Hunter's finishing blow was supposed to come from, if not from his saber.

            And then Mega Man X skidded beside Zero, gripping the Crimson Hunter's arm.

            "Don't do this, Zero." X said quietly, but forcefully. Zero turned about, shock evident.

            "WHAT??" X's seagreen eyes blinked sadly.

            "Zero, don't kill her. You've made your point."

            "X, have you gone HAYWIRE?! She's a Maverick, if I don't kill her now she may escape to kill again!"

            "She ISN'T Maverick." X shouted back angrily. He shook his head and turned to look down at Dash. "Kazok told me. You and him…internally deleted it."

            "Oh…Christ…" Zero muttered, swiveling his head about and looking down at Dash with new eyes. "She's clean??"

            "100%." She said, sluggishly picking herself up. She looked at X, a sudden nameless fear in her heart. "Kazok…"

            X winced a bit. "He's back there…alive, but I don't know for how long…"

            Dash's eyes went icy in an instant. "You bastard…"

            X shook his head. "I didn't know either, all right?? But nobody else is going to attack him, I did that much for him. You two…you're in love, aren't you?"

            Dash shook her head. "If he dies…that won't matter much."

            X shook his head. "Get going. Our focus is Sigma. No matter how many people he usurps from their positions to throw at us, he is still the heart of all of this…"

            "You swing from one end to the other awful damn fast these days." Zero muttered, extinguishing his saber and putting it away. X looked up at him and shrugged.

            "You want to kill love, Zero?"

            Feeling the hammerblow at his core, Zero growled at Dash, jerking his thumb over his shoulder.

            "Get out of here, Maverick. Get out of here and find Kazok…before I change my mind and come after you." The venom in Zero's voice was forced, not real anymore. And the Feraloid knew it.

            Mixed emotions ran through the three, but finally Dash took off. No matter how much she wanted these two, wanted all the Hunters to suffer for killing her friends and for putting Kazok next to the grave, finding Kazok before he died…that was imperative.

            She vanished beyond X and Zero, aiming for somewhere in the back of the battle, leaving the Blue Bomber and the Crimson Hunter to look at one another.

            "What's happening to us, X?" Zero asked quietly. "Before Repliforce…that never would have fazed me."

            "Before Repliforce, you had less of a soul, and I had more." X replied. "I don't know what's happening to us. And I can't look for an answer now. All I do know at this moment, Zero, is that Sigma is right over there…and Sigma has to die."

            "For everything…for everyone…" Zero mumbled back, falling into agreement. His fist tightened up. "You and I are different, X, but somehow…"

            "You feel like we're becoming more like one another every day?" X mused, looking up into his partner's eyes with a smile. Zero nodded slowly. "I've felt it too."

            "So let's go then." Zero replied. "But remember…"

            "I won't hurt Iris." X reassured his friend. "God, I never could."

            "Sigma…" Zero growled, feeling fresh tears springing to his eyes. "He will die for this. Using our friends against us…"

            "He's always done that." X consoled him. "The only difference is now his underling is a copy of the woman you fell in love with."

            Zero said nothing to that.

            He just blasted on ahead, aiming for Sigma. Only Sigma.

            From this moment on, ALWAYS Sigma.

            Bastion and Bristol pushed in deeper through the underground corridors of Ice Beacon, paying little heed to the blaring warning sirens.

            Twelve minutes to signal transfer…

            There were few Enhanceds along the way, a discovery that the two took in stride. It looked as if the majority was above ground, defending the satellite itself from Wycost and the rest of the above ground strike force…

            Of course, Willow was back there somewhere, fighting off Jowers.

            Bastion brushed a crumbling piece of ice away from his face, running down the hall alongside his beloved. His face curled into a frown.

            "Why did Willow want to face that…Jowers person alone??"

            Not losing pace, Bristol tilted her head to the side and looked to Bastion, her source of strength ever since she was discovered barely alive in New Denver. She bit her lower lip, relying on memories that had only recently been awakened.

            "Willow and Jowers…at one time, Bastion, were more than mere allies. They were lovers." Bastion blinked in surprise, turning his attention ahead to deflect the blast from an activated plasma autoturret with one of his sabers.

            "No wonder…"

            "The relationship turned sour when MI9 shifted against us. Jowers, once so committed to her, in that animalistic, pure sexual manner…became her greatest foe." Bristol shook her head, feeling returning sadness draw to her. "There were times…when she and I were on the run…that her defiant, fiery personality would fade away and leave that shattered individual she keeps hidden from view."

            Bastion harrumphed. "Underneath it all…she still hurts?"

            "More than you know." Bristol said quietly.

            Eleven minutes until signal transfer…

            It was not a typical night. The skies were cloudless and pure, and there was a full moon out.

            Lost to the wilderness of South America, Willow and Bristol had somehow found the time to relax. A lot of that had to deal with the fact that MI9's chief lackeys, the Enhanced humans, were not out on the prowl tonight. It figured that even they needed time for sleep. And their location was not the easiest to find.

            An abandoned hut in an area of the jungle where growth had overtaken civilization was their hideout, and an effective one…so lost in the brush that nobody could have found it, even if they had tried.

            Bristol checked the side of her miniature rechargeable glowstick, watching its flickering halogen light with minor annoyance.

            "Damn…it's not holding as much of a charge anymore." Indeed, the luminescence it offered was nowhere near as strong as it had once been. "If I had some supplies, Willow…If only I had some supplies…"

            Bristol blinked a few times, then looked over to her comrade, who sat by the door with her beam whip lying sheathed in her left hand. "Willow?"

            The Irish Banshee remained silent…her head drooped to the floor, her eyes were downcast. Everything about how she lay there with her back against the wall and one knee drawn up to her spoke of a silent pain.

            Bristol walked over and knelt down in front of her friend, blue eyes shining in the dim light. "Willow…what's wrong?"

            Obviously, there was something else bothering Willow. The fiery Irish reploid was normally in gruff to dispassionate spirits…but now, now she demonstrated a side to her that Bristol had never seen. Pain. Sadness.

            It frightened Bristol.

            "Hey." Bristol said, reaching a hand out and shaking Willow's shoulder. The Irish Banshee felt like a rag doll, responding to Bristol's movements easily, but not caring all the same. "Willow…Willow!!" Bristol repeated, now with a trace of worry.

            Finally, Willow looked up at her friend, displaying eyes red with tears that streaked down her face.

            "I'm tired, Bristol."

            Oh, great…

            "Willow, I know you're tired. We both are, it's been a hard day. Why don't we fall into stasis for a while…"

            "NO!" Willow exclaimed, the point coming out nearly as a sob. Her lower lip began to quiver. "Blast it…you know what I mean, Bristol…"

            Bristol did.

            Yes. Tired of running…tired of having to scamper away from or fight people we used to call friends…Of being persecuted simply because of what we are, and not of our actions…Of being homeless for weeks, having nowhere to run…

            "We can't stop." Bristol emphasized, looking into Willow's eyes. "We can't."

            Willow's eyes grew mistier still. "Bristol…why are they doing this? Why?? Because we're reploids? What kind of a reason is that, how can you deem the utter destruction of a race simply because of their exterior differences?!"

            "Hush…" Bristol said quietly, drawing Willow's head to her chest and holding her friend tight. Slowly, Willow's wall collapsed, the female reploid began to cry, unleashing all the stored up emotions she had held in check since they had narrowly escaped MI9 HQ. "I'm here, Willow. I'm here…"

            "Jowers…" Willow sobbed, pulling her arms up and around Bristol. "Why…why is he doing this??"

            Bristol herself began to break down then.

            Jowers…

            You loved Willow…just why are you trying to kill her now?

            Blast it, why is MI9 trying to kill the reploids?!

            In the end, Bristol had no answer to that.

            She could only brush back Willow's hair with her free hand, and sing a quiet lullaby.

            And eventually, the drain of the day took its toll, and the two fell asleep…

            Still clinging to each other. For each other was all they could trust now.

            "We should be getting close." Bristol murmured.

            "How can you tell?" Bastion called back, jumping off the wall slightly to give Bristol more room through the narrow corridor. "These halls all look the same to me!!"

            "Instinct." Bristol said firmly, trusting the rising feeling within herself and pushing forward by its demands. "I've walked through their halls for years. They may look the same to you, but after a time, traveling through these mazes of MI9 becomes…well, instinct."

            "If only you had known before…If only I had known…" Bastion replied quietly. "If you had been MI9 all along, and you hadn't lost your memory…"

            Bristol skidded to a stop, whipping her head about and staring at Bastion incredulously. "What?"

            Bastion shifted in place, looking about and then letting his eyes settle on her.

            "If you had not been as you were…would you still love me?" His eyes fell a little. "Even now…"

            Bristol took two short steps up to Bastion and pressed a finger to his lips. Her eyes, calm and demure, held volumes in that cool gaze.

            Any lingering doubts Bastion held about her feelings towards him evaporated when she leaned up and wrapped her arms around his neck, giving him a kiss that would make a teenager blush. She kept it going for a few seconds, then pulled away, squeezing his hand hard.

            "Bastion, in all my days of wandering, you have been my strength. My source of comfort. I left to find my past, not to run from you. I left because if I hadn't, then I would never be truly happy, not even with you."

            "And now?" Bastion asked, smiling and pushing her hair back.

            "I know who I am." Bristol replied, her face firm. "And I know what has to be done. But most importantly…I know who I love." She touched his nose. "You. And don't ever forget that."

            She turned and kept running, and Bastion followed.

            The corridor thinned out, then opened into a massive squarish area with tables and an open corridor on the other side. Above it glowed four words; Shield Emitter Control Room.

            "It's this way!!" Bristol exclaimed, charging ahead with a burst of flames and passing through the length of the room and into the opposing corridor. Bastion was caught off guard by her sudden action, and lagged behind as she dashed on.

            But just as Bastion reached the center of the room, and Bristol was a fairer distance down the next corridor, the room's lights flashed brighter, and a blast door descended out of nowhere, slamming into the icy floor and shutting off the corridor Bristol had already flung herself into. Bastion's eyes widened, and he dashed over to the other side of the room, pounding on the barrier, then striking at it with his two sabers.

            No effect…the blades slashed, but were reflected away as if by a master swordsman.

            "God…TitaniTefloAlloy…" He muttered in shock. "Bristol!!"

            "Bastion!!" Came the worried voice from the other side, and a muffled pounding. "Bastion, answer me!!"

            Of course, the Desert Angel would get no such chance. Not while MI9 remained in control of its own domain.

            From underneath Bastion, the floor pulled away to reveal a gaping hole leading countless meters into a darkness below. Surprised and startled, Bastion scrambled to jump up and grab a handhold on the wall.

            It was at that moment the walls themselves shifted, growing less pliable, ungrippable…offering no chance at friction, and the ice was so thick his grappling claws that sprang from his arm gauntlets proved useless, bouncing off harmlessly as if he was shooting lasers at a mirror.

            Bastion struggled all the while, though, until he could no longer remain. And even as he plunged into the darkness, he screamed at the door, hoping beyond hope his angel could hear him.

            "Keep going, Bristol!! SHUT IT DOWN!!"

            On the other side of those doors, Bristol did hear Bastion scream that defiant statement. All the same, she still found her spirit crushed and her body unwilling to respond.

            Once again, fate had torn her apart from the man she loved. And she had no way of knowing if he was still alive, or if…

            NO!!

            A sudden defiant chord rang through her being, forcing her to stand erect and clench her fists. Bastion was right. She didn't have time to worry about him, about anyone else who had chosen to stay behind so that the others…namely her…could go forth and hopefully destroy the heart of Ice Beacon's machinations.

            Her dreams…just dreams…Isaiah had told her that. Whether she allowed them to overpower her, or ignored them and made a different reality that reploids could still live in, that was in her power. Not anyone elses'.

            She turned and charged on, running through the corridor with all the fury and strength she could muster. Time was running out. The world was counting on her. Her friends were counting on her…

            And Bastion was counting on her.

            The corridor turned and dropped lower still, nearly turning the floor into a slide. Bristol angled her torso and turned her legs about, slowing her momentum as much as she possibly could. And yet she could sense that her goal was just a little farther…already she could hear the familiar thrum of electromagnetic shield producing equipment just beyond.

            Just beyond, down the hall, and to that distant light…

            Bastion pushed off the slippery wall as best as he could, then activated his flight visor. The two bands of light red see-through display and protective plastic snapped together above his nose, whirring as the sensors came to life.

            A fair distance across…hmm, good.

            Sure he wouldn't bang himself up, Bastion summoned forth his Angel's Advantage flight armor once more, exhaling in relief a little as the versatile armor snapped out and slowed his descent, emanating a strong repulsive electromagnetic field to the Earth. He looked down, accessing his thermal scanner…

            Not much farther to the bottom, but then again, as he turned to look above…

            The roof snapped shut above him. Bastion narrowed his eyes.

            So much for that option. Looks like I'm stuck playing their game…for now.

            He decreased his wing's output and dropped the rest of the way down, pulling the wings back in and holding both lit sabers out in front of him.

            The room was dim to begin with…slowly, the lights began to power up and reveal more of his surroundings.

            Another room, with a blast door guarding the way out. And surrounding him, three MI9 elites, glaring at him from underneath their thermal ponchos.

            "Well, well…" Bastion mused, twirling one saber about in nervousness. "Looks like the initial strike force managed to spare a few stragglers." Once Bastion had noticed his company, the lights dimmed back down again, blanketing them all in darkness.

            The MI9 Enhanceds let their beam staffs spring to life with a dark black glow. Bastion snapped his two sabers together into his own distinctive beam staff and looked at them all, watching the one behind him from the corner of his eye.

            "Come on then…LET'S PARTY!!"

            Bristol came to a halt inside a massive room, larger than any of the ones before it. The reason became apparent very quickly.

            Sitting in the center of the room was a massive generator, whirling about at blazing speeds with little concern for anything in its way. The low thrum she had heard before now became nearly deafening, causing the room to vibrate in response. The lights were cool, causing the white ice to shimmer brilliant shades of blue instead. Her hot breath, now released as she saw her goal in front of her, formed into solid vapor and rose for a few precious moments.

            Isaiah…it's here, it's right here…my ability to finally change that nightmarish future I saw!!

            She pulled up her beam saber, staring at the dynamo for a few more moments, examining it and its surroundings. Aside from the generator that fed power to the greedy EM shield protecting the transmitter dish, the room remained relatively threadbare. A few monitoring computers here and there, but outside of that, the floor was calm. There was a second level above, which seemed to allow the diagnosis of the humongous power cables that extended to the ceiling of the towering cylindrical room and even farther…The generator itself seemed to emanate a radiant heat that the room and environment gladly absorbed.

            Probably put it here to keep things cool. God knows that EM field draws in way too much power for its own good.

            She held her saber in her right hand, then quickly walked over to one of the panels and began to access it.

            It blinked at her angrily, and she frowned. "Password protected…"

            Ten minutes until signal transfer…

            "God Damnitall…" She hissed, pounding in one of her old all-access MI9 codes that flew to mind. The monitor blinked green, then settled down and accessed the various menus. Bristol grinned triumphantly and reached for the onscreen 'powerdown' controls.

            And then she heard the whine…the unmistakable sound of a large plasma cannon, not an X-Buster, reaching maximum capacity.

            With speed honed by her escape from MI9 HQ with Willow alone, Bristol flung herself to the side, suddenly glad as the console splintered apart into melted atoms.

            "Not gonna be that easy, reploid." Came a ragged voice from above. Bristol rolled to her knees and stared up, holding her saber just below her line of sight in a defensive posture.

            A human, male and slightly older than most, dropped down from above, a high grade plasma cannon held over his left shoulder. His hair was beginning to thin and gray, but his eyes held that same icy glare Bristol had seen in MI9's forces time and time again.

            He hit the icy floor with minimum impact, standing up to his full height and leveling the gun at Bristol, clutching it against his waist with both hands. "Frankly, my dear, you're better off dead to us now."

            "You never could make up your mind about what I should have been." Bristol said, trying to ignore the shaking feeling in her heart. That gun he held in his hands was more than capable of destroying her with a single good hit. "Alive?? Dead?? You needed the UBF, but you didn't realize that until the witch hunt was half over with!!"

            "So we humans make mistakes." Kowalski shrugged. His eyes narrowed. "What we're doing here today will correct one of those errors."

            "Reploids were NOT an error, Commander." Bristol said angrily, looking at his rank insignia on his parka. "And every day, there are good souls who go out and prove you wrong with their actions."

            "And then there's freaks like Sigma and the Mavericks. Or Repliforce." Kowalski growled back. "Who either are tainted goods by the Maverick Virus, or who have chosen of their OWN VOLITION to do humanity in."

            "Damnit, we have people who are FIGHTING against that!!" Bristol shouted back, standing a little taller. "The Maverick Hunters…"

            "Little more than a bandage on a severed arm." Kowalski growled. "But enough. Today, here and now, your legacy ends. And it's only fitting that the first reploid to die today should be the one that allowed this to happen."

            Kowalski took one look around the room, then tossed his plasma cannon aside. "Not enough space in here…knowing you, Bristol, you'd find some way to make me shoot the shield emitter dynamo. So we'll take this to your primitive level."

            As the heavy cannon clattered to the icy floor, the man known as Kowalski drew out another plasma class weapon. Bristol's eyes narrowed, she'd seen its make before. Basic beam staff. Black bladed, no doubt.

            But instead, two massive tridents sprung from the traditional cylinder, glowing a malignant purple in the blue light of the room. Bristol was taken aback by the strange weapon, almost losing grip on her own. Thankfully, she willed herself not to lose it.

            Kowalski glared at her. No mercy, no respect. Just hatred and malevolence to a power that only MI9 could offer.

            "Just try it." Bristol called back, managing to keep her voice from trembling.

            And he did.

            The majority of the Maverick Hunters had turned their ferocious attentions towards the center of the fight, where Sigma and Iris somehow stood their ground. It was growing harder to, though…while they could avoid most of the Buster shots aimed their way and blow away the magweapon armed foes, the one thing that Sigma hadn't accounted for in his strategy was the presence of a SECOND group of Hunters on Landchasers, charging up from the south and blowing away any hope of the Mavericks winning the day.

            The Maverick King's face looked more sour than usual because of that fact. He turned around and launched another wave of missiles, succeeding only in annoying most of the Landchaser Hunters, who jumped the cycles out of the way with ease and turned about to launch a furious assault of nose cannon blasts.

            Iris cursed angrily, flipping her magrifle over her shoulder for a brief moment and pulling out her pink bladed beam saber, switching it to life to deflect some of the more accurate blasts. With her other arm she brought the magrifle up to bear and buried a round into the engine of the nearest offending machine, taking both rider and craft to oblivion in a fiery explosion.

            "Sigma, there's too many of them!!" She called out over to him, her voice ringing above the sound of plasma noise and explosives.

            "Heh…there always have been, Iris. The trick is you have to be BETTER THAN THEM!!" Sigma shouted back, suddenly boosting next to a hotshot Landchaser rider and yanking him from his seat.

            Jad gasped for air as he felt Sigma's massive hands begin to clench down around his jugular. The Maverick Hunter from the 21st Unit kicked and struggled, all to no avail. Sigma kept the fool at arm's distance and held in such a way that no hand to hand techniques would work. Angrily, Jad brought up his arm and shifted it into a Buster, planning to blow away Sigma's ugly face on the spot.

            Equally perturbed, Sigma brought about his other hand and ignited the plasma gauntlet, slamming the single knifelike blade through the Hunter's arm and removing the danger with a satisfying gush of blood.

            The Buster and arm collapsed to the ground, draining a small amount of blood before falling dormant. Jad took one stunned look at his stump of an arm…and then screamed.

            Kol heard it, of course. He should have. Everyone around the battlefield heard that gut wrenching anguished yelp. But few people aside from Kol could instantly identify it. The Maverick Hunter's eyes went wide, then dark with fury. He turned his Landchaser about and trained his nose cannon onto Sigma, who was facing away from him.

            "Damn you, you Maverick sonofa…" He pulled the trigger, then pulled it again…twelve shots in all rang out from that cannon before the Maverick Hunter felt the trigger freeze up, warning him of overheating.

            Sigma wasn't able to see the shots coming. But Iris could…how she was situated gave her a clear view as Kol's Landchaser flipped about and began its furious attack.

            "SIGMA! BEHIND YOU!!" She called out in horror. To her surprise, the man she loved didn't respond, but pulled his hand back to destroy the one Hunter he held in his hand.

            A thousand thoughts raced through Iris's mind, but one was clear above all…

            Sigma didn't know the attack was coming, and it might very well do him in.

            She had to act fast. Heart beating a thousand paces a minute, she dashed over to ten feet in front of his back and whirled around, dropping the magrifle to the ground and holding her pink beam saber in both hands now.

            X and Zero weren't that far from the thick of things to begin with, and by the time that Kol had fired his shots, they were within perfect view of everything that was transpiring.

            As Iris threw herself in front of the horrendous Landchaser plasma barrage, Zero felt his own heart stop.

            "Oh God no…IRIS, NOO!!!"

            Iris wasn't skilled enough with her blade to deflect them all. How they were spaced, how they came…she managed to block the first three, but the rest impacted. The first knocked her saber out of her hand with a blistering collision, and the rest felt better suited to sink into her body, filling her with pain and a sudden, overwhelming strain on her systems. One by one, the parts of her body gave out, damaged too badly by the attack or shut down to conserve power in a desperate, but futile attempt to keep her alive.

            Only as she gasped out one final time did Sigma pause from what he was doing and turn around to look.

            What he saw caused him to throw Jad away like a rag roll some fifteen feet distant and summon a power from deep within himself.

            Through the power of the Maverick Virus, Sigma enveloped both himself and Iris within an incredibly strong EM field. To all outside appearances, it was as if a massive black sphere had suddenly engulfed the two Mavericks.

            Zero charged in ahead of X, charging at the shield with full force, but being blown away by the crackling energies. Stunned, but angry and bellowing, the Crimson Hunter dashed back over and began to strike at the shield with his beam saber, netting little better results.

            "Zero!!" X called out worriedly, trying to approach his friend. But nothing got through to Zero. He was lost within himself, trying furiously to reach out and save Iris.

            Kol pulled beside Jad's slowly writhing form and killed the engine, hopping down and propping his friend's head up on his lap.

            "Jad, it's me. Kol." He said quickly. "Speak to me, man…"

            "My arm…" Jad wheezed, still staring at his stump. "He…took my arm…"

            Inwardly, Kol sighed in relief as he punched Jad in the shoulder. The Maverick Hunter had had his pride and a limb ripped apart…but he would live.

            Too bad Kol couldn't say the same for so many others who had still been alive at the start of all this.

            Iris lay on the ground, gasping for air. Her brown hair's hairband had come undone, and the silken strands lay beneath her as a pillow. Her eyes squeezed out tears, feeling the convulsions ravage her from the indescribable pain. Her stomach burned, her chest ached, screaming from the burns and destroyed pieces of her body.

            "Sigma…" She gasped, curling both arms around her body, unconsciously curling up on herself. "Help…me…"

            The Maverick King looked at her for a few moments, staring over her wounds.

            The fool…that blast would have barely scratched me. Now look at her.

            Heh…funny you should say that.

            Sigma's eyes darkened as the Virus made its reappearance at last. Didn't I tell you to get the Hell out?

            You know, love is a rather interesting force. The Virus mused, ignoring Sigma's comeback. Look at all the wonderful things people do for it, in the name of it…they kill, they go to war, they 'protect'. Pah. Iris here had love. And she relied on it.

            Why did she do that?? Sigma asked, shaking his head. She's dying…because she wanted to protect ME.

            Love is a dangerous force, my servant. The Virus replied coldly. One that your kind should learn to do without…it's too volatile, too unpredictable…and in the long run, too useless, fickle, and short to be of any true value.

            But…

            SIGMA. The Virus barked angrily. Time and time again, your tenacity and dogged following of the cause has made me pleased. Don't throw all that away on whimsy. Do NOT for a moment think that you can honestly return those feelings. Why should you begin now?? You know as well as I do that at most, you held nothing but a lust for her. A desire to HAVE HER. And you have. No more. She is useless to you now.

            Sigma slowly began to feel, for him, what was normal. The Virus reasserted itself, pushing back his doubts and filling him with that same tone of superiority. The Virus was right…it was always right…

            Iris looked up at Sigma with pain clouded eyes, asking again. "Help me…"

            Finally, the Maverick King blinked out of his trance, looking down at her again. His mouth, emotionless, slowly altered itself. He knelt down beside her and brushed her hair back, shaking his head.

            "You had to do that…"

            "I can't let them hurt you…I love you…"

            "Then you were a FOOL." Sigma said coldly. He stood up, pushing his full height to bear witness upon her worthless state. "Your love was never mutual. From the beginning, Iris, I have sought only to use you."

            Stricken, the female reploid's shaking began to cease, her motor controls giving out just as he shattered her frame of reality. "What…??"

            "Iris, two years ago, Zero and I did fight. But while he did kill you, he did not intend to, and he has lived every day of his life since then in misery, trying to seek a penance he cannot give. He did love you, Iris. More than life." Sigma smiled, that sick smile of victory and supremacy over his foes. This was what he loved…the ability to do just as much damage with but a few words as his entire army could. "Your resurrection by my hands was a quirk, an experiment…a test to see how the dear Crimson Hunter would react if faced with his dead love…only now, instead of being an innocent, being one of his deadliest enemies." Sigma nodded his head, baring a row of perfect teeth. "I'm happy to report that the experiment was a success."

            Iris shut her eyes, crying now, feeling her heart break within her. Between sobs, she managed to push out one last sentence. "Why…Why in God's name would you do this??"

            "Because I can." Sigma answered simply. He looked around for a moment, then shrugged. "Iris, you will die the same way you came into this world. Alone, and in a lie. It has been…interesting, having you by my side. But I'm afraid that the weak have no place in my regime. And so now I leave you here to rot." Sigma turned about and began to walk away. "And the rest of them as well…useless. A little surprise and they all lose their cool and begin to die. This recent conflagration has proven to be an interesting experiment. But I think it's time to discard you all. My worthless, failed guinea pigs."

            "And what about your promise?!" Iris rasped in tears. "That when this was done, we would still be together?!"

            "Iris, you truly are a naïve little bitch." Sigma chuckled darkly. "All lies. My lies. The best kind…the kind that fools like you believe in."

            Sigma stopped walking and seemed to concentrate for a moment, then he vanished in a beam of warp light for the base he called home.

            Iris lay there, continuing to die, continuing to fade. But she no longer cared now, as her tears ran down her face and were sucked into the dry ground.

            She had nothing left to live for.

