AN:  Here's the next chapter of my story.  This time, we'll here from Douglas.

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Douglas

            I can't wait to see the look on her face.

            Alia has really taken X's purported death pretty hard.  She tries not to show it, but it's obvious if you know what to look for.  The eyes almost always give away what a person is feeling and hers have had a kind of dead look to them recently, like she's trying not to feel anything about what happened.  That's not the best way to deal with losing somebody . . . then again it's also a common response from people who just aren't ready to deal with whatever feelings such an event evokes.

            I may not know Alia as well as some others, but I know how she behaves normally well enough to tell how rough these last few days have been for her.  Normally Alia is actually a reasonably cheerful, friendly person when off-duty, but when it comes to her job she always becomes dead serious about what she's doing and always tries to keep her emotions in check . . . though from some of the rumors I've heard, her control slips a little when X is the one in serious danger.  Lately though, she's been behaving depressed and subdued.  Alia has also been focusing all of her energy into her job . . . I know she can be a bit of a workaholic on occasion, but she's never allowed her job to dominate her time like this before.  I can only think of two reasons for her sudden change in behavior . . . she either couldn't accept that X might be gone for good or she was trying to avoid dealing with whatever pain she was experiencing as a result of accepting that X was gone.  Just the fact she's taken what many of us thought to be X's death so hard kind of makes me wonder what her exact feelings towards X are . . . if her feelings for him go beyond simple friendship . . . I suppose that it's really none of my business either way. 

            I guess maybe I do know her a bit better than I thought . . . funny how you don't always realize how well you may know a person . . . then again going through a crisis like the colony drop with someone has a way of quickly establishing bonds and making you get to know somebody.  Until recently most of my dealings with Alia have either been in staff meetings, she is the chief communications officer after all, or when she was studying X's old armor components.  I still remember how surprised she was to find out we kept all of the parts from the armors X totaled to see what we could learn from them.  Signas cleared her to examine the parts because of Alia's reploid engineering background, in case she could discover something about them that we hadn't . . . Somehow she managed to repair a few components from some of the armors and then actually started using them to build a new armor based off of X's Nova Armor, the Fourth Armor.  It was almost a perfect copy of the Nova Armor.  It just lacked a giga-crush and her version of the Weapons Energy Cycling System was less efficient than Dr. Light's, but it still gave X considerably more energy for his copied weapons.  It was pretty shocking that she was able to do it - even Dr. Cain had little luck repairing X's armors, let alone building a nearly exact copy of one from left over parts.

            Alia really has been through a lot in the past few days, all of us have really.  But I know this little surprise that we found at point 11F5646 is really going to cheer her up . . . I'd like to claim that I never doubted for a minute that X survived what happened, but even I was starting to lose hope about that being true.

            It was hard for me to even consider that X and Zero might be dead.  I mean it's one of those events whose odds of happening seem to be so low, it ranks right up there with Hell freezing over . . . then again most people felt the same way about a space colony nearly crashing and wiping out all life on Earth until a few days ago.

            I've known X and Zero a long time, since before the Repliforce War.  I know that they seldom go looking for trouble, somehow trouble always finds them . . . but they've always managed to walk away from whatever got thrown at them every time, though I still wonder why they could never bring one of my landchasers back in one piece.  I guess we took it for granted that they would always win and always come back home . . . their last battle with Sigma kind of shattered that illusion.  I guess that their luck was bound to run out eventually, I just never thought it would happen in my lifetime.

            We searched that place for two full days and didn't find any sign of X or Zero.  Not one scrap of armor or even a broken circuit board.  We knew that there should have been some sign of their bodies, I mean they survived that big explosion just to get killed by some unknown attacker – I'm certain it was Sigma  – and nothing short of a tactical nuke can completely obliterate a reploid's body . . . so how could there be no trace of them?

            We did find something digging through the debris though . . . something I hadn't seen in person before and hoped to never have to.  We found it in a cavern that branched off from the pit that served as the entrance.  I could tell from the scaffolding and the remains of the various machines that somebody had been building something big.  It wasn't too long after entering the cavern that we saw what it was and everyone on the recovery team panicked.

            Sigma . . . we had found Sigma.  Well, more accurately what was left of Sigma's latest battle body . . . that thing was monstrously huge and was probably armed to the teeth with all sorts of nasty little toys.  It had been almost completely blown apart and pieces of it were scattered all over the cavern, but the head and most of the upper torso had survived somehow.  The thing's face looked like a huge death's-head with a gaping mouth and a hole drilled right through the center of its skull.  I can't blame anyone on the recovery team for not wanting to go near that thing . . . nobody wanted to risk being attacked by it or becoming Sigma's new host.  Apparently even in death Sigma is still capable of terrifying us . . .

