They learnt that Alia confined herself to quarters the same time they returned to HQ… with Gate's body. Lifesaver ordered X, Zero and the body moved to sick bay. They didn't need further prompting. Signas and Hannah paid a visit to the comm. operative.

"Why are you here? Don't you want to see him one last time?" Hannah asked. Alia was just sitting by her personal computer, staring at a slideshow of Gate and she as scientists. She used to have her hair let down, he used to smile always, without malice.

"He was quite charming. Shook my hand once," Signas reflected, "Not much of a grip."

"The body… Gate's, in sick bay…" Hannah offered. Alia shook her head slowly.

"Reploids never forget. Not one sound, not one sight. We record everything in pristine detail. I remember him like that," she gestured to the slideshow, "Full of ambition and hope for our race. Now I know what his true intentions were, but I still have those happy memories. To see him broken… to see a little more hope for our race die… it would be too much. It would destroy my memories of him forever… and I will live forever."

Alia sank back into her chair and sighed.

"I wish I knew how to cry. It would be… appropriate."

888

Lifesaver enjoyed his job because he could shut off his patients. He did not envy human surgeons that had to deal with myriad problems during even the simplest procedures. In reploids, circulatory systems, thought processes, even their fusion core could be turned off. They were more like computers that way, able to reboot from total 'death' if someone gave them a jolt. With X and Zero silent in their regenerative pods (he had to build the things specifically to deal with their unique systems) he performed an autopsy on Gate.

Irreparable core and memory damage by beam saber, percussion and extreme heat. DNA damaged and altered by insertion of foreign DNA, namely Zero's. Due to this DNA damage, a copy of Gate could never be made. Of course, reploids do not have Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.Reploid DNA – a human term used for a reploid's unique programming imprint – does not mix, in the same manner two different program codes do not mix unless manual reprogramming is done. Only organic life can combine DNA through reproduction. Reploids had no such luxury. Should their DNA combine, like in Gate, it would be temporary, with severe side effects because the two differing codes would reject each other. The reason Sigma was able to combine with so many different machines was his viral nature distorting a program's code to do his bidding. Gate had attempted DNA integration, and its effects would have been short lived.

"Unless Gate found the time to manually reprogram his DNA and Zero's so that both would work in harmony, his 'super' body would have lasted for a very short time," Lifesaver had the autopsy computer record his observations, "Moreover, Zero's DNA is extremely complex, like X's. No replicate DNA, that is, a reploid's DNA, could hope to combine with his unique structure, unless Zero's original programmer chose to do so."

Hannah and Signas wondered into the room. The girl gave a wistful sigh.

"He died. But he is still very sexy!"

Lifesaver shut off the recorder.

"Thank you, Hannah. Your words will constitute the closing statement to Gate's autopsy report."

She beamed. After that information dump, X and Zero were recovered.

"Diagnostic turn out okay?" Lifesaver interrogated them. X rubbed the side of his head.

"My ears are still giving problems after that death-yell. Hold on."

He popped two cat-ears over his aural units.

"All better!"

Everyone stared at him. Alia's voice came over the PA system.

"Major viral activity detected within Gate's lab."

"Didn't that explosion finish it?" Zero grumbled.

"Is it the Nightmare?"

"I said 'viral activity', you nit. Get your butts over there now and deal with it."

"Two billion yen says it's Sigma," X predicted with complete resignation. Zero threw his hands up in despair and followed his comrade to the transport room.

"I wonder why they stick so close together, when they have irreconcilable differences," Signas mused.

"Wars come and go, but my soldiers are eternal," Hannah quoted.

"Who said that, Eisenhower?"

"Tupac."

888

What had been Gate's lab was now an area of smooth metal platforms, pits, spikes and psychedelic colours swirling in the background. The Nightmare Effect had altered this place to suit whoever was running the show.

"I thought she said it was a virus. There are Nightmares everywhere!"

"Any excuse to call me a nit," X muttered in reply.

"Tell me why you're wearing your Blade Armour again?" asked Zero while they KO'd the inconsequential Mavericks littering the place.

"This is the stage where we fight all eight bosses again, right? I think I'll have an easier time using their weapons against them. Using extreme speed and getting in close quarters is too hard."

"Yeah, that's my fighting style. Too bad we don't have our Ultimate Armours this time."

They approached a sunken area that boasted eight luminous transport pods. Their benefactor had left life-energy capsules in the middle, where the final pod would materialize after the other eight were deactivated.

"Swell. I'll take the four on the left," X announced, gathering the life-energy for later.

"Aren't we going to use some silly method of taking them all out at once?"

"Suggestions?"

"Lend me your weapon data."

X touched the gem on Zero's forehead, uploading the remaining Investigator abilities.

"Let Storm Eagle fly again."

X charged the Metal Anchor, raining the metal statues in a diving formation from the sky. Zero's fist pummeled the ground, causing a curtain of rays to fall from that inexplicable place off-screen. The rays met the Storm Eagles, melting them into iron meteorites that crashed into the eight boss platforms, welding their circuitry solid. The secret platform appeared that would lead to Sigma.

