Hello, Spider. The holographic generator spoke. It felt a bit strange to Spider, speaking to a hologram… but it was Dr. Light. The father of the Reploid race. Speaking to him was actually rather awe-inspiring, in a way. Spider smiled to himself. X had always thought the capsules held recorded messages… it had never occurred to him that perhaps Dr. Light had survived, in a strange form.

"Hello, Dr. Light." Spider said politely, wondering exactly why the ancient AI had requested a meeting with him. Usually, the only people Dr. Light spoke to were Tamaa and Archimedes. Archimedes was a Reploid that had been designed by Dr. Light only a year ago. Other hands had completed that design, but he was essentially an attempt to duplicate some of the unique aspects of Tamaa's neural net. Spider didn't quite understand why that had been necessary, since Dr. Light had created her and surely understood her, but the result had been an amazingly inventive genius of a Reploid.

He didn't have to wonder about Dr. Light's purpose for long, though. The AI came right to the point.

What are your intentions towards Hope? He said bluntly. Spider blinked in surprise at that question.

"Well, I… intend to follow her. She's right about all the things that are going on, and I'm afraid she…" Spider trailed off as Dr. Light shook his head impatiently.

That's not what I mean. Are your intentions honorable?

"…What?" Spider wasn't certain he'd heard right. Honorable?

Do you intend to marry her? Dr. Light spelled it out even more plainly. Spider choked.

"What? We're Reploids…" That didn't make marriage impossible. Many Reploids did get married. But there was no imperative to do so, either. And why would Dr. Light be so interested in this? "I assure you, I don't want to hurt your daughter." He could say that sincerely.

My granddaughter. Dr. Light frowned. Didn't she tell you about that?

"About what?" Spider was almost afraid to ask. "Do you mean… a creation of yours created her?" That was bizarre. But Dr. Light shook his head.

No, she's my actual biological granddaughter. Dr. Light smiled at Spider's stunned expression. She probably didn't think it was important. She's been a computer program, then a Reploid, for all the time since I died. But that's why I'm concerned for her. I want better for my granddaughter than just being your sex toy. Spider flushed, embarrassed. If anything, he thought it was the other way around, but he could see he was talking with a protective grandfather.

"My intentions are completely honorable," Spider said, and was slightly surprised to realize it was true. "We might eventually marry. However," he added candidly. "I don't know what her feelings on that are. I don't know if she ever wants to be married." Dr. Light sighed.

Fair enough. She can be very hardheaded. Dr. Light said that fondly, but with a bit of exasperation. Spider frowned, then decided to ask his own questions.

"So, why did you turn her into a Reploid? And you built Archimedes to mimic some of the more human aspects of her neural net?" he asked, and the hologram nodded.

She suffered a near-fatal accident. Actually, she caused it… I'll leave that to her to tell you, if she wants. She finds it humiliating to admit. Dr. Light smiled grimly. As well she should. As for Archimedes, yes, Tamaa's neural net is very different from most Reploids. Far less efficient and organized, but she has far more cross-connections in her data storage. I suspect that's the main difference between human and Reploid minds.

"Cross-connections?" Spider repeated uncertainly. He was no expert in Reploid development, but he'd heard others discussing it, and this was new.

Yes. Reploids develop some, as their neural networks grow, but only about a quarter of what the average human develops. I would never have realized that if I hadn't been able to study Tamaa. I can't study myself, unfortunately. Cross-connections are connections between otherwise unassociated memories. Cross-connections let humans make strange logic and creative leaps that are generally beyond Reploids. That's why most inventive geniuses of any kind are usually human. Spider frowning, feeling vaguely offended. He knew Dr. Light was correct about creative genius, but…

"So the human mind is better?" he said as neutrally as possible, wanting to hear what exactly the old AI would say. Dr. Light shook his head.

No, only different. I believe overactive cross-connections may be the root cause of Obsessive-Compulsive disorder, and possibly other mental diseases. Let me use an example. I'm thinking about roses. I start thinking about tea, because tea has rose hips. That leads me to start thinking about going home, where I have tea. Then I start thinking about trains because I need to take one home. That makes me think about my sister, who died in a train derailment. Now I'm depressed and try to shut the thought-train, which was caused by cross-connections, off. Everyone has that experience, but people with OCD suffer through it all the time and develop rituals in an attempt to derail unpleasant thought-trains. Frankly, many humans would love to be completely free of these mental associations.

