Chapter 7 - The Best Laid Plan…

Sigma was supposed to be the most advanced reploid on the planet. He was supposed to lead the Maverick Hunters and make the world a safer place for humans and reploids to coexist in harmony. Even the best laid plans can go to waste. -Mega Man X

I landed in the Siberian tundra just a few dozen yards from where I knew Cossack's citadel was. I walked through the cloak and used the intercom. "I'm back. We have to talk, let me in."

The blast doors opened and I bolted inside, heading towards the command room. Pharaoh Man met me halfway there and immediately began to speak. "Well? What's happening? It has to do with Zero doesn't it?"

"Yes, earlier today he had some sort of hallucination at the Robot Museum and ended up attacking X. I think Sigma's plan is going into full swing. From what I can gather, Zero's relations with the head of the hunters hasn't been at it's best lately. If I were him, I'd put Zero on suspension until a full psychiatric evaluation had been preformed. Unfortunately, Zero is trying to find out more about his past, and he's not going to stay still."

"And what does this mean for Sigma's plans?"

I had to think carefully about this. "Axl said that he had left Zero a clue that he hoped Zero would find. He wouldn't tell me what or where it was, probably because he is extremely suspicious of me at the moment."

"So we are still unable to do anything then?"

"No, I can still talk with X, get as much information out of him as I can. I just wish I knew what Axl was talking about with that clue. I think it's meant to lead Zero into Sigma's trap."

"That makes sense. And there's no way you could find out where the trap's set?"

"Doubtfully. I'm probably going to have to check in with Sigma soon. No doubt Axl's been talking with Sigma about this. I'm going to put that off for as long as I can however."

"Then you should go back to MHHQ. We will try to come up with a plan in the meanwhile."

"Agreed. I'll be back as soon as I can." With that, I turned down the hall and exited the citadel. As soon as I was clear of the cloaking field, I warped to my usual spot. I entered the base and began to look for X. However, as soon as I had entered the hallway that led away from the lobby, I saw Zero go by me in a flash. "Zero!"

Zero looked back at me and slowed his pace a little. "Sorry man! Can't talk right now. Got important stuff to do." With that he continued to dash off.

'Strange. I wonder where he's going?' I needed to find X quickly. I continued searching the base. Eventually I came upon X walking away from the bosses office. I remembered how the hunters had been operated under Cain and briefly wondered what this newer guy was like. "X! What's going on?"

X turned and looked at me, he looked very on edge. "Oh, hey there Vava. Uh… now's not really a good time, there's been some bad stuff happening lately."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, I'm sure the rumors are flying all over the place so I might as well just tell you what happened outright. We were at the Robot Museum and Zero began hallucinating. Eventually he attacked me and then fainted."

I had to act surprised at this. Sigma mentioned Zero's first attack a few days ago, but I hadn't been around at that point. "He what?"

"Yeah, he attacked me. I highly doubt he would have killed me, but it's still bad because I had to report it to Signas, and he's placed Zero under suspension and house arrest pending a psychiatric evaluation."

'Oh god damn it! That's why he was in such a hurry a few minutes ago. He was trying to get away before X could start shadowing him.' I had missed my chance to track him, now there was definitly no way I could intervene and disrupt Sigma's plan. "Oh man. That sounds pretty serious."

X sighed as he continued walking. "It certainly is. Uh, I don't mean to be rude or anything, but could I ask you to let me talk to Zero alone? I think he'll react better if I'm the sole bearer of bad news."

"Okay, sure that makes sense. I'll talk to you later?"

"I hope so. Everything just seems to be spiraling out of control right now. I wish I knew what was really happening around here."

I desperately wanted to help. To let him know what I knew, but Axl probably had lots of ears around here. I had to keep my cover intact. "Well, I wish I could help you with that X."

X turned and smiled a sort of weary, yet appreciative smile. "You've already done more then enough Vava. I'm glad to have a friend like you to talk to. Heh, I still can't believe you've only been here for two days. There's something very familiar about you though, almost like I've known you for years. Weird, huh?"

Slightly panicky, I managed to reply, "ha ha, yeah." With that, I turned and walked away. Even though he hadn't yet, I was still scared stiff that X would find someway to recognize me for who I really was. I needed something to calm my nerves down. I decided that I should probably relax at the cafeteria.