"You know, we should try combo attacks more often," X noted.

"Wait for the next game. Let's go."

888

The place they were was dark and gloomy. Numbing silence, cobwebs, broken machinery, a patina of dust on everything; all the good cheery stuff one would expect for a final stage.

"Who hired Shade Man as a decorator?"

Zero whacked X across the head and signaled him to be quiet. He motioned towards the end of the room where a shapeless object in rags was shuffling about.

"…Bah. Useless lackey. Too concerned with bling. DNA, hah! A good virus… do the job…"

"Sigma?" X blurted. The hobo turned with his unmistakable baldness and scars.

"Eksh! Zello!"

"Sigma!" Zero snarled, "No shiny new battle body four stories tall? No devastating wit before the final battle?"

Sigma tripped over his rags. X and Zero nodded to each other.

"ZERG RUSH!"

"Kekekekeke lol!"

Their combo attack burned off his hobo uniform, revealing the rot underneath.

"Uwaah! BRAINS!"

He spat radioactive waste at them, throwing up huge energy waves that ricocheted around the room. Zero used his Z-Saber like a baseball bat to knock the energy waves away while X used his trumped-up X-Slash to chip away at Sigma's decaying body.

"…didn't finish me! Jate. Lazy worthless! Foo! Body undone! Selfish!"

X paused.

"He's talking about Gate?"

"Huh DUH!" Zero bellowed, too busy hitting home runs for a sensible reply.

"Oh. That would explain…"

While being Captain Obvious once more, he was sideswiped by an energy wave Zero had batted.

"OUCH!"

"Sorry!"

"You did that on purpose!"

"Did not!"

"Look, can we be stupid after the epic battle?"

"You started it."

"Did not!"

"EKSH BRAINS!"

"Ahh!"

Their prolonged spat allowed Sigma's lumbering, grubby paws to find their way onto X's helmet.

"Get him off me!"

"Hold still!"

Zero fired off a shot and hit X's shoulder. The blue robot danced about with Sigma flailing.
"OUCH! You did that on purpose AGAIN!"

"Hold still!"

"I have a ZOMBIE SIGMA attached to me that wants to EAT MY BRAIN! Forgive me if I'm a little skittish!"

His dancing turned them around, exposing Sigma's back.

"There!"

BLAM!

"Uwargh!"

"Get him!"

X hit Sigma a point-blank Plasma Charge, sending him reeling into Zero's outstretched Z-Saber.

"Zelllllooooooo!"

The impaled zombie crumbled.

"What the hell was that about?" Zero fussed, kicking the Sigma debris away. X cracked open one of those life-energy pills he'd saved from earlier.

"You know the bastard has two or three modes, at least."

"Hey, give me one of those."

"You're not damaged!"

"I'm traumatized!"

"Suck it up!"

X kicked away Sigma's head and paced.

"Well, what now? We can't call Alia what with all the viral and Nightmare activity…"

"X."

"I mean, isn't there supposed to be some neon lights telling us where to go?"

"X!"

"A wall should crumble! We should be teleported to the final arena! Why do we have to do everything ourselves?"

"X, DUCK!"

A human would pause, laugh and say, "What duck?" and turn around to see what the hullabaloo was about. X, however, had six wars counting this one under his figurative belt, and when someone told him to duck, he ducked. That cautious streak saved his life, as a death ray that can only be described with Kabutroid's word, behemothic, thundered overhead with blazing green outrage, removing a good portion of the wall on its way out.

"Sweet jumping Jehoshaphat! What the F-"

"EKSH! ZELLO! UWWWAAAARRGGGHHHHH!"

X rolled over and gaped where the other wall had been; replaced by the huge upper torso of a Terminator-esque body that was Sigma's latest acquisition.

"I am not John O'Connor!" X protested. Zero launched into a somersault, using his spin to cut again and again into the ajar metal jaw seething from its colossal energy output. Sparks showered X as he found his feet again.

"Bloody hell!"

Sigma's Terminator body was oozing radioactive green goo that formed itself into little machines that ran along the walls and floor. X had a chore of blasting the things before they could crawl all over him.

"It looks like his final body from the last war! Except without skin!" Zero commented while his Z-Saber poked the jaw.

"Lies! He stole Schwarzenegger's shtick!" X retorted, blasting the blasted greenies away. As per usual with machines that big, they're destroyed easily once their weak point is exploited. It's the smaller machines, the human-sized ones that can take a real beating and survive. To prove Zero's skill, Sigma did not have time to charge another death ray before his jaw fell off and his fusion core began meltdown.

"Oh, no! I am not losing my legs again!" Zero declared, dashing out of the room. X took the hint and followed.

With Gate's laboratory demolished, no legacy remained of the great scientist other than the tacit warning he left to his race. His actions had warned all reploids of the dangers of tampering with DNA and of the madness in achieving an end regardless of the means.