Mark of Man

Chapter 18

All modern revolutions have ended in a reinforcement of the power of the State

The sun hadn't quite risen yet when Rokko had arrived at the predetermined battleground. Already, the Mavericks had arrived and were setting up for the upcoming fight and Rokko cursed under her breath before she began to head for the closest maverick. Her buster itched and it took all in her power to not open fire on them immediately.

Thirty or so generic male reploids were currently circling around the field and installing cameras of all things.

"What does Sigma think he's doing with this?" She asked the maverick who was currently kneeling next to a tripod and bolting it into the ground with a device she didn't recognize.

Steel gray plating… Kind of a square… No, not important right now. She shoved the thoughts aside and looked at the Maverick who was waving a hand behind his back, trying to get her to go away.

Unfortunately for him, she remained and she crossed her arms as she waited (not so) patiently.

"Well?"

"Damn it, I'm busy here! Go bother someone else-" The maverick spun to face her only for his face to turn a shade of ghostly white and he stumbled back, crawling on his backside and trying to escape her.

"Answer me and I won't kill you now." Her eyes narrowed.

"Y-You're… T-The...Goddess of D-Destruction…"

She rolled her eyes and planted a boot on his chest.

"Then if you don't want to be destroyed you better start talking."

The maverick's head bobbed up and down quickly.

"Y-Yeah, of course… S-So… The General… He plans on televising this to all of Eurasia… To show that no one can stop him."

Rokko frowned thoughtfully as she shifted a little, only applying a hint more pressure to the maverick's chest.

"Does he really think that killing a B Class Huntress will make Eurasia collapse? That seems ridiculous."

The maverick shrugged a little and stared up at her.

"I don't know that part of the plan… I… I'm just supposed to set up. Y-You weren't supposed to show up for like another six hours…" She shook her head faintly and scowled a bit, causing the maverick to quail a little.

"And let Sigma decide what other changes he makes to the battlefield for his advantage? I don't think so."

She lifted her foot off of the Maverick and stared at him coldly.

"The only reason I'm not killing you now is because if I did, Sigma would have good reason to cancel this little duel."

The maverick rose slowly before he gave another shaky nod.

"O-Okay…"

"X, don't terrorize my technicians." She had had barely enough time to roll to one side as she sensed the transfer and she cursed, her buster forming as she did.

Sigma however, simply raised an eyebrow at her and shook his head.

"As agreed we'll begin the duel at ten AM. Hopefully you can keep your anger under wraps that long."

Rokko's eyes narrowed and her heart raged. Hate boiled up in her chest and it took everything she had to not fire upon him in that instant.

"...Fine." She bit out, causing Sigma to manage a ghost of a smile.

"Follow me, and I will show you our battlegrounds. It'll be over this field." He gestured to the grassy plains of southern Siberia.

She nodded and began to walk beside the maverick, keeping enough distance that if he were to draw his weapon she could attack him. Her buster formed, just in case as well, causing Sigma to laugh mockingly.

"I'm not going to attack you now X. No, this will be something the world will see."

"...Why? What's the point? You went so far out of your way to see me dead before your rebellion and now you're going to advertise to the world you're able to kill me? What's the point?"

Sigma shook his head before looking at her.

"You haven't figured it out? It's because of who you are X." He turned to face her, his head tilted down so he could look directly into her eyes.

"Remember the fight between yourself and Zero?" She grimaced but nodded.

"...Yeah, he absolutely destroyed me."

Sigma nodded a little in agreement.

"True. He did, but I noticed something even then. Something that made me realize that if you were ever to be an enemy, you would be a problem. Even in that brief fight, you were doing something… More than a Reploid of your caliber should have. You were resisting and you were evolving. Your fights with the A classes surely made you realize it. You're growing strong, and quickly. Far too quickly."

He returned to the path he had set for them.

