Big hugs to everyone! Hello out there! (drum rolls) It is now time for me to respond to my reviews. (bows) Thank you very much!

To The Awesome Khilai: Another wonderful review from the Great One himself. I can't thank you enough for your enthusiasm. It seems like my story is working out the way I wanted it too. I'm glad you're able to feel like one of the characters! Your reviews are the kind of reviews that make writers want to continue with their work. This humble writer thanks you from the bottom of her heart. Speaking of 'Complexity of a Soul'…….you're the one that needs to update, like, PRONTO! (smiles)

To the Ninja of the Stars: Heehee. Cliffhangers are fun. Glad you like them! I like writing them-I was caught up in the suspense myself. I actually began to type a lot faster towards the end of my last chapter. Haha!

To Prjct.War: Hi again! When I saw your review I realized that my story really is working its magic. I'm glad you like my chapters!

To PRIVATE: Axl isn't really worried about Red and the others-he just regrets having to fight against them. His mind is focused on both X and Zero, so he has no time to worry about being chased, and the Black Tiger is definitely altruistic, so being chased down doesn't really matter to him. He puts his true friends before anything else.—

Fear caused Axl's entire body to dry up in no more than a second. His mouth became painfully dry, and his eyes were wide with immense shock. For a moment he tried to figure out what he had done to deserve such bad luck-he felt like a young child being cornered by a killer, in the darkest closet. His heart was pounding at a breakneck speed-he felt as if he no longer had one. Red was no more than a few feet away from him….smiling…..

Crap. Crap. Crap and more crap. This is definitely not good.

"Red!" the young tiger said to the one that had interrupted his mission. A smile was on the young Reploid's face, but it wasn't a sincere one.

Axl loved being sarcastic sometimes.

"How nice it is to see you. Unfortunately, you kinda picked a really crappy time to say 'hi'. Why don't we talk later?"

The look on Red's face wasn't a look that could have been described as 'normal'. The Reploid looked like a really thirsty vampire that was trying to keep his cool…..and that look caused a million blades of black ice to shoot through Axl's body. A soft sigh withdrew itself from the young's mouth as he accepted this fact-

The one he cared for….the very friend he had loved…

Was gone.

The true Red was no longer with him.

Where did you go?

This isn't you. This can't be you.

You've been replaced by an evil clone….haven't you?

Red returned Axl's sarcasm perfectly. His voice was a demonic dirge of evil…and his eyes were bright with the fires of the underworld. Red's physical appearance alone caused Axl's heart to plunge right into sadness-the Red he had known and cared for wasn't……..

A huge, psychotic freak.

"Sorry, dear friend, but I must speak with you now. Urgent matters. You understand."

The mask of kindness disintegrated from Axl's face. His face became hard with firm, fiery hatred….and his voice became a bright beam of strength. "Yeah?" he asked Red, ready to pounce on his new enemy. "What d'ya want from me? I no longer work for you, remember? I'm not one of your little toys, pal!"

The mask of friendliness also removed itself from Red's face. Red was matching Axl's every move perfectly……and that fact was causing great anger to rise within the young one's heart. Axl glued his eyes to his opponent, sensing the desire to attack…..Red kept his eyes on him…….

"Well, is that so? Sorry to disappoint you, my dear child, but you have no choice in this matter. I need something from you, and you're going to give it to me, whether you like it or not."

Red's tone of voice caused even more blades to shoot through Axl's body, and the young one realized that he was in serious trouble. Red wasn't playing around-he already had his claws bared and ready, and he evidently wasn't going to back off and leave him alone. The data for the panacea was still on the screen, and so his mission was in great danger, and time still wasn't willing to stop for anyone. The young tiger was trapped in a cold, dark room….with a mindless, soulless killer…..

Crap. This is definitely not good. Not good at all.

The young Reploid placed his hands on his two guns, ready to remove them in a flash. Red saw that he was preparing for an attack and laughed at him, still wearing a vindictive, harsh smile…..

"Come on now. Must we resort to violence? Let's finish our talk."

Axl's tone of voice would have caused a ten-headed, red-eyed demon to run off, whimpering.

"I'm not giving you anything, so just walk out of here and forget that you even stopped by."

"I'm not going anywhere, you pathetic little cockroach, until I get what I came for."

"It's nice to see you too, Red. How have you been? I've been fine, thanks."

The young Reploid was doing something he really didn't want to do.

He was releasing all of the anger….all of the sorrow…that had been born within him….because of the hatred he was receiving from his old friends. He wanted to keep his mind on the Maverick Hunters…..but….he couldn't stop the memories from rising….and he couldn't stop the tears from falling…..