--

On my arrival, I saw the girl, Alia, sitting alone at one of the tables nursing a luke-warm bowl of soup. I decided to sit across from her so I could strike up a conversation. I wanted to know what she was like, and what about her had made X fall in love. "Excuse me, is anyone sitting here?"

She looked up from her food, slightly startled, and said, "oh, uh…no. Please, have a seat."

"Thanks," I replied.

However, before I could even begin to say anything, she started talking to me. "You're Vava, right?"

"Yeah, that's me."

She smiled and continued talking. "X has been talking about you quite a bit. Apparently he's really taken a liking to you."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, he mentioned trying to have you placed in the 17th after your performance in the simulation room yesterday. Quite an achievement, I must say, impressing him that much."

I actually did get a little flustered at the compliment. "Well, uh…that's quite an honor. I'll have to thank him next time I see him."

All of a sudden a voice echoed out over the P.A. system and said, "all unit commanders are to report to my ready room in 5 minutes. The 0th unit will send its second in command."

Alia glanced up at the ceiling. "Huh, I wonder what's going on."

I imagined that that voice belonged to the head honcho. "Was that..."

Alia nodded her head and responded, "yeah that was Signas. Something's up though, he almost never meets with all the unit commanders at the same time...unless there's a maverick attack that is."

'Or unless one of their own goes AWOL and is presumed dangerous.' "Huh, that is strange. Uh, I'm just curious but how long have you known X?"

"Well it's been a couple of decades now. Ever since the Hunter's reorganization, before the Eurasia incident. I scored best in my group of navigators, so I got promoted to head navigator; that's when I first met X."

"Wow, so quite a while then?"

"Yeah, in fact, I think Zero is the only one who's known X longer then I have. Funny, looking back now it doesn't seem all that long."

I noticed she was getting a far away look in her eyes. Obviously she had been infatuated with him for a long time before they had ever hooked up. "So, what is X like? I mean, I've gotten the idea that he's an incredibly good person in my head, but I want to get to know him better."

"If he considers you his friend, then you've got one of the best friends on the planet. He always sticks up for the people he cares for, and even the ones he doesn't. He's probably the best hunter in the world, although I guess you could say he and Zero on par with each other. The problem, though, is that X absolutely hates fighting."

This I already knew. Back when I was a hunter he always stated that he was a pacifist and that killing mavericks was wrong. "Really? But then, why does he keep doing it?"

"Everything here is temporary, we'll come and go, but X is one of the pillars of this establishment. X carries the weight of being a Mega Man on his shoulders. I've asked him many times why he can't just let go and let someone else fight, but he just tells me that he fights because he's the only one who can. He thinks that if he takes the weight of the world on his shoulders, he'll make things better for everyone else. I'm afraid of what will happen when it becomes too much for him."

"He thinks the world could be a better place, but only if he sacrifices his own happiness."

"Yeah, that's it in a nutshell."

He had obviously matured then. However, he was fighting for the wrong reasons. He shouldn't have to fight because he thinks he's the only one who makes a difference. You can't let your history determine your future. He needs to learn that he has control over his destiny. "He shouldn't have to go through all that. I'm sure there are plenty that could take his place."

"I've told him the same, but he just tells me that he's following in his brother's footsteps."

"That's no good, what's he going to do when those footsteps lead him to disaster?"

"I try to hope that that'll never happen."

I sat in contemplation for a second, when Alia's comm unit suddenly came alive. "Alia? It's X. I'm going to need to meet you in the surveillance room as soon as possible."

Alia reached for her comm and responded, "alright X. I'll be there in a few minutes." She deactivated her comm and turned back towards me. "Well, it was nice talking to you. I'll see you later."

"Yeah, bye Alia." I sat by myself, thinking. 'X sounded worried. He's probably concerned over where Zero went. But if X knows that Zero went AWOL, then that must mean that…'

"Trying to lay the moves down on X's girl, eh? Keep on doing that and X'll do my job for me."

I turned to see Axl decloaking. "Shut up! The last thing I want to hear from you are insinuations that I'm trying to get between those two."

"Wow, so very defensive. Interesting. But I'm sure you want to know what's going on, right?"

I turned back around, getting my temper back under control. "Zero's gone missing, I know."

