Zero was in the desert base again, except someone had melted all the ice.

"Our server has been hacked from here. Destroy their computer banks."
"Ciel, where the hell did those two giant, yellow submarines come from?"

"They were buried in the ice."
"Okay… but wait, what is that big 'R' logo? It looks familiar."
"Don't you remember? It's Repliforce."

Zero reeled, memories overriding his command functions.

"Wait, Zero! Don't fight with my brother…!"

Zero steadied, forcing his memory buffer to compensate.

"Repliforce."

"You fought against them with X."

Zero went rigid.

"… I… r… i… s…"

"Zero, are you okay?"

He shook his head.

"Stupid memory buffer is malfunctioning, seizing up my systems."

"I'll take a look at it when you get home, okay?"

"Home… a place where only reploids…"

Shaking himself again and switching off the buffer completely, Zero plunged into the depths, navigating under the submarines, shooting down the drill squids and biting fish that infested the area. Emerging behind the second submarine, he jumped onto its deck, leaping over the missiles it fired at him.

"Those sure are some slow-moving warheads."
"They would be sluggish after being frozen for so long."

"No wonder they're trapped underground… if they fired on a city, the civilians would be able to walk away from them."

Infiltrating the base and sniping its guards once more, Zero found the mainframe and shot it to heck.

"Good work, Zero! Their hacking attempts have ceased."

"That was too easy."

Outside the base, he dove into the water but Ciel warned him, "I'm picking up a huge energy signature! The enemy is near!"

"I really have to learn to keep my mouth shut."

Sighing with resignation, he charged his saber and walked forward. A glistening blue form glided through the water above him. He stopped to stare.

"Ooh. She's so… smooth…"

"I'll take that as a compliment. My name's Leviathan, by the way, one of the Guardians."

She tossed back her flowing blue locks, treading the water with a harpoon held at her side.

"You know how to communicate underwater using sonic waves. And here I thought you were an old model, Zero."

"I am old, and crusty. Salty, even. That makes me very experienced, with an edge over you."

"You may have defeated that naïve fool, Harpuia, but I am the mistress of my element."

"And a fair mistress you are."

She inclined her head.

"Are you making advances on me?"

"Who's advancing? I'm already there," he grinned. She rolled her large blue eyes.

"You've had so little success with women. First Iris, then Ciel, and now me…"

"Iris…?"

She smiled, delighting in his confusion.

"Switch your memory buffer back on; I'm the one who did the hacking, you know. Remember lovely little Iris in her beret?"

He didn't have to switch it back on. It engaged upon hearing her name.

"She was your one true love. I thought the Repliforce logo would jog your memory, so I put them there."

"You… planned this?"

"Why yes. The only thing that can defeat you, Zero, is your past. Remember how she betrayed you after you killed her brother? You cut her down without mercy."

Leviathan leveled her harpoon at him.

"I won't expect you to go easy on me just because I'm a woman."

Zero broke out of his trance. His eyes went from black to brown, the colour Iris' eyes had been.

"You could never be as good as her."

She wasn't. Her repertoire consisted of firing homing missiles from her harpoon and leaving spiky ice traps as she swam around. Every time she was within range, Zero blasted her with fire; her obvious weakness. She managed to pull off her super move: a water dragon that followed Zero wherever he went, but Zero just hit the thing with fire and it dissolved into so many useless bubbles. Zero launched after Leviathan, slashing her harpoon in half.

"She may have been naïve, but she was not weak."

Leviathan sagged with disbelief.

"I am the new combat series model… I even played upon your memories… how could you defeat me?"

Zero sheathed his flaming saber.

"You and the other Guardians are a copy of X's combat abilities. Only X was my match. How could one fourth of his power stand against me?"

Leviathan giggled.

"Let me go if I give you my number?"

He grinned.

"Deal."