Midnight Wine smiled, watching his breath steam in the icy air as he briskly skied across the wonderland that was Wataponga in the winter.

Wataponga was a far northern village. Native American, by culture at least, the people here were as isolated as it was possible to be and still be on the same planet as everyone else. The village was right at the foot of Bear's Paw Mountain and right on the banks of the Ice Wine Lake. From what Midnight Wine had been able to discover, the lake was only a hundred years old… it had been artificially constructed, for some reason. But it was fed now by a river from the mountains, and filled with healthy fish. The village itself was pretty as a picture, little log cabins drawing power and heat from an industrial fusion generator in the centre of town. They survived by hunting the woods, catching fish, and sold handcrafts for the few things they needed outside the village. Years ago, that had meant taking a week long trip to the nearest town and being ripped off terribly on prices. But Midnight Wine had managed to finagle a teleporter for them, and gotten the humans living in Wataponga tested to see who could safely use it. Now, they were selling directly to trading posts across North America.

Midnight Wine was a former Hunter, and the first Reploid resident of Wataponga. He'd picked it almost at random as a place to settle, because of the similarity between his name and the name of the lake. At first, the villagers had been standoffish and distant. He couldn't really blame them… one of the attractions to Wataponga was that Sigma would probably come for it after he'd gotten the rest of the world, and not a moment sooner. So a Reploid hadn't exactly been welcome. But Midnight Wine had made a concerted effort to befriend them, and after the first few months they'd started to thaw. By now, he was an accepted member of the community. He even looked and sounded like he fit in. Among humans with names like Little Bear and Strawberry, Midnight was completely unremarkable.

Midnight had also acclimatized when it came to appearance. In the summer, he wore plain leathers hunting, and a set of beaded leathers for the monthly powwow. In winter, like now, he wore more modern clothing, along with everyone in the village. Although his was pure white… a warm white winter coat, white wool pants, boots, and a white scarf to protect his face. In summer, his long, thick hair was jet black, but in winter he dyed it a matching white. He looked like a wraith, skimming across the snow on silent skis. The only drop of color was the leather thong he used to tie back his mane of hair. Two leather disks hung from it, round and beaded in native patterns. The green, red, blue and black beads glittered as he moved his head, scanning the countryside.

Midnight himself was tall and thin. His face was even more youthful than most Reploids, and he looked perhaps thirteen, despite his height. His skin was pale as milk, and he was always ready with a brilliant smile. Large, almond shaped, dark blue eyes looked out at the world with wonder and joy.

The only mar on that joy was the circumstances that had led him to Wataponga. It hadn't been his fault he'd caught the Maverick Virus. It could happen to the best of them… but he knew he'd done something horrible under it. The glances and whispers would have told him that, even if they hadn't stripped him of his rank, his armor and weapons, and regretfully let him go. Midnight Wine was just thankful to be alive and sane. It was a miracle Zero hadn't killed him, and X had brought him back for them to try and purge the virus. By some freak occurrence, his neural net hadn't been fully corrupted, and with a whole lot of time and effort, he'd been freed of it.

That couldn't get him off scot-free, though. Whatever he'd done, it must have been really public and really bad… Midnight had decided not to ask. But even with the Virus as an excuse, the Hunters had been forced to remove him and render him harmless. He'd resented it at the time, but now he was just as glad. He was happy in Wataponga.

Smiling under his scarf, Midnight made his way up the mountain. He was carrying supplies to Meg. An old woman, she lived alone and far from the village by choice. Not a choice anyone understood, but one they respected. They ran her supplies maybe once a week, when the weather was nice and clear. Today was a perfect day for it. The sky overhead was pure blue, without a cloud to be seen. The air was crisp and cold, invigorating to him. The animals…

Midnight suddenly paused, old instincts and training singing a warning. He couldn't hear any animal noises. Midnight paused, tilting his head and sharpening his audio receptors. Even in the depths of winter, he should have been able to hear the scurrying sounds of a lively forest. He should be hearing birds, too. Not many stayed in the winter, but some did. But right now he heard-

Midnight's eyes narrowed as he picked up a grating, metallic sound. It was a good long ways away, and he couldn't tell what it was… but it didn't belong. And what didn't belong was his business. Maybe a company was doing drilling. Maybe it was a geological survey. But no matter what it was, the village elders would like to know. A little annoying, that strangers would come without giving the village a heads up…

Midnight set off again, angling towards the sound. It was up the mountain, too, but away from Meg's house. He frowned as he heard a voice… was someone shouting? They'd have to be, to reach him so far away. As he got closer, the words got clearer.

"…And you'll never stop me, Hunters!"

Oh… unholy crap. Midnight tensed, then doubled his speed. He didn't have his buster anymore, but slung over his back, under the backpack for Meg, was a civilian style plasma rifle. It had a low level setting that worked just fine hunting… and a high level setting that could kick the shit out of an unsuspecting Maverick. It looked like he'd just been called back to duty.

Midnight reached a clearing, and blinked. What in hell was that? A giant machine was sitting right in front of him. Midnight kicked off his skis, and hung his backpack on a tree branch, before he ventured closer.

From the sounds, the Hunters and the Maverick were on the other side of the machine. So he had an interesting advantage, if he could figure out what to do with it. Midnight Wine eyed the machine, wondering what it was for. Well, whatever the idea was, he'd do better from on top of it.