            The Landchaser's engine was fast running low on its fuel supply, thanks to the complex maneuvers that Gavin was forcing it through. Of course, if he hadn't been, then the Maverick known as Dolph Reach would have easily destroyed him. As it was, he was barely avoiding death anyways.

            The Maverick Dolphin moved with a fluidity in his movements and attacks that he hadn't demonstrated ever before. Bitterly, Gavin recalled what X and Zero had told the elites time in and out…the most dangerous Maverick is a Maverick in rage. And here was no exception.

            But it had to end soon. Gavin swerved his Landchaser out away from Dolph, then turned it around and faced the nose directly at his foe.

            The Maverick General stood there, hovering his plasma hands slightly in front of him, as if waiting to catch a fastball. The two stared at each other with equal rage and fury, and then Gavin tsked.

            "Live fast, die young, and leave an identifiable corpse." The Hunter muttered, altering a famous quote. He gunned the engines one last time and charged towards the final standing Maverick General.

            Dolph Reach threw out his hands, two massive punches of blistering plasma energy that he converted into pure burning force. Deftly, Gavin jumped the first, but knew the second one was coming just beyond it. He pointed the nose downwards and gunned the engines, already seeing the second punch coming in for the kill as he did. Instead of overwhelming him, it merely grazed past his shoulder and back, throwing him into a brief moment of excruciating pain before he pulled loose.

            Made it past…

            He landed the cycle and hit the engines again, suddenly noticing the beeping warning lights on the Landchaser's HUD…Low fuel.

            "Fuckit." Gavin growled, pushing the engine even harder.

            Dolph Reach chittered angrily and brought his hands back, one on either side of Gavin and his damnable cycle. The Hunter picked up on the motion all too readily…the Maverick planned to squash him between those plasmic palms with the force of a gorilla, ending this fight here and now.

            "WE END THIS NOW!!" Gavin called out to his opponent, leaping his Landchaser up into the air. The Maverick's eyes flared a powerful red for a moment, then he slammed his hands together.

            Synchronously, the Maverick's plasmic hands also slammed together, crumpling in on the Landchaser and tearing it apart before what was left of its fuel exploded, only the noise escaping the killing power of the attack.

            But then the Maverick's eye caught a glint of light above him…a glint that came too late. Before Dolph Reach could do more than stare and begin to open his mouth in awe, a descending Gavin had pulled out his beam saber, ignited its brilliant length, and was on him with a mighty swing.

            The Maverick had no chance to respond. In one quick motion, the Maverick Hunter had dived down and struck, the barest of 'bzzzaps' from the saber as it hit metal and burned its way through.

            Gavin landed on the ground before the head of Dolph Reach did. His saber was shut off and put away before the rest of the Maverick's body slumped forth and collapsed onto the ground, slowly beginning to shut itself down with no head to control it.

            Only then, after his foe had been eliminated did Gavin let the incredible pain take him. He finally groaned out, staring down for a moment and feeling shock overwhelm him as he stared at his mangled, bleeding and crushed leg, the only part of his body that had not cleanly survived Dolph's attack. Having little choice in the matter, he slumped forth onto his belly, hands splayed against the ground. A few of the other Hunters on foot in the area walked towards him, crying out his name in worry.

            Weakly, Gavin smiled, feeling his eyes begin to shut on him as his body began to slip into auto-stasis.

            "At least…I got him first."

            The rest of the concerned cries about him sounded like a foghorn through the ocean waves.

            Zero and X and all the others surrounding that protective barrier watched in dismay as the warp beam escaped free of the shield and soared into the sky. A few moments later, the barrier itself fell, no longer able to stay alive without the power of its master. And then a sudden silence fell…a silence, because everyone who was close felt a need to be. Sigma was gone, but he had left another.

            Some of the elites knew to some small degree of the relationship that Zero had once held with the beautiful Iris of Repliforce two years before. Now, as those same elites looked on in slight pity, but mostly wariness, they saw the same level of grief that had befallen Zero begin to reappear.

            X clutched one hand to his heart, shaking his head. "Zero…"

            Trembling, Zero walked inside where the shield had been, walking towards Iris. And he didn't care…he didn't care if this was just a copy of her, or if it was Maverick. That didn't matter. It's still Iris…

            "What are you doing?!" One of the unknowing Hunters cried out in shock. "Stay away from her!!" In a flash, X had dashed over to the elite and slapped him across the face as hard as he could. The Hunter reeled back, a hand reaching up to protect his face. X's seagreen eyes stared him down with a ferocity not seen in a long time.

            "Just shut up. SHUT UP. How could you possibly understand what's going on here?!"

            Trembling, Zero knelt beside Iris, trying hard not to let his eyes well up and blur from his tears.

            The female reploid looked up at him…her body scarred and torn apart, but her face, her angelic face still perfect as she faded from him. Her brown hair underneath her, she blinked a few times, tears visibly blurring everything she saw even with her efforts.

            "Who…who's there??" She asked quietly, somberly. Zero reached a finger over and brushed the tears out of her eyes for her.

            "It's me, Iris." Zero said, unable to hide the heartbreak in his voice. "Zero."

            "Zero…" Iris whispered for a long moment. Her eyes focused on him, and then began to well up in tears again. "Sigma…never loved me, but he rebuilt me anyway…to do what?? Use me?" She sobbed. "And…he's done this before, hasn't he??"

            "Too many times to count." Zero answered back, reaching down and putting his hand on top of hers over her heart. "God…Iris, you've got to hang on just a little longer, we can get you back and…"

            "NO." Iris spat out suddenly, using up more energy than she would have liked. The fire in her eyes vanished again, filled with sorrow. "Zero…I don't deserve to come back. All of this life was a lie…All of it! There's nothing of me worth saving, worth recording."

            "Iris, don't say…"

            "I'm not the Iris you knew, damnit!" Iris sobbed. Her chest began to quiver from the tears, and her eyes blurred up more. "The Iris you knew was a part of Repliforce. The Iris you knew wasn't Maverick, didn't try to kill you in cold blood for…for…"

            "But you ARE the same Iris." Zero choked out, shaking his head. "Everything before was just memories. But they don't determine your core, Iris…the thing that makes you you." He knelt down and brushed a loose strand of hair away from her face. "Iris…I fell in love with your smile and the way you went through life, not because of what group you belonged to or what you did. There is as much of the Iris from two years ago as there is in you. Just as much. And if you can't see that, then…"

            "Hush." Iris chided him, a small sad smile creeping to her face. "You tell me things I don't deserve to hear. I don't deserve…your love." She grew quieter then, a little colder to his touch. Zero's nostrils flared in horror…

            No, it's happening again…God, not again, PLEASE DON'T LEAVE ME AGAIN!!!

            "Zero…" Iris said again after a pause. Zero bent down closer to her, and Iris whispered into his ear. "Just once…just once, kiss me."

            And he did, his tears melding with hers in a bittersweet mixture that they shared, each tasting the other's scent and flavor. His arms wrapped tightly around her, pulling her close. When they finally broke that one magical kiss, Iris looked into Zero's brilliant green eyes and smiled, a sad smile of resignation. Her gentle hand came up, on wings from her mangled arm, and brushed the side of his face, teasing the corner of his mouth.

            "Iris…" Zero choked out, unable to contain himself any longer. "Iris, don't die on me…I don't want to lose you again!!"

            The gentle brown haired siren shut her eyes, shedding the last of her tears. Her hand dropped down to her side, clutching ahold of her pink bladed beam saber and holding it up between them. Zero's hand wrapped around hers and the saber, cradling her even in her last moments.

            "Zero…you have to keep going." Iris finally said. "You can't worry about me, or the first Iris…"

            "You're the same…"

            "No…" Iris whispered, frail in his hands now. "No, we're not."

            There was silence for a moment, and then Iris slumped forth against Zero's shoulder, her mouth right by his ear.

            "Zero…" She began, softly, so softly the wind nearly blocked it out.

            "In another life…I could have loved you."

            And then Iris was dead. Again. A second time, in the hands of the man who claimed ultimate loyalty to her and her heart.

            Zero shut his eyes tightly, tears squeezing free and hitting the dusty ground below. He picked her up in his arms, his mind a jumbled sea of thoughts, emotions, pain and rage and frustration. Up above, the sun finally began to fall, bringing end to the day.

            And Zero screamed…a scream of pain and loss so deep that all around were heartbroken to hear it.

            Kazok could feel his vision beginning to go fast. His last gravicrystal lay useless on the ground beside him, no longer responding to his commands and fast approaching a point of critical overload. With sight no longer of aid to him, Kazok lay on the ground with only his hearing to alert him to coming presences.

            URFAWP…Such a wonderful idea, such a great group of people…

            Only to be usurped…twisted and warped to Sigma's malevolent schemes.

            Is that the fate of everybody who's like us…who wants to do some good in this world?? To be corrupted to evil?

            Jetstream…Pyre…The others…

            FELICITY…

            Hot tears ran down his face.

            "Felicity…" He cried out silently. "God, they've killed you too…"

            A loud footstep, loud on purpose crashed beside him. Kazok gasped and nearly cried for a familiar pawish hand stroking his face.

            "I'm not dead yet, Kaze." Dash Blade answered back softly. "You made a promise to protect us all, remember??"

            "A promise I failed…" Kazok croaked, his hand coming up and gently stroking hers.

            "And you think that's a reason to prepare yourself to die?!" Dash snapped, her hand tightening on his face. "Damnit, you stupid bastard…"

            "I lost." Kazok replied simply. "X…beat me…the better person to kill…Sigma…"

            He was nodding off. Nodding off fast. Dash could see it in his pain glazed eyes and the horrific amount of wounds over his body. She gripped his arms tightly.

            "Kazok. I want you to do something for me, and do it now." Kazok mutely looked up at her through his failing eyes. "Go into auto-stasis. Preserve yourself while you have a chance!"

            "Wouldn't…change anything…" Kazok mumbled, trying to shake his head. "Still…still failed mission…couldn't save…anyone…"

            "DO IT!!" Dash Blade screamed at him.

            Kazok seemed to tremble for a moment, and then his eyes went blank, his body falling limp. Dash held him close and supported him against her, in a tight embrace of angered protection.

            Numbly, she stared towards where Sigma had been at the start of this fight, where now the surviving Maverick Hunters were massing. Her head bobbed down beside her and Kazok, where his last gravicrystal lay flickering. Her ears flattened for a moment, and then she sighed, looking up to the sky.

            "No matter what happens, love…I'll walk with you."

            A few moments later, those Maverick Hunters who still cared watched with minor fascination as the gravicrystal exploded, radiating energies in a brilliant sphere before being sucked back into an invisible event horizon and vanishing forever.

            Signas was slowly, ever so slowly, beginning to understand why everyone around him in this place called Maverick Hunter Headquarters emphasized having emotions. He waited tensely in his chair, anticipation getting the better of him and causing him to cringe. An emotion…

            Irritation??

            He shook his head. Yes, if he was capable of emotion, that was the one he was feeling right now. Nervousness, irritation…a slight bit of doubt that nagged at the back of his mind even now. That all this, this plan he'd constructed to pincer the Mavericks into the Hokkaido snare might fail.

            All of it hinged on one familiar pattern Signas had been tracing through past Uprisings…

            When things got rough on the front lines, Sigma retreated to his home base.

            Signas hoped as much here.

            Suddenly, one of the techs in his sight of vision whooped with glee. "We got him!!" He exclaimed happily. "I've got a positive warp-lock on an outgoing signal source…not identified in Maverick Hunter Database!"

            "FOLLOW IT!" Signas snapped, taken aback a moment later by the force of his statement and the implication. He then decided he no longer cared if his voice fell into emotional tremor…it felt right to do so. Silently, he smiled. These Hunters…They have many things they can teach me.

            The Tech's fingers soared over his console's keypads, almost a blur as the skilled tech pounded in the tracking algorithims and brought up the triangulation program.

            Slowly, the large console watching over everything shimmered to new life, bringing up a map of the world. And before the eyes of the eager Hunters in the War Room, a signal trace began.

Its course was projected, ETA calculated…and when was all said and done, a line went from Hokkaido Island to a rather large piece of land floating to the Northeast of the AmeriCanadian Alliance…

            "Destination confirmed, Signas." The Tech said with a grin. "He's headed for Greenland."

            Signas shook his head. "Sigma is indeed a cold, calculating mind…we would have never thought to look there. And if X's report from Sigma's Sixth is correct, this little outpost of his is only one of countless others built by the enslaved URFAWP workers."

            He turned to the communications officer. "Copy those warp coordinates and send them to X and Zero in the field. Let's bring this little adventure of ours to a close, eh?"

            Zero's scream finally came to a close, softer than it started but no less painful, his eyes blurred with tears and his mind a shattered mess…

            Iris…

            IRIS…

            IRIS!!!

            He held her body to him, tattered as it was within the black full length bodysuit that Sigma had given her to wear. He tightly shut his eyes, the water his systems had made freeing itself from his cheeks and onto her placid, cold features. Inside himself, Zero felt a pain he had felt once before…a pain that had returned at a level of power he did not think possible. And yet it was.

            She was dead…dead…

            Zero choked out another sob, collapsing to his knees as he still held her to him, pushing his face into her soft cheek and nuzzling it, disrupting even more of that lustrous brown hair she possessed.

            In another life…I could have loved you.

            "Iris…" Zero cried, squeezing tighter still. God…he did this to you, why did he do this to you…

            You aren't a Maverick, you're not…you weren't infected with the Virus, you were just as pure now as you were then…I begged in my dreams for your forgiveness after the Final Weapon, for what I did to you and to Colonel…

            I loved you, Iris…more than you know, more than I ever could tell you, more than I could ever show…

            And he took you away from me…

            He…

            Sigma…

            X's comm chirped, as did Zero's. But X was capable of paying attention to his, unlike his best friend, who lay as a crumpled heap of himself, ensnared around the cold body of his resurrected lover.

            "X here." The Blue Bomber of 21XX responded, lifting his wrist up to his mouth.

            "X, this is MHHQ. Request status report."

            Mournfully, X looked around the battlefield, his sad seagreen eyes threatening to grow wet as well.

            "All Maverick Generals…are dead. So is the resurrected Iris."

            "Signas here." The comm replied with a squelch. "X, we picked up an outgoing warp signal back here…the Hokkaido Snare worked. We track its bearing towards the middle of nowhere in Greenland. We suspect this is Sigma…confirm, please."

            X's eyes darkened. "Sigma…" He bit his lip. "Yeah, that'd be him."

            Zero's heart stopped in midbeat at that moment. His tears stopped flowing, and his limbs gained a sudden stiffness to them.

            Sigma…

            Calmly, he put Iris's body to the ground, the pain still there, but somehow stopping its throb for a moment. That name…and the image it produced suddenly seemed to take over everything.

            And then it came. In a sudden rush, his pain was transformed into something darker, something more malignant and overwhelming…

            It surged through him, through every last one of his limbs. His fatigue vanished, and his face stretched tight over his features. Hands trembling, not from sadness but from the sheer strength in them, Zero stood back up and turned around.

            And then he opened his eyes.

            "We believe this to be one of Sigma's 'outposts' that he rambled on about during his final moments of the Sigma's Sixth conflict about a month ago." Signas continued. "It should be relatively small in space, so I think that the rest of the Hunters should pull back from this one. Only you and Zero are going in on this."

            X blinked a few times, then looked over to stare at an approaching Zero. The Blue Bomber didn't pay much attention to him…sure, he was moving at a slower pace and all, but there was a cause for that. Iris had just died. Of course he'd be crushed.

            "I'll relay that." X replied. He swiveled about and faced all the Hunters who stared at him. "Hunters, fall back to MHHQ. Prepare for debriefing…and then you all can have three days of R&R…on my authorization."

            The Hunters, weary and worn nodded their heads and vanished in countless beams of warp light. X sighed…now it was just him, Zero, and Iris's corpse.

            "Sigma." Zero said icily. "Where did he go?"

            A startled X swiveled about, taking a moment to register the somber, yet focused tone. "Oh, it's you Zero…" He shook his head. "Sigma's apparently made tracks towards one of the URFAWP built bases in Greenland."

            Zero stared back at him, his eyes not dancing in the least, but shining a pure radiating hatred. "The exact location?"

            X told him. The Crimson Hunter blinked a few times, then nodded.

            "Take Iris…go back to base."

            X blinked a few times in surprise. "What?"

            "Sigma is mine." Zero growled. "Take Iris…this time, she'll have a proper burial." The Crimson Hunter winced, almost as if he was struggling with himself to utter those few words.

            "Zero, Sigma is still at close to full strength. If we're to stand any chance of beating him, we have to do it together!"

            Zero's eyes flashed with a hidden light. Unknowingly, he clenched both fists up, still gripping Iris's saber in one. "No…X, this time he's mine."

            X sighed, beginning to become frustrated with his friend's one-track attitude. "Damnit Zero, No. I'm coming with you."

            That broke the last of Zero's patience.

            X didn't see the massive sucker punch that Zero sunk into his gut, but he did feel the excruciating pain of the experience and feel his eyes burst in dazzling lights. He coughed, gasping for air and power after such an intense blow, beginning to slump to his knees.

            Zero grabbed X by the neck and held him aloft, dangling the Hunter up in the air easily and forcing the Blue Bomber of 21XX to stare into his eyes. And when X could finally see again, what he did see caused him to stop every last bit of struggling…because Zero frightened him that much.

            His green eyes were dull now, bleeding a darkness from within that his optics betrayed. Zero's mouth curled up into a snarl, not much different from that of a snarling savage beast. And he repeated himself.

            "SIGMA…IS…MINE."

            X gulped and nodded, frightened not for himself but for what he saw in his friend. Taking X's nod as confirmation, Zero flung X behind him, causing the Blue Bomber to land by the body of Iris.

            Zero lowered his head, not bothering to look behind him as X picked himself up and tried to stop coughing long enough to speak.

            The Crimson Hunter's fists tightened a bit more.

            "Don't follow me."

            And then Zero vanished, a bolt of red headed towards the heavens.

            X shut his eyes and tried to calm his racing heart. And then he finally picked himself up and looked down at Iris for a moment…finally, he picked her up and cradled her gently in his arms.

            Iris…what is happening to Zero??

            "X to base. Zero…Zero's gone off to fight Sigma himself."

            DAMNIT, that hurts…

            Wycost let out a painful cry and clutched at his chest with a free hand, knowing full well that his feeble action would mean little to nothing against a magrifle round that accurate. It had punched straight through him like a round through a tin can…then again, the Bronx Bomber realized, that was what it was designed to do.

            It didn't make him feel any less angry, though. Sluggishly, he turned about, readying his warp generator as he did. Through pain glazed eyes, he saw the Enhanced who had nailed him. The fool was reloading.

            "Oh no you don't…" Wycost growled. He lifted up his Buster and pointed it at the man. The human chuckled, his eyes crazy from something aside from confidence, then pulled the trigger.

            Wycost's warp signal easily blinked him out of reality for that mere fraction of time…that mere fraction was enough. The bullet flew on harmlessly through a cloud of loose matter and dense energy, emerging on the other side and soaring harmlessly on. The human blinked in confusion…long enough to allow the Bronx Bomber to shift back into existence and blast him away with an overcharged supershot. The human screamed as his EM shield was burned away, then vanished in the remainder of the atomizing fire.

            Wycost breathed in and out a few times, knowing all too well that last hit was going to hurt for some time yet.

            Internal operations energy at 65%. Take caution. Internal bleeding…wounds being sealed. Decreased energy flow capacity.

            "I hate magweapons." Wycost grumbled. "Messy as fuck."

            "Oh, I'll agree there." Allegro chirped, jumping back behind Wycost as his opponent charged screaming. Wycost wasted no time in switching over to his Strobe Flash and blinding the fool, then roundhouse kicking his weapon away. Allegro bashed the MI9 operative over the head, then sliced the man's legs off with a powerful twin slash. "Fuck is messy. That's why I'm glad at times I can't."

            "You're sick, ya know that?" Wycost said, unable to hide his smile.

            "And you're ruthless." Allegro agreed, turning about and staring for a target. "Or way too skilled to be just another Maverick Hunter…God, I haven't seen a faintwarp in…Well, I've NEVER seen a faintwarp!"

            "It takes a certain measure of understanding about warp physics…as well as some extensive internal modifications." Wycost explained, narrowing his eyes and unloading a Level 2 blast towards the pack of fighters messing with Doan. "Not recommended for general use. It's nearly caused the end of me a few times."

            Pharaoh Man landed beside Wycost, shaking his head. "The only other person that I've seen use that trick is the original Mega Man. I never thought I'd see such wonders again."

            "Then you gotta stop hanging with us." Wycost confirmed, charging towards Doan and the last pack of warriors. "I think you'll find, robot, we're full of surprises."

            In response, Pharaoh Man leapt overhead, landing in front of the Bronx Bomber and taking off in a backwards run towards the last of the struggling Enhanceds, smiling wryly.

            "Aren't we all?"

            At one point, there had been a strong and devoted unity between the human Jowers and the trusting Willow. A time when their attraction was true and honest, and the female reploid held love.

            Now there was just bitter memories, twisted thoughts. And a hatred that had scarred her mind and soul for what she thought to be eternity. There was a reason she was all fire and ice, the reploid thought in some corner of her fevered, combat oriented mind. That reason was the thing she was trying to destroy.

            However, Jowers was no pushover, and a nightmare worthy of his title. Still wearing that same sick grin, he controlled his beam scythe with a skill that almost made it seem as if he'd been using it the entirety of his life. Every slash Willow made with her weapon he either avoided around, or deflected and pulled away from, not letting her get the advantage of curling her weapon around his so she could pull it loose.

            He still smiled, still had that edge of superiority about him that nothing could jar out. Willow hated him for that, could feel her blood boiling as he dealt with her so casually.

            "All too quickly you regress into rage, Willow. That's not saying much for your or your kind." Jowers said flatly, jumping backwards from her dangerous lash and grinning again. "Then again, you always did have some element of animalistic ferocity to you. Perhaps that's what attracted me to you."

            Willow bit her lip, fighting off the new tears he tried to bring out of her. "You didn't love me."

            "Correct." Jowers said flatly, gauging Willow and standing tall, his scythe held easily in one hand. With his other, he twisted the lower casing…causing an elongated one and a half meter length of pole to extend from the bottom of his weapon, increasing his attack range. "If anything, I held lust for you. A lust I eventually sated, because you let me." Jowers smiled again, that same sickening grin. "Admit it. Back then, you were open. For my companionship, you would have done nearly anything."

            "If I had known what kind of monster you truly were, I would have never given you my heart!" Willow screamed, pulling her whip back and cracking it forth again.

            Jowers ducked low and shook his head.

            In a burst of speed that shouldn't have been possible for a human, Jowers weaved underneath the end of the whip's lash despite its incredible speed and powerful crack that the compacted sound waves indicated. He appeared in front of Willow, still grinning that same grin. But his new proximity, and the speed in which he'd obtained it caused the Irish Banshee to gasp in surprise as her green eyes widened in horror. She tried to pull back in time, her beam whip yanked back in an awkward attempt to attack Jowers from behind.

            "Now who's the weak one?" Jowers sneered, snapping his scythe in front of him in a fluid motion. Willow felt the sickening sound of her armor and synthflesh giving way to his blade's keen slicing edge, toned in such a way that the easiest of motions was meant to sever.

            The slash was quick and deep, but meant more to wound her than anything. Willow gasped out again from the pain, one of her arms descending down to cover the bleeding injury. Her other arm still carried the beam whip however, and it snaked back towards her yank, with Jowers standing in the way.

            Ruthlessness betraying his training, the Enhanced human kicked Willow away and whirled about from the blow, using her as leverage. The beam whip chain drew near, and Jowers merely flicked it away with an uppercut slash from his own weapon. Instead of striking him, the chain wrapped around the beam scythe's plasma blade, snaking angrily about the wrong target. Deftly, he pulled hard against the beam whip's chain, using Willow like a mace on a length of rope to swing her about. Still stunned from her last blow, the Irish Banshee could do very little except be swept away by the attack.

            Of course, the ride had a very painful end to it. Unable to defend by any degree, in too much pain to maneuver or even let go of the weapon and land gracefully, Willow was slammed hard against the wall of the Ice Beacon cavern room. More warning lights flashed inside of her mind, more pain coarsed through her. Jowers twirled his scythe about and freed his weapon from hers, then promptly knocked the chain away from himself.

            "Willow, you can fight better than that." Jowers said mutely. He looked up at her, eyes cold. "There's no fire in your attacks. You should have easily been able to see that coming. You know the power of Enhanced humans better than ANY reploid!"

            Mutely, the Irish Banshee tried to stand up from where she had collapsed on the floor. Pain was evident on her face, and her white gloved hand was now dyed a dark reddish purple from her blood. Stubbornly, her free hand clenched onto the beam whip, her fingers tightly curled around the cylinder. She managed only to stumble up to one knee, her face downcast and hidden by her wild red hair, now draping down over her eyes. Slowly, she brought her bloodstained free hand up and set it onto her knee, seeming to use every bit of willpower to do even that much.

            Jowers tsked. "Pathetic. Utterly pathetic." He brought his scythe up in both hands and prepared his dash stance. "Perhaps the Willow I knew DID die back then…and you're nothing but a hollow shell of the vibrant spirit who could push me to my limits."

            In another burst of unnatural speed, the Enhanced human flew towards Willow, his feet seemingly never touching the ground. He covered the distance easily, scythe raised high to sever her head from beautiful body.

            And it was then that her arm gauntlet, angled just so by how she rested her arm on her knee, unleashed its first plasmic round. The brilliant explosive energy shot up straight and true, slamming into Jower's exposed belly like an uncaged tiger. His EM field crackled angrily from the blazingly accurate shot, and he swore close to five maledictions before leaping away from the bolt and letting it soar on to hit the ceiling and explode in a dazzling lights display.

            Jowers covered his eyes, angrily taking note of the yellow shield gauge indicator on his wrist as he did so. DAMNIT!!

            When the lights from Willow's unexpected shot faded down, the Irish Banshee was standing tall again…hurt from his assault, but with her eyes shining a different tone now. The quick and easy rage was gone, the only rage Willow had shown since she had recovered her memories long before Bristol had.

            Her bloodied hand came up and brushed back her hair, the female reploid not caring that the energy carrying liquid stuck to the strands and mottled them together. In a flick of her wrist, she brought the length of her beam whip back around her. Standing at her full height, she leveled a cold, icy gaze at Jowers, her piercing green eyes not once blinking.

            The Enhanced human was taken aback for a moment as she took one step forth and finally spoke, her words precise and measured.

            "I told you. I will kill you today."

            Slowly, Jower's disbelief and frustration turned to realization…and the return of his sadistic smile.

            He twirled the beam scythe around in front of him a few times, then snapped into a defensive stance.

            "Well, well…Welcome back, Willow. I've missed you something terrible."

