Chapter 32 - Guardians of the Nightmare

Sigma's face twisted repulsively as a grin spread across his lips, his eyes sunken within their place, the shine gone from his vision. The gem in his forehead festering slightly with rust. He didn't know that, even though he was a Reploid, death did things to his form that made him uglier. But then again, this was Sigma, he didn't care. His half-sunken eyes watched as the four pods across the room slowly reached their apex and finished breaking through the ground, having fully come to the surface.

"Awaken my guardians.."

Each pod opened in turn, starting from the left most pod and moving all the way to the right. Steam streamed out of each pod as the paneling slid away, the room was almost completely filled by the time the last pod had completed its activation. Four pairs of eyes glared to life in the smokey room.

Sigma watched as a dark red Reploid stepped from the first pod, his eyes shimmering a dark silver color, before dulling back to normal. His armor was studded with small silver spikes on the knees and shoulders, and his helmet was adorned with three spikes, one along the center and the two down across the sides. The center of his chest, and his gauntlets, were also adorned with silver circles. The carbon suit underneath his dark red armor was the same silver color as his spikes.

At the second pod, a slightly smaller Reploid stepped down, his body thick with armor, the helmet swept back with fin–like spikes, two on either side, with a bright blue gem set into the forehead of the helmet. The armor was black, a deep black, with a carbon suit of dark grey. The chest held the same color of gem as the helmet did, only this one on a larger scale. The red glare of the eyes dulled down into the normal dark red.

The third Reploid stepped down from his pod, much taller than the two that came before him. His helmet was topped with a silver, metallic mohawk. His red armor was lined with golden armor on the chest, ankles, and edges of the shoulders, as well as around the top of his eyes on the helmet. His knees were adorned with golden spikes, with a black carbon suit covering his body. The bright blue gleam filtered out of his eyes, leaving them at a soft blue, contrasting well with the red mask covering the rest of his face.

The final Reploid finally came down from his pedestal. He was about as tall as the Reploid before him, his eyes covered with a light green visor, which was gleaming sharply through the smoke. Most of his armor was a soft silver color, with golden armor lining his shoulder pads, chest gem, and helmet gem. Red armor also lined parts of his helmet and chest, as well as his ankles and the base of his feet. His knees were adorned with green spikes, the same color of armor circling his wrists. The carbon suit underneath the suit was a dark red color, the same as the red upon his armor. The sharp green glint from the visor faded away as he turned his head toward the other three Reploids.

"Sphere.. Ravage.. Cenarius.. Flamecircle.."

Sigma's voice was clear above them, all four turning their head toward his face, which blurred a little as a ripple of interference cracked through Sigma's face, splitting it into two pieces just above his mouth. It quickly reformed, his face becoming whole once more.

"You four are my newest X-Hunters. You will do as I say, and destroy any who oppose the rule of Sigma. I know that a few of you have more than one mission in your heads, but you will proceed with my objectives first. Upon completing them, you will be able to do as you please until you are needed once more."

Sphere, the first Reploid free from his pod, stared up at Sigma's face, his mouth covered with a dark red face mask. Underneath the mask, his face was tight with anger, his eyes slit downward, his lips tight together. It took all of his effort not to yell at his master, after a few seconds of silence following Sigma's voice, he finally got himself under control.

"Sigma.. You are not in control of me, nor any of us. We came to you willingly, freely. Our wills are NOT yours to control. If we don't want to do something, we will NOT do it! Do you understand me?"

Sphere's body shook slightly, as electricity ripped through the air from the pod, pulling him into its stream. He yelled out in pain, his body convulses from the high amount of watts pulsating through his form. The electricity finally died out and he dropped to his knees, breathing heavily. He gasped airily, tilting his head up toward Sigma, raising his hand in surrender for now.

"Sphere.. You will do as I say until my-our.. Mission is complete. Once we have established a place of order, you are all free to do as you wish."

The third Reploid, the one with the mohawk, stepped down away from his pod and strode forward a few steps, his eyes locking on to Sigma's. He shook his head as the face mask slid away from his face. His mouth was twisted into a smirk.