"I see," Spider said thoughtfully. "Yet you're trying to incorporate them into Archimedes?" He was sure Dr. Light would explain… the ancient AI seemed to enjoy the chance to lecture, and was fairly good at it.

Yes, but I was very careful not to make them overactive. Archimedes still talks to himself a great deal, which is a coping technique. The effect may not be restful, but he is a genius. Still, I have something else I want to discuss with you.

"What is that?" Spider tilted his head, wondering what else Dr. Light wanted.

You need to be fitted with a jewel chip, and they work better when they're customized to the Reploid in question. So if you could step into this pod for a scan, I would be grateful. Spider nodded, stepping forward. He'd heard of the jewel chips.

They'd been invented by one of Tamaa's followers, not Dr. Light. But the woman who had invented them had been slowly going completely mad. The jewel chips were almost a symptom of that madness, since the virus inside followed a twisted logic that only Dr. Light had managed to decipher. But the good doctor had assured them that the chips could cause no harm, and might save them from the virus, so they had taken his word for it. The woman who had invented them had finally killed herself only a year ago, despite the tender and watchful care they had tried to give her. Spider wondered if that had to do with her mental cross-connections, and felt a bit grateful that he was a typical Reploid and didn't have many. Mental illness was almost as bad as the Maverick virus.

Dr. Light had wanted to release the jewel chips to the world immediately, but Tamaa had convinced him to hold back. It was cruel, but she might eventually need them as leverage with other nations. And if they failed completely, the knowledge would not disappear. Dr. Light was not tied to any location, so he would be able to release the knowledge after Tamaa was dead.

Spider stepped into the pod, and waited patiently for the scan to complete.

He would feel better after he got a jewel chip of his own.

A bit later, Spider left the room with blueprints on a disk. He delivered them to Archimedes, who promised a jewel chip within the day. The little inventor clearly bore a family resemblance to Rockman X, although his armor was green and gold in color. He was a bit shorter than X, but his eyes were the same shade of green and full of lively, penetrating intelligence.

When Spider got out into the rest of the complex, though, he quickly realized something was wrong. There were little clumps of people whispering in the halls, and several looked quite angry. The classic signs of an unpleasant rumor going around. How accurate it was, he couldn't be sure, so he decided to find the one person who would know… Tamaa.

And found her in a fine fury, her eyes hard as stones as she watched several news broadcasts. Spider hesitated, studying the broadcasts and wincing as he understood the gist of the story.

It was about a religious commune, much like theirs appeared to be. Much smaller, of course, but it also included humans and Reploids. And children.

Despite the fact that the children were enrolled in at-home education programs, and made their yearly tests, someone had complained about truancy and possible abuse of the children. So the authorities had moved to take the children into custody, and some of the Reploids on the commune as well.

In terror for their children and friends, the humans in the commune had refused, violently. All the news reports agreed that it had been started by the humans, but it hadn't ended there. Soon, there was an armed standoff before a crack team had arrived to deal with the 'local Maverick problem.'

The result had been a complete botch. The news program was a little vague about what exactly had happened, but no one from the commune had survived. The children they had wanted to protect were all dead.

Now that everything had gone wrong, the authorities were trying to portray themselves as acting out of concern for the children, but with Tamaa's paranoia in mind, Spider had doubts. He didn't think the usual first action in a case of truancy was to remove the children from the home. And even if it was, why take the Reploids as well? Obviously, they thought there was something wrong with humans who would raise their children in a large group of Reploids. It was very easy to make the parallel to their own situation, and see where it might lead. They home schooled the children here, too. Tamaa stubbed her cigarette out savagely, and turned to Spider, then glanced around, taking in all her close confidants. Gilgamesh, Marcus, Jolene and Arcana were all present.

"We have to step things up," she announced. "I think we probably have at least half a year. They won't want to move quickly on anyone else after this debacle. But we've got to get things in order and start moving on it. It's time." There was a frisson of excitement in the air… along with fear. "So, does anyone have any ideas on how we can make a lot of cash really quick?" They had liquidated a vast amount of their assets, carefully, and put the money in a wide variety of accounts, managed by Blues. They had an unimaginable fortune… but it would cost an unimaginable amount to do everything they needed. And they couldn't afford to run out. Spider thought for a moment, then nodded.

"I have an idea…"