            Willow cracked her whip on the ground again, then charged. Jowers felt a surge of exhilaration push through him, natural adrenaline combining with the stimulants and Enhanced strength and speed of his bio-implants.

            This was the Willow he remembered…

            The Enhanced humans were skilled for a reason, Bastion recalled as his united beam staff blazed through the air in a desperate attempt to keep the MI9 agents from ending his life. Strikes came low and high, and through his own ability to maneuver his body about and contort it, as well as the saber skills honed after more than a year of dabbling with the plasma blade, Bastion did an admirable job.

            Still…that didn't change the fact that the Enhanceds were slowly pushing their way into his dueling sphere.

            Block high…jump low, backflip the horizontal…Damnit, this is no way to win, you sandswept burrower!

            Bastion grunted, jumping backwards against the wall and springing overhead, his staff below him as he pushed their own strikes aside. "Oh no you DON'T!!" He cried out, activating his dash thrusters. In the darkness of the room, the sudden flare of his replicated hydrogen fuel seared the Enhanced Agents' fields of vision, temporarily making them blind to the darkness they were fighting in.

            Bastion easily cleared the lot of them, twisting about in the air and landing solidly on his feet. They all rubbed at their eyes with one hand, keeping cautious ears perked up for Bastion's approach.

            Bastion narrowed his eyes.

            Smart fellas…aren't going to attack until they have their full faculties back, but not going to let me just charge in there. Hmm…Wycost would love a situation like this. I'll have to ask later if Bristol and Horn can't build me a…

            Bastion blinked a few times. It took him a moment to realize what he had said, but when it finally dawned on him, the Maverick Hunter had to shake his head. Hmm. Guess Horn and I have patched things up a bit. He looked down at his saber, then remembered his wings. The guy, whether he likes it or not, has done a lot for me. And when things got crazy, it was him that Wycost turned to.

            But worrying about matters with Horn would have to come later. Right now, he still had these three to contend with. And they were recovering from the bright flash, far quicker than Bastion would have liked. He shut off his beam staff and detached the sabers, as softly as he could.

            He kept quiet, not wanting to give them an extra sensory source to enhance their chances of a true strike. Slowly, they all turned about, trying to identify his location. But with spots still glaring in their eyes and the Desert Angel making no sound, they were kept stumbling around in the darkness.

            Quietly, Bastion smiled. If he did this right, then one would be dead in seconds. If he didn't, then he would have to deal with all three again.

            Not bad odds, eh??

            Quietly, Bastion waited, keeping both sabers in hand and tensed up. He remained perfectly still, as much a part of the darkness as the walls themselves. Angrily, the MI9 operatives stumbled about blindly, their own weapons pulsating with enough black light to further disrupt their night vision. Bastion averted his eyes and stared to the side, not wanting his own retinas to become too upset by the brilliant nightshade luminescence.

            And finally, one came close enough.

            The Enhanced human turned about slightly, his dim light revealing the barest hint of something lying in the darkness. At that moment, Bastion's sabers flickered to angry life and cross-slashed inwards…the MI9 agent didn't stand a chance, not against two sources of burning focused plasma slicing through the minimal protection of his EM field. The smell of seared, slashed flesh rose up from the doomed human, who couldn't even speak…Bastion's double slash had taken the Enhanced human's head clean off.

            As the body fell forth, Bastion snapped his own blades together into their beam staff configuration, giving himself a free hand. As the MI9 agent's body fell forth, Bastion swung his free hand down and snatched the deceased warrior's weapon, giving him a beam staff in each hand.

            All of that took less than a second to do, and the two surprised Enhanceds left alive twirled about, eyes focusing on the brilliant source of blue and purple light coming from Bastion's own weapon. The next thing they noticed was that now, it moved in synch with one of their own blades.

            "Well fellas, I thank you for the new weapon." Bastion chuckled, twirling the pair about by his sides and over his head in a display of dexterity most would have trouble matching, given the nature of his weapons.

            The lead remaining Enhanced increased the intensity and power output of his beam staff, the two blades widening a bit and humming even angrier as the black light roiled against its electromagnetic barrier. "You're going to lose the hand that's holding that weapon, reploid."

            "I'm sure." Bastion called back.

            The lights in the room suddenly kicked back on, temporarily blinding Bastion for a change. As his eyes readjusted to the light, he cursed himself.

            Damnit, now THEY'RE using the flash trick??! I'll have to ask Horn if he can't duplicate Wycost's sunglare visor for my helmet…

            They charged at him, and Bastion scrambled to avoid the initial slashes, even with his limited sensory awareness.

            Provided I live through this…

            Commander Kowalski was in charge of Ice Beacon for a reason, the feverish and frantic Bristol realized. And it definitely wasn't for his ability to fill out documents in triplicate. The beam trident swung back and forth easily through the air in the MI9 leader's capable hands, deflecting Bristol's desperate slashes with ease.

            In fact, that was all that the MI9 leader was doing…just defending himself against her attacks. His smile seemed to grow wider with every failure, and his strokes more confident.

            "What, is that the best you have Bristol?" Kowalski smirked, pulling his beam trident back and catching her pink saber blade in its prongs, stopping her blow cold. With a twist of his arm, he sent Bristol sprawling to the floor, knocked off balance by the saber's dismissal. "Months out wandering the world trying to escape the Enhanced squadrons of Cleanser Units and that's the best attack you can give me??"

            Bristol struggled not to let the ring in her ears overwhelm her…not easy when on top of his voice, she was also hearing the drones of the computer voice indicating signal launch.

            Five minutes until…

            Bristol picked herself back up and gauged Kowalski, shaking her head to wash away the last of the dizziness from his reeling counterstrike.

            "You've got some decent moves, Commander…but I don't ever recall your name appearing on any Enhancement rosters."

            "I didn't need it." Kowalski growled, shaking his head. The wizened human male brushed back his thinning hair and stood taller. "I'm 100% all natural human…none of your blasted inventions in me whatsoever."

            Bristol bit her lip.

            Perfect. I'm dealing with a melee combat expert who also happens to be a perfect marksman with ranged weaponry. BLOODY FINE.

            He came towards her again, trident spinning beside him with a thin whistle. Bristol tensed her body, keeping her saber free in her right hand. No, this time she would take the offensive.

            His powerful speed boost ended with the full weight of his body being forced through his weapon and into his trident's swing, aimed straight for her skull.

            Not today, bucko. But nice try.

            Bristol backboosted a bit, using a few precious ergs of thruster fuel for that saving span of distance from his strike. His beam trident dug into the ice floor of the cavern, flashing off the ice and sublimating it straight to steam from the intense heat.

            She took the opportunity, leaping up into the air and bringing her saber down in a vertical cut designed to end his life.

            Kowalski looked up with a knowing smile and jerked his trident free, placing the prongs directly in front of her blade.

            Once more her beam saber's length was caught in the teeth of his weapon, leaving her dangling in the air and at his mercy.

            No…

            Kowalski harrumphed with a grin.

            "Figures. You weren't like Willow. Willow could fight. At best you could spar…Not like it matters. You came here in an attempt to stop Ice Beacon. I'm sorry to say that your pathetic attempt has failed."

            "Damn your smugness!!" Bristol snarled, pointing her boots down towards his face and preparing to ignite the thrusters once more.

            Kowalski's face lost its smile and darkened to an angry red.

            Quickly, he shut his power off, causing the trident's prongs to vanish with a sigh of resignation. Bristol fell to the ground, startled by his sudden movement. The blast from her dash thrusters came too late, managing only to burn into the ice and further melt away the floor's even and polished surface.

            Kowalski easily sidestepped the brief flash that posed a danger to him, whirling about and reigniting his beam trident's dangerous points. But he didn't strike her with his weapon…Instead, he continued through with his spin, bringing his steel toed foot up and kicking her hard to the stomach with a roundhouse, sending her flying against the wall with a brief shattering of ice shards that fell around her.

            Sparks and stars flashing in her suddenly dimmed eyes, Bristol opened her mouth in a silent scream of pain. Only then did Kowalski bound towards her still stunned form and cut a deep gash along the length of her chest armor, making it nearly useless and giving her a fair deal of external damage.

            She slumped to the ground, badly beaten and suddenly lacking the ability to move.

            Kowalski stepped back and held his trident beside him, prong points upward as if he was holding a pitchfork for a photo.

            "You were the best your race could send for its own survival??" He scoffed darkly. "You really DO deserve to perish."

            Three minutes until signal transfer…

            The warp coordinates were accurate indeed…when Zero reappeared and opened his eyes once more, he found himself standing in a dim and darkened room, with only the flickering of tiny LED lights and dark green fluorescents to indicate that the place was in use. A slow and steady hum throughout the underground structure provided a soothing background noise…or at least, it would have been soothing, under different circumstances.

            Deep inside of himself, Zero was a confused mess. He felt pain, horrendous pain gripping at him from the death of Iris and her haunting last words…And at the same time, he felt rage, a blind anger so strong that he had thrown his best friend aside, scorned X and told him to leave him alone.

            And he hadn't cared, either. What rationality was left as the blood pumped in his eardrums told Zero that there was something definitely unnatural about the state he was in. And still Zero paid no heed to it…it didn't matter.

            Slowly, he turned himself about and walked towards light. The entire underground bases' main lights were shut off, giving Zero only the luminescence of electronic blinking LEDs and minor fluorescents to guide him by sight.

            Zero didn't need his sight, though…his entire body had become a coiled spring, eager and screaming to be unleashed towards the nearest moving target. His hearing had become so sharp, the thrum of machinery in the underground URFAWP built structure was almost painful in its repetition, further maddening him. His smell was also on higher levels, allowing him to smell the room's cold and emotionless sterile state, the distinct hint of burnished metal and fresh, untarnished wiring and controls. No human had ever stepped foot in this place. That lack of…life…

            His touch, one of Zero Omega's most trusted sensory inputs was perhaps the most on alert. Through his boots he could feel the concrete and metal underneath him, sense the cold from the outside always threatening to seep through the lifeless floors and infect this safe abode of Sigma's with a different menace, one capable of causing lesser organisms to wither from exposure. His hands, clenched up as they were, felt the heat from his body sublimating off of him, vanishing into the open ether around him with a sigh of regret. His fingers and thumbs pressed angrily into the palm of his grip, leaving deep imprints and nearly threatening puncture.

            Zero's vision was still red, had remained so even after the warp jump using Signas's traced coordinates. If Zero had been in his right mind, the shift would have frightened him, might have knocked sense into him.

            But Zero wasn't in his right mind. And he certainly wasn't thinking clearly. Not now, perhaps not ever again. There was a pain in him, a pain caused by the loss of Iris…

            Iris…

            Zero exhaled in the beginnings of a gasp, the warm air of Hokkaido leaving his body and bringing in the chill reprocessed oxygen and nitrogen of Greenland as Zero's left hand clutched at his chest. A sudden tugging, a tremendous burning sensation rose within him, causing his vision to blur further into red. Almost as if blood suddenly had begun streaming down his forehead, Zero found that the world around him faded from view as memories resurfaced…painful memories.

            There was Iris…dying in his arms at the Final Weapon 2 years before. The original Iris. The one who had fought Zero because without Colonel, her systems had destabilized and her traumatized psyche had struggled to contain both her peaceful nature and her brother's warlike tones. The one…

            The one I killed…

            And then this one…the one killed simply for being there, for being resurrected on the side of Sigma, who had died taking a shot meant for him. The one, who only in the end, realized how much of a misled fool she had been…and who in the end, had died not wanting to be resurrected again, who held too much guilt within her soul for what had happened.

            The one…who despite her Maverick alignment, was still and without question the same Iris Zero had fallen for all those years ago.

            "Personally, I think you did her a favor two years ago." A familiar and unwelcome voice said, crackling over the underground bases' radio. "Iris was naïve…as naïve then as she was not ten minutes before this. In the end, Zero, it wasn't meant to be. You did the best thing for her. As I did. We showed her the truth…that love cannot exist. She foolishly held to that belief, Zero. And she died for it."

            "BASTARD!!" Zero screamed, bolting upright and slashing at the vox embedded in the wall. His Z-Saber came to his grip with practiced ease, slipping into his right hand as a bird might return to its nest. In a flash, the familiar curved blade ignited into life, the green and roiling plasma crashing against the electromagnetic barrier of the blades' edge.

            The voice transmitter sparked and melted, smoke boiling from the inside as it bled to a quick death. And then it was silent again.

            Zero's breathing reasserted itself, a ragged breathing that accompanied a hunched posture, like a wounded animal hiding in the corner with its fangs still bared. And with his eyes still burning the baleful red of his troubled soul and his beam saber lit and still active, that was exactly what Zero was.

            The footsteps thirty feet away were all too clear to Zero's heightened senses, and he whirled about, focusing his angry glare and attention to that spot.

            Slowly, Sigma stepped into view, still the same as he had appeared on Hokkaido. Only now…more confident, with a grin that betrayed his usual candor. It was almost as if something else aside from Sigma was smiling at Zero, and that made the Crimson Hunter shudder in horror and rage all the same.

            "Funny…I was expecting that Mega Man X would be accompanying you on this little jaunt. But, I suppose this time around, you're seeking something more than my mere demise…perhaps some vengeance, Zero??" Sigma shrugged. "That was an impressive victory today. You and the Hunters somehow managed to defeat one of the most unified teams of Mavericks I ever brought into my employ. Something tells me that something's changed back at the MHHQ…I should suspect as much, given the nature of the Hunter's strategy on Hokkaido. Who's in charge of that old and worn out peacekeeping corps now…a new class reploid going by Signas??" Sigma shrugged. "Not like it matters much. Still, the boy deserves congratulations. I wasn't expecting a tracer EM field to be erected around us there. An anti-warp field, perhaps, but a tracer…ingenious. It harkens back to the old days when Dr. Cain would piggyback Maverick battlefield transmissions to the home source." Sigma shrugged. "Too bad about Cain…I know you especially liked him, Zero. You never knew your true father, and I doubt that you would want to even if you had been given the chance. It's a tough lot, being the final bastard child of the Devil of the 21st Century, isn't it??"

            Zero said nothing in response, his body refusing to move. It was as if Sigma's words paralyzed his frame with something beyond mere physical strength. As if Zero wanted to hear it.

            "Truth be told, James T. Cain held more respect for you and Mega Man X than he did for anyone else." Sigma continued quietly. "What little human family he had died many years before, and you and X…you were always his favorites." Sigma lifted a hand up and stared into his palm. "Even me…ME, his greatest creation…in the end, he disowned me." Sigma looked at Zero, his smile vaporized for a cold and calculating stare. "And it was your fault, you know. I don't know why Wily chose to place you where you were, to keep you sleeping in that place in the southwestern United States…but when you awoke, you did so with the most malevolent of poisons ever concocted within you. When you and I first met, you fought against me with that poison aiding you. You nearly killed me then."

            Sigma swung his clenched fist against the side of the doorframe leading into the room, his eyes flashing a deep red for an instant. "YOU SHOULD HAVE."

            Zero still remained silent, breathing in and out and letting the madman have his say. Noticeably, his exhaled breath was not steamy or foggy in the least…the inside of Zero remained as cold as the outside. There was no warmth left in his bones.

            "Thanks to you, the TRUE final creation of Wily's found a new home within me." Sigma rasped. "From that day forth, I was damned with another presence beside me, becoming me…taking more and more control of who I was and…"

            Sigma's voice trailed off, and Zero finally spoke, his voice low and bitter.

            "You deserved the madness." The Crimson Hunter said, his body rigidly still.

            Sigma laughed, a coarse and hollow one. "I DID?!" He calmed down some, then shook his head. "No…This tangent solves nothing now. Nothing can change what happened thirteen years ago. I became you…the carrier of the Maverick Virus. And you…you became what I was. Sigma's favorite 'son'. The one he looked to and trusted to protect his life, the one in who he saw the skills of a warrior. He saw that in me once, Zero. And you and Wily took that from me. Even now, you and this VIRUS continue to rob me of everything I hold dear."

            At that, Sigma paused, then stood taller, the crazed bitterness in his voice fading easily. And he smiled again, once more the man in control.

            "And so…I have now taken everything you hold dear."

            Zero could feel the same swelling pain within him, growing faster and faster, beyond his ability to keep in check. And yet he still did not move, now so overwhelmed by it that he could not.

            "Yes…If I can no longer be happy, then neither can you." Sigma chuckled, his malevolence seeming to radiate and burn the walls. "James Cain…dead. Iris…dead. I took her from you too, Zero."

            "You're a MONSTER." Zero bellowed, his green eyes growing darker, turning olive green.

            "I am what life and fate have made me…Nothing more." Sigma answered back, still grinning. "The cause of it all, Zero…A year ago, I showed you the cause of all of this. The Maverick Uprisings, the Maverick Virus, all those years of turmoil and suffering and endless, meaningless wars and battles…You know what the cause is."

            "Shut up." Zero barked bitterly.

            "It's like fighting the inevitable, you know??" Sigma chuckled, his voice destabilizing. "Destiny, almost. From the moment you were created, you had but one purpose. To transfer Wily's dark grasp on the world into the next age…our age, the age of reploids. If you had never arrived, never woken up, then Earth and the reploid race and humanity would remain on a steady course. In all likelihood, I would still be leading the Maverick Hunters…And X would still be a pacifist. And yet, because you arrived, all the roles and rules were changed. In today's world, it is you and Mega Man X that play the heroes on stage, and it is I who is the villain."

            Sigma took a few steps towards Zero, chuckling harder. "It seems at times, the old adage 'the devil made me do it' can still apply."

            Sigma stopped twenty feet away from Zero and lifted a hand up, pointing at the Crimson Hunter. "If you want to end the Maverick menace, begin with yourself, Zero Omega. It was from you that it all began. As long as you live…as long as you refuse to die, neither will this war." Sigma laughed at that. "Yes, that's absolutely right, my Crimson Hunter!! Everyone shall suffer, and everyone will one day die…because YOU DID NOT!!!"

            "DAMN YOU!!!" Zero screamed, pointing his saber at Sigma. "I'm a Maverick Hunter, not a saint! I can't change who I am…NOBODY CAN!"

            Sigma snorted. "And so what?? You think that being a Maverick Hunter somehow allows you to atone for your sins?" He pointed at the glowing green saber in Zero's grasp. "Even that was once mine…And you ended up stealing that as well." Sigma pulled his arm back and shook his head. "You still don't get it, Zero. We cannot defy the goals destiny gives us. And yet you struggle so adamantly against yours, I don't know whether to call it laughable or worth merit. A year ago, you fought that impulse…and you lost to it. For a few brief and glorious moments, you became the individual you were always meant to be. The great destroyer, Zero…the destroyer of reploids."

            "Nobody determines what sort of a life we lead…" Zero shouted back, feeling control slipping fast. "NOBODY!! We live how we WANT to live, and we die the same way! You've died as a monster so many times…don't play the innocent card on me, and don't expect me to buy into your sob story!!"

            "Oh, I wasn't expecting sympathy." Sigma said mirthlessly. "I deserve as much sympathy as you do…NONE." He thought for a moment, then chuckled. "Amazing…thirteen years. Is that how long it's been since we started our little dance of doom? You, me, and Mega Man X?? Thirteen years, countless Maverick Uprisings and so many more numerous other encounters…you would think that in more than a decade of life lived to such extremes, we would know more than we do. But we don't…We're all more confused now than we ever were. Or at least, you are."

            Zero roared, hurling himself at Sigma with his saber flashing out in a blistering series of strikes. Sigma tsked and popped his own plasma weaponry, the plasma dagger   installed into one of his arms. Using his larger body mass, he easily deflected the strike and Zero himself, throwing the smaller combatant back to the direction he came from, crashing him through the doorframe and into the next room.

            Zero could feel the pain running through him, a deep and thick pain that blotted out everything else and left him with white noise running across his field of vision. And his rage…the rage grew deeper now, the pulse in his ears now more like a rush, a swelling roar of blood that consumed him.

            He pulled himself to his feet, wincing as his left arm dragged beside him. He stared down at his appendage numbly, seeing the torn armor and exposed wiring, yet refusing to give into the injury. Even as the blood vessels in his shattered elbow spurted out their last ergs of blood before sealing themselves and ceasing functionality of his left hand, turning it into little more than dead weight, Zero remained enraged, fully capable of destruction. He stepped out of what he had crashed into…a synthesizing tubule meant for rapid reploid construction, the viscous and glowing green matter rich liquid dribbling off of his body and onto the floor. In the dim red lighting of the room, however…it almost seemed as if Zero was covered from head to toe in blood.

            Staring up through dull eyes, the Crimson Hunter locked onto Sigma's presence. The Maverick King calmly walked into the room, his own weapon still active. He looked over at Zero, the Crimson Hunter slouched to one side with his nonfunctioning left arm and his right doggedly holding onto his saber.

            "But I have learned something, Zero. I've learned something about myself and my reasons for fighting." Sigma continued, popping his other arm's weapon, the TitaniTefloAlloy claws. He held both sets of slashing equipment in front of his eyes, staring at Zero through criss-crossed veins. "I fight…because that is all that is left to me. I fight because it is the only thing that motivates my reason for existence. It defines me now, as it defines you. Zero…if you were not the Crimson Hunter, the bane of Mavericks everywhere…would you have a reason for existence?? And even before that, when you were still being built, and in your early days of life…your reason for existence then was still to fight. From the moment that Wily conceived of you in his head, your sole purpose in life has been for combat…for the battle, for the bloodshed, and for the DESTRUCTION."

            "Then I choose to fight you." Zero snapped back, hazy tears further blurring his vision. "For what you have done, you can never be forgiven…you took so many innocent lives, you've ruined millions of others, and you turned this world into a WARZONE!!"

            "Oh, don't play the righteous card on me." Sigma snapped. "Don't you even dare begin to think you have the right to use that. You are as guilty as me, Zero. Your hands are just as covered in the blood of the innocents as mine are." Sigma pointed. "The blood on your hands is the most severe of any left alive in this day and age, you see. You carry not only your own sins, but the sins of your father, and the sins of all the infected Mavericks that descend from your impure lineage. For every injust act that a Maverick has committed, you hold that same sin on yourself TENFOLD."

            "And yet I still fight you." Zero shouted. "Explain THAT. Why, if not for everyone else, WHY DO I FIGHT YOU?!"

            Sigma smiled, shaking his head.

            "Deluded fool…You still don't get it."

            Sigma took a step back and waved his TitaniTefloAlloy claws around the room, motioning to the rows of stasis tubules with their regenerative green liquid cores. "You fight because that is all you know, and all that you were meant for."

            "There's more to it than that, Sigma." Zero said evenly, his voice as razor sharp as his blade.

            Sigma harrumphed with another sick grin.

            "I suppose there is. But I know that one as well…father."

            Sigma took another step back and forced his smile to return to a toothy grin. "You fight also for your emotions. In the end, that is your strongest weapon. Your rage, your grief, your anger…truly felt, I assure you. But it is through suffering, the suffering of others and of yourself…that you derive your power." Sigma slowly nodded his head. "Fighting only begets more fighting, I've discovered. Each time you and X have defeated me, I've returned from the grave, prisoner to the very thing that keeps my consciousness alive because I have not WON. And each time I come back, I cause more pain to others, I learn new ways to fight you…and I come closer and closer to my ultimate goal, Zero. One day, I will finally crush you. But…you wanted to know. Why is it that you fight?"

            Sigma pointed at Zero. "You've felt it…I know you have. Despite the fact that with X's help, you managed to "self-delete" the Virus a year ago from your systems, you have felt it. That strength swelling up inside of you." Sigma grinned. "You can't escape it. Try as you might, you cannot escape what you are. Do you know why you fight, Zero?? It is because FIGHTING MAKES YOU STRONGER."

            "Strong enough to defeat YOU!!" Zero screamed, lunging towards Sigma.

            The Maverick King readied himself and grinned.

            "No…only X can defeat me. The Demon cannot destroy the Fallen Angel. You, Zero…one day, you will become strong enough to defeat YOURSELF. That darkness will win…And then my existence as the most hated Maverick of all time will fade…because you will take my place."

            Zero impacted with a scream, his saber crashing upwards against Sigma's plasma blade. The Maverick King swung down with his TitaniTefloAlloy claws, yet hit open air. To Sigma's surprise, Zero lunged to the side, cleared his punch, and then leapt up with a solid bootkick to the jaw. As Sigma stumbled backwards, Zero leveled a deep gash along Sigma's leg.

            Both landed easily from the brief collision, but now Sigma bled. The Maverick King blinked a few times, staring in wonder at Zero.

            The Crimson Hunter's eyes flickered now…roiling with their usual green color, but at times flashing with a tint and dimness of something far darker. And his eyes continued to shed water.

            "You DARE to tell me I'm a damned soul?" Zero asked quietly, raising his gaze from the ground and staring into Sigma's eyes. "I know who I am, and I know what I was…It doesn't mean that I'll return to that.'

            "You did once."

            "You FORCED ME ONCE." Zero croaked, still crying through his hazy red vision. "Even now, I can see it happening again…that desperate rage clawing at the inside of my head, urging me on…You're still trying to convert me, and for that I DESPISE YOU." Zero took an unsteady step forth, his left arm still hanging limply. "You have your madness, but you have no clue as to how deep MINE runs, do you?!"

            Sigma prepared his stance, but for a change seemed to be concerned, not assured. Zero's mouth twinged, in a blend of teary weeping and frustrated glare.

            "When I fight an opponent, I ALWAYS feel it calling me. That lulling red bloodlust, trying to cloud my vision, take over, soothe me in its dreams of blood and screams and exhilarating murder. I dealt with that LONG before you ever tried to reinfect me. And I HATE IT."

            "Trying to deny who you are…I pity you." Sigma tsked. Zero's eyes flashed again, and his grip tightened on his saber.

            "Pity yourself, Sigma. You are the most pathetic person to ever walk this planet. And I will kill you."

            "Heh!" Sigma chuckled. "Fine, go right ahead. Drive yourself deeper into that red madness."

            Zero seemed to hiccough, the closest thing to a sob he had done since he arrived at Sigma's hidden URFAWP built base.

            "If I go mad in killing you, so be it. For Iris…For Cain…For X…For Repliforce, for URFAWP, for Doppler and EVERYONE ELSE…I WILL KILL YOU!!!"

            At that moment, as he screamed that, something else shifted in Zero. The last of his tears faded from his face, and his eyes hardened again. And then his voice changed…the intelligence seemed to fade from his statement, replaced by pure animal fury.

            And at that, Sigma's smile faded, completely wiped off this time. Now there was only surprise.

            And as Zero charged at him, screaming like the banshee itself, Sigma felt familiar, nightmarish memories surfacing…

            Memories of 13 years before, when he and Zero had first fought…

            And then Sigma was afraid. Because…

            He's…the same….