"I'm ready to do what you wish, Sigma. You already know our missions cross paths."

"Ah, Cenarius. Such a faithful guardian. Yes, you will get your chance to destroy Cronos, as your former master wanted you to. And the Hunters will fall beneath both of your hands. They will stand no chance with your assistance."

"Of course, Lord Sigma."

"Anything from you, Ravage?"

The shorter Reploid, with the dark black armor, said nothing. He only tilted his head back, locked his gaze upon Sigma's. He shook his head slightly, the fins sweeping through the air with a light whistling noise.

"And you, Flamecircle?"

The final Reploid, the fourth in line and last to come out of his pod, did the same as Ravage, said nothing and shook his head. His eyes covered by the thick green of the visor, not even Sigma could peer through the dense color.

"Wonderful. Then are all ready to receive your objectives..."

Some of the smoke had filtered out of the room through the ventilation system hooked up in each corner of the room. Off in the shadows of the room, a figure began to appear, slowly at first, the form slowly appearing out of a waterfall of random colors from his form. The Reploid had teleported in, in the air, and landed softly in a crouch. He got to his feet, his head covered with a spiked helmet, both spikes swept backward, almost horizontally with the top of his helmet. His armor was tinted a dark purple, a scarf whipped lightly behind him, wrapped tightly about his neck. He turned his gaze to his side.

Right beside him, another form began to appear, this one appearing almost the same way, appearing to un-dissolve out of thin air. As his body completely formed from the un-dissolving effect, a dark aura wrapped around his vague form, before it erupted outward, his body appearing clearly, only his hands still covered in the dark aura. About his shoulders was a dark brown cape, covering all of his body aside from his head, which was covered in shadow. The aura around his hands quickly faded away, the purple Reploid returning his gaze to Sigma, the one in the cape looking in the same direction.

The two figures waited in silence as Sigma announced to each Reploid in turn what their objective would be for their first missions for a few hundred years.

Azazel twisted his body to the side as Trigger leaped from the top of the stairs, slamming down on top of a just finished Model One Joe, crushing it beneath his weight. The explosion sent Trigger flying forward, and out the doors of the factor. Azazel turned and walked back into the office, staring at Calamity for a moment.

"Azazel, just don't ask."

"Alright, Calamity. I'll be back at a later time. We still have many things to discuss."

"I await your arrival each time you return."

"Mm.." He turned to head out the door, when Calamity slammed his hand into the table that had contained Trigger, "Where are you going, Azazel?"

"Somewhere that will take me days to travel on foot."

"I can teleport you there." This aroused Azazel's interest, "And how exactly would you be able to pull that off?"

"Sigma's teleportation grid. It's attached to this factory. How do you think I get them to my supplier so quickly?" Azazel shook his head, "I hadn't thought about it."

"I'll activate it so that you can travel with the grid. But don't travel at great distances, it is three hundreds years old. I usually have them dropped at three stops on the way to New New York."

"I shall be cautious." Calamity nodded, "Good luck."

Calamity had finished typing Azazel's code into the grid's systems. He nodded once at Azazel, who spoke his coordinates out loud, "SP9-741." Calamity lifted his head to watch as Azazel's body slowly disintegrated away into nothingness, vanishing from the room. He tapped the computer's scanning of the grid's satellite, smiling slightly as it indicated four rapid teleportations, one right after the other.

'Trigger has run off.. Azazel is finally gone.. And I still don't know what I'm doing here. Working against the group of people I had fully trusted in the past.. Three hundred years of surviving alone in this factory, spending the last twenty creating Mavericks for a scientist half-way across the planet.. My past is crumbling before my eyes.'

He sat down in the chair behind the desk, pulling himself up to the keyboard. He tapped quickly on the keys, sending it on a sporadic course through the files on the computer, random information popping up on the screen. He stopped it on one random file, his eyes widening slightly.