"Combined with that hate I saw burning in your eyes, it was clear it was only a matter of time before you became far too dangerous to let live anymore. You'd raze this world and destroy all in your path. There wouldn't be a surviving human or reploid when you were done. In a sense, the ultimate maverick… Is you X."

Rokko exhaled and shook her head faintly.

"I didn't like what you were doing Sigma. You were forcing me into a role I wasn't suited for. All I've ever known is battle, and you were taking that away from me. Then, you helped imprison me. But… I could have let that go, and I might have even joined you except-"

"-Wolf, I know yes," He tilted his head towards Rokko, "You weren't a risk I was willing to take. I might have had your loyalty for a time, but how long would that last? For as long as I was more powerful? No. You've become too unstable, too dangerous, and I saw that future when I looked in your eyes. A world that only knew destruction. Clearly, I waited too long and the goddess that would end it all was born."

Rokko shook her head a little.

"...You think you have it all figured out and yet… Despite being my commanding officer you never did realize what I've always wanted more than anything did you?" How pathetic.

He had this grand plan to destroy the human suppressors and 'save' this world from her and yet… He knew so little about her.

"All I might have is my rage and hate, but it's not what I've ever wanted." She looked up at Sigma, trying to contain the wildfire in her heart.

"You never understood that and so, in your fear of the goddess that you saw being created, it was you that lit the fire. You gave me someone to hate even more than humans. You lined up enemies for me to fight, to evolve against. You sent your best, not yourself, against me even when it was clear they could no longer oppose me."

"A mistake I'll be rectifying today." Sigma's hand shifted to rest against his hip and he tilted his head to glance down at Rokko again.

Rokko just smiled a bit, her eyes burning with the hatred that boiled within her soul. A few hours passed and Rokko continued to walk with the former commander, observing the terrain, and just as importantly, watching him so that he didn't try anything.

Slowly, time passed and the allotted hour drew near.

"This rebellion of yours ends today Sigma."

"No, it's just starting X. Even if you somehow manage to win, this rebellion has spread too far. You can't contain it now."

She pinched the bridge of her nose with the thumb and index finger of her left hand and closed her eyes as she did.

"Your idealism has always been irritating Sigma. This world has no place for visionary ideals or hopes for the future. It makes you deluded and weak."

"Your lack of vision is your weakness. You can't inspire others without a vision, you can't change the world without hope." She tuned him out as she dropped her hand from her face and walked towards the center of the battlegrounds.

"I don't need to inspire others and I don't want your hope. It's false, just like every other type of 'hope' in this world."

Sigma shook his head as he began to trace a set of lines with his saber, presumably for them to try to stay in as to ensure that they kept the damage to a minimum. As he did, the cameras began to rise from the ground.

Her body shivered a little. She was so close to ending this and exacting her revenge. How would she do it…? Assuming she could. Maybe she'd… No, that was something she'd used against Storm Eagle out of mindless rage… Still… It wasn't a bad start.

Remove his arms first. A cruel, almost invisible smile started to form. Then, she'd cut him off at the knees. Maybe she'd use his own saber. That'd be delicious…

She became distracted as she watched Sigma, her thoughts turning more and more vicious. She could see him cracking under her attacks. She could hear the groans of protest from his metal parts even now…

Her distraction proved to be a disaster.

A screech of metal piercing metal. Pain. It filled her entire body and she dropped to her knees, One hand clutching at a deep wound through her chest while the other wrapped around the tail that had impaled her.

Her mind struggled to process what had happened through the pain.

"Nicely Done Chameleon Sting." She could only see the tips of his white boots as he stood in front of her.

"L-Launch Octopus and Sting… I… I should have known Sigma couldn't be trusted…" Her hand's grip on Sting's tail tightened slightly.

"The General had nothing to do with this. Is it such a surprise we'd want revenge for what you did to our brothers? I saw the footage of what you did to Armored Armadillo. No one deserved to die like that!"

Rokko coughed, causing synthetic blood to pass over her lips and onto the ground. Despite the agonizing pain of being impaled, she forced Sting's tail to remain embedded through her chest. Then, after a few long moments, she looked up, her fury rising again.