            A measurement of their weapons would indicate that Jowers was better suited for a close range combat and that Willow's choice of offensive power was meant for a more ranged battle. Despite that, the two warriors dueling in the depths of Ice Beacon heeded no sense of common logic in their fight. Their weapons struck at each other with such intensity that showers of free electrons jumped angrily away from their source, clouds falling together and sparking on the ice before fizzling out of life.

            Willow was screaming now, pushing herself beyond all normal bounds. Running on desperation, on fury, and on the pain that Jowers had inflicted, she fought with both mind and body acting as one. Never before had Willow ever pushed herself so hard, battled with such intensity. Now…now, she had nothing to hold back, nothing to keep in reserve. One way or another, the Irish Banshee thought in the depths of her bitter spirit, it was going to end here today. She had nothing left to live for, not anymore. Her purpose had been to keep running from MI9, to protect Bristol…Well, she had failed on both counts. And now she had done all she could…helped the foolish friends of Bristol locate MI9's project Ice Beacon. Bastion and Bristol had charged on ahead to deal with shutting down the shield emitter, leaving Willow behind.

            There was nothing more to do. The conclusion of her tasks, of her existence…ended here. With Jowers. Once she had destroyed him, avenged her pain, then nothing else mattered. Nothing…

            Jowers, even back in training had been more than a match for Willow's dueling skills. Early on in their duel, he had flexed his superiority over her and proven himself the better. But now…

            Now, there was something different in how she fought. She wasn't just doing this to buy Bristol and that male reploid time, no. There was a fury in her blows all her own, beyond mere distraction and time. Jowers had sought to awaken her true fighting potential, more out of boredom than any other factor…now, as he saw the results of that experiment, he began to wonder if his choice had been a correct one.

            The Enhanced human cursed angrily, bringing his beam scythe up and pushing away her strike with his curved blade…as best as he could, anyway. He merely blunted the whiplash impact of it, then stepped to the side and pulled his weapon free of the curl her whip began.

            That was perhaps one of his few chances to strike…when her weapon was extended and unable to coil around him like the writhing form of a snake.

            Jowers grinned, leaping forth towards her with his scythe ready to end her life. Of course, he had no doubt that she would easily evade him…Willow was far from a pushover, especially now that she was running on pure desperation.

            "Two minutes and thirty seconds until signal transfer…"

            Willow's eyes flashed with an even brighter intensity at the new communication that echoed through the hall. Despite himself, Jowers laughed. Willow merely leveled an arm gauntlet at him and fired one of her three remaining plasmic rounds at near point blank range. The Enhanced human's eyes widened for a moment, but he forced his body into a rapid descent, cringing as the sparks trailing the bright incendiary burned against his neck…sparing his life for the moment. Willow took the opportunity to easily evade his blunted attack with a dodge to the side, throwing in a powerful roundhouse kick for good measure that Jowers managed to decrease only by thrusting his arm down to protect his abdomen. Still, the hit sent him flying across the room and skidding to a halt.

            Willow relaxed her stance and pulled her beam whip back, readying another strike.

            "Figures…I see you've undergone some other modifications."

            "Subcutaneous metallic armor implants." Jowers agreed with a grin, flexing his sore arm as he picked himself up off of the ground. It didn't help that shards of the ceiling ice had decided to crash down on top of him…shards blown off by Willow's haphazard plasmic explosive blast. "Not as much subcutaneous armor implants as much as they removed the skin from my arm and covered it with a shifting interconnected set of metal plates, then plastered synthskin over it all to make me feel better."

            "Oh, you poor boy." Willow snarled, extending out her whip once more towards him. Jowers scrambled to duck underneath the fast blow and slide out of its retreat path before glaring at Willow again. Her eyes remained cold as she easily readied herself for another strike. "I imagine that whatever Hell they put you through to make you a more dangerous reploid Hunter wasn't nearly as painful as it should have been."

            "Typical response from you." Jowers snapped back, taking the offensive once more. "Loud, bitter, and utterly USELESS!!"

            Willow's whip cracked out again in an attempt to stop his progress, but Jowers moved at a speed not to be denied or stopped. He easily ducked underneath the dangerous first wave, sliding along the icy floor before leaping up and clearing her weapon's reach entirely. He seemed to hover in the air for a moment, grinning down at her as he raised his scythe above and slightly to the side of his head, preparing for the final harvest.

            In desperation, Willow lifted her other arm and readied her next to last plasmic round.

            "Not this time, WILLOW!!" Jowers cackled, depressing a switch on the side of his beam scythe he hadn't pressed yet. As he swung the blade down, it exploded in size, the length and swath of the dangerous plasma weapon dwarfing him in size…and easily clearing the distance in the air between them.

            A startled Willow could only curse and activate her dash thrusters, forcing herself backwards in a sudden retreat. His beam scythe crashed down into the icy floor beneath them, kicking up even more steam and leaving a jagged hole in front of where Jowers landed. Just after impact, his beam scythe retracted to its normal size…But the human didn't stop, taking only a moment from his landing to jump kick himself off of the ground and towards Willow once more. In desperation, she raised her same arm gauntlet and fired…both rounds at once, the last of her ammunition.

            "Nice try, but NO LUCK!!" Jowers bellowed, easily weaving his way around both blasts as he still kept coming towards her. Now no longer a threat to Jowers, Willow's final two plasmic explosive rounds soared on and crashed into the wall of the room, scattering their deadly charges unevenly along its surface and leaving a series of deep ravines and jagged peaks rising from the once flat surface of frozen water.

            Willow's eyes widened at Jower's incredible approach, and she pulled her beam whip in close, grasping it halfway along its length with her other hand, treating it now as a defensive barrier instead of an offensive weapon.

            Slowly, Jowers bombarded her with furious slashes from his beam scythe, blows that the Irish Banshee was hard pressed to avoid or defend against either way. So focused on defense was Willow that she didn't see Jowers moving her about her position, pushing her closer and closer to the jagged hole left by his beam scythe's brief, but dazzling extension.

            That is…she didn't see it until it was too late. Taking another step back to avoid a slash she had no way to defend against, Willow's left foot slipped along the artificial hole in the floor, causing her to lose her balance and fall backwards, her face recoiling in shock and horror.

            At that moment, Jowers wore an expression of pure satisfaction. And then, in that one moment of weakness in her defense, as she fell backwards with no balance and no way to block, he struck. His beam scythe came up from below, the curved edge following the point through her abdomen and up and out of her back, narrowly skating the edge of where her microfusion generator lay.

            A splash of blood, not dull purple but bright red flew from Willow's sudden injury and flung itself onto his clothes. Bright red for a reason…in Willow's heightened state of combat, the energy demands of her body had forced her bloodstream to absorb more energy for distribution, much like a human's blood turned bright red when it became super-oxygenated.

            She gasped in pain even before she felt that sudden sharp pain slam through her, violating her entire body with waves of horrendous, white mind numbing internal screams. Countless warning and error messages flashed in the corner of her eyes, informing her of all the systems that one single thrust had destroyed and mutilated.

            Internal operations energy at 32%. Extensive internal damage. Unless stasis is achieved within next five minutes, risk of serious system injury exists.

            Willow could feel her body already begin to shut down on her. Even as the supremely confident Jowers grabbed her shoulder and pulled her body close to his, his beam scythe still rammed through her, her arms went numb and sluggish from the system shock, and she lost her grip on her beam whip. The devastatingly effective, but unorthodox weapon shut itself off with no master to hold it, and not long after the TitaniTefloAlloy links retracted into their casing.

            Willow's vision began to blur on her as well then, focusing in and out on her surroundings as it struggled to maintain optimum performance in her critically injured state.

            Jowers laughed quietly beside her ear, his warm and moist human breath scratching against her sensitive hearing.

            "Well, Willow…Do you hear that sound??"

            Willow groaned a bit, but said nothing. All she could hear was the painful sound of his breathing, and the superiority that shone through his voice. He had dealt her a critical blow, had won the duel…

            No…can't end like this…

            "That, Willow…is the sound of the reaper."

            Willow said nothing in reply, instead choosing as delicately as possible to suck in the outside air to help her microfusion generator cope with the sudden damage to her systems. It did little, but it passed the time. Jowers remained content to just hold her there, keeping the beam scythe embedded in her as her lifeblood drained out of her. In fact, he even began to hum and pull her closer still, as a father might hold a child that had a nightmare.

            Willow squinted her eyes shut, letting a single tear roll out from her right eye.

            God, he'd always done that…Whenever she was afraid, or when she got upset, he would pull her close, console her, soothe her fears away with that whimsical attitude and ability. And now…now, when she knew what Jowers truly was, she realized how hollow those actions had been back then. And how hollow, ironic, and hurtful those same actions were now.

            "You claimed the right to end my life." Jowers mused, running a hand through her hair, stroking the silken strands of red away from her face. "Only fitting…that I should have the same opportunity to silence yours."

            "Two minutes until signal transfer…"

            "Willow, I'm almost sad to see you go. You and I, we were great together…especially now in combat, my GOODNESS. I haven't felt this exhilarated since our early training sessions. You really did give it your all, didn't you?"

            Slowly, Willow lifted her head up, staring over Jower's shoulder and behind him. She blinked a few times, staring numbly at the wall behind him.

            "At least this way Willow, you die with honor…and not at the hands of all the reploid hunters that will follow after Ice Beacon launches." Jowers finished quietly. "Only I could give you that."

            "Jowers…" Willow groaned quietly. The Enhanced human bobbed his head, then pulled back a ways to stare at her.

            "Yes?"

            Through eyes that continued to fade, and a spirit that bordered on vanishing for all eternity, Willow looked into Jowers' eyes…the eyes of the man she once loved.

            "That…armor of yours…is it everywhere on you?"

            Jowers shook his head and stroked her hair again.

            "I'm sorry, Willow…just my arms."

            She seemed to exhale her life's breath out of her then, letting her head collapse onto his chest. Clucking gently, Jowers stroked her hair a few more times, thinking it finally over. But he froze everything when Willow finally spoke again.

            "Pity."

            Jowers had no time to respond and no way to defend from Willow's tactic. As he held her there, her head pressed against his chest and his arms inextricably surrounding her, she disengaged the safeties on her dash thrusters and set them to maximum burn.

            In less than a second's time, not even enough for Jowers to let off a decent scream, she had flung him and herself across the room and embedded him into the wall…

            The same section of wall her plasmic rounds had transformed into a surface of jagged death.

            His EM field didn't know how to cope with such an intrusion, so it didn't. The Enhanced human known as Jowers cried out in gurgling tones and gushing bright red blood from his punctured lungs, spasming on the jagged daggers of ice Willow had pushed him onto. No protection, no amount of clothes on his body could defend him from the blow. And so Jowers was doomed. He felt the air, his precious lifegiving substance leave his body, now unable to return. And he struggled even more, wasting away his life in a scrambling futile attempt to live.

            Slowly, Willow pulled herself off of him, willing her sluggish and dying body to separate herself from his wasted form. And she looked into his eyes again.

            "You were mine to kill, Jowers."

            He gurgled in reply, more frothing bright red blood seeping from his mouth and over his lips, dripping down his chin and onto his tattered clothes. A few seconds later, his body finally gave out…his eyes rolled up into the back of his head and the empty husk that had been Jowers, MI9 Enhanced reploid hunter sank deeper onto his deathtrap.

            Jower's beam scythe finally shut off, the plasma blade vanishing and retracting out of Willow's body. The reploid swayed back and forth in a rhythmic, disoriented motion before finally collapsing backwards herself onto the icy floor.

            Even through her own pain, Willow smiled. And she cried again. This time…in relief, and in contentment.

            "So it's over with…it's finally over with…"

            Willow shut her eyes and let her head fall to the side, giving into the need to fall into oblivion.

            Bristol…It's all up to you now.

            Now…I can finally rest.

            Time…was never enough time…

            That nightmare I had, what has happened is different from it at points, but…

            Bristol lay against the wall of the shield emitter control room, still wounded from the furious and blazing battle prowess of Kowalski, the MI9 chief of operations at Ice Beacon. What made her loss all the harder to swallow was that he was not an Enhanced human…just a normally trained and raised man of the gun and sword who had been in combat throughout his life.

            And she had lost…She was no match for Kowalski, she had never been a match for ANYONE in a fight…Her role had always been as a scientist, a person aligned with dreams and notions and ideas and the need to create.

            I failed…Gods, Isaiah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, I failed…

            "Truth be told, I thought for a moment that you and your ragtag band of revolutionaries out there might actually stand a chance." Kowalski murmured, standing a fair distance from Bristol and letting the time to countdown dwindle. "By some miracle, your friends managed to free you from MI9 HQ…at the same time, destroying our main base. And then you got here." Kowalski harrumphed. "It must have been Willow who divulged the location of Ice Beacon out of the HQ's computer systems. She's the only other person with enough skill to accomplish such an act. Those coordinates were accurate, all right…accurate enough to allow you an air drop."

            Bristol groaned, her body shaking as she tried to rise to her feet and failed miserably. Her bright blue eyes began to grow dimmer, a mixture of pain and self resignation.

            "Still, none of you were expecting a solid state EM field to be erected around the transmission dish, were you?" Kowalski continued, eyeing Bristol carefully. As long as she posed no threat, he was content to continue with his rant. Once she moved, however…

            "That blew a hole in your attack plan right there, didn't it?" Kowalski asked, starting up again. "You were expecting an easy, straight out assault…a pure hit and run, almost. That field changed everything. So your forces split. As we speak, the bulk of the Enhanced humans on base are dealing with your surface bound allies…I'm sorry to say it looks rather bleak for them. Especially that green armored reploid…"

            "No…" Bristol groaned, her head lolling back and forth. Wycost…no…

            "And two others entered the depths of Ice Beacon along with you. Willow, I know…she and Jowers were dueling not but moments ago. As a matter of fact…"

            Kowalski paused and brought up a datapadd, clicking a few buttons as if accessing a live video feed. He stared at the display and blinked a few times, then harrumphed. "It seems as if those two managed to kill each other. Although I give Willow points for originality on hers."

            NO…Not Willow too…NOT WILLOW!!!

            "Which leaves just that male brown haired reploid. And I'm afraid he has received the glory of being sucked into a final duel with three of the best I have on this base. He'll fare no better than anyone else would in such a scenario." Kowalski tucked the datapadd away and grinned at Bristol.

            "Which leaves…you. Just you, Bristol." Kowalski brushed back his hair. "You were so close, too." He waved his hand around the room. "In here lies the key to it all, the key to your success. We have backup computers in the double digits throughout Ice Beacon, all capable of transmitting the UBF around the world through the satellite networks that have existed since the 20th century. So your only way to win was to destroy the transmitter itself…that massive, finely crafted dish honed from the ice of Antarctica. And to do that, you had to destroy the EM shield surrounding it, protecting it in a blanketed cradle from your guns and weapons."

            Failed…I failed everyone…

            "You have failed, Bristol. Despite all your panache, all your idealism and dreams of grandeur for your race, you and your cohorts have failed."

            "One minute and 40 seconds until signal transfer…"

            Beyond hope, Bristol looked up to Kowalski. Her eyes locked onto him, but revealed nothing, showing the emptiness inside of her that nothing could penetrate, nothing could break.

            So it's over…despite everything that everyone has done, it's over. I was with them, and we have still failed.

            I…

            Changed nothing…

            Kowalski sighed and pulled his beam trident up, aiming his final thrust at her. "And now, all that remains is for me to wrap up this final loose end."

            And he thrust down to Bristol's torso…and she shut her eyes, waiting for that brief flash of pain to come.

            Bastion…Forgive me.

            The Maverick Hunters took about two minutes to all warp back to base. That wasn't that great of a time, but seeing as more than a handful were in dire need of immediate medical attention, that fact was ignored. While those in critical condition were rushed to Hazil and the home medics to the Emergency Room, a separate entity all its own from the more gentile and homely Medical Bay that Hazil resided at, the grimfaced and now thin lipped Signas found his way to X.

            The Blue Bomber turned about, trying to make sense of who had located him out of the mess in front of his eyes. And then he saw Signas, standing erect and, for him at least, livid.

            "In Cain's office." Signas murmured, still paying homage to the man who he had been ordered to replace. "NOW." X felt his heart drop even farther. He already knew what Signas wanted to talk about, and it was an issue that X wasn't that keen on at the moment.

            He took one last look around the War Room he had arrived in, taking note of all the monitors and stats running by. The damage report, the death tolls…All there. And above, a mission synopsis of the events on Hokkaido. It read as a success.

            That should read as a tragedy.

            Sighing once, X pulled off his trademark blue helmet and let his cramped black hair free. He ruffled the spiky black length about to fluff it some, then turned and walked after Signas, helmet in hand.

            Neither person said anything as they walked into Cain's office, both enmeshed in their own worlds of tension and unfocused on the other person's.

            Cain's office still had the same blue lighting, X noticed. That hadn't changed. Slowly, Signas walked about and sat in the reclining leather chair that Cain had sat in so many times in life…had gotten drunk in far more, the Blue Bomber of 21XX recalled with a slight bit of humor. He motioned for X to sit down, and only after X had sat down and put his helmet on the desk did Signas finally clear his throat.

            "I've put the room back in order…it occurs to me now that there is a certain amount of nostalgia present here, and that changing anything would not help my still foundering relations with the rest of the Maverick Hunters on base." Signas turned and motioned towards the spot where Sigma II had always swam. "And if you get the chance, as I imagine you will, ask Hazil if he would be willing to bring Cain's goldfish back."

            X shook his head. "Do you know the story behind that goldfish, Signas?"

            Signas's stony silence was a very clear no to that. X sighed. "Remind me to tell you it sometime when we have more time. But yes, when I see Hazil, I'll mention it."

            Signas sighed and took his own hat off, setting it beside X's. X was surprised to see that Signas had a low cut head of corn blond hair on his head underneath that hat of his. "The operation was a success, X. The first wave of Hunters distracted the Mavericks as well as Sigma…and when the second wave arrived, the Mavericks responded in panic and discord. Just as planned…we needed only to shatter their sense of superiority and unity."

            X lowered his head a bit at that and said nothing.

            We won…but at a great cost, Signas. Not one you would understand.

            "What concerns me is what happened after Sigma took the bait and retreated." Signas continued, flexing his knuckles. His eyes became hard again. "Tell me, X…why is it that Zero would endanger the most crucial part of the mission, going after Sigma and destroying his base, by not taking you with him?? And why is it that you let that stop you? You had the coordinates as well." Signas leaned in closer towards X, setting his elbows on the desk. "X, the actions taken after the fall of the last Maverick Generals were irrational ones. Ones that demand explanation."

            Calmly, X lifted his head up and stared at Signas.

            "You don't understand what makes us the way we are…so I'll enlighten you." X leaned in towards the desk as well, letting his own weary eyes sharpen. "But you need a healthy dose of acceptance on your end, all right?"

            Signas nodded.

            "All right then." X chirped sharply. "Just days before, Zero suffered a horrendous blow to his psyche. One of the Mavericks Sigma had out on that field was a repeat…a female reploid named Iris. If that name doesn't ring a bell inside of that head of yours, I'll give you a hint; REPLIFORCE."

            Signas did catch the drift…the mention of Repliforce snapped in very clearly what had happened.

            "Iris was one of Repliforces' Maverick Hunter liason officers, wasn't she?"

            "She spent some time acting as a spotter for Zero and I during the Erasure Incident. But that's not what put Zero into a fit of depression."

            "Iris died at the end of the Fourth Maverick Uprising, didn't she?" Signas surmised quietly.

            "She was killed." X answered, lowering his head. "And though I've never gotten him to completely explain to me just what happened on the Final Weapon, I do know that to some degree, Zero was responsible for her passing. Seeing her again, seeing her now…It tore him apart. He's never forgiven himself for what happened to her, even to this very day. And after what happened out there today, that pain isn't going away."

            "He must have valued her friendship very much." Signas guessed.

            X smiled sadly. "No…more than that, Signas. He loved her."

            The silence enveloped them both again for several more seconds. Signas absorbed the news as best as he could, trying to maintain his emotionless expression. X noticed he was failing.

            "It's all right to feel sympathy for him." X added. "Lord knows I end up praying for his healing every other day. The guy's been through Hell and back, Signas. Hell and back, in more ways than you could ever dream of."

            "So why didn't he quit??" Signas asked. "If the fall of Repliforce and the guilt of Iris's death was so severe, why didn't he quit? Lesser reploids might even commit suicide from such a traumatic event."

            "Zero can't." X replied sadly. "He can't quit and he can't die. Three reasons. One is because of me…as long as I'm stuck here, so is he. No matter how bad the pain gets. Two, fighting is all he knows. It's all he can do, and it's the only thing that provides any sort of meaning in his life. If he resigned as a Hunter, he'd have no reason to live…and because so many people rely on us, he can't quit."

            "And the third reason?"

            "The third…" X began, then thought for a moment. "The third…has to be Sigma." He looked up. "And right now, that is the most important reason that is guiding his actions. Sigma." Signas nodded, waiting for X to continue. The Blue Bomber of 21XX waited a few moments, but finally did again. "We have fought against Sigma for 13 years now…more than a decade, Sigma has been fighting this stupid war against humanity and against the Maverick Hunters. And at times, I wonder if he continues it not for any lofty and ambitious goals…but merely because Zero and I are standing on the other side of the field."

            Signas blinked. "Like a feud?"

            "A vendetta might be more appropriate." X answered back. "And now…"

            He stared off beyond Signas, towards the window to the open world and the fading sunset. "Now, it might all end tonight."

            X tapped the side of his arm.

            "I could have gone, yes…but it wouldn't have been right, Signas. This is Zero's battle, and he was clear on that. There have been times I've had to face Sigma by myself…times I WANTED to face Sigma by myself. Zero deserves his chance as well."

            "But will he be able to do it himself??" Signas pressed. "This is Sigma we're talking about…and his new incarnation seemed especially dangerous."

            "There's one part of the formula of a warrior that you don't understand, Signas." X replied, finding it harder and harder to speak. It wasn't fear that leaked into his voice, but worry and concern. For Zero. "Emotion…I know that you're just now beginning to understand it, so I'll explain it as best as I can. There comes a time for a warrior when he is out there…that something happens. He snaps, loses it…loses all doubts, all fears, all restraints. All he sees is the enemy in front of him through a hazy line of sight. Rage. The rage of a warrior, Signas…fueled by emotion, driven by desperation and anguish. I've felt it myself, more times than I care to know. Each time I face it, it grows harder and harder to return from that state, more painful to do so." X looked across the table at Signas. "Zero is by far, a more capable fighter than I am. But he rarely taps into his true potential, whereas I'm forced to. He doesn't NEED that extra layer that his anger imbibes most of the time. But now…"

            "He's found that rage?" Signas guessed. He thought for a moment longer, then let his eyes widen. "You mean…because of Iris…"

            "Iris died today, for the second time in his life." X confirmed sadly, eyes watering a bit. "That is his rage. That is why he goes after Sigma now. And that's why I can't go."

            Signas shook his head. "I still don't understand…is it because you want to leave his vengeance to him alone?"

            Slowly, Mega Man X nodded his head. "Yeah…this is nobody's business but Zero's now."

            And as he finished saying that, he excused himself from the room and walked out the door, helmet on his head once again.

            Only when he was a safe distance away from Cain's old office did X's knees give out. He slumped onto the floor of the MHHQ hallway and pounded his fist on the floor, finally letting his sobs loose.

            Zero…What's happening to you??

            You can't be turning back, you can't be…Gods, I know it hurts, I KNOW it does…

            Don't lose yourself in that rage, Zero, please!!

            "Don't do this to me, Zero." X croaked out. "I lost you once, don't make me lose you again…"

            My friend…

            What are you turning into…

            Above on the surface, Wycost and his band of go-getters struggled to maintain a hold on their positions. As the clock dwindled down, the remaining Enhanceds showed far more dedication, tenacity, and desperation than they had in the beginning. There was only six of them left, thankfully…the initial assault force, as large as it was, had been armed mostly with melee class weapons, and Wycost and Pharaoh Man had managed to make short work of a lot of them from a distance. Allegro and Doan had had the harder go of it, being thrown into multiple duels and hoping beyond hope that the shooters of their team were watching their backs.

            And right at that moment, the last six were ignoring Wycost and Pharaoh Man completely, their attentions focused on the struggling Allegro and a grimfaced Doan, both twirling their weapons about in a furious attempt to hold of the charging six warriors that were slowly encircling them.

            Wycost cursed and checked his energy gauges. "Damnit…25% Narwhal Striker, 10% Strobe Flash?? Sonofabitch." He switched back to his normal X-Buster and shook his head. "These bastards don't know when to quit."

            "Considering the timeframe we're running on, I don't blame them." Pharaoh Man replied, bringing his hands together. "But I'm not about to let them win because they have gumption." A slow whine filled the air, and a tiny node of orange light appeared between Pharaoh Man's palms.

            Wycost aimed and fired a level 2 green sizzler towards the pack of Enhanceds. His blast burned away at one of the fighters' EM shields, then dissipated. "Damnit, should have made that one stronger."

            "Stronger, eh?" Pharaoh Man mused, shaking his head. The pinprick of light between his hands expanded to the size of a baseball. "Stronger I can do. But I don't want to do it."

            Wycost's Enhanced target finally turned around and noticed the Bronx Bomber and Pharaoh Man standing off from a distance, in perfect alignment to pick off targets. He shouted out an order and three more turned away from the battle, charging towards them.

            "Terrific." Wycost growled, charging up another blast. "Just what I didn't need."

            "Tell me Wycost, how can you live with yourself??" Pharaoh Man asked abruptly, his mind seemingly aloof as his Pharaoh Shot grew to the size of a volleyball. The Bronx Bomber blinked a few times, then shook his head.

            "What do you mean? You mean, how can I go on living my life, even though I'm killing humans?"

            "Precisely." Pharaoh Man asked. "By pure definition, those actions are considered Maverick…are they not? And even though I know we're doing this for a damned good reason, and that this won't kill me like it should…How can I justify it?"

            "You're asking me to help you make peace with your heart." Wycost grumbled back. "That I can't do too easily. And just how large are you making that shot?"

            "Just distract them…I'll take care of the rest." Pharaoh Man grunted, lifting his hands above his head just as the energy sphere grew to the size of a coffee table. "But you still haven't answered my question."

            The Enhanced humans came ever closer…probably not more than 100 feet distant and making good time.

            "I can't really provide a pure answer." Wycost shrugged, flipping down his sunglare visor again and accessing his subweapons menu. His Buster shimmered for a moment, then sighed in resignation and highlighted one of its datanodes with a fluorescent light. "I quit the Maverick Hunters because I didn't see the point anymore. I left afterwards because I was tired of taking life needlessly."