"My schematics? Why would Sigma.." He gasped loudly, typing in four letters 'G-A-T-E.'

Multiple files began to open and appear upon the screen, Gate's schematics, all of his logs and diaries, even the schematics for his battle form based on Zero's design, and finally, Zero's design itself.

"Gate was working with Sigma.. It was all planned, Gate was being controlled by Sigma during the Nightmare Wars.. Why didn't we see it, X, why didn't we figure it out.."

He set his hands to his temple, shaking his head, his teeth grit together. His hands shook as he let go of his temples, his hands slamming down into the desk as he got to his feet.

"Why the hell didn't we figure it out, X!"

He sighed heavily, his body shaking with anger. After a few minutes, his body stopped shaking and he sat down heavily in the chair, letting his body sink into the chair's cushion. He typed randomly on the keys, watching as four letters appeared on the screen, 'W-I-L-Y.' He watched as files began to pop up, causing him to stare at the screen confused for a moment.

"What the hell.. What's Wily?"

The computer screen faded slightly, a bright 'W' flashing on to the center of the screen. At the same moment, the gem in his helmet began to gleam as well, a bright, white 'W' pulsating through the light blue of the gem. His eyes brightened, shuddering within his head for a moment before re-centering, dull and lifeless orbs staring at the computer screen. His voice was monotonous as he spoke.

"I will resurrect my brothers.."

'Interesting.. Someone has activated my teleportation grid. But it was after Satsujinhan and Altor arrived. They must have their own grid. I'm not surprised, seeing as it's Altor.'

"The teleportation grid is now online, you four know where you're going and what you have to do. Get out of my sight before I fry all of you for disobedience."

All four of the Reploids nod swiftly. The grid's satellite began to tilt as the four of them turned into an energy beam. Two red energy beams shoot out through the ceiling of the building, followed by a black one, and a green one. All four of them slammed into the satellite's front, aimed in the direction of their destination, the capital of the World Nations in North America.

"Satsujinhan. It's about time you arrived."

"My apologies.."

"Spare me, you insolent.."

"I dare you to complete that sentence, Sigma." Sigma scowled, "Happy to see you too, Altor."

"Hmph."

Altor stepped from the shadows, his body materializing in the dim light. He turned his head toward, Sigma's computer screen, his eyes locking on to Sigma's own sunken pair. Satsujinhan stepped across their gaze, standing at Altor's side, his purple eyes staring down at the floor, his purple scarf fluttering along behind him.

"Sigma, give Satsujinhan his mission." Satsujinhan lifted his head, staring at Sigma.

"Of course, Altor. Satsujinhan, you are to find X and Zero, and remove them from existence. I want you to destroy the REAL X and Zero. I know there will be copies of them around, due to the events in New New York as well as Washington D.C., but you must locate the real pair and destroy them both. And if you happen to find Axl, tear him apart."

"Of course, Lord Sigma." Satsujinhan's body disintegrated before them, vanishing from sight.

Altor looked at Sigma silently, who returned his gaze. Sigma's body would have been twitching involuntarily if he had one, for Altor had a gaze that felt like it was piercing into your soul.

"Sigma, I hope you realize that my resources will not always be open to you."

"I know this, Altor. Which is why I'm trying to create my own."

"You fail to grasp what I'm telling you, Sigma.. You won't succeed. The Sigma Wars ended in 23XX, they will not be continuing onward after three centuries. You're finished. Let someone who knows what they are doing take control."

"Get out of my sight, Altor. I don't need your insolence in my chamber."

"As you wish, Sigma."

Altor's body glowed with a dark aura before splitting at his waist and disintegrating into the air, vanishing from sight just as Satsujinhan had. Sigma sighed heavily, his eyes closing within the computer.

'This is getting rather complicated.'

A storm raged outside as a single figure strode forward, his body soaked with rain. His armor had multiple cracks lining his body. He reached his hand up and covered his eyes, eyeing the factory with his dark purple eyes. He nodded lightly, a dark grin splitting his lips.

"X1 has arrived where everything will come together.."