            I didn't really believe that Sigma was still alive given the state of that body . . . but I called the security team down anyways to make sure that baldy was dead and allay the fears of the recovery team.  The security team consisted of Unit 0 and the 17th – they intended to come along to help search for their missing commanders no matter what, so Signas made them the security detail rather than try to force them to remain at the base.  If Sigma had still been alive, they would have made him wish he wasn't.  Fortunately they confirmed what I suspected, Sigma was dead.  If Alia is right about him spreading the virus too thin during the colony crisis . . . then he's not coming back anytime soon, if ever.  If that's true, then maybe we can actually put an end to this war with the Mavericks.

            We searched that entire cavern and still didn't see hide or hair of X and Zero . . . finally we called it quits and went back to base camp.  That's when we got the biggest shock of our lives.

            X was lying down in the middle of the camp like he was asleep or something!  I know we set up the camp in a hurry, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't there when we arrived.  To make things even more interesting he was completely undamaged!  From transponder readings Alia had gotten before losing X's signal we had expected him to be blown in half, missing a limb, or at least have carbon scoring on his armor . . . but when we found him . . . he was in perfect condition!  There wasn't so much as scratch or smudge on his armor.  What really freaked everyone out was the fact that Zero's Z-saber was on the ground right next to him.

            It was just too weird.  Nobody at the camp had seen him arrive and there was sign of him being teleported there.  When we tried to wake X, he just lay there . . . we could tell he was alive, just not responding.  We radioed the HQ to let them know that we had found X and then did a quick search of the area for Zero in case something similar had happened with him . . . but there was no sign of him other than his saber.

            I brought X back here while the rest of the recovery team kept searching for Zero . . . I probably should have stayed too, but X is so difficult to repair even under the best of circumstances that Lifesavor usually needs me or Alia to help him when he runs into one of  X's "black boxes."  It's a real pain working on those parts of X that nobody can analyze properly . . . then again the fact nobody understands or can precisely duplicate those components is probably why there aren't a whole lot of Mavericks who can rival him in power.  That's a scary thought though, a group of Mavericks as powerful as X or Zero . . . a battle with them would probably wreck the planet worse than the falling debris from the colony.

            As glad as I am that X is back safe and sound . . . having him just mysteriously appear uninjured in the middle of the recovery team base camp creeps me out more than just a little.

            I wonder why X won't wake up . . . There didn't seem to be anything wrong with him when I ran a check on him back at the base camp.  I guess we'll know as soon as Lifesavor does a scan of him and runs some diagnostics.  Maybe calling Alia was premature since X isn't awake and we don't really know what's wrong with him, but it's probably a good idea to have her here and ready in case we do need her help.  Lifesavor doesn't seem to have a problem with calling for her though . . .

            "Doc, do you think we should have waited till we had more info about his condition before calling Alia?"

            "It won't hurt for her to be here on standby if it turns out we do need her assistance.  You said yourself that X didn't appear to have anything physically wrong with him, which means that his current state could be the result of a program error caused by whoever put him back together.  Correcting such a thing would be more Alia's specialty since her programming abilities exceed mine or yours and she may have encountered something similar during her time with the Reploid Research Group.  If that is the case, it will take that much less time to fix X.  Besides, it was your idea to call her."

            Lifesavor has a point.  It was my idea . . .

            "True Doc, but you're the one who said it was a good idea."

            "Because it was a good idea, we may need her help and this will at least get her to stop moping around in her room when she should be getting rest."

            "I wouldn't exactly say Alia's been moping, but she is probably just getting her first real chance to deal with what she thought happened."

            "I know that . . . but I still don't like seeing my patients go through something like this.  I can fix the body of almost any reploid with no problem, but there's usually very little I can do to help them with whatever psychological or emotional problems they have to deal with when they take an event as hard as she took X's supposed death."

            I suppose that's true.  It's easier to heal the body than it is the soul . . .

            "Alright you two, where's this patient you wanted me to check out?"

            Whatever I was expecting Alia's first words to be when she got here, those weren't them.  I can tell from her tone she's in no mood to play games but at the same time she sounds a little hopeful . . . I think she already knows who it is we found and is just trying to avoid getting her hopes up in case she's wrong.  Alia tries so hard to keep her feelings in check . . . it's a shame really, it may cost her one day if she doesn't just come out and tell people how she feels.  I may as well just go ahead and let her see X.

            "Right over here Alia."

