The Enigma was prepped and ready to fire.
"Predicted success rate, 94," reported Alia.

"Chance of fiery raining death, 6," X droned, causing her and Signas to glower. The commander gave the order:

"Fire the laser! BLASTOFF!"

Thoom.

"BLASTOFF!"

Thoom.

"BLASTOFF!"

Thoom.

"Did we get it?"

"No," said Alia, "But the part we hit has turned a lovely, crispy golden brown."

X smacked his forehead.

"Zero forgot to turn it off the barbeque setting!"

Alia and Signas simultaneously face faulted.

"We're doomed! Doooooomed!" she wailed.

"No, we still have the shuttle," Signas corrected, "X, you'll have to pilot it."

"What? That scrap heap couldn't tow a tricycle!"

"Oh, so that explains why we still have four Maverick bosses to deal with. Go get the shuttle parts, would you?"

"Why can't you go?"

"I'm the freaking commander, X! My subroutines are programmed for leadership!"

"And lapdances."

Alia blushed furiously and cowered under her console. Signas whacked X over the head.

"Thanks. Now I won't get any."

888

The azure wonder found Douglas in the ready room. The teddy-bear cute tech specialist was tinkering with an armour capsule he had constructed based on Dr. Light's.

"Hey, buddy. Now you can float like a butterfly and sting like a bee. Step up."

"What's this, the fifth armour I've gone through, not counting the Gold and Ultimate?"

"Yessir. You change them like underwear, one per war. Step up, please."

Complying, he became arrayed in birdlike blue and white. He stepped out of the capsule, stepping around the room with astonishment on his face.

"Douglas, the phrase 'light as air' does not do this nearly enough justice. Weight decreased fifty percent, yet overall defense is doubled. Arm cannon…" he transformed his hand, "Capable of a penetrating laser that goes through most substances. But the boots…"

He lifted off… and stayed up there.

"WHEEEE!"

He swooped through the door. Douglas smiled. The reward for his work lay in the results, even if it was just bringing all the parts together.

888

The Skiver's airborne fleet was not prepared for a master of the skies. X took to the air every chance he got, crashing head-on into enemies without taking damage. Only projectiles clipped his wings… but the Falcon was designed for speed and mobility, enabling him to dodge everything they threw at him. Even when he was hit, it didn't hurt much. Not even the time bombs slowed him down – the Giga Attack annihilated everything in the area with its shower of laser beams.

"If this bird could charge special weapons, it'd be TOO good."

Dr. Light had outdone himself. X told him so when he found another armour capsule located high above the fleet.

"Thanks for the compliment. Here's the body part for the Gaea armour."

"Wh-wh-what? I thought it was another Street Fighter move! You made a second suit during the same war?"

"I don't have anything better to do other than surf the Internet and chat with depressed youths or depressed adults posing as youths while creaming them in their MMORPG's and FPS's."

"What the heck does this 'Gaea' do?"

"Reduces damage even further – 75. However, it's very heavy."

"Equitable exchange. I'll be a powerhouse, then?"

"The opposite of the Falcon Armour. Cumbersome, unable to jump high, but your ground dashes could push large objects. Your arm cannon will be short range but able to destroy certain objects nothing else can."

"That's a purely utilitarian model, completely unsuitable for combat."

"True. It is also invulnerable to spikes."

X brightened.

"No instant screaming death?"

"No instant screaming death."

"Yay! I love you Dad!"

"The feeling is mutual. Now hurry up and take the body part – I have a Counterstrike© n00b to fry."

Breezing through the stage without the slightest difficulty he challenged the commanding officer for the shuttle part he held.

"You," sneered Wing Pegasus through large blocky horse teeth, "You and your kind killed off the Colonel, my idol!"

"Another fanboy?" X lifted his hands in mock defeat, "Am I the only one without? May the Virus strike me dead if I'm wrong!"

"It's not the virus you should be worried about," said Pegasus, pointing a thick finger. X rolled his eyes.