            "But that's what we're doing here!" Pharaoh Man argued.

            "Wrong." Wycost growled. "We're preserving life. Reploid life. If Ice Beacon succeeds, we're all fucked."

            60 feet…

            "That's a clear case of contradiction if ever I heard one." Pharaoh Man snorted. "Save the reploid race and murder humans?"

            "Murder implies innocence of the victim." Wycost snapped back. "These guys aren't innocent, they're cold-blooded fanatical maniacs. The lot of them. And the Enhanced humans are warriors who have taken extra steps to ensure their success in their so-called 'holy war'."

            Pharaoh Man smiled a bit and shrugged, letting his energy orb expand even more, to the size of a medium sized refrigerator. "It seems to me then that you could apply that same reasoning as to why it's all right for Maverick Hunters to kill Mavericks."

            20 feet…

            "In the end, you can always find a reason to damn yourself." Wycost finished, clucking his tongue. "The trick to life and living is this, Pharaoh Man. DON'T guilt trip yourself. Just do what you feel is right."

            The Enhanced humans finally charged down on them all, and Wycost lifted his Buster. In one final flash of blinding light, Wycost stunned the foursome and ceased their attack. At that, he jumped back and shook his head. "They're all yours, Golden Boy!"

            "So…what I feel is right?" Pharaoh Man mused, pulling his hands down beside him with the brilliant energy orb finally expanding to the size of a car. The air filled with the scream of his shot at its maximum size, and the robot bared his teeth. "SO BE IT!!!"

            He launched his shot, boring it down on the lot of the scrambling Enhanceds. In less than a second, they vanished. Their EM shields collapsed under the intense strain of heat focused plasma, and their flesh and bodies gave out even quicker.

            The shot passed on, burning a long driving course through the ice before finally dissipating in strength and fading away. No Enhanceds in front of him, and a long burned in streak in the ice.

            Slowly, Pharaoh Man lowered his hands, looking sadly at where the humans had once stood.

            "We make our own choices in life. My only sadness now…is that you chose a blind hatred."

            Pharaoh Man said nothing then, allowing Wycost to walk up beside him and place an arm on his shoulder.

            Wycost looked over to Allegro and Doan, watching as the two warriors easily toppled their own opponents, freed of the bulk. "So, you figured it out?" Wycost asked softly.

            "Yeah." Pharaoh Man said in reply, looking up to the sky. "Does it ever get any easier to kill?"

            "Never does." Wycost answered.

            Pharaoh Man nodded, his eyes still sad. "Good."

            At least…At least I'm still human.

            And at that, the Robot Master smiled. The irony of that statement hit home all too easily. Wycost lifted an eyebrow as he looked down at Phare.

            "What's so funny?"

            "Semantics." Pharaoh Man said curtly. "Now come on. I don't know how much time we have left to kill this thing, but it can't be long." He charged on ahead, plodding through the icy fields with tremendous leaps.

            Wycost clucked his tongue and engaged his dash thrusters at maximum speed, shooting behind the Robot Master he now called friend.

            "Let's just hope that Bristol, Bastion, and Willow managed to hold up their end of this deal." He muttered quietly to himself.

            Or none of this will matter at all.

            Bastion had had enough…a substantial gash across his chest armor later, he'd managed to eliminate another Enhanced human. Which left just the one. Still, that one was proving very annoying. And Bastion was already hurting.

            "One minute and thirty seconds until signal launch…"

            "Goddamnit, ENOUGH!!" Bastion growled, pushing himself towards his opponent and disengaging his beam staff into his two sabers. The Enhanced human registered a moment of surprise, but was quick to get back on his feet and block away Bastion's blows.

            I don't have time for this, I don't have TIME…

            Subconsciously, Bastion activated his Angel's Advantage flight armor. The Enhanced human jumped away in surprise, his winterproofed coat flaring out from the sudden motion.

            In a blink of light, the stored saber charge pack on Bastion's backside expanded outwards a bit and opened two side slots. In a flaring of further dazzling light, Bastion's wings expanded.

            In the dim light, they shone almost as if carrying the light of heaven…expanding out and curling into a natural shape that would put most birds to shame. Only as their glow dimmed down did the emblazoned lightning bolt along the axes of the wings appear. Bastion gave his familiar enhancement a test flap, then settled on the ground and glared at the Enhanced human.

            "Enough of this." Bastion growled, forcing one of his wings to curl about and point forward. "You have done ENOUGH!!"

            The Enhanced human took another wary step back, then charged forth with a powerful scream. Bastion narrowed his eyes and fired a low pulse blast from his wing, the bolt of lightning less potent than usual. Still, considering the target it was used against, it had a similar effect.

            The Enhanced agent was thrown back full force from the crippling blast of electrical energies, twitching as his EM shield flared into existence for a brief moment, then died out in a blink. Calmly, Bastion drew his wing back into its normal position and shook his head.

            "Your time is up…and so is the time of your organization." The Enhanced human collapsed against the wall, still shaking from the power of Bastion's attack. In one swift movement, Bastion swept towards him, sabers raised for one final strike.

            Moments before Bastion applied the final crosscut upon his foe and destroyed the threat to his life, the Enhanced human's eyes rolled back into their sockets, registering the unnatural speed of Bastion's charge and the impending danger upon him. The MI9 agent tested his leg…only to find it electrocuted and unresponsive. The nerves were shot. His arms, however, still obeyed his orders. Calmly, the MI9 agent pulled his beam staff to bear and threw the front blade in front of him.

            It was over in less than a second. Bastion's airborne saber strike eliminated the last Enhanced human in the room with deadly efficiency. Only then did the Desert Angel's grip on his weapons falter.

            Gritting his teeth against the burning pain, Bastion forced himself to maintain control over his mentally activated flight armor, pulling back and away. The beam staff that had pierced his upper leg so readily growled menacingly one last time before shutting itself off, leaving a gaping hole clear and present.

            "DAMN…Damn him…" Bastion rasped, sucking in a pained breath through his teeth. His injured leg dangled with only shreds of synthskin and partially melted underskeletal structure intact…the blood vessels running down to his boots long since burst and seared shut. No bleeding…but he had a dead limb.

            With more pain than should have been, Bastion shut off his sabers and put them away, pulling one hand down to his now nearly severed leg to keep it attached. Not life threatening, at least not right away…but he'd need repairs soon or he wouldn't have a leg to speak of.

            Terrific. A flying cripple. What's Bristol going to say to that?? He mused bitterly.

            And then he stopped. Bristol.

            God, she went on alone…

            "One minute and ten seconds until signal transfer…"

            AND THE TIMER HASN'T STOPPED!!!

            Reploid adrenaline surged through Bastion's body, pushing the pain aside. Once more, the grim desperation of the situation grasped at him and forced everything else aside.

            In another brilliant crackle of artificial lightning, Bastion blew a hole through the sealed doorway preventing his exit from the duel arena. Down the hall he flew, as fast as he could…Then up a side shaft to the next floor, sub-basement 2. The same floor he had left Bristol to go on alone…The same floor with the shield emitter controls.

            One hand curled down and wrapped tightly around his dangling, almost severed leg, Bastion escaped the side shaft and flew down the main hallway.

            I'm coming, Bristol…I'M COMING!!!

            Hazil was not happy. Then again, seeing as he'd been deprived of a nice, cheerful chat with J.K. Horn, that was understandable. More so when one grasped that Hazil HATED having to report to the Emergency Room, just down the hall a ways from the Medical Bay.

            Where as the Medical Bay had homely touches and a personable air, the Emergency Room was cold and lifeless. The smell of antiseptic may have been the same, but the warmth of living souls that could be found in the décor of the Medical Bay didn't exist anywhere else. Here in the Emergency Room of the MHHQ, it was all cold and calculating machines, operating tables and a massive side room of recovery cots.

            Hazil hated this place. The only time people came here was when they were about to die…or they were being brought back from the lip of it. Today, he had a wide variety of cases on his hands from the elite Hunters, the ones that had been sent out to deal with Sigma and his band of cronies. Considering all that had happened, they'd gotten off easy. And from a tactical standpoint, the standpoint of a historian, it had been a victory for the Hunters.

            But with that many Hunters dead and gone, never again to walk the halls or report in for checkups, it was no victory Hazil was proud of.

            J.K. Horn was beside the Chief Medical Officer, aiding him as best he knew how. Though Horn's knowledge was primarily focused in weapons development and machine engineering, he knew enough about the inner workings and the repair of reploids to serve as a capable nurse. The rest of the MHHQ medical staff was there as well, frazzled beyond all belief. The field medics were being given a true test of their abilities now, working furiously to save the lives of their fellow kin and soldiers.

            Through the noise of frantic commands for surgical gear and procedures and triage and the cries of those who were still awake enough to feel the pain surging through their circuits, Horn found it difficult to focus on any particular group. But Hazil seemed unfazed as he walked up beside three familiar faces; Jad, Kol, and Gavin of the 21st Unit under Bastion.

            Kol was the only one of the three left standing and unharmed. Gavin lay there, a crushed and mangled leg to his name and his body and mind separated in the blissful, life pausing state known as auto-stasis. Jad sat numbly on the edge of his operating table bed, cradling the stump of his arm. Kol stood between them, his face turning to Hazil.

            "They'd better make it, doc." He said gravely. "They'd better by God make it, or there'll be Hell to pay."

            "Give Hell where it's due, that's what I always say." Hazil sighed wearily. "My job is just to patch up the lot of you fuckers, not to place blame or to take it. And keep your malpractice suits to yourself. I've been doing this for more than a decade, so if something goes wrong it ain't my fault." He brought his medical scanner over Gavin and shook his head. "The guy's leg is shot to Hell, but the rest of him is fine. And seeing as I don't feel much like replacing limbs today, I'll put in the extra time to restore his current one back to working order." Hazil turned and looked over to Jad. "And how's my favorite hotshot doing today?"

            "Missing an arm and mad as a hornet." Jad slurred, struggling to bring his head up to bear. "Si…gma is gonna pay for what he did."

            "Knowing that guy, he's got X and Zero riding his carcass as we speak." Hazil shrugged. "Don't worry about it." He turned to Kol. "Where's the rest of his arm??"

            Kol calmly handed over the severed limb, and Hazil gave it a passing glance before handing it back to Horn. He turned to Jad and tsked.

            "Jad my boy, I love you to death, but I'm afraid I need you unconscious for this procedure."

            "I know…Should be sleeping right now, but I didn't wanna." Jad added dozily.

            Hazil harrumphed with a small grin. "You disabled auto-stasis, didn't you you cocky bastard?"

            "Daaamn straight." Jad grinned. He leaned back on the bed and closed his eyes. "But now…I think a nap sounds good."

            A few eyeblinks later, Jad faded away into a self-induced stasis, shutting his primary systems into standby. Hazil sighed again and turned to Kol. "If you three don't take the cake, I don't know what does. Knowing Jad here, he tried to take on Sigma himself."

            Kol nodded his head once. Horn cleared his throat and gave Hazil back Jad's severed arm, still configured into its Buster form. The ex-Israeli weapons designer ran a finger along the cut.

            "Clean…way too clean. I'd wager a plasma blade of some kind, thin field distribution." Horn looked up to Kol. "Sigma must have had himself a real fine tuned dagger."

            "The plasma dagger you speak of came from a wrist gauntlet." Kol murmured back. Hazil blinked a few times, then nodded again.

            "Well, that'd definitely save on his recharge costs, having it linked to his main energy core." Hazil motioned to the door. "Now get out of here, Kol. What we have to do next isn't going to be pretty, and I don't want to ruin your notions and mental pictures of your teammates because you saw them with their wiring exposed."

            Kol nodded once and walked out a ways…but then paused, and turned back around, a sudden fury in his eyes.

            "Answer me this, Hazil." Kol stated bitterly. "When my friends were getting killed out there on that field by Sigma and those Maverick Generals…just where was Commander Bastion??"

            At that, Hazil paused and turned to look at Kol with icy eyes. "What, you want to blame him now too? Christ, you're shallow." Hazil put down his gear and walked over to Kol, looking angrier by the moment. "I KNOW where Bastion is. And what he's doing right now is more important than this stupid battle was, that I can personally guarantee. You were fighting to destroy Sigma and end the latest rash of violence from him. Bastion is out in the middle of nowhere, fighting to preserve our entire race. And chances are he's not coming back alive. So GODDAMNIT, DON'T come in here looking for someone to blame!!" Hazil poked Kol in the chest, causing the Hunter to stumble backwards with a confused and slightly frightened look on his face. "News flash, Kol. You EXIST in a place and in an organization where there's a high risk factor that you won't come back the next morning. You ACCEPTED that when you joined, or at least I thought you had! Sometimes, there's nobody at fault when a person dies. This is one of these times. I understand you're frustrated, that I can accept. Hell, I've got more than a DECADE of frustration pent up in here, and if there was some way to measure how much force I've been saving up, I imagine that it'd blow up Mount Fuji. But when you start looking for someone to blame, somebody to get angry at that is a friend and comrade, THEN YOU'VE OVERSTEPPED THE LINE." Hazil's face was beginning to get red, as his own frustration finally found an outlet. "Bastion is a good man, and you know that. It's not his damn fault Jad hotdogged Sigma, it's not his damn fault Gavin's foot is crushed!! And your wanting to play him as the scapegoat does nothing to enhance your own reputation, AND YOU KNOW THAT."

            Hazil's head of steam evaporated moments later, after he had calmed down and stepped away from Kol. The Maverick Hunter now wore a look of guilt on his face, his face downcast.

            "Yeah. Yeah, I do." Kol looked up, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Haz. I should know better than to blow off like that. It's just that Jad and Gavin are like that…and Bastion's not even here to visit them. I got upset."

            "We all do at some point." Hazil said wearily. "Apology accepted, kid. Now get out of here. The healthy have no business among the suffering."

            "Then what are you doing here?" Kol argued turning to walk out the door, but keeping his face trained on Hazil.

            The medical reploid brushed back his gray and frazzled hair, looking older than any reploid ever should have had to.

            "What makes you think I'm not?" Hazil finally said, in the quietest tone the Hunter had ever heard him use.

            Not one to wait for Hazil to elaborate, Kol nodded his head in acceptance and walked out of the Emergency Room. Hazil turned about and walked back towards Gavin and Jad, shaking his head.

            Horn whistled appreciatively, crossing his arms.

            "Remind me never to get on your bad side." The other elderly reploid said calmly.

            "There was a time you once were." Hazil answered back, turning his attention back to his charges. "And then Sigma's Sixth happened. Acceptance followed soon after. As we are now, I even have you drinking with me. And that's enough to call you friend."

            "Good to hear that." Horn chuckled. "Old reploids like us shouldn't be without good friends and good company."

            "Hell, X is older than us." Hazil snorted. "We just LOOK the part."

            "Good enough for me." Horn replied. He paused for a moment, then shook his head. "I don't suppose you have any inkling how our…friends are doing with their own little mission, do you?"

            Hazil was already opening up Gavin's leg and pulling in surgical gear from left and right. "Horn, if I knew that, I'd quit being a doctor and take up a job as a psychic." He turned and motioned for Horn to come closer. "But for the time being, I'll leave them to their own devices. They have their mission, and I have my job. And worrying about them isn't going to keep these people alive now, is it??"

            "I suppose not." Horn shrugged. He handed Hazil a portable matter replicator that was used to repair atomized internal wiring and circuitry.

            "Besides…" Hazil mused calmly, grabbing the device from Horn and beginning the messy process of repairing Gavin's crushed leg, "If they failed, we'll know soon enough. When the lot of us begin frothing at the mouth and seeing enemies that aren't there."

            "Lousy way to figure out a victory or a loss." Horn muttered under his breath.

            Hazil subconsciously nodded his head.

            But it's the only one we got…

            Bristol, don't let us down.

            Bristol didn't feel Kowalski's beam trident impale her onto the wall of the shield emitter control room…in fact, as she opened her eyes, she realized the felt nothing. And for that matter, her environment had changed as well. No longer was she slumped against the floor and wall of a cold, ice constructed room, but rather standing in an endless horizon of white. She shook her head for a moment, realizing that she was standing on nothing and still maintaining balance.

            "What…" She murmured, looking about. "Where am I?"

            "You're nowhere." The reply came, quiet but assertive. Bristol turned about to find herself staring at a familiar face, still dressed in the same white loose fitting garb.

            "Isaiah??"

            The ghost smiled and nodded his head, putting a hand into his pants pocket. "Seemed like you needed a break there. I haven't done much…and you're still where you were a microsecond ago."

            "So just what have you done?"

            "In short…I pulled your consciousness to an alternate plane of reality. One not limited by the rules of the Universe, but guided by my mind." Isaiah said matter-of factly. "You might call this my little corner of space and time. Well, I suppose not so much mine as everyone's, but still."

            Isaiah walked over next to Bristol and looked her square in the face, an easy task considering they were the same height. "Ya know, I thought I had told you once already that Ice Beacon isn't 100% guaranteed to work."

            Bristol's face went crestfallen again. "But…There's not enough time. There isn't. And Willow and Bastion are…And Wycost and the others…"

            "So, you trust the words of a zealot now, do you?" Isaiah harrumphed. "Come on, Bristol. You're a scientist. Think objectively."

            "If I thought objectively, I'd discount your existence entirely." Bristol retorted with no humor. "So you mean to tell me that Kowalski was lying??"

            "To a point." Isaiah shrugged. The ghost rubbed at his chin. "But you're not through yet and neither is the reploid race. Provided that you realize one very important thing and hold to it."

            "What?"

            "Nobody can tell you if you're going to succeed or fail BUT YOU." Isaiah stated firmly, pointing a finger at her. "Sure, right now you're thinking that it's all over with. A little more than a minute until Ice Beacon transmits the UBF and the entire world population of reploids flips out. You think you're beaten, defeated by a commander who albeit does his job very well, is only human. It's far from over, Bristol. And the moment you realize THAT, then your mission does stand a chance."

            Isaiah turned about and started walking off. Bristol lifted a hand up, trying to reach towards him.

            "Wait! Isaiah, where are you going??"

            "Back where I belong. The realm of the dead and the watchers." Isaiah grumbled. "I swear, you and your little cadre of friends, Wycost especially, have caused me more grief in my afterlife than I ever thought possible…guess that's what I get for opting to be a field agent." Isaiah paused, then turned about. "Your place, my dear, is among the living. Remember that. And never forget…this thing can only fail if YOU choose it to."

            Isaiah turned about and kept walking. Bristol remained there in the bright light, watching his already transparent form begin to grow dimmer and formless.

            And then she blinked…And found herself right where she had been before.

            Kowalski's beam trident was soaring down towards her midsection, the triumphantly grinning MI9 commander poised for the kill. In her eyes, Bristol registered panic, fear, and sudden alertness. But above all else, she felt a resurgence of strength in her…A chance to once again change the outcome that been all but predetermined.

            No…No, you won't win…DAMNIT, NO!!!

            Her beam saber came up, flaring to life instantaneously underneath her supple and poised fingers. She laid it at an angle, catching his trident between the pointed forks and forcing it back. The Ice Beacon commander grunted in surprise, finding himself struggling now to force his weapon into his foe.

            Bristol looked up, her eyes partially hidden by misplaced stands of her long blond hair. But Kowalski could see enough to register the sudden spark of life in her blazing blue orbs, the return of that potent fire…the will that came when one was fighting for their life.

            "No." Bristol uttered quietly, shaking her head. "No, you're not doing this."

            "Damnit, you reploid scum…" Kowalski growled bitterly, trying to overpower her. Bristol's body tensed up, her teeth gritted as her own body's meager strength tried to compensate for the greater force being put upon her. "Just die already!!"

            A low snarl rose up from deep within Bristol as she pulled one leg up and pointed the heel of her boot towards him.

            "YOU FIRST." She rasped, igniting her boot's dash thrusters. Kowalski had no chance.

            The burst of synthesized hydrogen flames burst on his torso like water to an unwilling cat, immolating him in a swathing sea of flames. His uniform had been designed to keep the cold out, but held very little for fire resistance. Screaming at the top of his lungs, Kowalski stumbled back, tearing off the burning garments despite the fact the damage had been done.

            It took him a few more moments, probably due to shock and his adrenaline, to notice that even with his parka removed, his interior clothing had been burned away, leaving massive third degree burns on his entire chest and stomach.

            Calmly, Bristol picked herself up to her feet and stood over him as he crumpled onto the floor. "The flames from a reploid's Emergency Acceleration System are hot enough to blow away most members of our own species. This is the damage a half powered blast does to a human."

            Kowalski coughed, his body shaking as it dealt with the sudden cold and the excruciating pain of the burn. "Damn…" He coughed up a lungful of blood, then reached for his beam trident.

            Bristol's foot smashed down on his hand and his weapon, crushing both into uselessness. Kowalski screamed again, even more painfully now as he felt bones shatter. And then Bristol stared into his face once more.

            "The reploid race is not extinct, and it will not be for any time soon. Ice Beacon WILL fall, Kowalski. And your mission of hatred and genocide has been ended."

            Kowalski looked up at her, face filled with pain, but also with a smile of triumph.

            "Fool…" He chuckled. "Even…if Ice Beacon…others still…will be around to…continue our work…"

            Bristol's mouth twinged in disgust, and she swung her saber down, severing his head from his neck and ending his suffering. That done with, she put her saber away and walked over to his discarded plasma assault cannon.

            "One thing at a time, Kowalski. Ice Beacon first."

            She powered up the gun, feeling the energies coalesce within as it whined from its muzzle. In one brilliant flash of light and a piercing beam of white hot accelerated gas given release, the room's control panels linked to Ice Beacon's shield emitter exploded into pieces.

            "One minute until signal transfer…be advised, shield emitter is offline. Shield emitter is offline."

            Bristol could weep for relief…except she knew the job wasn't done yet.

            The transmitter dish carved out of the Antarctic ice itself had yet to be destroyed, and that meant getting to it and helping the rest of their struggling teammates blasting it to ice cubes. If there was anybody up on top left to save…

            At that moment, Bastion appeared in the room, bursting through the hallway at a reckless speed.

            "Thank God." He exhaled, shaking his head. Slowly, Bristol turned about, his familiar voice further giving her cause for relief. But then she took a second look at him and gasped.

            One of his legs had nearly fallen off, and he was clutching at it with his right hand, doing his best not to let it snap completely away. His face was grave and pale, showing the pain he tried to hide. At the same time…his eyes shone with the same relief Bristol felt.

            "You stupid bloke." Bristol finally managed to choke out, running over to him and hugging him as he floated a few centimeters above the ground. "Don't ever do that to me again…"

            "Wasn't planning on it." Bristol chuckled softly, pulling her head against his chest. "Sounds like you managed to disable the shield emitter." He poked his head up from her sweet smelling blond hair and blinked at the room's condition. "Looks like it too."

            "We don't have time." Bristol said after a moment, pulling back from him. "We need to get to the surface, and I don't trust warping."

            "Why not??"

            "Their security might have been bolstered up a few hundred more notches. You want to risk getting your molecules scrambled, be my guest. But MI9 was rarely one to cut corners around paranoia." Bristol picked up Kowalski's plasma cannon and pointed it towards the ceiling. "I'm afraid we're going to have to take a more direct route to get to the surface."

            Bastion chuckled for a moment and pointed his wings to the ceiling as well. "What little charge I do have left in these things I'll gladly offer."

            Bristol walked back over to Bastion and leapt up into his remaining arm, kissing him on the cheek. "Let's get out of here…there's still a transmitter to destroy!"

            Bastion's wings exploded in radiant lightning once again, blasting away the ceiling and clearing a path. At the same time, Bristol lifted her plasma cannon to the sky and fired, clearing a straighter path from Bastion's widespread burst.

            Chunks of ice and rivulets of water crashed down on them, remains of the ice that hadn't been instantly vaporized by the intensity of their attack. Bristol winced and increased the power on her cannon, setting it to continuous pulse. But even that didn't make up for it after a while, as Bastion's Angel's Advantage wings began to give out.

            "Fifty seconds until signal launch…"

            "DAMNIT!!!" Bastion cursed, shaking his head. "It's no good, Bristol. The power supply on my flight armor is going to run out!!"

            "Oh no it's not." Bristol growled, pulling the trigger of her cannon even tighter. "When I designed it, I figured that you might one day need to make the Flight Armor a permanent part of your battle gear. Connect it to your main power supply and STAND BACK!!"

            Bastion blinked a few times, then shut his eyes and accessed his internal systems menu, eyelids fluttering as he rearranged the command line codes.

            Switch Angel's Advantage power supply from self-sustaining to main system feed.

            Confirm?? Y/N?

            Confirm.

            Please wait…readjusting supply matrix…

           

            He didn't have long to wait. Moments before his waning battery life would have caused his flight armor to shut down completely, he could feel a new connection being made from the storage pack underneath his saber recharge ports to the rest of his body, causing his back to arch for a brief moment. But that brief pinprick of pain as the Angel's Advantage forged a connection with his internal power supply sent by his microfusion generator was worth it…

            In a brilliant blast of light, his wings glittered brighter than they ever had before, causing the lightning bolts to go nearly invisible for a brief moment before they returned blazing a brilliant blue against the blinding whiteness. And then the lightning strike of his bipolar wing blasters surged again…five times as powerful, and intensely more focused. Bristol's singular beam of pulsing plasma was suddenly joined by the furious power of millions of watts unleashed. A tunnel to the surface and sky above suddenly began to take shape, ten feet wide and growing vertically at ten meters a second.

            Bastion whooped in glee, ignoring the pain in his nearly severed leg in that moment. "Bristol, you are AMAZING!!"

            Bristol wrapped her arm tighter around his neck and curled in closer to his body, holding fast to her flying angel.

            "Just amazing enough." She smiled, looking into his eyes for one long moment.

            And then the two of them turned to the fast shrinking ceiling and the tunnel of their manufacture…and shot up towards their final challenge.

            Wycost could hardly believe what he saw. One moment he was trailing behind Pharaoh Man and approaching Doan and Allegro by the edge of the impenetrable EM field barrier guarding the Ice Beacon transmitter, and the next the field began to hum at an angry rate before vanishing entirely. He skidded to a halt beside Doan and blinked at the sight of the intricate carving work that had been poured into the transmitter.

            "The shield's down?" Wycost gaped in amazement. Doan frowned, as he usually did and leapt up into the air, pushing his new Archangel flight armor into motion again. In one swift movement, he pushed himself past where the barrier had been…then turned about and flashed a thumbs up.

            "Shield is down, Wycost." Doan confirmed, with some sign of relief in his voice.

            "Then let's take this bird DOWN!!" Allegro whooped, dash jumping into the concave hemisphere and sliding down the frictionless side. He whipped his beam staff out and carved a deep gash alongside his path, grinning like an insane fool. Meanwhile, Doan also began his assault, putting his beam lance away and activating his Buster, blasting shot after shot of hot plasma along the ice transmitter's surface, pockmarking it and ruining the transmitter quality.