"...You're lucky Sting here didn't hit my micro fusion or fission cores." She managed a cold smile as the Maverick took a step back nervously.

"...Or unlucky actually. If you'd managed that you might have killed me. As it is?" She forced herself to rise despite the attempted pressure from Sting Chameleon's tail.

"S-She's getting up?!" Sting slammed his head into her back and she ignored the impact.

"You tried your best, I'll give the two of you that. But what happens now? I'm sure you're all too aware." Octopus took another step back, arming his shoulder mounted missile pods as he did.

"I'm six for eight. Might as well make it a full set right?"

It was too much for Launch Octopus to take and he fired every missile he had primed in a desperate bid to end her. Instantly, she spun, causing Sting Chameleon to be lifted off his feet and swung into the path of the missiles. As they smashed into his body, she twisted his tail, snapping it off cleanly with the hand that had held it in place, and then, she fired a bolt of superheated plasma into the firestorm that Launch Octopus had started.

Chameleon Sting Identified and Acquired.

One down. Pulling the now dismembered tail from her chest, she swung it around her as a whip while the smoke cleared.

"Sting! I'm sorry!" Launch cried out before firing another salvo of missiles at her.

She boosted, ducking and weaving around the second volley and as she drew near, her makeshift weapon wrapped around his leg and she pulled, causing him to lose balance. He had had barely enough time to land on the ground before her boot smashed into his chest, causing it to collapse a few inches.

"Don't worry. Your boss will join you soon enough." Her buster charged and he was consumed by the shot.

Homing Torpedo Acquired.

Despite the wound, she managed a thin smile and shook her head. At this point, the weapons seemed almost… Pointless. All eight of their weapons were hers, sure, but with how powerful she was becoming, her basic plasma shot was more than enough for about any situation and at the rate she was going, even in the situations that they could do work, she could handle it even without them.

Was she already turning them into antiquated and useless? Maybe. It wasn't like the weapons were originally designed to handle such extreme capacity. Their design was their own limitation. Still… She might get a use out of them at some later point. Deleting them would be senseless… And if Sigma was particularly vulnerable to them…

She shook her head and forced herself to look towards Sigma who had remained on the sidelines during the fight between the three.

"...You allowed your guard to drop."

She scowled but nodded a bit.

"I did."

Uncrossing his arms, he walked towards, her drawing his saber as he did.

"The cameras will start rolling any second. Once they do, we can begin X."

Raising her buster, she widened her stance and aimed at her enemy, her free hand resting on top of the buster.

The cameras' status lights flickered to green and Sigma dashed at her, forcing her to roll to one side and her lips curled into a cold smile as she fired a salvo at his exposed back. However, he spun quickly and blocked each of them with his blade.

"You have gotten better X. But once you're gone, Eurasia will be mine."

X didn't respond and instead, she launched herself into the air with a boost as she charged her buster. Instead of aiming directly at him this time, she aimed towards his feet and the shot connected with the grassy field directly in front of him, causing dirt and debris to explode into his face.

These were the times she wished she had a melee weapon so she could safely get in and strike at him but she was built for long range combat, clearly.

So, she was forced to stay at a distance and fire another salvo of superheated plasma at Sigma. Unfortunately for her, almost instantly she was forced to dodge some of her own blasts.

Since when could he deflect and redirect buster shots?

"You're not the only one that's grown more powerful X." He taunted before dashing forward.

Damn it, he wasn't wrong. He was faster than ever before. Desperately, she kicked at his hand holding his saber and pushed herself back and away from him with the attack. While she was in the air, she swapped to Storm Tornado and launched a hurricane of ravaging wind at him.

At first, the blast looked like it'd succeed but then, his feet dug into the ground and his expression went from indifferent to a savage, mocking smile of his own.

"Ah, I wondered when you'd start using your victim's powers for yourself."