"If you think you're going to knock me off this little biplane of yours, you are sadly mistaken, because…" he took to the sky, "I'm a UFO with a really bad sense of humour."

Flight utterly defeated the Maverick, who had expected a landlubber to be blown away by his tornadoes and stay in one pace long enough to be butted off the small plane. X did no such thing, only coming out of flight mode long enough to send the piercing laser on a collision course with elegant outstretched wings.

888

"Hey."

"Hey."

"Anything you want to tell me, old friend?"

They were leaning on the railing of the base's harbour. A light breeze rustling his blonde, Zero was staring at the sunset ocean. Subtly changing hues and pastels rippling through the clouds and waters reflected in his dark eyes.

"X."

"Yes, Zero?"

"I… I have AIDS."

"What? The Virus?" X gasped, "After all the times we've fought together?"

"It's not just you!" he groaned, strain evident in the way his palms met his face.

"You've… fought with others?"

"Sigma. He did this to me. There couldn't have been anyone else."

Stupefied to silence, X shook his head and walked away. Zero lifted his hand, to stop him, to make him understand.

"X…!"

Back turned on his friend, his shadow cast long on the ground by the sun's dying rays, X clenched both fists, head bent.

"You have the Virus, Zero. It can't be the same way again!"

"But this Virus can be overcome! We cured the last one with Doppler!"

"Doppler's dead! There's no cure, Zero! We can't fight together ever again!"

"But X!"

The latter whirled, bringing both fists up, checking himself and lowering them, deeply frowning.

"I want… I want to fight with you, always, only with you, but the Virus changes everything."

A broken man, X walked away. Shoulders slumped, Zero hunched over the railing, glaring at the sunset, now.

"If that's the way it is…"

888

"This place is dark!"

X tripped over Irregulars while exploring the dim planetarium.

"What the hell is this place doing in Egypt?"

"You can use your night vision, you know, you ARE a reploid."

"You and your 'observations'," he berated the comm. op, tilting his head to increase light sensitivity of his optical sensors. The Big Dipper incandesced in his face.

"Ahhh! Too bright!"

"Constellations will appear every now and then. As a consequence, bats and spikes will rain from the sky."

"Whuh?"

"Skree!"

"ACK."

He scuttled out of the way as bats dropped warheads and spikes materialized out of thin air above him. Switching to Falcon Flight, he dodged the rest, navigating the pitfalls and grounded enemies.

"Once I stay up here, this stage is as good as over."

It was. The second area was just as easy – all he had to do was stay airborne and nothing hurt him, not the giant balls, not the bats and certainly not the spiked floor. He collected the Head part for the Gaea armour at the end of the stage.

"Dad? Why are you leaving the armour capsules in such obvious places? I can't get to them unless I solve your silly puzzles, but the Sigma Virus can morph through anything."

"Bah, as if that bald egg has programming that could counteract mine! It's you I'm worried about, and your friend."

X sat down, chin on his knees.

"He's infected, but it makes him stronger!"

"That can only mean he is a vector, like Sigma."

"He is not like Sigma!"

"How else would you explain it?"

Growling, X hugged his legs.

"I don't like this."

"Neither do I."

"You're just a stupid hologram. You're not even alive."

Dr. Light's chuckle was mirthless.

"I am a human mind in digital format. My intelligence created yours. Who are you to judge what is alive?"

"We live to effect change in the world and people around us. That determines life."

"By your criterion, I assume the wind is alive?"

Exasperated as a child arguing with his parent, X quipped, "When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me."

"Don't hide behind humour. Life bothers you – you don't know if you or any reploid truly lives, or if your world is nothing but virtual reality."

"To an artificial mind, all reality is virtual," X quoted the Animatrix, "But I do not believe I am of artificial mind. I possess all the human faculties of growth and development, even procreation, if you count the billion or so reploids running around because of Dr. Cain's efforts and mine."

"You really made up for my lack of children, but you'll always be my favourite."

"Did you create Zero?"

Point-blank, Dr. Light stuttered.

"N-no. His creation was unplanned, I never expected…"

X's eyes had grown twice that size.