            "It seems this mission was not as doomed as originally thought." Pharaoh Man harrumphed with a smile, bringing his hands together and charging up another massive oversized globe of plasmic energy.

            Wycost flipped his goggles up, finally letting his triumphant eyes see their objective untained.

            "No…no, it most certainly isn't." He accessed his variable weapons grid, selecting one of his special weapons. The data node for his Narwhal Striker lit up again, and Wycost aimed into the sky, charging up for a moment and mentally assigning a target to the missiles, two to be exact.

            With two slight concussions, Wycost unloaded the last of his explosive stock, the two missiles rising up into the air before turning downwards at an angle and crashing at midway along the exterior rim, blasting the portion of the transmitter into shreds. A few moments later, he switched over to his normal plasma function and also began furiously pelting away at the surface. And then the above ground speakers finally crackled to life, surprising them all.

            "Forty five seconds until signal transfer…warning. Outer transmitter has taken severe damage. Backup transmitter now being activated."

            Every warrior suddenly pulled back away from the transmission dish carved out of the ice, their senses alert after the announcement. Allegro finished his halfpipe roll, dash jumping out of the curved surface and keying in his comm.

            "What the Hell…WHAT BACKUP!?"

            Wycost and Doan grew more thin lipped, Allegro looked stunned, and Pharaoh Man remained mute, continuing to build up his charge, the blast already so large that it dwarfed him twice over.

            And then Ice Beacon revealed its last surprise. The ground beneath their feet suddenly began to shake, and the carved ice dish quivered and crumbled.

            Before their eyes, a metallic behemoth, the same size as the object they had been struggling to destroy rose from an icy tomb, standing erect and proud, and a hundred times more menacing.

            "Oh, Sweet Christ no…" Wycost whispered, taking a step back. "Don't tell me…"

            Angrily, Doan fired off a level 3 supershot towards the rim of the dish. The blow sunk in, yet showed little signs of giving way. He cursed.

            "DAMNIT!!!"

            Wycost cringed as well.

            Not TitaniTefloAlloy, thank God…that stuff is impossible to blow…but it's nearly as bad.

            "And just what is the composition of THAT particular little number?" Pharaoh Man chirped candidly, leaping high into the air and hurling his massive sunburst at the center of the concave dish. The high intensity plasma seared through the air and sunk into the bowl, melting away the tiny whiplike antennae that rose up fifty feet from the higher outer rims. Back with the ice transmitter, that tiny piece of metal rising five feet from the surface had been all that had been visible. Only now did the monster reveal itself…and it was a monster.

            Pharaoh Man's tremendous blow angrily ate away at its surface…and when it was done, it had left it tarnished and melted at parts, portions of the high durability metal unrecognizeable. But the basic shape was there, and with that still existing, the countdown went on.

            "DAMNIT!!" Allegro screamed over the comm channel. "What's that shit made of?!"

            "High strength durasteel." Wycost whistled through his teeth, flipping his sunglare goggles down and building up a Buster charge of his own. "Goddamn high strength durasteel."

            The ground level communications box almost seemed to laugh at them and their pitiful efforts as it continued the countdown.

            "Thirty seconds until signal launch…"

            Somebody traveling along the icy length of Greenland's surface would not have suspected that anything was wrong. Sure, they might have wondered why a warp signature would crash down through the earth and ice below, closely followed by another not long after…but all in all, they would have suspected little.

            Certainly not that the Maverick King Sigma and the Crimson Hunter Zero Omega were fifty feet below, fighting each other for life and death. And not just for their own, but perhaps for the fate of every human and reploid and robot that walked the Earth. In a battle that had never ended, but merely been postponed countless times for thirteen years, they fought on. But somehow, so much more seemed at stake.

            Sigma grunted, jumping backwards and flaring his arms outwards, his shoulder racks launching a barrage of concussive missiles. The short-ranged berserkers flew on towards the rampaging Zero, scattering around him and exploding. Countless glowing green liquid filled regeneration tubules in the bases' Reconstruction Bay shattered apart, glass and polymer shards crisscrossing in every direction from the billowing clouds of minute plasma discharge and the burning scent of ozone, melding with a surge of matter rich liquid given release.

            From that maelstrom, Zero charged out, saber held to the side for a fraction of a moment before it swung out with a mighty hiss. Sigma's red eyes spread wide as he whipped his own plasma blade against Zero's slash, grunting as the force of the blow sent him sprawling backwards against another regeneration capsule, cracking the toughened plasteel polymers with a spiraling spider web design. Green liquid began to seep out from the mess, eagerly dribbling to the floor and draining down with the rest of its bubbling kin through the grated floor.

            Zero screamed again, leaping into the air and spinning like a top, holding his saber parallel to his body and creating a spinning wheel of death. Sigma lifted up his TitaniTefloAlloy claws just in time, catching Zero's blow and stopping the spin cold. But the Maverick King had no time to gloat, as the furious warrior suddenly jumped in midair and prepared to downthrust his saber. Sigma's eyes widened, wondering for a moment if Zero still held the power of the Hyouretsuzan within his weapon, but was thankfully proven wrong. Growling angrily, Sigma backflipped over the cracked regeneration capsule and roundhouse kicked, catching Zero square in the stomach with no chance to defend. The Crimson Hunter almost sounded like he was coughing up a lung for a moment as the force of the blow carried him across the room and slammed him headfirst into a display panel that was monitoring the status of all the capsules in the room. Zero bellowed like a bull as the electricity from the shattered monitor surged through his head and body, taking a quivering and unstable fist and punching against the barrier, knocking himself free of it.

            Sigma stood back up to his full height, taking a few breaths of air to calm himself from his state of fear. With Zero writhing on the floor in the grip of that system numbing electricity, he could have a moment…but probably no more than that.

            He can't be…no, he can't be the same. The only time he was ever like that was when the Virus was inside of him, more than thirteen years ago…This is just his frustration and grief, that's all it is…

            And then a voice in Sigma's head chuckled, appearing when the frenzied Maverick King needed it least.

            Stop fooling yourself. You can see it as clear as day. Just like you said Sigma, he was never truly rid of me…I was just dormant in his systems. In a way, I can finally applaud you. A year before, you broke his spirit and caused him to open up to the deepest portions of his rage…a rage that he eventually fought himself out of, subduing me in the process.

            No…shut up, it can't be…

            I thought he'd never give into me again, after that…he'd vented so much, he had found the strength and resolve to push me into a corner, to fight for X and to fight to keep everyone else safe. He stopped fighting for rage and for pain and vengeance then…But you gave that back to him just now. Iris is dead. You teased him about it, you tortured him over it. And that was what he needed.

            Inside of Sigma's head, the Maverick whimpered as the presence took form, shaping itself into an ominous looking man with an unclear face and wild white hair in a dirty lab coat.

            He's fighting it…Oh, I can see it on his face, Sigma. He's fighting it, trying to push back that rage again. His sanity is fighting against his emotions now, as it has done before countless times.

            SHUT UP!!! Sigma screamed at himself. He's going to kill me, he's going to…

            Zero's body finally recovered from the devastating pulses, and the Crimson Hunter pulled himself to his feet, a hazy and dulled look to his eyes, and murder still clear on his face. His saber rose up and he grasped it in both hands, staring at Sigma once more with bared teeth and a growl that went beyond mere hearing.

            This time, Sigma…this time, he won't win. He can't. Sanity tells him that the rage he is slipping into will lead him to destruction and back to me. At the same time, his emotions scream the opposite…and it is his emotions that caused him to come here. His grief, his vengeance, his hatred of you…those are what drove him here, what tell him now to pick up that old saber of yours and strike you down where you stand. It's a sweet, sweet elixir, forbidden juice he's being tempted with…and the tart zip is too much for him to pass up.

            Sigma could scream for his fate, hearing from the accursed Virus that was a part of him that Zero's true self was once more being brought forth and that he was the cause of it, and seeing for himself the power and ruthlessness that form brought his adversary.

            "Why…" Zero hissed, the internal battle being fought evident in the struggling on his face. "Why are you doing this to me…Why do you WANT me to go mad?!"

            Sigma righted himself and stared at Zero, his mouth hung open as the madman realized he did not have an answer. Not one that wouldn't further enrage the Hunter more than he already was. In the end, there was nothing he could say, he'd already said it all.

            Heh…now you get it. You took him this far, Sigma. Under my guidance, you have driven him to grief and to rage. There's nothing you can do to reverse it now.

            Why…why must you do this to me?!

            Because you are my instrument and my reach. The Virus sneered. Your existence means little to me, unless it ensures my own. Ii desu yo, my dear Sigma.

            "DAMNIT!!!" Sigma screamed, firing another set of missiles towards Zero. The Crimson Hunter responded again, crashing himself low to the ground and activating his dash thrusters, barely escaping the cacophonic explosion.

            "SIGMA!!!" Zero screamed, his saber swinging out once more towards Sigma's stomach. The Maverick King cursed underneath his breath, pushing both of his weapons down to the attack. His lash blunted, Zero struck out, swinging a boot around and slamming it into the side of Sigma's head as he hung in midair. The Maverick grunted, stumbling to the side for a moment before he growled and grabbed Zero's foot, feeling an almost soothing rage return to him. Fear left Sigma in that fraction of time, and only anger remained.

            "Nice try, bastard." Sigma growled, meaning every word of it as he flung Zero behind him, crashing the Hunter through the thin hydraulic door and into the kitchen and dining room area with a thud and cry of pain. Sigma curled his fingers in anticipation, launching another full barrage of missiles into the dimly lit room. They all flew on, leaving wispy smoke trails before passing by the doorway…and exploding with a resounding crash. From the kitchen came a louder secondary explosion…the missiles had taken the natural gas tanks in the room, the blast causing a surge of hot and angry flames to flash out of the doorway like dragon's breath. Sigma cringed and recoiled back from the explosion, taking a sigh of relief. That had to have shut Zero down.

            How wrong he could be…

            The interior of the kitchen reacted to the sudden presence of smoke and flames, triggering the ventilation system and the sprinklers to douse the fire. And then, as the ventilators cut out after the smoke cleared, the unmistakable noise of rubble being moved came out from the ruined portion of Sigma's underground facility.

            In the darkness of the ruined kitchen, a monster rose.  His eyes glowed bright red, and his green beam saber seemed to whistle for the blood yet to be tasted.

            Sigma stood tall, pushing everything aside, tired of fighting against the laughing voice of the old madman in his head. He simply let himself listen to it, as he had done so many times before. Freed of the fear of his old self, phased completely with the delicious words and comforting presence of the Virus inside of him, Sigma smirked.

            "So…the Demon rises again."

            Zero said nothing, standing there in the darkness with his smouldering eyes burning towards his foe. So focused on those transfixing eyes was Sigma that he didn't catch the plinking sound bouncing towards him until a glint of light from the surviving monitors behind him caught an object rolling his way. Surprised, Sigma looked down, feeling surprise wash over him not long after. Cursing, he jumped backwards from the object, a Rakuhouha high plasmic fragmentation explosive.

            In a brilliant burst of light and flying plasma spheres, the room shattered apart from the strain, metal walls and ceilings giving way easily to the furious special weapon Zero had inherited from the Fourth Maverick Uprising. Sigma roared out as he was thrown to the floor, unharmed by the blast but feeling icy cold water suddenly trickle onto his head from the holes in the ceiling…water that came from the ice above him.

            Quickly, he pulled himself to his feet, swerving about to stare at the doorway. It was then that the last of the lights in the room went out…and Sigma realized that those smouldering eyes no longer watched him from the destroyed ruins of the kitchen.

            From behind him, Sigma picked up a low, malevolent chuckle. The Maverick King swerved about, slashing angrily with his plasma gauntlet's blade. He hit nothing…prompting only another low and plotting chuckle from another location in the room.

            "You always did end up missing the mark…" Zero's voice, somehow hollower than Sigma could ever remember hearing it. "You kill my friends, my loved ones, people I care about…but you always miss me. You may be a plotting, conniving bastard with visions of grandeur, but your aim is worthless."

            "Damn you!!" Sigma swore, slashing out at the darkness again. For a moment, he thought he saw the briefest glimpse of a fluttering trail of blond hair…but then saw nothing again.

            Zero's throaty warble became audible again, and Sigma's blood curdled. This game of cat and mouse was more than annoying, and he HATED being the mouse.

            "Tell me…why do you kill them all, Sigma??" Zero asked, his voice bordering on a snarl. "Does it give you a rush?? A delicious forbidden thrill, to watch innocents and bystanders perish by your hand? Or is it that you have decided that the only way you can harm me is through the suffering of others?!"

            Sigma roared, launching a barrage of missiles throughout the scattered remains of the entire room, hoping that at least one would hit. In the brilliant light that resulted from his explosion, Sigma could see Zero avoiding every one, charging towards him with his saber ignited and flaring out in all directions. The Maverick Lord let out a brief cry of surprise, stumbling backwards as the bull mad Zero leapt onto him.

            The Crimson Hunter screamed bloody murder, issuing out slash after devastating slash at Sigma, each time the Maverick King barely managing to block them. But he continued to stumble back, holding out against Zero's furious assault. From the destroyed regeneration center, the two warriors fought on into the data library, walls lined with tall databanks and blinking status lights. The room was well lit with white fluorescent bars attached to the ceiling, but that changed moments later, as a furious Zero leapt up into the air, cleaving the light fixtures into shreds as he swung down towards Sigma's large head.

            Sigma had had enough of this, and he had had enough of Zero's insane antics.

            "Why won't you DIE?!" Sigma barked, slamming his TitaniTefloAlloy claws up with so much force that he jarred Zero loose from his attack and stumbling in his fall. With yet another smooth motion, the Maverick King roundhouse kicked his foe backwards into the room they had just come from. Zero grunted, taking the blow and flying backwards until he crashed in the rubble of the regeneration tubes, back into the darkness.

            Sigma was beginning to become exhausted, his physical body beginning to feel the wear of the events on Hokkaido and now the duel with Zero combining for a heavy toll. "Why won't you die…Just die already, Zero!"

            From the darkness, there was a few moments of silence, and then a warbling sound that was a cross between a hiccup, a sob, and a yelp.

            "Just die…just die…how many times has X said that to YOU, Sigma?? Tell me, in that black heart of yours, what causes you to keep going, even when all logic tells you…tells you…you have no right to live anymore…"

            The sound of rubble being displaced, of a figure rising from the ashes yet again…and then the eyes of the Demon, glowing in the darkness.

            "Tell me, why should I die?? To stop haunting you? To forever vanish from your nightmares?? Countless innocents have thought the same of you and the Mavericks you thoughtlessly create in this war. And I know, Sigma…that this fight has lost all meaning to you."

            Zero lumbered slowly from the darkness, his hair bedraggled and tarnished, his faces' synthskin torn, a loose flap of cheek hanging down to reveal the metal underneath. And that grin…that sickening grin Sigma could never think possible.

            My grin…

            "This long ago ceased to be a war fought for reploid independence…if that was the case, then you wouldn't need to infect them, they would come willingly to you. No…you recruit your warriors now from handpicked stock, unwilling fighters. Your newest six, all members of URFAWP. And before that, you seduced Repliforce warriors and Dragoon…before that, you turned all of Dopplertown into your personal fortress with that power. You fight this war because you can't stop."

            "You and X are still here…still interfering in my plans, still the thorns in my side." Sigma growled back.

            "And so now we see the true cause…" Zero chuckled. "You fight now only to fight us, in the mad hopes that one day, ONE DAY, we shall die and you will have won. It doesn't matter who dies in pursuit of that one goal, it doesn't matter who suffers. All casualties for the greater directive…your lust for the battle, for the KILL."

            "So what?!" Sigma challenged with a chuckle. "Tell me yourself that you don't enjoy the same thing. I remember when you first came to your senses, in the loving arms of Cain back at the MHHQ…and what did you decide to do?? The whole world was open to you, Cain could have helped you accomplish anything with your life, and instead, you decided to FIGHT."

            Zero chuckled for a moment, his voice growing shallower still. Sigma's smile faded fast into disbelief, and then worry as Zero's laugh grew louder, crazier, until his head was reared back and the Crimson Hunter was guffawing for nothing.

            "Damnit, STOP THAT!!!" Sigma barked tersely.

            Zero tilted his head down, his laugh subsiding a bit. But his eyes stopped Sigma cold.

            The intelligence was gone…not a spark of the Zero who had been standing there fifteen seconds before remained, and there was no pain, no grief, no tears in his face. It seemed as though all the emotions Zero had come here and had been battling all the while had blurred, faded, and disappeared, leaving behind one single state of being.

            "You are truly a Demon…" Sigma hissed, feeling a familiar sensation of fear creeping over him.

            Insanity…that's all he is now…insanity…

            Madness in Red, my boy Sigma. The Virus cackled, beaming as it looked at its forgotten self. You have finally managed in doing what I myself could not…

            You've returned Zero to me…every bit as insane as when I left him.

            Zero's laugh ceased. His jaw twitched for a moment, then deepened into a toothy, waiting smile. And his eyes burned.

            With one yowling animalistic scream, Zero…

            The Demon resurrected…

            Charged at Sigma. And he could already taste the blood.

            It seemed as if everything that they had been fighting for would be for nothing, the four warriors around the weapon of Ice Beacon realized as that monolith to MI9's insane hatred stood against their initial furious attack, and would do so again and again, until it was too late, and the signal transmitted.

            "Terrific." Doan murmured, with all of his usual candor. "Any bright ideas?"

            "Praying, maybe." Wycost answered back, shaking his head. Still, he continued to build up his Buster's charge. "I'm not a real religious sort of person, but this time I think we need a miracle."

            And then, as if heaven smiled down on the weary saviors of the reploid race…that miracle came.

            The ground began to shake in the region around Wycost and Pharaoh Man, jarring the two off of their balance for a moment. Wycost turned about, staring slack jawed as a ten foot wide circular depression of ice began to glow a brilliant yellow and white, then exploded outwards, atomized moments later by a brilliant beam of plasma with electrical waves crackling angrily around it.

            "What in the blazes…" Doan called out over his comm. His question, as malformed as it was answered itself.

            In a blazing fury of bright white light, a pair of figures shot out from the hastily conceived tunnel, something falling from the two as they cleared the lip of the tunnel and hovered fifteen feet off of the ground…

            A foot, Bastion's, impacted on the ground beside Wycost, scaring the Bronx Bomber for a moment, then sickening him. "Jesus…what did they do to you?!" He called up, relieved to see his friend and Bristol alive again. Bastion nodded weakly, feeling the sudden deprivation of his leg more heavily than its initial near severation.

            "Not enough."

            Bristol stared slack jawed at the gleaming metallic device standing out of the ruins of Ice Beacon, shaking her head. "Of course…backups on backups. MI9 is paranoid to the last as always."

            "Blast it, we don't have TIME!!!" Allegro screamed over the comms, cursing at them all. "This thing goes off in less than thirty seconds, and we haven't put a DENT into it!!"

            Bristol's face became hard as she stared at the device, then shook her head. "Bastion…fly me to the center."

            The Desert Angel complied, taking her there in a heartbeat. Eyes hard, she scrutinized the entire device, jumping down out of Bastion's arms and feeling towards where the wiry antenna had stood in the middle.

            "Twenty seconds to signal transfer…"

            Bristol stood up, her face grim. "We don't have much time, but we CAN do this!!"

            "How?!" Wycost hollered. "The thing's resisting our plasmafire!!"

            "Not well enough." Bristol snapped. "Allegro, get over here and jam your staff in the CENTER of the dish!!"

            The reploid complied, dash jumping into the monstrosity and stabbing his beam staff's blade deep into the slot where the antenna had laid. The black beam staff sang angrily, but didn't budge after the metallic middle grip somehow forced itself into an immovable position. Bristol reached town and twisted a few of the power regulator knobs on the device, then looked up to the sky and nodded. Bastion came down and picked the two of them up, setting them down on the normal ice surrounding the structure.

            "Now what?" Allegro chuffed, feeling very odd without a weapon to hold. Bristol turned to them all.

            "Focus your attacks on the beam staff…the blades will act as a conduit for the energies we throw at it!"

            "You mean, we short it out??" Doan surmised.

            "And blow it to pieces." Bristol confirmed.

            "Fifteen seconds to signal transfer…"

            Wycost, Doan and Pharaoh Man took up positions around the transmitter dish, standing in a triangular pattern. Each began charging up their own plasma weaponry. Allegro stood by Pharaoh Man, having nothing better to do now that he was unarmed.

            And above them all, Bastion and Bristol hovered high in the air, Bristol readying her plasma cannon one last time.

            "Give it everything you've got…" Bristol chirped over the intercom with a shaky voice. "Everything…"

            She didn't need to finish. Every single one of them standing there knew the stakes, and didn't need them repeated. Here and now they would take their stand.

            "Ten seconds to signal transfer…"

           

            "FIRE!!!" Bristol screamed, unleashing her plasma beam down at the staff. The shot sunk into the top blade, not blowing the staff apart but instead making the blades grow angrier, wider and longer. An unsettling vibration began to eat away at the transmitter dish from the inside out.

            "Nine…"

            Bastion's wings curled around, seemingly shielding both himself and Bristol from above and the sides. With another tremendous crackling of light and energy, the lightning storm blasted away, curving around Bristol's plasma beam all the way down, joining in the power of the assault with amazing results. Now the top blade fanned out, throwing sparks in every direction and charring the dish even more.

            "Eight…"

            Roaring angrily, Wycost fired his overcharged supershot at the device, quickly holding down his trigger one last time and beginning another power storage.

            Disengage Buster safeties…set maximum charge to Level 5.

            Inside of his head, his system protocols asked for a confirmation of such a dangerous act. Angrily, Wycost confirmed…and continued to charge.

            "Seven…"

            Doan's own blast went off, but unlike Wycost, as his supershot sunk in to the now spread out overloading plasma jammed into the heart of the beast, he began to rapid fire, shooting out what seemed to be hundreds of plasma bullets at a time. His Buster controls beeped angrily at him, warning of overheating and overload.

            Doan ignored it.

            "Six…"

            Unlike the rest who had sent off an initial shot, Pharaoh Man remained tight lipped, holding his hands above his head as his growing orb of plasmic energy grew even larger, now the size of a medium grade hovertank and still rising. "Come on…COME ON!!" He urged his particle accelerators, cursing their slowness. "Still needs to be bigger…BIGGER…"

            "Five…"

            A new light began to glow around the transmitter dish, casting a distinctive green sheen around it. Power regulators beneath the device whirred and whined, as they began to store up the required power for the intense databurst Ice Beacon had been made to generate. The fanned out plasma of Allegro's beam staff turned into a sea of rolling energy, no longer a pure black, but a distinctive light gray, as all the sources of plasma and energy in it morphed into a neutral color.

            "Four…"

            "God, we're not going to make it..." Allegro uttered quietly. Beside him, Pharaoh Man shook his head.

            "Don't you say that…don't you DARE say that!!" Pharaoh Man shouted back.

            Above, Bastion grunted, feeling a surge of power backflash through his body, causing him to spasm for a brief moment. Bristol's arm wrapped around his neck tightened. "Hold on, Bastion, just hold on…" She pleaded. He growled, pushing even more energy through his wings despite the pain that the overloading electrical energies gave his traumatized body.

            "FRY ALREADY!!"

            "Three…"

            The energies of the transmitter dish and the still building plasma bomb continued to charge up even farther. Bastion's electrical discharge suddenly jumped to even greater destructive power, a blazing stream of crackling lightning bright enough to blind roaring down to the center of the dish, and the overloading beam staff that acted as a lightning rod. The blazing fury of Bastion's attack started a near instantaneous chain reaction, destabilizing the plasma…and though nobody could see it, the control program and circuitry of Allegro's beam staff finally shorted out, unable to withstand the attack. No longer able to hold in the intense energies it wasn't designed for, the metallic cylinder shorted out and then vaporized, destroyed by the power it had sought to tame.

            The groaning whine of MI9's grand culmination to The Cleansing sped up even faster, as if racing against the destabilizing plasma energies. The gray power surging over the dish transformed itself again, turning into a brilliant blue and white morphing lake of power, flowing back and forth with no control.

            Pharaoh Man's charge had now built up to the size of a large jet fighter, straining every inch of his weapon's circuitry. The plasmic energy he held in his hands was now strong enough his systems were screaming at him, warning of imminent overload and destabilization. Cringing from sparks of the power flying loose and raining down on his head, the goldenrod and silver colored robot grinned from ear to ear. Never before had he ever wielded such might, never before had he felt like he was firing the sun itself. And what better target than the one before him?? The robot opened his mouth wide and let a scream echo about from the depths of his spirit, finally flinging his arms down and throwing the massive globe of superheated plasmic energy loose. It soared on, straight and true and melting the ice as it went, then finally connected with the lake of its fellow plasma energies atop the dish. But it was so intense, the blast was unable to sink in, so it rode the wave instead as a massive bubble of orange light, peppered from the side by Doan's furious rapid fire shots. It was only then, after Allegro yelped in surprise, that Pharaoh Man noticed his shot had melted a three foot deep indentation in the ice while he had been charging it, transforming the ice into a steaming puddle of water.

            "Two…"

            Wycost also screamed, feeling the surging pain of his overloading Buster push back up his arm, warning him that at any moment the shot could explode and take his whole arm off, if not immolating him entirely. Gritting his teeth, he watched as the locus of light around his Buster shifted from purple to a bright oxygenated blood red…

            My God…so this is a Level 5 blast…

            He had nothing left, and the blast was as strong as he could make it without throwing himself into that messed up locus of power.

            Isaiah…I hope you're with me, I need you more than ever…

            He fired, his Buster firing not a sphere or a flaming fireball of light, but a bright and brilliant arrow of purple, red and blue plasma energy, a pointed bolt with a shaft that seemed to stretch on for meters without stopping. The backblast from his shot was so intense, Wycost was shoved backwards onto the ground, unable to do anything except watch his shot flare on, a final desperate cry of survival for every last reploid on Earth.

            High above, Bristol wrapped her arm even tighter around Bastion's neck, pushing her face against his chest. So much is at stake here…We can't lose, I can't have lost…no, that future I saw is NOT the one that will be, it WILL NOT BE!!

            Bastion also embraced Bristol pulling her close with both of his arms as his wings continued to scream out their thunderous fury. MI9 is a group dedicated to genocide, to hatred and cold-blooded murder…So was the Jihad, and I left that…I can't change the Jihad, but I can change this. This, more than being a Maverick Hunter, is the truest calling, my ultimate penance!! MI9 will not succeed, not while there is love and friendship and laughter in this world…not while there are friends and people I care about, not while I am alive, and not while Bristol breathes life! Here I make my stand, Ice Beacon, here we all do!! For all reploids…FOR EVERYONE, FOR HAPPINESS, AND FOR LOVE, YOU WILL NOT WIN!!!

