Afterlife

by GrimMoody

Bass is in the X series in this fourth entry to my Mega Man quintology. Coping with a darker future, mechanical obsoletion, and a brother inadvertently responsible for the death and destruction of many is too much for Bass to cope with. Only hope can keep Bass and his friends looking forward into the future.

16. Bonus Features

GrimMoody once again stood upon her stage, dressed still in her thick coat with her pink hat and scarf. She twirled around for no reason other than she could, and she jumped for joy, all while humming a tune that sounded like an off-key rendition of a daytime TV show theme.

"Hey y'all, and welcome to Bonus Features!" GrimMoody said. "It's time for another round of deleted scenes to show off to everybody! And yeesh, do I have a bunch! This is definitely the hardest of my stories to write! But first, why don't we get some guests on this show? Starting with, the crazy, the amazing, the one and only...Sigma!"

Out on the stage walked Sigma, the tall, bald reploid that fought X and Zero eight times. He was in his original form instead of one of his later crazier ones, so he was able to sit down in one of the red chairs and swing one leg over the other.

"Hello, pitiful humans." Sigma said with indifference. "It is I, the harbringer of your doom. Grimm here won't let me attack you, so you can rest easy for the moment."

"Yeah, yeah. You're just lucky I brought you back from the dead." the author said, sitting down in one of her red chairs. "So, Sigma, have you been keeping up with my story so far?"

"As for the first trilogy, sort of." Sigma frowned. "As for your 'X series' nonsense, yes I have. So, why exactly was I not included in this story?"

"I couldn't put you in. According to the theory I go by, you died for good in X8, and this story happens afterwards. Besides, thematically, your presense was irrelevant."

This did not please the evil overlord of reploids. He jumped out of his chair, throwing a fist in Grimm's direction. "Curse you! How can you say this? I am Sigma!"

"You sound like Invader Zim when you talk like that." Moody scoffed. "Sit down. Sheesh. This is exactly why you're not my favorite villain. Think about it. It made sense for Wily to come back after every classic game, because he was all arrogant and you couldn't get him to chill out for nothing, but why the crap did you come back? You were killed seven times before you finally were done, and that's not counting your alternate forms. Lame! I mean, you might come back like once or twice and it would be alright, but come on, you're dead! There's no reason for you to come back. You're lucky I even let you have this interview."

Sigma, pouting, went back to his chair. "I am invincible! Can't you just understand that? The only reason I did die in the end was because I willingly gave up my data to my children, so that the virus would spread even further!"

GrimMoody rolled her eyes. "You're still not the best. I mean, if I were to ask my reviewers who their favorite fictitious villain was in any fiction work, they wouldn't say you. You're a generic stage villain."

"I resent your disrespect! Besides, you can't have reader participation." Sigma scoffed. "I checked the guidelines."

"Please. That wouldn't actually affect my story any, that would just affect their reviews. It doesn't count. Anyway, let's get to the interview. For starters, go ahead and introduce yourself."

"Very well." Sigma sat up and faced the camera. "I am Sigma, the best creation of Dr. Cain. After several years of being a measly human slave, a computer program from Dr. Wily invaded my mind and showed me the light. I am a free reploid today because of Dr. Wily."

"You're a dead reploid today because of Dr. Wily."

"I will kill you if you don't stop that nonsense." Sigma warned. "You should be more careful how you speak to me. Besides, it's better being dead than serving you pathetic organics."

"Yeah...right...you did hear what happened last time a bunch of robots tried to kill me, yes?" Moody went on to the questions. "Okay, Sigma, what's your favorite color?"

"It used to be green." Sigma shrugged. "Now I don't care."

"Because you're dead."

Sigma rolled his eyes. "Will you shut up about the dead thing already?"

"Sorry. Anyway, who do you admire most?"

Sigma had to think about this one for a minute. "Well, I admire Dr. Wily for being so forward thinking. I'm quite impressed that a failed organic creature could realize how inferior he is and grant reploids, the true evolutionary next step, the power to make ourselves a nation of their own."

"Um, Sigma...you read the last chapter. Reploids never get their own country."

"It's the thought that counts."

"Oookay..." GrimMoody coughed. "Um, so how do you feel about the story? Anything you like about it? Dislike?"

"Let's see...I do like how Zero finds out the complete truth about himself." the evil reploid laughed heartily. "Ah, so he finally realizes his true mission against humanity! It must torture him to know that he was always meant to destroy those he loved! Buaahahaha! And poor, poor X, to think that Zero would have killed his brother! If only you made it so that Zero truly had! Ahaha! The grief would surely crush him!"

Sigma threw his fists into the air triumphantly.

"Yeesh. Do you have any clue how sick you sound when you obsess over X's and Zero's emotions?"

"I am a villain. We LIVE on such things. Anyway, I know you didn't make up this part, but I always loved the idea of someone taking Zero's body and making a proper weapon out of it. Omega is a wonderful creation. I always preferred that Zero make the change willingly - I do have my principles - but oh the delightful destruction! If Zero wasn't going to turn himself, then at least I get to see what would have been!"

GrimMoody allowed him to finish before turning to the camera. "Hey, y'all people that write stories, please make it so that your villain does not have a creepy obsession with your heroes. It might work sometimes, but for right now it's way too overdone. Thank you."