            I wish I had a camera.  The look on her face is priceless; Alia is pretty imperturbable most of the time, so it's rare to see her so surprised.  She may have suspected that we found X when we called her down here, but she probably didn't expect him to be alive and in one piece.  The look of joy in her eyes gives away how relieved and happy she is to see him again . . . I just hope there really is nothing wrong with him and that he wakes up soon.  I don't want to have gotten Alia's hopes up only to have her find out that there's something wrong with X that we can't fix.  All the scans I did at the base camp indicated that he was fully repaired . . . but still there's the possibility that they missed something.

            "Douglas . . . what . . . how . . . how did you manage to repair him so quickly?"

            "We didn't fix him Alia."

            "What do you mean you didn't fix him?  Who else could have?  The readings from his transponder indicated that he took heavy damage.  You couldn't have just found him lying somewhere completely uninjured!"

            "That's actually what happened.  We found him lying practically in the middle of the base camp today.  Nobody knows how he got there either."

            "Nobody knows?  I'm guessing you couldn't get any answers from X then."

            "Yeah, he was asleep when we found him and he hasn't woken up yet . . . we should know more about his condition when Lifesavor finishes his scans of X."

            "Okay, but it doesn't make sense . . . X simply vanishes after being badly hurt and then just reappears looking completely healed.  On top of that no one saw him enter the camp . . . What's going on?  Who could have fixed him?"

            I knew the circumstances of how we found X would drive her nuts.  Alia tries to deal with everything using facts and logic and there is no logical explanation for why we couldn't find X only to have him appear out of nowhere totally unharmed.  I guess somebody could have fixed him . . . but that doesn't explain how that person could have dumped X's body at the camp without being seen.  This is probably one of those things where it's better to simply accept what's happened and not look the gift horse in the mouth.

            "If either of you are interested, I've already completed the scans on X.  He has been completely repaired; in fact, his systems are operating much more efficiently than they have been in the last few years – apparently whoever fixed him gave him something of a tune-up – and there has been no apparent tampering with his programming.  In other words, X is in perfect shape and there's no need for us to do anything but wait for him to wake up."

            "Why isn't he awake now Lifesavor?"

            "Well, Alia . . . his system is running some type of high-level diagnostic that I've never seen before.  I don't know how long it will take, but X should wake up after the diagnostic is complete."

            Well that's a relief.  There's nothing wrong with X . . . but I wonder how he was repaired and who initiated this diagnostic program that's keeping him from waking up.  I'm surprised that Lifesavor's never seen anything like it . . . then again this is X we're talking about, so I guess it shouldn't be too surprising that there's some kind of program we've never seen before floating around in his head.

            Alia looks relieved at the news about X's condition.  I'm glad we didn't need her help after all to repair him and maybe now she'll be able to cheer up some.  Since there's nothing we can do to help him, there's no point in hanging around here.  I guess that means I should return to point 11F5646 and keep looking for Zero . . . maybe we'll luck out again and find him too.

            "Sounds like there's nothing for us to do but wait for X to finish that diagnostic and wake up . . . I guess that means I should get back to work coordinating the recovery teams."

            "If you found X, then maybe Zero will pop up too.  I'll be sure to notify both of you and Signas if there is any change in X's condition."

            "Thank you, Lifesavor . . . is it okay if I stay for a while longer though?  I'm still on break and I won't be needed in the Control Center for a while . . . I could analyze that diagnostic and see if I can't figure out when it will be done."

            "Hmm . . . okay.  It won't hurt for you to keep an eye on X for a while.  Just make sure to get some rest soon, you haven't taken a break since this mess began and it's not wise to overwork yourself like that."

            "Alright, I'll get some rest later.  I promise."

            Finding X is the first good news we've had since the colony blew up.  I imagine that once word spreads about X being recovered a lot of the tension and fear that has settled over the base will start to subside.  Alia already seems to be doing better now.  She's obviously still a little apprehensive over the fact X isn't awake yet, but I suppose that it's an improvement over how she's been these last few days. 

            I feel like our luck is starting to change . . . we may even find Zero soon.  He had to have survived, who else could have put the Z-saber next to X?  If X survived then why couldn't Zero have as well?  I mean he's already come back from the dead once before.  I know we'll find Zero . . . then we can focus on rebuilding the planet.  I'm sure we can handle whatever surprises come our way with X and Zero to help us.  Things are actually starting to look up for once.

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AN:  Well, what did you think?  I apologize if this one isn't as good as my earlier chapters.  Thank you for reading my story.  I still have about three chapters left, so please be patient while I work on them.  Please review, I appreciate your comments.