It was just too hard.

Red began to walk towards him, bearing the look of a wrathful bear in his eyes….which were no longer the warm, affectionate jewels Axl had become so comfortable with. The Reploid's voice was filled with the most powerful amount of hatred…..even though a smile was still on his face…

"Don't you talk like that to me. I didn't betray you. You betrayed me. Get it! You've got no right to spout off that kind of crap right in front of me!"

Axl's voice became louder….and more tears began to descend from his eyes. He wanted to hold them back, but it was as if each teardrop has its own will, its own soul. The young tiger released all of his furious thoughts on his opponent…without even wanting to. He wanted to forget everything-he wanted to throw away his past, the memories he had shared with Red…..but throwing everything away was impossible….since everything he wanted to get rid of…..

Meant so much to him.

"Bullcrap! I didn't betray anyone! YOU betrayed me-you betrayed YOURSELF! You've forgotten the true meaning of the Red Alert Syndicate, buddy! You've forgotten everything! You've forgotten about ME!"

I really, really hate myself right now…..I'm not supposed to be doing this! Sheesh….I've got to concentrate on……X and Zero……but……

"You're being selfish. How sad! I thought I raised you well. Apparently I failed you as a father."

Axl's tone surpassed the power of the greatest thunderstorm.

"Don't talk to me like I'm some stupid guinea pig you picked off the street!"

"I wish I had left you on the street! You ungrateful, disgusting little insect! I should have left you on the road to rot! You're no good to me! You're worth absolutely nothing!"

Those words caused pure, shimmering drops of starlight to enter Axl's young eyes. The young Reploid wanted to burst into tears right then and there….Red's words burned themselves into his mind…and his soul…

You're worth absolutely nothing!

He tried to keep on reminding himself that the Red he was speaking with….wasn't really the true Red….but that was no longer working. The words that were coming from Red's mouth were real….the hatred within Red's eyes was real…..everything was real…..

He couldn't lie to himself anymore.

Red wasn't standing right next to him. It wasn't a clone-it was the real deal.

For a minute, the young one was frozen by the sorrow flowing through his body. All of the memories…all of the smiles….everything soared through his broken heart at the speed of light….and sorrow froze every inch of his soul. His eyes fell to the ground as he allowed himself to become immersed in the distant memories of the past….shock united with sorrow and ate away at his heart…..

He couldn't believe what he had just heard…he couldn't….

The minute of silence passed without a hitch. Axl's eyes rose from the ground and returned to Red's eyes, filled with a beautiful, heart-breaking amount of grief, bravery and scorn. The young one was ready to spread his wings and fly-he had other matters to deal with….promises to keep….

"I don't have time to deal with you. I've got something to take care of."

A moment later, Axl found himself on the cold, hard floor, doubled up in deep, unbearable pain. At an amazing speed, Red had dealt out a hard punch to his chest, causing the young one to fall to the floor. The Red Alert Syndicate leader laughed at the one he had beaten down viciously, shouting at him as if he had done nothing wrong…

"You disgust me, you little bastard! How could you turn away from me! How!"

No answer. Axl really didn't want to speak to him….and even if he wanted to, he couldn't. The ability to speak was temporarily gone-the pain that had engulfed his body was beyond excruciating….he could barely even breathe.

And the oceans of tears streaming from his eyes weren't making things better.

"You're going to give what I want, unless you no longer value your life! Would like you to know what I'm after! I'll tell you! I'm after the DNA codes for your dear new friends, Megaman X and Zero! Master Sigma would like the chance to play with them! Would you like to cooperate with me, or not!"

Silence………stayed for about ten seconds….then…..

"Go screw yourself."

Red delivered a kick to the young Reploid that caused even more pain to shoot through his body. The power of the kick was unbelievable-pain suffocated him right after Red had given it to him. The ability to breathe was lost to the young one for an entire minute, but then he regained enough strength to continue breathing….even though his body was on fire. The tears wouldn't stop flowing from his eyes….and his heart was shattered into a million pieces….the room was so cold, so bare and lifeless……

"I'm sorry things have to be like this, you know. We could have made a great team, you and I, but I guess things were meant to be like this. I'll see you again soon, dear little Axl….but trust me, our next get-together won't be so pretty."

The leader of the Red Alert Syndicate walked out of the room….and silence consumed everything in its path. The young Reploid was and still in a tremendous amount of pain. There wasn't anyone to comfort him….there wasn't a single soul around to speak to him...a part of him felt like a small child, all alone without a single smile or embrace. Millions and millions of tears fell from his eyes…..he wanted to hold them back, but nothing could be held back…..every tear held a memory……a memory of the happiness he had once treasured……

The happiness he had just lost.

