It had been one week since X had defeated the evil villain behind the events on Giga City. Now, he, Zero and Axl had returned back to the Maverick Hunter Base to relax for a bit after the happenings. Signas and Alia greeted them in the transporter room.
"Good to see you back, gentlemen," said Signas. "It's good to see that everything worked out."
"Me too, sir," replied X.
"Well then, why don't you take the day off and get some rest?" said Signas. "I've already looked over the full report you sent."
"Aw yeah, I agree with that!" said Axl.
The three of them began to walk out, but Alia stopped X as he went by.
"It's...really nice to have you back, X," she said. "I was starting to miss you."
"Yeah, I...missed you too," replied X. "So, uh, you like my new look?"
"I do. It's really sweet," she said. "Say, if you're not busy tonight...would you like to go out to dinner with me?"
"Okay, I'd like that," said X.
Axl and Zero overheard the conversation from the hallway.
"Woo-hoo, hear that? I never knew X and Alia had a thing for each other," said Axl.
"Eh, those two have been flirting with each other for sometime now," said Zero. "This is the first time they've been so direct about it."
"Neat. Well, what about you? You ever had a girl?"
"Yes, once, a while ago..." said Zero, letting his voice trail off.
"Uh, you okay, man?" asked Axl.
"I'm sorry, it just brings back some bad memories," said Zero.
"Okay, I'll say no more," said Axl.
After about thirty minutes, the alarm sounded. Quickly, X, Zero and Axl all raced into the central monitoring station to see what was happening. The monitor revealing that a single Maverick was creating a massive disturbance in a nearby city.
"X, you and your fellow hunters are the only ones immediately available to handle this crisis," said Signas. "Transport out there immediately."
"Yes, sir," replied X.
As the three of them headed for the transporter room, Alia looked the Maverick with intense interest.
"Who is that?" she asked herself.
Soon, X and his group had arrived on the scene, face-to-face with the Maverick. She was human-like and slender with short black hair and deep brown eyes. She was clad in silver armor from just below her neck down, armed with twin beam sabers that extended from her wrists.
"Wow, never thought they'd sent the world-famous X after me," she said. "Am I such a bad girl that you need to send the S-Class hunters out to stop me?"
"Shut it, Maverick," said Zero. "We're not in the mood at all."
"Okay, fine," said the woman. "I guess we'll just get right to the fighting, but before we do, I do at least owe you my name. It'll give you something to remember in the emergency room. The name's Jewel."
Alia froze as soon as she heard that name.
"Jewel?" she echoed.
X fired off an X-Buster shot, which Jewel immediately reflected it with her saber. However, Zero quickly took advantage of the opportunity, dashing in and slicing her with his saber. Jewel growled in annoyance, slicing Zero back with her other hand. As she did, Axl attacked from the side with a double shot from his pistols, scoring a hit. Jewel dashed at him, but X got her with another X-Buster shot, knocking her down. As she got up, she dashed into X at super-speed, knocking him to the ground, then raised her left saber to jab into him, but X rolled away before she could strike, allowing Zero time to slice off her raised arm.
"Hey, she's not so tough after all," commented Axl. "How about you just give up now?"
"No way," she said. "I guess taking on all three of you is too tough, but I'd rather go down fighting!"
"If that's really what you want, so be it," said X, charging up his buster.
Alia watched the battle intently from her control room. As she did, she observed a small red gem located on Jewel's right arm. She nearly fainted in surprise.
"No...no, it is her!" she gasped. "I can't let X kill her!"
"Here goes," said X. "Charge Shot..."
"X, don't! Don't fire!" shouted Alia through the communicator.
"Don't shoot? What do you mean, Alia?" asked X.
"Alia?" echoed Jewel.
"What's the big deal, Alia?" asked Axl. "She's a Maverick and we've gotta take her down!"
"Just listen to me! I don't want you to kill her, no matter what!" said Alia.
"C'mon, we at least should hear the reason why," said Zero.
"I guess that means I'm free to go," said Jewel, picking up her arm. "See you in the funny papers, kids!"
Before the Hunters could react, Jewel activated her internal transporter and beamed out.
"Aw, crap," grumbled Zero.
"What now?" asked Axl.
"What happens now is that we go back and get an explanation out of Alia, that's what," said Zero.
In a second, the Hunters had returned to the base and confronted Alia about what happened during the mission.
"What was with that?" asked Axl. "We had her on the ropes until you interfered!"
"I'm sure you have a good explanation, don't you, Alia?" asked X.
"Yes, I do," replied Alia. "I knew her years ago. She was my friend during the time I spent with Gate. I...didn't want to see her destroyed."
"Alia, we're going to have a serious talk about this later," said Signas. "For now, you're relieved of duty."
"Yes, sir," said Alia, trudging off to her quarters.
"She's not telling us everything," said Zero.
"No much we can do," said X. "We just have to wait for her to tell us herself."
As soon as Alia went back into her room later that night, she soon noticed the jewel implanted in her hand was glowing. The glow intensified at a surprising rate. Alia, realizing what it meant, quickly turned around, finding herself face-to-face with Jewel.
"Alia…it's been too long," she said.
"Jewel? It's really you, isn't it?" asked Alia.
"The one and only," she replied.
The two of them hugged each other tightly.
"Jewel, I've really missed you," said Alia, crying slightly.
"I missed you too," replied Jewel. "I couldn't believe it was you who stopped X earlier today."
"What are you doing here?" asked Alia, pulling back a bit. "You'll be detected if you've been infected by the virus."
"My body has been enhanced with the most powerful anti-virus software ever. I can actually suppress the virus for a few minutes at a time," explained Jewel. "If I leave before I lose control, it'll all be okay."
"What's happened to you? When did you get all this armor? How did you get infected? Oh, I have so many things I want to ask you!"
"I can't answer you tonight," said Jewel. "I don't think I can hold the virus back much longer, but I knew that most of all, I had to come see you tonight, now that I know where you are. I swear I'll come back and tell you all you need to know tomorrow night, if you can trust me."
"I trust you," said Alia. "I'll wait until then."
"Thank you," replied Jewel. She cried a little. "I wish I didn't have to go."
The two girls hugged each other, then Jewel teleported out. Alia looked up where Jewel had teleported out, then went over to her regeneration pod and crawled in, drifting into sleep.