            Below, Allegro bit his lip, unable to tear his eyes away from the roiling sea of plasma almost ready to immolate Ice Beacon's core. Andante…If you were still alive, what would you do here?? You sacrificed yourself to save my life, and for that I carry enough guilt for the both of us…I've worked with Horn for weeks now, trying to learn so that next time…the next time I fly off the handle, my friends won't die because of me. But there's one person I've never been able to make penance for, and that's you.

            Andante…if Ice Beacon falls, if we save the reploid race…

            Then, will you forgive me??

            Pharaoh Man shielded his eyes from the blinding light with a raised gauntlet, now unable to do anything but watch…and think. Kalinka, I'm sorry I ran off like that…but now I realize that there's so much more that me and my brothers are capable of doing for this world. Perhaps you don't understand, you might never understand…But Cossack died and left us a legacy. Years before, back when you were a young girl, Mega Man saved the world time and time again…

            It's my turn now, Kalinka. I finally understand. This is what Dr. Cossack meant, what he hoped for me…I can go beyond any robot ever has, I already have! This world still needs heroes, Kalinka…And I'm willing to volunteer.

            But I'm coming back, Kalinka…don't fall apart on me, I'm coming back.

            Doan hovered slightly above the ground, crying out at long last as his Buster froze up and finally blew off a piece of armor covering from the charging assembly, letting ozone tinted smoke rise up. He clutched at his wounded arm, staring down at Ice Beacon as he realized he had done all he could. Heh…Guess I overdid it again, Cleo. I'll bet you're going to yell at me when I get back, tell me I'm a damn fool and all that…

            I hope so. You're the only thing in my life that lets me smile…

            But then again, if we have succeeded here today, if Ice Beacon is destroyed…

            We'll have something else to smile about now, won't we??

            Wycost lay there on the snow, his sunglare visor inactive and the blinding lights staring him flush in the face. Isaiah…God, if I could repent for all the mistakes, all the people I've killed in my life, I could. Maybe this is that final way, the ultimate equalizer.

            Truth be told, when I started out on this damn fool quest, I had no idea how deep this would go. Certainly not as deep as it did. And I think I've come to understand your cryptic dream messages a little better…though that first one still bothers me.

            Who can replace you?? You were the only friend I had that was true and honest, who didn't associate with me merely because of my skills as a warrior. 'There will be another'?? I still don't know what you meant.

            My slate's finally clean, buddy. No guilt left. No guilt at all. I just hope that all of this, all of this torment and this road to salvation hasn't all led up to a dead end.

            Not just for me, Isaiah, it's not just about me anymore, is it?? It's about everyone now, the entire population of the reploid race…no, the entire WORLD…

            I suppose in the end, others can damn us…

            But we can always redeem ourselves.

            The plasma riding on top of Ice Beacon's backup transmitter dish quivered and shook angrily, flashing color after iridescent color. Wycost's final shot, the ultra charged plasma arrow sunk into the orange glowing plasmic globe of light…

            And then the ground shook and the sky roared. Every last little bit of plasma and electrical energy surging about on Ice Beacon at last could take no more, and ignited in a furious and expanding white fireball.

            As the noise washed over them all, as that furious flashfire of backblast overwhelmed them, the warriors on Ice Beacon all cried out one final time, placing all their hopes, all their dreams, and all the lives and dreams of every reploid on Earth onto that final blistering explosion.

            And high above, rocked back and forth by the tremendous sonic shockwaves of displaced air, cradled tightly in the loving arms of Bastion, Bristol reared her head up to the heavens. Her blond hair flew wild in the screaming wind, and she opened her mouth and screamed from the depth of her soul.

            "WE LIIIIVE!!!"

            Below, nobody could hear the final tick of the countdown clock, moments before the plasma explosion overtook the communication speakers…

            "One…"

            No words were spoken between Zero and Sigma as they fought their way through the underground complex. In a duel between enraged and possessed beings, there was no need for them. Their weapons and expressions did all the talking.

            Sigma's face was a full grimace, unchanging and unceasing as the grinning Demon charged at him, saber swinging in a flurry of stabs, thrusts, and slashes. Both of his arm's weapons were employed, struggling to hold off even a haphazard defense against the transformed Zero's might. The two moved so fast that the attacks and parries seemed to occur at blur speed, the deflected energies streaming out and scorching the walls.

            Zero's red eye tinted grin grew wider as he pushed Sigma through what seemed to be a lounge area of the underground facility, augmenting his saber strikes with a furious hand to hand combat routine that held to no particular style of martial arts, but seemed chaotic in its tone. Chaotic as it was, with Zero swinging his saber around at the same time, Sigma had few ways to take advantage of him.

            "What kind of a monster were you…" Sigma muttered in disbelief, slamming down his TitaniTefloAlloy claw and pushing Zero's saber to the ground, trapping hand in a crushing vicegrip on the concrete floor. Zero looked startled for a moment and Sigma grinned, bringing his other hand around for a deafening slash from his plasma gauntlet.

            Zero looked positively inhumane as he registered the glint from Sigma's plasma dagger and let his grin grow even wider. In one smooth motion, he caught Sigma's arm at the wrist and pulled, knocking the Maverick King off balance as he pulled himself up. Sigma's eyes went wide again, unable to do anything as the smaller, more animalistic Crimson Hunter curled his legs in, then slammed both boots into Sigma's stomach. Despite himself, Sigma got the wind knocked out of him as he stumbled backwards, slightly dazed by the unpredictable blow.

            His style…it's pure fury, that's it…virtually no way to counter, he's totally unpredictable…

            Zero brought his saber up, now freed of Sigma's claw, and threw it up into the air before catching it again, the blade inverted and pointing to the ground. Activating his dash thrusters, he flung himself at Sigma, a long and loud cry his only expression of emotion from his tightened face.

            The Maverick King slammed against the flatscreen television that his Mavericks had set up on the wall, cracking the plasma display and shorting the assembly out. After a few furious moments of blinking, he noticed Zero's attack aimed for him.

            There was no time for any real reaction…and perhaps there lay the key. With nothing but desperation guiding his hand, Sigma stabbed out with his plasma dagger gauntlet. The blade crackled as its point connected with Zero's saber, jarring the blade to the side. But the momentum of Sigma's strike carried the dagger on, scraping it noisily along the length of Zero's blade before skipping…and then piercing into Zero's arm, just above the elbow. The Maverick Hunter let out an angry scream as the tip of the plasma dagger tore through armor, synthflesh, and then through wiring and the internal skeleton. But it didn't take the arm off.

            Grinning from ear to ear now as he sucked in that angry cry of pain from Zero, Sigma engaged his plasma gauntlet's special feature.

            Before Zero's startled eyes, the single blade fanned out and became three thinner ones, slicing through the width of his arm with deadly efficiency. A spray of hot purple blood accompanied the sickening cutting noise, and then the severed limb fell to the ground with a thud, the hand still gripped around the saber, the now frozen fingers and thumb keeping Zero's weapon on.

            Zero yelped in shock, unable to do anything as his arm was sliced off of his body and collapsed to the floor, dripping blood from the open and messy wound. Sigma gave him no chance for recovery, bringing his leg up and kneeing the Crimson Hunter in the gut. This did more damage than Zero could with the same motion, and Zero gasped for air as the spiked kneecaps Sigma had dug in and pierced into the thinner armor around his abdomen, letting more of Zero's life energy fly free.

            In one final motion, Sigma let the momentum of his stomach kick carry Zero up into the air, then promptly kicked him across the room and into the wall, shattering the concrete with a tremendous shuddering noise. Badly battered and injured, Zero slumped to the floor, his eyes glazing over in pain, his mouth open in a silent bloody scream.

            Sigma stared at the tattered remains of his foe, sneering for a moment. To add insult, he kicked Zero's severed arm next to the Hunter, the useless limb still keeping the saber active.

            "Perhaps you aren't the Maverick I thought you were…" He mused darkly. "Thirteen years ago, you would have laid me flat…and back then I was the one with the lost arm." He smirked at that. "It seems now that our roles have reversed."

            From the collapsed mess that was the Crimson Hunter came nothing for a few moments. Dully, Zero stared up at the ceiling, knowing full well the damage his systems had taken. And yet…he was still alive. An impulse shot through the stump of his right arm, as his body tried to connect to his severed hand. It caused a brief moment of pain, but that pain defined Zero then.

            Pain…meant he was alive. And pain made him all the stronger.

            His mouth twitched in the room's low light, slowly but surely curling up until he was grinning again, baring his teeth.

            And then he laughed. Softly at first, inaudible…and then increasing, with greater crescendo and shrillness until he was nearly shrieking, his mind gone.

            Sigma mentally recoiled from Zero then. The sound Zero was producing was a frightening one to hear, as the last dregs of the blond haired Hunter's consciousness seemed to bleed out of him and leave an insane and psychotic golem in his place.

            Sigma felt his fear returning…for a while, he had pushed it aside, merely thought Zero was reacting on emotions alone. Now, he realized that the Virus had been right all along…

            No…

            Yes…

            God, what have I done?! What have I turned him into, what kind of Demon…

            Precisely…He is as he was at birth. My…masterpiece…

            Zero rose from the ground, pushing off of it with his single hand. Unsteadily, as if coming out of a drunken stupor, he brought himself to his feet, then reaching a hand down and grasping at his bleeding stomach. Sigma's stomach turned on itself as Zero cackled at the sticky wetness that caked itself onto his white gloved fingers, then reached up and wiped his hand across of his face, leaving long streaks of bright purple, or dark red, blood across of his face. Before Sigma could cringe more, Zero reached down and picked up his severed arm by its end and whipped the whole assembly around, cackling even louder. His severed hand remained tightly clenched around the saber's hilt, keeping the blade active. Content it still worked, Zero returned to his relaxed, lackadaisical posture and grinned at Sigma again through the darkness.

            It was at that moment the Maverick King realized he was going to die.

            Forty five seconds later, the two charged into the central computer room of the underground facility, both screaming with all their might but for different reasons. Zero screamed for the overwhelming sensations his new body seemed to revel in, and Sigma screamed because half of his left shoulder was missing and Zero had just succeeded in tearing a deep gash into the side of his leg.

            Weakly, Sigma slashed across in front of him, trying to set Zero off guard. The raging maniac merely dropped low to the ground and let the swipe pass over his head. Sigma's second strike came down, aiming for the top of Zero's head.

            Grinning from ear to ear, no longer thinking but merely reacting, Zero bicycle kicked where he stood, activating his dash thrusters as he did. Sigma's strike was blunted aside as the point of Zero's boot crushed into Sigma's wrist and shattered the artificial nerve…and to make matters worse, Sigma found his arm basted in a roiling sea of synthesized hydrogen flames. The Maverick King screamed and leaped back, and Zero pressed on.

            Hastily, Sigma slashed down with his burning and now skittish arm holding the TitaniTefloAlloy claw.

            Zero stopped laughing then…he even stopped grinning.

            With one smooth sidestep and slash, Zero severed Sigma's arm from his body, prompting an angry cry of pain and humiliation out of the Maverick King. When Sigma brought his other arm across in hopes of ending Zero's life with a quick stab of his triple plasma claw, Zero seemed to sidestep again, blurring into the shadows for a brief moment before severing off that arm as well.

            Falling into shock, his emotional circuits overloading in terror and fear, Sigma collapsed backwards. Zero turned about to face him, his upper torso hidden in the creeping shadows of the room with its monotone green display lights.

            Calmly, with murderer's precision, the left red boot of Zero stepped towards Sigma. Trembling now, the armless Sigma scooted back, scrunching himself up.

            Another step. Sigma treaded back further, nearly colliding with the command chair in the technology heavy room. Glowing green display panels shone down on them, casting a dark and malevolent light throughout the room.

            Zero brought his severed arm and saber up in front of his face, holding the blade between his eyes and staring down at Sigma in a calm and deadened emotionless state.

            "Mercy…" Sigma rasped, his eyes wide and pleading. Zero seemed to pause for a moment as those words echoed about inside of his head.

            Mercy…

            "Mercy, Zero…Don't do this, don't…" Sigma pleaded louder, shaking his head with fear leeching out of every pore of his being.

            The Maverick King, scourge of the world for more than a decade was at long last terrified…terrified for his life, such an endless thing as it was. But now he feared for it.

            His fear was delicious…

            Zero's mouth twitched for a moment, then widened back into a grin. A grin more malevolent than any given before. Before, there had been raging insanity in Zero's features.

            Now, there was a sheer malevolence, a cat standing over a disemboweled and trembling mouse with claws extended. And to make things all the better was Zero's Cheshire cat grin.

            Sigma was terrified of Zero, frightened to death and paralyzed…And that made Zero all the stronger, all the more terrifying. He could sense Sigma's fear, and he relished in it.

            Zero laughed a little, stepping towards Sigma again. The Maverick yelped, scrambling back so fast he knocked the back of his head into the console seat and caused stars to flash before his eyes.

            Zero laughed louder as he stepped over Sigma and raised his arm and saber above him. Sigma was beyond any rationality now, a complete victim to the fight and flight syndrome present in all intelligences…that animalistic instinct that derived fear.

            Sigma screamed.

            And then Zero swung down, chopping Sigma to bits. Hacking and hacking, all the while laughing and howling like a perverse little boy dissecting insects or lizards, basking in the pain and fear of Sigma as he tore the Maverick King limb from limb and into pieces. Blood sprayed onto Zero, all over Zero…blood from Sigma's systems coated him from head to toe, and yet it only drove him on further, made his butchering more frenzied, more gruesome and violent…

            And finally, thankfully, the screams of Sigma ended. They had to. There was virtually nothing left of Sigma that was recognizable, especially not his face which…

            Zero stood there, gasping for delicious air, sucking in the fumes of his fresh kill…and then laughed, reared his head back and shrieked to everyone and no one of his latest sadistic crime.

            Nothing remained of Sigma, his body was so shredded it might have been put through a meat grinder. A seeping and sticky pool of the Maverick's blood flooded out underneath the remains, the remnants of Sigma's lifestream that didn't douse Zero's blood red armor a deeper and darker shade of crimson death.

            And Zero laughed…

            Laughed because he was gone, and the Demon had returned.

            It was a few moments later before anyone felt like communicating, much less moving. The explosion of high intensity plasma energy had been a show indeed, knocking them all to the ground and blinding and deafening all in its thunderous roar. But the question that hung on all their minds, seconds later…

            "Did we destroy it??" Allegro moaned, blinking his eyes back into focus.

            Wycost lay on the ground, letting the aches and pains of the day sit a little longer on his worn out frame. "I dunno. You feel any crazier?"

            "I feel BANGED UP, is how I feel…" Allegro groused back in reply over the comm.

            "I've felt the effect of a Berserker Beacon before." Doan spoke up calmly, rising from his bed of ice and melted water. He shook his head and stared at the smoking crater that had once been Ice Beacon's transmitter dish. "And if that thing had worked like it was supposed to…"

            Doan closed his eyes for a moment…And smiled.

            "No gentlemen, I am afraid that Ice Beacon did not succeed."

            "Terrific. I'll be sure to let the newspapers know." Pharaoh Man laughed, as much as he could without causing further strain on his already overtaxed systems. "I'll be damned…we actually did it."

"Yeah." Wycost said, shutting his eyes and smiling as he lay there and looked towards heaven. "Yeah, we did."

            Some distance away, Bastion came to with a pulsing migraine.

            "God…anyone get the name of that bus??" He mumbled quietly. The shooting pain in his missing leg jolted him up the rest of the way, and confirmed for him that they were still very much alive.

            Bristol let out a gentle, dazed moan. Bastion looked down to find her still cradled against him, her plasma cannon discarded some distance off, and both of her arms now wrapped around him. He blinked a few times more and smiled, lifting his wings up and off of the two of them to let the rays of the sun hit the side of her face.

            "Wake up, Bristol. We did it." He whispered quietly.

            Numbly, she looked into his face, not seeming to recognize anyone or anything…

            Screw this…Bastion thought, reaching his arms down and pulling her face to his.

            With a swift and fiery movement that felt so exhilarating, he kissed her like there was no tomorrow, because there almost hadn't been. And after a few seconds, she responded back, just as needy and just as passionate.

            When they finally stopped, she looked into his face with a beaming, but ragged smile.

            "We did it…" She smiled, tears starting to run from her eyes. "We actually did it…"

            "Yeah, we did." Allegro chirped up, walking over beside them and holding the side of his head. "And when you two are done rolling around in the snowbanks, I'll gladly prepare to push on out of here and back to somewhere where it's WARM."

            Bristol blushed a visible red in her cheeks. Bastion merely grinned and waved Allegro off, somehow no longer caring that his leg was missing or that they'd been interrupted again by a friendly interloper.

            They were ALIVE.

            About a minute later, everyone was back on their feet and examining the flooded, melted and incinerated remains of Ice Beacon's top secret and ingenious, but ultimately flawed transmitter dish.

            The icy outer shell, it seemed, had been little more than an amplifier, meant both to protect and hide the true signal source, the metallic transmitter dish they had been forced to destroy. Once the icy concave transmitter dish had been shattered apart and turned useless by the attacks of Doan, Wycost, Allegro and Pharaoh Man, the backup system had kicked in, forcing the true transmitter dish to rise up from its tomb and expose itself in broad daylight for optimum signal transmission ratio.

            That backup transmitter, the true one, was now a melted crying stem of itself. As if a flower had existed there, it now seemed as though the entire flower bud had been cut off with jagged scissors and the shattered stem had cried rivulets of liquid down the sides.

            Allegro stared mournfully at the remains of Ice Beacon, his hands feeling unusually empty. The motion didn't go unnoticed by Bristol, who flinched as recognition set in.

            "I'm sorry, Allegro…It was a risky process, and if there had been some way for me to save your beam staff…"

            "Aaw, fuckit." Allegro mumbled, scratching the side of his head. "It was just a weapon, and the only sentimental value it had was that Andante used the same damn thing. But now that I know it's an MI9 weapon, I'm kind of glad to get rid of it…it always did have a menacing air around it." He turned around and grinned at them all. "Besides, I'm betting that you and Horn can make me a better one."

            "But your brother's memory…"

            "It's a memory." Allegro refuted, shutting down Bristol's attempt at self-deridement. "Memories aren't dependent on old weapons or photos." He tapped the side of his head. "My brother's memory is carried with me up here. And that's all I need."

            "Unbelievable…" Doan said suddenly, shaking his head as he stared down at the mess. "MI9 went to a lot of trouble to put this together."

            "They nearly caused the Apocalypse." Bristol sighed, shaking off the last vestiges of her horrible nightmare…now it had no foundation, and she had no reason to fear it. "But they didn't. Thanks to all of you."

            "Yeah." Bastion nodded, turning towards her. "But we have you to thank for this victory more than anyone. It was your idea that destroyed Ice Beacon when we thought we had no time left…Bristol, you're the true hero here."

            "But I'm also the true villain…" Bristol argued, pointing down to the remains. "This is a product of my ideas, my inventions…"

            "Your ideas and inventions aren't evil, Bristol. Only MI9's figureheads deemed their improper use." Pharaoh Man interjected sagely. "But they failed. And I'll tell you why, in a quote Mega Man told me once long ago."

            "What was that?" Wycost asked, lifting an eyebrow. Pharaoh Man seemed to smile a little wider and point to the sky.

            "The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." He looked around. "Or, as the case may be, good men and women."

            "Hooray for politically correct quotes." Wycost chuffed. He turned about some, then froze. "Wait…"

            He turned and faced Bastion and Bristol, face cold. "Where's Willow??"

            The exhilaration blanched out of Bristol's face quicker than water rushed from a shattered glass. "Oh, God…"

            "There was an MI9 Enhanced Agent named Jowers who met us inside of the corridors." Bastion explained. "Willow…decided to fight Jowers herself, so we could go on ahead. There's a high likelihood…she isn't alive right now. Otherwise, she'd be up here right now." Bastion tried to keep as straight a face as possible, not an easy thing to do when one was floating fifteen centimeters off of the ground because you were missing a foot, which he carried in the crook of his arm.

            "Which means she's still down there." Wycost grumbled, biting his lip. He swiveled his head around a bit and scanned the horizon. "Guys, I think it's time we left for home."

            "Actually, if you all don't mind…" Pharaoh Man began, lifting a finger, "I think I'd like to go back to Cossack's Citadel. I need to keep a promise I made to someone."

            "I don't think we'll hold it against you." Doan replied. "And thank you for your help. Without it, we might very well have failed."

            "Of that, I have no doubt." Pharaoh Man smiled, folding his arms and vanishing in a beam of warplight, shooting for the stratosphere. Doan blinked a few times, then harrumphed and turned back to the group.

            "Well, he's certainly cocky enough to be a reploid."

            One by one, the warriors who had taken on Ice Beacon all warped out for the MHHQ, save Pharaoh Man who had left for his home. And then only Bristol and Wycost were left, standing in the middle of a once again desolate wasteland.

            Bristol folded her arms, staring at the Bronx Bomber with puzzled eyes.

            "Why are you staying?? Why aren't you going home??"

            "I think you know the two part answer to that question just as well as I do." Wycost answered back, keeping his visor up so Bristol could stare into his battle hardened eyes.

            Bristol blinked a few times, then finally nodded her head.

            "Yes…" She seemed to cry a little then, smiling. "The first one's obvious, you want to eliminate Ice Beacon fully. But now I see the second one. There's no way that Willow would have lost to Jowers…no conceivable way. But Wycost…she might well have decided that the only thing she had left to live for was her vengeance on him."

            "Terrific." Wycost whistled through his teeth. "Just what I don't need, a suicidal reploid…"

            "If you're going to look for her, look fast." Bristol urged. "Find her, Wycost…bring her back to me. And to all of us."

            "I'll do my best, kid." Wycost assured Bristol with a slight smile and a halfhearted salute.

            Bristol gave one last longing look at the Bronx Bomber, then vanished off into the blue as well.

            Wycost sighed and lowered his sunglare visor, activated his thermal scan feature and walked over towards the makeshift escape hole that Bristol and Bastion had created in their route to the surface.

            "Willow, don't you dare die on me…"

            Not when I'm finally beginning to get along with ya…

            Horn could only do so much down in the Emergency Room before the sheer overload of it all got to him. Hazil could see it in the old reploid's trembling hands and shocky features. Subtly, Hazil clicked his tongue and jerked his head towards the door.

            "Get up to the Medical Bay…You've done all you can here."

            "Yeah." Horn replied back weakly, wiping the blood off of his hands and onto a sterile towel. "Hazil, how did you do this for thirteen years without losing yourself??"

            "Who says I didn't?" The Medical Reploid harrumphed with a sad smile. He turned back to his work on reattaching Jad's arm and shook his head. "I suppose after a while, a part of you dies. And then stuff like this doesn't bother you anymore, unless you want it to."

            "I'm sorry." Horn replied, looking at Hazil in pity.

            Hazil kept his eyes down on his work, connecting a pair of severed neural wires. "So am I, Horn. So am I."

            Exhausted and emotionally drained, Horn wandered back up to the Medical Bay and walked into the room, sighing in relief as he sunk into the reclining office chair Hazil had purloined from the supply room…it looked new, too. Probably hadn't seen much use, maybe a month and a half's worth, or two…

            He stared around the room, face quiet as he watched the beeping monitors and bright lights. Quiet.

            A part of him felt ashamed at what he'd turned into down there…after so many years, the sight of maimed and badly injured reploids still upset him. In a way, he'd let Hazil down…

            In a lot of ways, he'd let everyone down. URFAWP was a bust, ending up becoming Sigma's personal plaything. His work for the Israelis got him money, but killed countless reploids and humans alike. And recently, he'd sent Bristol off on a quest to find herself that ended up nearly getting the poor girl killed, and began a chain reaction of events that led up to today and Ice Beacon. In fact, as he sat up straighter, Horn began to puzzle over whether or not they'd succeeded…

            His question was answered as four brilliant beams of warplight slammed down onto the ground in front of him, coalescing into Bristol, Bastion, Allegro, and Doan. Horn yelped in surprise and fell out of his chair, prompting odd looks from all of them as he picked himself back up.

            "Sweet buttery Jesus…" He groaned, rubbing at his head. "You could have at least given me a warning."

            "Why??" Allegro replied with a grin. "There's nothing left to warn anyone about now."

            Horn blinked as the statement sunk in, then positively beamed. "You guys…you guys did it."

            Bristol stepped away from the hovering Bastion and nodded once, her eyes glistening with happiness. "Yes…yes, we did. The reploid race…and the future…are saved."

            "Where's Hazil??" Bastion spoke up, lifting his severed leg so Horn could recognize it. Horn lifted both eyebrows as he gaped at Bastion's injury. "Horn, don't stare. You'll blow out your other eye." Bastion mumbled in embarrassment.

            "Yeah, you'd like that." Horn groused back, rubbing at his normal reploid optic. "I always figured you'd come back for the other eye some day."

            "Whiner." Bastion replied with a weak smirk. He floated over to a medical cot and lay himself down, then forced his wings to retract back into their storage compartment. In a flicker of shimmering light, they complied, letting him lie by gravity alone. He let out an exhausted sigh and put his leg on his stomach. "Whenever Hazil gets up here, tell him I want my dancing shoes back."

            "I'll write a memo." Horn chuckled drily. "Conk off, Bastion. You deserve the rest." He looked around the room to the rest of them. "As a matter of fact, I think you all need a power nap. Lord knows I feel like one after all of this."

            "Not quite yet." Doan said, shaking his head. "I'm afraid I too have to dash off somewhere else before I recharge."

            "I'll bet." Horn remarked, smiling knowingly. "Tell Cleo I said hi."

            Doan harrumphed and let the barest hint of a smile, which for him was as wide as a grin. "I'll be sure to tell her that."

            Doan walked out of the door, and Allegro hopped up onto a medical cot as well, finally letting his body relax.

            "Boy, it's been a long day." Allegro exhaled, folding his arms behind his head and staring up at the ceiling. "Oh, and Horn…you and Bristol have a little project to do for me."

            "Just what's that, my impetuous understudy??" Horn queried quizzically. Allegro grinned, beginning to activate his stasis subroutines.

            "You get to build me…a new beam staff."

            Allegro had passed out before Horn could issue a complaint. And then only Bristol and Horn were left standing. Bastion was still awake, though.

            Bristol walked over next to him, bringing his hand down to hers and placing something in it. Bastion frowned as the solid metallic weight settled in, cooling his palm. "What's this??"

            He lifted it up, blinking a few times before he realized what it was. And he smiled as he did.