Axl, genuinely surprised at this, said, "really? So you are still in the loop. Betchya didn't know what happened after that though. Sigma just threw down the gauntlet for the hunters. The whole of the hunters versus Sigma and his eight maverick generals."

My eyes widened, Sigma had moved on with his plan. "That's insane. Nine mavericks against the combined forces of the Maverick Hunters? What the hell is Sigma doing?"

"Maybe you should go talk to him. I think he wants to have a chat anyways. I have to be going, though. I have a cover to maintain. Ciao."

Axl walked out of the cafeteria as I sat and watched. I needed to find X. I got up and began searching through the base, finally finding him in the storage bay, searching through a giant box of files. 'Cain's copies of the hunting reports. I'm amazed those are even still here.' "X."

X looked up from the mess of folders he was searching through and said, "hi Vava. I'm a little busy at the moment."

"Wow, it sure looks that way, what are you doing with all those things."

"These are old copies of hunting reports. I need to find an old one that's been… that's gone missing."

"X, what's going on? You seem more on edge then I've seen you be, and then there's that meeting with Signas that I heard about over the PA."

"Oh, dang it, that's right. You aren't in a unit yet, nobody's going to brief you. Alright, I'll make it short. Sigma's back and he's challenged us to a final showdown. Our forces against himself and eight of his generals. The other unit commanders are briefing their units and preparing as best as they can. In fact, I'm going to be doing that once I finish searching through these files."

I knew I was probably going to regret saying this, but I had to ask. "You're looking for some clue as to why Zero ran away?"

X quickly looked at me. "How did you…"

"I saw him running through the hallway earlier, before I talked to you. I didn't know he was under suspension or I would have tried to stop him, I'm sorry X."

X's gaze slowly dropped back towards the files. "That's alright, I doubt you could have stopped him if he really wanted to get away anyway. But, in response to your earlier question, yes, I was looking through the files for a clue. One of the security cameras showed Zero entering the records room and taking one of the hunter reports with him as he teleported out. I'm assuming that it was the report made on the day Sigma, back when he was on our side that is, brought him back from the fight with that one maverick. The one that almost tore him apart."

I remembered that day. Sigma had looked like hell when he got back, arm missing, body battered, and half his face ripped off. He didn't want to talk about it at all and the report made had been relatively short. I now knew what Axl must have done. He must have wrote down the location of where the fight occurred and the warp coordinates for how to get there. Sigma probably told him about the other copy of the file so that he could get to it before everyone else and destroy it. X's searching was going to be fruitless. "Well, I guess that makes sense. I should probably go get ready then. There are a few things I need to see to."

"Yeah, I would recommend you take care of anything you need to before tomorrow. I'll see you later then?"

"Yeah…yeah you will. I'll be around. See ya X." I turned to walk away, but before I could start walking, I was overcome by the feeling that I needed to reveal more to X then I had been doing up to this point. "X?"

"Yeah Vava?'

"I just want you to know, I am not abandoning you."

X's face turned up towards me and he gave me a questioning look. "What are you talking about?"

I stared at the ground as I tried to explain what was in my head. "The next time we meet, we might not be on quite the same level of good terms as we are now. You are my friend X and you always will be. I know you consider me to be your friend, but you don't know me, or at least, not yet. Things aren't what they seem to be right now. Your friends could turn out to be the ones you have to fight, while some of your bitterest enemies will turn out to be loyal defenders. Just keep that in mind and, when you find out who I am, you'll know that I just wanted a chance at redemption." Having said all that, I turned and quickly left the storage bay.

"What? Wait, what do you mean?" X called out to me as I walked off, but I was already running down the halls.

'Damn it, damn it, damn it! Why couldn't I just keep my mouth shut?' I continued running until I was well outside of headquarters after which, I went to my hiding place to retrieve my helmet. I sighed and said out loud, "I said too much. I said way too much."

A hand touched my shoulder. "I agree. Time to go."

'OH FUC…' I wasn't able to finish my thought as Axl enveloped me in his warp field and teleported us towards the one place I knew was going to be the death of me; Sigma.

End Chapter 7

Author's Note: Uhhhhhh ohhhhhhhh... Trouble for the V-man. Stay tuned for next chapter, whenever I can get around to writing and uploading it. As always, read, enjoy, and review!