Even without his armor, Midnight was still a Reploid, and he kicked his way up the machine as quietly as possible. Some sort of debate seemed to be going on, as the Hunters tried to talk the Maverick down. Midnight recognized the voice, and frowned, wondering why Zero would bother. Trying to talk a Maverick out of it was more X's style.

"…start the avalanche!" Midnight suddenly paled as he realized what was really going on. His head whipped around, and he gazed up the mountain.

Bear's Paw Mountain wasn't big for avalanches. But thirty years ago, there had been an avalanche when some of the young folk had been damned stupid and decided to go racing on the mountain. That had wiped out almost an entire generation, and explained why the village was now so genetically diverse. It had been surprisingly easy for the elders to entice some nice young people to come live in the howling wilderness, but they hadn't been able to be picky about actual Native American descent. No avalanche had ever come close to threatening the town. But… there was a good lot of snow up there, and even an overhanging rock ledge. If this machine, whatever it was, could break that off…

Midnight began searching in earnest for a weak point in the machine. He had to reveal himself to do that… he crawled out onto the front, and gazed down. X and Zero were both there, and the Maverick was an animal type, fox style. He was standing right beside what had to be a controller for the machine. Midnight kept searching, and grinned as he found a weak point. The machine had obviously been put together from sections, and he could hear the classic hum of an industrial fusion generator past a crack in the outer casing. A wide enough crack to let in a plasma shot. He slid his plasma rifle off his back, glanced back at the scene… and met X's eyes. The blue Hunter had spotted the white apparition on the equipment, and was looking more than a touch confused. Midnight reached up, pulling down his scarf, and gave X a cocky grin. Then he pointed his rifle at the crack, and tilted his head in an interrogative gesture. He was startled when X firmly shook his head. Why would X not want him to…?

But before he could think about it, the situation abruptly went critical. The Maverick screamed something, and lunged at the control. Zero lunged at her… but Midnight had to make a split second decision and he didn't think Zero could make it.

Just before the Maverick could hit the button, his rifle sang its deadly song, and hot plasma hit an undefended fusion generator. Midnight felt a brief moment of triumph before his world exploded.

White hot pain assaulted him as his vision went mad. He felt like he was flying… he'd been blown right off the machine. His vision cleared just a little, and he saw bits and pieces of shredded metal, gouts of flame-

Then his body hit a tree with fantastic force. Metal screamed in protest and wood shattered, but Midnight was still conscious. He lifted his head-

And then a very large piece of the machine landed on him with a vile crunch.

Midnight embraced the oblivion of unconsciousness.

"Well… shit." Zero said, wearily, as he gazed down at the shattered body. "Poor bastard."

"Do you know who he is?" X swallowed hard, avoiding looking at the wreck. He'd seen plenty of dead bodies, but it never stopped affecting him.

The Reploid was unquestionably dead. He probably hadn't been when he'd hit the ground, and he'd lingered a bit after the metal had hit him… but by the time X and Zero had managed to lever it off him, they had heard the classic whine of a generator slowly melting down. X had checked, just to be sure, but the damage had been clear.

"X, do I look like a miracle worker? That thing landed on his face." Everything had been crushed and flattened. Even if the generator hadn't let go, there would probably have been damage to his neural net. "He doesn't even have any armor… hey, here's something." Zero kneeled down, hunting for a sparkle of gold. "He's wearing a ring. Looks like a wedding band." Zero gently tugged off the ring, and looked for an inscription. Wedding bands were typically inscribed with the initials of the participants. "What the… X, look at this." He passed the ring over to X, who tilted it up to take a look.

15'th Unit Anwar Dam MW. X stared at the cryptic inscription. He knew what it was referring to.

The Anwar Dam incident had gone down in the 15'th history, adding glory to one of the lesser known units. Five squads had gotten cut off during a battle, and found out about a Maverick plot to breach the Anwar Dam and flood most of the Nile delta. That would have been deadly immediately, with thousands of drowning deaths, and deadly later when the croplands were ruined. So those five squads, cut off and out of contact, had kited off to take care of the problem. With a combination of intelligence, cunning and sheer bravery, they'd defused the bombs and defeated the Mavericks at the dam. Of the five squads, only two had returned. Each of the survivors had received medals for bravery… and these rings.

"Midnight Wine," X said softly, and Zero nodded. "I didn't know he'd settled here." He remembered how Midnight Wine had left the Hunters, though.

It had been ghastly. Midnight Wine had caught the Maverick virus and been driven completely insane. Fortunately, he had resisted the infection with all his strength, so the Virus hadn't been able to use him to get information about Hunter HQ. It had only been able to madden him… which was bad enough, when he completely destroyed a block of buildings, including a school bus full of children. It hadn't been Midnight's fault, but that was hard to explain to a grieving mother of a dead eight year old. Or the parents of a child that would never walk again…

"You know, Z… it's sort of Karmic." Zero gave X a questioning look, and he nodded at the body. "Under the virus, he killed children. Now… he's saved them." There was a moment of silence, as they both thought about that. Then Zero turned to look at the village. It was clearly visible from where they were standing, down the mountain.

"…Yeah, you're right X." Zero turned back, and rested a hand on X's shoulder. "C'mon X. We should go tell the villagers what's happened, then get back to work." If Midnight Wine was living here, the villagers would know what to do. He wasn't a Hunter anymore, and it wasn't their right to take his body back to HQ. X took a deep breath, then nodded.

"Right, Zero." The two Hunters took off running down the mountain. Behind them, the wind gathered drifting snowflakes, dancing them across the shattered body they were leaving behind…