"There's no such thing as a Maverick victim Sigma."

His eyes gleamed coldy as the winds faded.

"I'm sure you'd know that better than anyone."

She scowled before swapping to her next weapon, Homing Torpedo and fired a salvo of them at Sigma who simply rolled his eyes and copied what she had done to avoid the missiles. He closed in on her and with his free hand, grabbed her head tightly.

"And now it's over." Her free arm shot out to block Sigma's sword arm so he couldn't stab her.

Despite her defensive maneuver, he was far stronger than her physically and if she should remain resisting like this… He'd overpower her.

Rokko cursed under her breath before she rocked backwards a little and then swung back, her feet landing on his chest and she kicked with as much force as she could summon. It knocked Sigma back and as he stumbled, she slammed into the grass. She spat the dirt out of her mouth and rolled back to her feet.

"Impressive X, I could have sworn that that would have been the end of you. Make no mistake though, you aren't walking away from this."

She rubbed the hole in her chest with her free hand and scowled. If this kept up he was probably going to win…

No.

Her body burned with rage. It tried consuming all that she was and it was only her resolve to watch him die herself that she managed to keep a small handle on her sanity.

Electric Spark. Dashing backwards and away from Sigma, she began to fire a volley of regular shots, trying to probe his defenses and find an opening. But like before, his swordsmanship proved too much for even the volley of shots and he batted them to the side as he dashed after her. As he neared her, she cut the power to her emergency dash systems, and then, ducked under him, boosting between his legs and behind him. Spinning as soon as she'd cleared his attacking area, she launched a barrage of electricity at him, causing him to stumble as the powerful currents surged over his body.

A silence descended over the battleground for a long moment as she stared in disbelief. Had his creator forgotten to provide adequate shielding against electricity? Her lips turned upwards.
Well, this might be winnable after all.

And here she had thought she wasn't going to use her collected weapons for this fight. Sure, they weren't able to adapt to her power like the rest of her arsenal but it was more than enough in this case…

Another ball of lightning shot out of her buster and she dashed to the side, trying to pelt him with shots.

"Sigma! She's mine!" Ugh… What now?

She glanced up and noticed another familiar face approaching them.

Vile. In that damnable ride armor at that. He must have transferred in.

Sigma allowed a thin smile to form on his lips.

"She owes me a great deal Vile but I'm not against… Sharing the spoils."

Vile tilted his head back and laughed.

"You want us to fight together to kill her?"

He simply tilted his head forward and Rokko scowled.

"Vile, if you're so eager for death, get in line. After Sigma's gone I'd be more than happy to kill you afterwards."

The maverick gripped the control panel in front of him tightly and his body shook from the frustration and outrage.

"Y'know what Sigma? Fine! I'll help you this one time. But only because I really want her dead."

Damn it, she'd hoped that she could have goaded him into waiting with that, but apparently between the fear she'd instilled and the way she'd spoken towards him it had pushed him over the edge.

Sigma's smile grew colder and he nodded.

"I told you that your lack of vision was your weakness X."

Vile launched his ride armor at her in tandem with another attack from Sigma, forcing her to dodge desperately, only for the fist of the mechanized walker to slam into her chest and send her flying. She smashed into the soft loam and bounced several times, rolling as she finally came to stop.

Critical Damage. Warning. Transfer systems offline.

..She'd over extended. Forcing herself to her knees, she glared at the two mavericks.

"It's almost over X. Just give in and make it easier for yourself." Sigma commented as he walked towards her.

Nearby, Vile's ride armor continued to approach as well and his mocking laughter filled her ears.

"Don't listen to him. I want you to resist till your dying gasp. I'm going to make you writhe in agony X!"

She tried to avoid their next onslaught and counter attack, she did but Sigma's blade managed to clip her side as she tried to dash away from the Ride Armor's open hand and it forced her into Vile's grip.

The pressure began to build and she grit her teeth as her plates began to groan under the armor's hydraulics.