"I've said too much, haven't I."

"You know."

"I have always known."

"Then who was it?"

"You are not ready."

"Damn it, Dad! I've saved the world four times over! Is hiding Zero's creation more important than trusting me with an entire planet of sentient beings?"

"X, you know who you are. If you were to malfunction, there would be no force on Earth that could stop you."

The hologram disappeared. X pondered as he stood before the boss door.

"Knowing Zero's origins would… cause me to malfunction… but I'm in perfect health… unless the knowledge caused something vital to breakdown in my sentient programming…"

He had read of the effect of nervous breakdowns on humans. Those most often occurred after the person learnt of something devastating, like the death of offspring or a relative.

"What could be so terrible about Zero?"

Dark Dizzy thought he had the advantage over the preoccupied Hunter.

"The world's going to end! My planetarium has front row seats! Price of admission: your BLOOD!"

X was worried, yes, but a reploid brain can think of many things at once, including how to defeat a Shade Man ripoff who did nothing but flap around like a retarded pigeon and get shot in the face.

888

Engineers have it the worst. While Hunters do all the exciting work, people like Douglas and his underlings are stuck with grunt duty. After the Enigma's failure, the shuttle was Earth's last best hope. Other lesser hopes included asking Eurasia nicely to hit the moon instead or buy everyone umbrellas. Meanwhile, Douglas and co. had tanks to refuel, couplings to check, clamps to lubricate and diagnostics to run.

"Humans are wonky," commented an underling while watching CNN during lunch. While tinkering with a speedometer, Douglas spared him an "Eh?"

"Look. They're in a mad rush to Australia, on the opposite side of the planet from the predicted impact point."

Douglas sighed.

"That's futile. No matter where the colony hits, it'll end civilization."

"Humans are adaptable. They'll survive Eurasia… they'll even survive us."

"True," the head engineer nodded, "They made us, so why shouldn't they survive anything we throw at them?"

"We lost their trust right after the fourth war. Now we are to blame for Earth's destruction…"

"Not unless this shuttle does its job."

Zero walked past them.

"Hey guys."

"Hey Zero."

The engineers did a double take.

"Zero?"

Chasing after him, they came nose to nose with the Z-Saber.

"Don't stop me, Douglas. I'm stopping that colony while I can."

To himself he thought, "Before the Virus dictates what I do."

"You're insane! We only have two shuttle parts!" Douglas shouted, his cute features bristling while his subordinate yelled, "Efficiency is less than fifty percent! Your chances will be just as low!"

"Yeah? We shot the Enigma at full power. Where were your statistics then?"

"Don't do it! Give X more time!"

"He didn't give me a chance."

They had no idea what he was talking about, but he did. He shut the hatch in their faces. Douglas and company hailed Alia on the comm.

"Zero's hijacking the shuttle! Can you stop him from over there?"

Precious moments passed before she replied, "He's initiated the launch sequence! That overrides any remote interference!"

"God DAMN it! I spent most of my life maintaining this relic!"

"Get clear before the thrusters activate!"

They scooted from the launch tower that collapsed behind them as the shuttle heaved upward with deafening thunder and blasting wind.

"You teenage dirtbag!" Douglas shook his fist at the quickly ascending flame, "You come back here with that 1.7 billion dollars in US legal tender piece of equipment!"

"He's gone," said the minor engineer, white-faced, "But it's coming…"

888

Indeed, the trillion-dollar colony was falling at a fanatic pace, entering atmosphere just as the shuttle shot out of Earth's gravitational pull. Now with nothing to hold it back, the massive rocket accelerated even further. Its pilot shook his fist at the colony turned comet and hollered, "BANZAAAAAIIIIIIIIIII!"

Krakkathoom.

888

One hour later, Eurasia crashed into the Earth. The shuttle, at only half power, was not enough to halt its bulk. The Sigma and Colony viruses fused, seeking out all sentient life on the planet's surface, eradicating what civilization was left in the mad rush to Australia.

And somewhere downunda, there was an Aussie going, "WTF mate?"