Ten long minutes passed, and the young one realized something.

The tears had stopped. There wasn't a single tear that needed to be shed. They were…all gone. Every last one of them.

The pain had stopped as well. Everything was….

Gone.

He rose to his feet and wiped the remnants of the dewdrops from his eyes with a sniff. The strong determination that had rushed into his eyes just a few minutes ago returned…and healed his entire body. His eyes became bright jewels of everlasting strength and courage…..and his heart….filled his entire body with power.

What am I doing? I've got a promise to keep! And time isn't going to stop for anyone!

The young one returned to the keyboard and looked up at the data, noticing that Red had paid no attention to it. That fact caused a small smile to bloom on his face. His heart was still hurting….but the pain was minor.

I don't need you anymore, Red. You've taught me all I need to know, so now I can fly on my own. I've got my own path to go down now. You can take your own path.

Now……

Axl re-read this very line-

Search for the God of Death.

Thanatos. That's right.

With a sigh, he pounded his fists on the table on slammed his forehead onto the very same place.

"This is going to suck. Badly. Why did this jerk have to be Greek?"

The vault of your will must be opened, look to the stones of Mnesicles?

Mnesicles…….if I'm right….then Mnesciles was the guy that created….the Erethecion building!

Two down, ten to go.

-Time passed by lazily, but to the young Reploid, time was soaring by at the speed of sound. Every second brought to him a new riddle, a new barrier that needed to be cracked….his mind wandered to his dear friends back inside of the Maverick Hunter base sometimes, but then he went right back to his mission……and continued to crack the barriers that stood before his treasure. At times he became severely frustrated, the way all young, hyper-active teenagers become frustrated when faced with a ridiculously hard challenge-Axl wasn't an expert in the language of Greece, and he certainly wasn't an expert on its history, but the challenges that sprang up in front of him were met perfectly.

An hour passed. The last barrier was cracked, and the program was revealed. A massive amount of data assaulted his eyes and caused him to gasp sharply-

"Whoa. Pretty big program."

The data was beyond complex, and it seemed to be an endless ocean, an endless abyss of numbers and letters and words. A huge grin blossomed on the young one's face when he realized that he had just cracked open a VERY hard nut.

"All right! I can't believe I actually did that!"

A moment later he noticed a message that had appeared on the computer's monitor. A small gasp left his mouth, and he quickly read every single word of the message-

Which was in Greek.

Dear friend. I hope you find this program to be very useful. Please use it for the pursuit of good knowledge and health. Using this for evil purposes will be unacceptable. Please use this with good intentions. Thank you for bringing my friend's gift into the light.

The grin reappeared on the young one's face, and soft laughter slowly drifted into the cold air.

"Heh heh. Don't worry. You guys can rest easy. I'll put this to very good use."

-The dormitory of Megaman X was an icy, black realm of never-ending despair and pain. There weren't any lights on-there was just the song of eternal, fatal darkness flowing through his room like the poison of a snake. The Maverick Hunter was sitting on his bed with closed eyes, shedding an immeasurable amount of tears. He had left the Infirmary several minutes ago….and that visit to the Infirmary sent his heart into a nameless oblivion. The world around him seemed so bare, so cold and dreary….his friends around him were distant…..no one could do anything to stop the pain. Axl, the only one that was strong enough to hold on to anything, had not yet returned-

And X missed him and needed him dearly.

The Maverick Hunter was about to go off the deep end. He was heartbroken about Zero, but at the same time, he couldn't stop worrying about the young Axl. He knew Axl could take care of himself-that was obvious. But X always worried about everyone. He worried about Zero when they went on missions together. He had to have been the biggest worrywart alive.

The nightmare wasn't going to end. It was continue….until the end of time….

The extra spice Sigma had given Zero made things even worse. Zero really didn't have much time left-he had only three hours left, thanks to the stupid program Snipe had injected into him…….

There wasn't anything he could do. He couldn't even say good-bye. Zero was asleep.

And he was going to stay that way.

-(bows) Hello! I have something to say about Red-if any of you have read "Complexity of a Soul", PLEASE DO NOT COMPARE THAT RED TO MINE. KHILAI'S RED IS A HELL OF A LOT WORSE THAN MINE. if you haven't read that story, I'll have to send my monkey squads out to torment all of you…just kidding. But that story is definitely a masterpiece. I'm not trying to make an imitation of Khilai's Red-I wanted him to turn into a scumbag too. I'm so proud of my story. I really hope you guys like what I'm doing with Axl! Yeah, he'll be a big part of my X8 novelization too!