            It was Bristol's locket…the silver heart shaped pendant with a photo of the two of them inside of it. She beamed down at him, snuffling away a tear.

            "You gave this back to me yesterday…now I give it to you."

            "God, I love you." Bastion answered back, pulling the locket to his chest and smiling back at her. "You remembered…"

            "I remembered that when I left the MHHQ after Sigma's Sixth…I left you a promise that one day I would come back, after I had found my answers." Bristol put her hand on top of his and squeezed it. "I'm back, Bastion. From here until the day we die…I'm here with you."

            Bastion held out his smile a few moments more…and then passed into stasis himself.

            Horn cleared his throat and stared at the two of them with a grin. "So when's the wedding?"

            Bristol turned about and looked at Horn, blushing a bright beet red. The elderly reploid guffawed. "What, you think after a show like that I'm gonna let the two of you avoid the marriage noose?"

            "There was a time you and he were dire enemies." Bristol reminded him, her face returning to normal. "Why would you choose now to do so much for us??"

            "Because I've learned something, Bristol." Horn remarked as he wheeled over a medical cart next to Bastion. "It's easier to keep friends than it is enemies…and friends don't try to kill you all the time."

            He looked over to her, a new wave of concern washing over his face.

            "Waittasec…where's Pharaoh Man and Wycost and Willow??"

            "Pharaoh Man went back home." Bristol explained. "And Wycost and Willow…"

            Willow's eyes had shut long ago. Now she just waited for death to come.

            It was a bittersweet moment for her, lying there as death crept closer and closer. Jowers was dead…finally dead, no longer able to hurt her in any way now. His wound, as gruesome as it was had finally sealed itself, but the blood loss and internal damage had done its work. One by one, her systems went fuzzy and then sluggish. Her legs had gone first, tingling in their final throes before simply shutting off. It had spread up her body since then, until now she couldn't move her arms, could barely twitch her fingers, and couldn't even crane her neck around. And her vision was beginning to go on her too.

            Under different circumstances, she might have chosen to simply drop into auto-stasis, preserve what functionality she had left and fade into blissful unconsciousness. But that wasn't the case now.

            The countdown had continued…she had heard every tick of the timer through Ice Beacon's loudspeakers. Around a minute left until the signal transfer, the speakers had droned something else on top of the normal degrading timer, but her hearing had chosen that moment to go fuzzy for a few precious seconds. Bitterly, Willow had realized by what she had heard that their mission had been a failure. The countdown had gone on…and finally stopped. With her anti-berserker system online, the Irish Banshee couldn't confirm their failure through terror. But she felt a depression rush through her that seemed to scream the same thing.

            And that was why she now chose to lie here, letting her systems die one by one until not even her memory could be salvaged. Better to die here, after her own marginal victory, than to be revived by returning MI9 forces and tortured for the rest of her days or slaughtered at their butchering and sadistic hands.

            The banshees' wail sounds a death knell for the old, and now it seems it's my time to be embraced by that void so cold…

            And then Willow heard someone coming, and decided at that moment that dying was a very good option.

            "Figures I'd find you lying down on the job." A gruff voice said calmly, causing Willow's thoughts to stop cold. "Just give me a sign that you're still alive."

            "Wycost…" Willow croaked, barely a hoarse whisper in the quiet of the room. That was the most she could manage with what little power she had left.

            Wycost relaxed in a gesture she could not see, exhaling in relief.

            "Well, thank God for small miracles. You had me worried there for a moment, kid." Wycost said, allowing himself to ease the tension off of his worried face. "I thought I'd have to drag you back home in a body bag for a while."

            "Sorry to disappoint you." Willow replied, a few precious tears of relief finding their way out of the corners of her eyes. "You…you did it, didn't you?"

            "Ice Beacon didn't transmit in time." Wycost assured her, kneeling down and patting her on the shoulder. "It came close…but somehow, using everything we had, we shut it down."

            "But what about the future…" Willow asked suddenly, her heart falling a little. "What if…they try to do this again?"

            "Oh, I doubt that." Wycost chuckled. "It took me a bit of work, but I managed to weave my way through this maze and into Ice Beacon's core computer banks. Blew them all to Holy Hell, and no outgoing transmissions with the UBF were sent ANYWHERE. The only copy of Bristol's Universal Bitchy Frequency MI9 had was right here on the premises, and I've taken care of that."

            "Then it finally is over…" Willow sniffled, opening her eyes for a moment before shutting them, the blinding lights searing across her sensitive eyes.

            Wycost tsked as he watched her flinch, then reached up a hand and recalled his helmet off of his head, leaving his black hair to flow free and his black sunglare glasses perched in his crow's nest. With one smooth motion, he plucked his favorite eyewear off of himself and placed it on Willow's face, adjusting the length for a moment until it fit perfectly. "Try that again now."

            Slowly, Willow opened her eyes back up, to find herself staring up at a smiling Wycost through a shield of darkness that allowed her failing eyes to see perfectly.

            "Can you see me now?" Wycost asked her.

            "You could use a shave." Willow laughed, crying a little more.

            "Aaw, everybody says that." Wycost grumbled. "Me, I kind of like my five o' clock shadow." He looked down at Willow and frowned. "Just how much damage can you take? Can you move??"

            "No, I can't." Willow admitted. "Jowers…got me pretty good."

            Wycost looked over. "Is that the guy pincushioned to the wall??"

            Willow shut her eyes. "Yes. But now he's dead, and that's all that matters."

            "Sounds like you have a little more than just the typical MI9 grudge against him." Wycost mumbled, reaching his strong arms underneath her and lifting her up. He grunted for a moment as his arm complained at him, then exhaled. "Am I right?"

            "Some day, when ye and I sit down and swap stories laddie, I'll let ye know." Willow answered, keeping her eyes shut. She couldn't have opened them if she'd tried.

            "Just one last question, Willow." Wycost remarked, holding her limp and responsiveless body against him as he walked towards his exit again. "Bristol mentioned…before I came down to look for you…that you might have chosen to die down here."

            "Did she now…" Willow replied back matter-of factly.

            "This Jowers character held some bad blood for you." Wycost continued. "Do you mean to tell me that you thought once you'd completed your unfinished business with him that you were ready to cash in your chips??"

            "Why?? There was nothing left to live for." Willow answered. Wycost stopped walking and looked down into her cold face.

            "What about Bristol, huh?? She still looks to you for protection, I can see that…"

            "She has that Bastion person now…she doesn't need me." Willow refuted sadly. "Nobody needs me."

            "You're wrong, Willow. We do need you." Wycost said pleadingly. He pulled her closer against himself. "I…I…I need you."

            Willow didn't say anything for a moment, until Wycost began his walking pace again.

            "I hope you're not getting any ideas." She warned softly. Wycost chortled.

            "Perish the thought...though, now that I think about it, there are going to be few occasions like this one in my lifetime. A beautiful and capable female lying helpless in my arms…I think I like you in this position. At least you're not trying to kill me."

            "If I had wanted to kill you, I would have." Willow mumbled softly, her voice trailing off until at last her head nodded into unconsciousness. She still wore his glasses.

            Wycost let out a long and easygoing sigh, walking on until he reached the shield emitter control room that Bristol and Bastion had escaped from. He looked up towards the sky and the brilliantly shining sunlight held promisingly to all.

            He could have sworn he felt Willow shift in his arms and curl tighter around him.

            "I swear, women are going to be the death of me yet." Wycost chuckled, looking down at Willow. "And you…you can kill me anytime."

            And then he vanished, the last warrior from Ice Beacon in tow.

            It was time to go home.

            Back in the Hangar Bay of the MHHQ, a worried Cleo stared at a nonfunctioning datapadd, cursing at it. This was the last thing she needed right now…

            With her back to the door of her office, she had no way of knowing that Doan had walked in. That was, until he twirled her chair around, swept her off of her feet and kissed her with an ardor that left her breathless.

            Doan came up for air fifteen seconds later, smiling wistfully. "Hey, beautiful."

            "You idiot." Cleo giggled, kissing him back. "I was busy with something."

            A few minutes later, and a liplock for the Guiness Book of World Records later, Cleo's nonfunctioning datapadd lay on the floor, unattended.

            It was the least important thing in her life right now.

            The underground data room of Sigma's hidden base hummed with the eerie glowing green lights from the monochromatic displays. Zero's eyes glowed an amber shade through the green tinting, his weapon blazing out in its own element.

            And he laughed, reveling in the hacked heap that had once been Sigma.

            Dead…dead, bloody dead mess, lying and screaming, splattered…

            You enjoyed killing him…didn't you??

            Screams, agony, pain…hearing pain, hearing screams…

            Zero cackled to himself, so beyond himself he didn't even notice the Virus's presence. It seemed to him as though he was the one mumbling all along.

            It feels good to kill things…they scream so loud, you can taste their fear. It tastes good, it always does.

            Sigma…terrified, frightened, killed him, killed him…

            And it felt good. Would you do it again, Zero??

            Kill…kill…WANT kill…

            The voice laughed darkly, pleased at Zero's reply.

            I knew you would. And I know you want to…it aches inside of you, that need to destroy, to kill, to create suffering and terror and to revel in it. It's who you are, Zero, you were meant to destroy…

            Feel so alive…so ALIVE…

            Zero…do you want more?

            YES.

            Heh…At long last, you realize it. So who would you like to destroy first??

            Want kill…want the screams…The cries and terror…

            Hmm, no ideas eh?? Well, I have one.

            Who…

            Mega. Man. X.

           

            And there, in that cold room with the blinking monochrome displays, Zero's laughing stopped.

            Hmm, no?? Then how about that insufferable lummox Hazil?? Oh, I've got it!! How about SIGNAS?? Surely, you want to rip that upstart infidel limb from limb…

            The smile faded. Somewhere within Zero, a part of himself winced, feeling the vibrant malevolent surges lessen.

            No…no, you can't be doubting now. Come on, Zero!! Let yourself go, just fly along and feel the delicious rush! It's what you are, what you were meant to be!!

            And then the glint in Zero's eyes faded away, leaving stunned and frightened green optics.

            "No…" No, no more…No more!!

           

            A brilliant W flashed on his helmet's crystal control chip cover, and Zero screamed, a surge rushing through his head, a blazing three part surge.

            Destroy.

            Infect.

            Survive.

            Zero…this is the code you were meant to live by. Don't resist it.

            Zero howled in pain, dropping his severed arm and saber and clawing at his helmet, at his head.

            The more you resist, the worse the pain gets. You've felt this pain before, Zero…The last time you felt this terrible pain was thirteen years before.

            Zero collapsed to the floor, shrieking and writhing through the shredded mess of Sigma and careening off of the walls.

            Do you remember what happened then?! WELL?!

            "NO…STOP, PLEASE!!!" Zero wailed, now pounding at his head.

            You tried to defy me back then as well…You were winning, you had Sigma's arm torn off, had him in a headlock that would have popped that stupid noggin of his clean off with a few more seconds! But then somehow, some way…you fought back, you tried to resist that thrill, that delicious rush that killing him gave you. You had wiped out all of that other Hunter Unit beforehand…Garma's Unit, wasn't it?? Why would you resist it, huh?? WHY RESIST?!

            "Stay out…STAY OUT!!!" Zero screamed, pulling his hand away and slamming his entire head down onto the cold concrete floor, with crack after sickening crack resulting.

            Why do you continually buffet me…I was made for you, I was made to be ONE with you…Together, we're unstoppable Zero!! Together, we are what we were when you were born…madness given form, the Devil's Child, the Red Demon…

            "I NEVER WANTED YOU!!" Zero screamed, rearing his head back one last time. "WHY WON'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?!!!"

            Inside of his scrambled mind, Zero's consciousness became overloaded from two sources. One source was the cries of the Zero Omega who had awoken in the Maverick Hunter Headquarters…the Zero who had died, been resurrected, and had fought hordes of Mavericks for world peace. The Zero who had fallen in love…who had lost love.

            On the other side was the droning Virus…that soothing but heartless presence who thrived on destruction and bloodshed and reveled in suffering. The one that made Zero feel alive…the side that gave him happiness now, the only kind he had left.

            He nearly chose the Virus then. Only memories stopped him.

            Memories of his friends, both living and dead. Of Cain, of Hazil, of Colonel…Of the innocent Iris who he had killed, and of Mega Man X, his lifelong friend who the Virus WANTED him to kill.

            It was all too much. And the only thing Zero wanted at that moment was for it all to STOP.

            With a final desperate scream, and frustration that both sides of himself finally agreed on, Zero brought his head down on the concrete with enough force to completely obliterate the front of his helmet and leave his mind cleared of everything but a blinding white pain.

            And the voices stopped…Just long enough for Zero to realize what he was doing, what he had almost done, and what he had done…

            Eyes lolling open, he stared dazedly at the remains of Sigma…

            That…could have been X…

            And Zero spasmed then, in a motion that if he were human, would have expelled the contents of his stomach onto the ground.

            His helmet's crystal control chip cover shattered apart…and the W vanished. As did that soothing, ivory lined voice, that deadly and sweet temptation. As it left him, Zero felt the emptiness restore itself…only so much more powerful now. Because now, he had nothing. Even his anger was gone.

            Void…

            The green monochrome screens glittered for a few moments longer, then all blinked out.

            Only the main one turned itself back on. And then words ran across it, accompanied by a cold and dark computer generated voice.

            "Even now…something holds you back, Zero. I'm so disappointed in you."

            Shivering now, beginning to cry from the emotional strain and the fatigue and his injuries, Zero looked up through blurry eyes to the screen. The green monochrome screen displayed what the voice said, inflection and all.

            "You came so close this time…you'd abandoned everything, because everything had abandoned you." The voice snorted. "What kind of silly ideas have been shoved into your head, boy?"

            "Who are you…" Zero croaked out, struggling to push himself off of the ground. "Sigma?!"

            "Oh, that would be what you expect. Sadly, no. The Sigma you know is dormant…for the time being. I'm his other half, the one that allows him to live from one pathetic reincarnation to the next."

            "The Virus…" Zero yawped, pushing himself onto his feet and pointing at the screen, his feet unsteady. "You're the Virus…"

            "Well, a minor correction. I'm the Virus that's been a part of Sigma for more than a decade, thanks to you." The voice said back bitterly. "But I'm not the true Virus, no…I've just been awake long enough to gain a sense of myself."

            "The True Virus…?" Zero croaked, stepping backwards away from the screen.

            The text disappeared to be replaced by a digitized image…the face of a sneering old man with wild white hair and thin emaciated skin. But it was enough. Within himself, Zero felt a deep sense of recognition, of fear.

            "WILY…"

            "Not exactly. Wily is dead, Zero. You killed him right after you were born…just like you were meant to. I am merely a mutated version of his second child. You were the first, and the True Virus is the second."

            "You're crazy…you're crazy…" Zero babbled, shaking his head. "No, it's not true…"

            "What's not true??" The voice smirked, just as the face did. "That you're Wily's bastard child?? Hell, that's beyond any doubt now. You know it, X knows it, and Sigma and I know it. Or are you talking about the second part…the existence of the True Virus??" The 'Sigma Virus' brooded for a moment and shrugged. "Just what about the existence of the True Virus makes you want to blindly deny its existence? Might it be…that you know it's inside of you??"

            "No…" Zero whimpered, clutching at his head. "No, please God no…"

            "Aah, that's it." The Virus laughed in triumph. "What, perhaps you thought that all this time, you were fighting as a penance, is that it?? That by exterminating Sigma and his 'Maverick Virus' infections from the face of the Earth, you could not only accomplish the objective of the Maverick Hunters, but perhaps make your penance as well? Even when you didn't know of your true origins, there had to be something inside of you that made you stay a Maverick Hunter. But what was that, Zero…was it any grandiose and selfless emotion that drove you on, or was it that fighting was all you knew how to do??"

            "NO…NO!!!" Zero screamed, finding the Virus's taunting just as damaging as Sigma's attacks.

            "Face it, Zero…you fight a war that you CAN'T WIN." The Virus goaded him. "So what if you finally destroy Sigma, destroy me and all the darkness that stems from our hands and motives? You'll still have yourself, Zero, you'll still have the True Virus inside of you. No matter how hard you try, no matter how many diagnostic programs or emotionally draining 'internal deletions' you go through, you'll never be rid of it. You felt it then inside of you, before you fought back and damaged your skull. It felt natural, didn't it?? That wonderful sensation, that fulfillment you got from Sigma's screams, from his terror…the Virus offers that to you, and you refuse that. You refuse happiness, Zero. Just what kind of a decision is that?? Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…the Virus would give you all three and more."

            "No…never could, it couldn't, it's all a LIE…" Zero cried out, shutting his eyes and blinking out the hot tears.

            "Why do you refuse yourself this happiness, Zero?? It's the purest one you have, the purest one in the world. Pain…suffering…death and destruction, these are all things that have existed in the world since its birth. Without it, you're incomplete, you're a hollow shell of yourself. And you are ALONE."

           

            That last sentence broke Zero. His eyes opened, his mouth opened…and nothing came. Because the Virus was right.

            "Instead of the choice Wily offered you at birth, you chose instead thirteen years ago to walk a different road. And where has that gotten you, Zero? You've died once. You experience bitterness and loss and defeat…worry and exhaustion. You felt that void from the moment you awoke without the True Virus's presence fully felt…back when it transferred the majority of itself into Sigma, the majority that became ME. Tell me, Zero, today…are you happy? Did Cain's death make you happy? Did losing Iris TWICE make you any more cheerful? Even X…Even X, your purported best friend…at heart, he's a pacifist. He can never truly understand you. You live to fight, and he only fights so that one day he can sit back on a porch of a house with a picket fence and drink lemonade and watch a sunset. But that's not what you want. In your heart of hearts, you want to destroy. You shunt that off, provide an outlet for that instinct by being a Hunter, by hunting Mavericks. But it isn't enough. You're miserable. You're more miserable now than you've ever been."

            Numbly, Zero stared at the screen, gripping at his chest. "It hurts…God, it hurts, I can't argue with that." He took a step closer, his remaining arm dropping to his side. "But…you're telling me that there's a way to stop the pain?"

            "There always has been. You were just never awake enough to recognize it." The Sigma Virus called back flatly. "Embrace the Virus. Don't fight it, don't fear it…you and it were meant for each other, were made as two halves of a whole. The Virus can bring you exhilaration, satisfaction, delicious joy and so much more."

            "The pain…all I need to do to stop the pain…is to lose myself."

            "All you need to do to stop the pain is to lose this empty shell that you've become. Cast it off, like a snakes' skin…And transform back into what you once were."

            "Transformations…evolving, becoming…" Zero croaked, staring up at the screen and the promising face on it. "To become what I was…"

            "So will you do it??" The Sigma Virus asked pleadingly. "You're hanging from a cliff, and the True Virus stands with a hand down just above you, waiting to pull you away from the abyss. It wants to save you, Zero. It wants to help you. Will you let it??"

            Zero stared at the screen for a moment. He blinked. He let a few more tears roll down his face.

            Slowly, his lips parted. And from them, he uttered one single word.

            "Never."

            The face on the screen looked stunned. "What??"

            "I'll never…never allow myself to do that. Never again." Zero choked out, pointing at the screen. "When I allowed myself…allowed the Virus to take hold of me, I did feel incredible. But everything I did, everything I thought…that wasn't me thinking, that was the Virus. You say the Virus is the only thing left that can make me happy…You're wrong, so very wrong. The only thing the Virus does is dull my brain, turn me into another creature entirely, one who thrives on pain and suffering…that isn't ME, that's another person…a person IT makes. Knowing that, knowing that what I feel is a false panacea, a mere illusion while the Virus works its evils through my hands…I can't be happy."

            "Better to be drowned out in false joy than to have none at all." The Sigma Virus argued back, flustered and slightly erratic now. "You would suffer…and for what?! For THEM!?"

            "Nothing I can do anymore can make me happy." Zero cried out, reaching his hand down and grasping his saber…freeing it from his severed hand, and gripping it as a sane and heartbroken spirit. "There are two ways I have left to go now…I can walk alone, and carry this weight myself, and allow the world to live on as it is…or I give into my weakness, give into what you tell me to, and let us all suffer. That's no choice, Virus…NO CHOICE AT ALL!!!"

            "You miserable little Hellspawn." The Virus spat back. "You would suffer…you would carry your own personal cross and Hell upon your back…for them?! What good does that do you, Zero? Gratitude?! From the world? Hardly. From your friends?? Not a fucking chance. The moment you announce that you are carrying the sins of the father on your shoulders alone, they'll crucify you, hunt you down like a dog…because then you won't be Zero Omega, famed Maverick Hunter and the Crimson Wonder…you'll just be another Maverick, but worse, you'll be the FIRST Maverick. Everyone will be out to kill you then. Are they the people you choose to suffer for?? Are they the ones that you would act in the interests of? Those that would as soon tear you to pieces the moment you step out of line??"

            "We all have our burdens in life." Zero choked back, gripping his saber even tighter. "And this world has seen enough suffering because of you, Virus. Who am I to give into the maddening second voice in my head…to let others suffer because of my AFFLICTION?? Misery loves company, is THAT what you're trying to tell me?? Better to live on as a mindless killing machine, drugged by a lust for pain and screams, is that it?!"

            "It's easy to say heroic things." The Virus said back coldly. "Sigma did once. But even he fell. Tell me Zero…when will you fall from grace? This battle you've been fighting carries two sides. The physical and the mental. The physical you can handle…but you are losing mentally. You say now that you can carry this weight, this pain of knowing who and what you are, that you can resist your true nature, if only to let the world not suffer. But you can't hold to it. You know you can't."

            "Shut up…SHUT UP." Zero announced, coughing and crying at the same time. Screaming in defiance, he slashed his saber across one of the smaller screens at the console, destroying it utterly. Somewhere inside of the system, the Sigma Virus screamed.

            "Heh!! Sure, play the tough one, Zero. Go right ahead. Try and be the hero…but know this. Your fate has been decided."

            "BASTARD!!!" Zero screamed, slashing at another console. The face vanished, and the text returned…the Virus was weakening, with fewer screens to control.

            "You pathetic wretch. The True Virus lies inside of you, forever with you. You cannot destroy it, cannot delete it…you cannot even ignore it. From this moment forth, you and it shall fight a battle for control."

            "JUST DIE ALREADY!!" Another slash, another dead monitor.

            And then the voice vanished as well…

            Only the main monitor remained, a tiny little green underline blinking for a few moments before running across the screen and leaving a line of text.

            FIGHT IT ALL YOU WANT, ZERO. BUT ONE DAY, THAT DORMANT PRESENCE INSIDE OF YOU WILL WIN. OR YOU WILL GO INSANE. OR THE GUILT FROM LEADING THIS WRECK YOU CALL A LIFE WILL CAUSE YOU TO END IT.

            ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, ZERO…

            YOU ARE A DAMNED SOUL.

           

            Zero stared at the text for a long moment, more tears running down his face. And he brought his saber up and slashed one final time.

            The screen crackled and finally died with a long whimper…and the room was left in darkness.

            Zero's saber extinguished itself, at long last having used up the final ergs of its charge.

            In the darkness, the Crimson Hunter trembled…and collapsed, whimpering, then sobbing.

            Somehow, he managed to activate his wristcomm and open up a channel to MHHQ…X's private hailing frequency. It rang a few times, and then the line clicked…

            "Mega Man X speaking." Came the tired and drained voice.

            All Zero could do was cry…roll over, curl up in on himself and cry.

            Back in the depths of the Siberian wilderness, a familiar looking goldenrod and silver colored figure wandered into Kalinka Cossack's room, where the daughter of the deceased robotics engineer slept a restless, dreamless sleep.

            Pharaoh Man knelt down beside her bed and smiled, reaching a hand up and brushing her hair away from her eyes. She woke up instantly, whirling about and staring stunned into his smiling face.

            "Hey." He said, grinning wider.

            Kalinka's eyes watered with tears of joy…in one fluid motion, she reached her arms up and pulled him to her, hugging him tightly.

            "I thought I'd never see you again…" She choked out, squeezing tighter. "Phare, don't ever leave me like that again…"

            Pharaoh Man exhaled, nodding his head.

            Yes…this is why I came back. For you, Kalinka.

            "Don't worry, sis…I'm never leaving you again."

            Outside, Ring Man shut the door to Kalinka's room and walked down the hallway.

            For the first time ever, he smiled.

            Thirteen minutes later, a terrified Mega Man X scrambled through the underground corridors of the URFAWP built Maverick lair, his Buster glowing with a bright halo of plasma energy acting as a flashlight.

            "Zero…ZERO!!!" He called out frantically, tripping and stumbling over equipment and the tattered ruins of the lair that had been the final battleground for Sigma.

            God, what happened…Zero, what did he do to you…

            Sigma was dead. If he had been alive, Zero wouldn't be. Which meant that somehow, Zero had won…but bitterly, X reminded himself that this was just another hand in the same damn game of poker. Sigma would be back…his core essence had most definitely survived, if he had died here.

            What frightened X now was that he got no answer back from his cries. Zero's call had not been a normal one…and X had never heard Zero cry like that. Never. Not once in the 13 years they had known each other.

            That terrified him worst of all.

            Running through the mess, X finally charged into the data room…the first thing he saw was that the screens and the databanks behind them had been slashed into pieces, most likely by Zero's handiwork.

            The second thing he saw was Zero himself…curled up in on himself, a shorn off arm and his Z-Saber lying beside his trembling form.

            "Oh, God…" X croaked, stepping into the room and shaking his head. "Zero, God no…"

            The Crimson Hunter heard X's voice…another surge of emotions ran through him. And his sobs began anew.

            Hurriedly, X ran down and knelt beside Zero prying his arms away from his legs and pulling him up.

            Zero was a wreck. A sobbing, bawling wreck. His blurry, tearstreaked green eyes locked in on X…and then he collapsed into the Blue Bomber of 21XX, burying his face into X's shoulder and sobbing some more.

            "Zero…" X choked out, holding his friend close and gently rubbing his back. "You stupid bastard, running off and taking on Sigma yourself…"

            His eyes opened wider as he looked behind Zero…and saw a barely distinguishable mass of metal and synthflesh…The shattered, sliced and skewered remains of Sigma.

            Zero…you didn't kill him, you BUTCHERED HIM…

            "God…What's happening to you, Zero??" X spoke up in an unsteady voice.

            Zero's sobs ceased for a minute, and he pulled back enough so he could speak audibly.

            "X…I would never kill you, never…"

            X nearly recoiled as Zero collapsed back on him, completely lost to the world as he let out his grief and anguish. "Whoever said anything about you killing me??" X demanded shakily.

            Zero didn't answer. He just suffered in sobbing silence.

            X shut his eyes and let a tear out, holding his friend tighter, letting Zero know in his moment of absolute loneliness that he still had a friend in the world that cared.

            Zero cried on…

            X let him.