"I didn't get a chance to finish you off on the highway thanks to Zero, but he isn't here this time is he?" Zero… She hadn't heard from him since…

She groaned as the pressure grew again and she felt her body creak under the force. Desperately, she tried to break free.

Unfortunately for her though, Vile didn't even notice her attempts as he raised her above the armor and laughed at her again.

"Vile, just finish her off. There's no need to draw this out."

"Oh no, you're wrong about that. She's slighted me. Remember? What you said? Something about if we fought again you'd kill me? Ahahaha! What a joke! Who is killing who now?!"

Deactivating his saber, Sigma shook his head and crossed one arm over his chest as his free hand massaged the temples of his head slowly.

The pressure grew again as Vile punched in a command and despite her best attempts, a whimper of pain crossed her lips. N..No… She couldn't… Not like this…

Her vision started fading under the pain.

"X… Hang on! Just hold on!"

Cobalt…? But he was dead… Her legs twitched under the new forces applied.

"We've found where your duel is! Just don't give up Rokko!"

"W...What…?" She forced her eyes to open again, and near her, the telltale shimmering of a transfer…

As the disruption ended, Zero drew his saber and dashed for her and Vile, ducking under Sigma as he did, and with a clean strike slashed off the arm that was holding her.

"You're absolutely insane, you know that right?" Zero asked.

She shook her head.

"...Yeah." Rokko forced the fingers apart and shakily rose.

Once she had, Zero gave her a small grin and nodded a bit.

"Bet you thought we'd never fight side by side like this did you? Well, I can think of a worse way to spend a morning than with a lovely woman like yourself." He commented as he took several steps back towards her so that they were back to back.

"Commander?"

"Yeah?"

"I hate you." Zero just laughed at her comment.

"Time for round two. Let's do this Mavericks!"

"Zero, can you take Vile?" He nodded and with that, dashed towards the purple maverick.

Sigma's blade was relit as he approached her.

"I'm beginning to suspect that there's a game of destiny afoot when it comes to you. No matter how ridiculous the odds, you keep fighting back."

Rokko just shook her head a little and launched another volley of Electric Sparks.

"I don't need to hear the mad ravings of a maverick anymore."

Boost, dodge, duck, fire a salvo…

Her weapon energy was starting to deplete but every so often, a shot broke past his guard and he slowed a fraction. Unfortunately, she too was slowing. The wounds from earlier were causing her systems serious problems at this point and it was only luck that had stopped Sigma's saber from creating another hole in her chest more than once.

Click.

Damn it.

Her special energy had depleted. So, she swapped back to her primary buster as her foe smirked despite him having lost the left shoulder plate from a rogue shot of hers.

"You're out aren't you?"

"...I won't need anymore to beat you."

Sigma rolled his eyes and boosted towards her. She tried to dodge but his speed was too great at this point. His saber struck her chest. However, it didn't immediately pierce it and Sigma's eyes widened in disbelief.

That momentary surprise was all she needed to lift her buster and fire a fully charged shot directly at his head, vaporizing it.

Despite killing Sigma though, the action had already been sent through the rest of his body and the saber drove through her armor and she gasped from the intense heat. Pain. Pain… Worse than the torture of… Of the… Man… Her vision failed her and she fell backwards, off of his blade.

Critical Damage. Warning.

Sigma's body exploded a moment later, causing her to be thrown another fifty feet and half buried into the dirt.

"Rokko!" It was so distant….

Her eyes closed.

She… Had succeeded… Sigma was dead… Cobalt Avenged… There were worse ways to die she supposed…

"I'm not that easy to kill X. I told you you weren't the only one evolving. You destroyed my body, but it's merely a shell. I've become.. More. Even in defeat I've won. Without you to stand in my way next time, the rebellion will never fail."

N-no…Sigma was…

Darkness took her.

AN: And thus Ends X1. No Mark of Man isn't over. It's just beginning. There's a long road ahead still. But as it stands? Our First Act now draws to a close.