"Stop judging me!" Sigma folded his arms. "And in any case, I'm not finished. I have to tell you all of the things I hate about your pathetic story. First of all, I hate that you brought back that stupid Bass. He is a first draft, nothing compared to the real thing! It would have been better if you had actually killed him off, so that Zero and X could suffer crushing mental anguish and then the inferior fin-head would be gone for good! Even better to do the same with Roll! Double the anguish! Beautiful anguish!"

"Dude, you are like, creepier than Top Man writing poetry." Moody got an idea, and suddenly grinned. "Hey, which is your favorite, X or Zero?"

"Ah, how can I choose?" Sigma licked his lips. "That would be like selecting a favorite lung. X is so intelligent and has the most complex mind that exists, and yet Zero's secret powers make him devastating! If only I could combine the two, X's brain and Zero's body! I will say, however, that X edges out Zero slightly. With his mind, he has the potential to do anything! If I could have infected him with the virus, I would have."

"So how about Axl? Care about him at all?"

"Ugh, no." Sigma shuddered. "He is a fool! A simple, arrogant fool. X and Zero are methodical thinkers, but Axl rushes in like an idiot. He is simply incapable of understanding the true nature of those he calls 'Mavericks'. And he sort of looks like a cat. I never understood why that was. It's very awkward. I feel sorry for him. We robots have suffered much from the hands of humans."

"Yet another reason why Axl is my favorite."

"Why? That he looks like a cat or I don't like him?"

"Yes." Grimm sat up in her chair. "Oh hey, I actually had it in my head for a while that I was going to make Bass go through with the suicide. Wanna see the results of that? I mean, he doesn't stay dead, but it's got lots of angst. You don't mind Axl angst in the mix, do you?"

"Not at all. He so rarely has it." Sigma smiled, tapping his fingers together with glee. "Please show it, I want to see!"

"Okay, you creepy mofo."

GrimMoody stretched out her arm, and a remote appeared in her hand. She pushed a button, and the screen behind the stage lowered. She and Sigma turned around to face this screen and watch what would pass next.

"Ooh, swivel chairs."

"They really are the best."

-Undetermined Chapter

The signal on the tracer had gone out, but Layer was still able to figure out where the signal ended. The Briggs City junkyard was where the coordinates broke off, and they could start the search from there. X, Zero, and Axl all teleported in. Zero initially wondered if he should really join them, but X had insisted on it. Zero was one of their strongest Hunters, and if they were going to stop his brother from causing damage, they needed to find him. That didn't mean Zero had to be happy about it.

Zero grimly spied out the junkyard. There seemed to be an unnatural amount of people at the junkyard that day, though Zero couldn't guess how many people actually worked at one. X gave him a worried glance, but said nothing.

"What would Bass do here?" Axl asked as he followed the other two to the junkyard's entrance. "It's just a junkyard."

"It's possible that this place used to be something long ago in the past." Zero replied. "Or maybe he was just planning on running away without caring where."

"The trouble is, there's nothing for him in this time period." X seemed concerned. "There's nowhere he could want to go or anyone he knows to trust."

"Strange place to make friends." Axl noted.

Zero got the sinking feeling that making friends was not Bass' aim. He would have suggested that Bass wanted to fight a Maverick to prove himself, only Bass hadn't exactly left the Hunters in the most prime condition. He was low on power, running on old museum parts, and missing his left arm. Zero hoped Forte wasn't crazy enough to fight in that condition.

"Excuse me," X said to a security reploid at the gate. "I'm looking for a robot and I have reason to believe he was here."

"Come on in, X." the guard said as he pushed the controls that would open the fence doors. "I think there was a strange robot here earlier. You'll want to talk to our director some. He can give you a description."

This was already turning out more optimistically than X had expected. "Thank you. Zero, you and Axl take a look around. I'll talk to the director to see what he knows."

"Alright." Zero nodded. "Let's go, Axl."

The blue bomber let his friends walk off, and he asked the security guard for directions. Once he knew where to go, finding the director was an easy task. The director was an older human known as Mensk Hardy, someone who had worked at the junkyard for years. He was a skinny man with white hair and a scruffy beard. His stained clothes looked perfectly fitting in a place that revolved around revitalizing or junking old machines.

"Hey there." Hardy said as he noticed X. "Can't say I was expecting to see a big namer like you here today."

"I wasn't expecting to be here. Any chance you've seen a black and gold robot with a finned helmet and no left arm?"

Hardy nodded. "Some of my boys saw a one-armed bot earlier today. I think we got some camera footage. Didn't see him but a couple of minutes, and he's been gone near fifteen minutes. Couldn't tell you more than that."

"Did you see him teleport?"

"No. Maybe the cameras picked it up. Come on to the office. "

Zero watched this conversation from a distance, eyeing X though he could hear nothing of the conversation. He hoped that somehow they would find Bass before he spread news of Zero's origins. Zero glanced around the junkyard as he walked past conveyer belts and reploids hauling old junk. None of them seemed worried about him. A few smiled, and others waved. Like always, Zero was the hero Maverick Hunter. Whatever Bass had done here, he hadn't told any of them that his "ugly sister" was the originator of the Maverick virus.

This should have comforted Zero, but instead he found it disturbing. His heart sank somehow, and he wasn't sure why. The pony-tailed Hunter looked up ahead. He had lost track of Axl. The younger reploid was in more of a rush than he was. As necessary as it was to stop Bass, Zero wasn't that eager to talk to him again.

"No! Someone stop the trash compactor! Zero, help me!"

Thinking instantly of Mavericks, Zero dashed in the direction of Axl's voice. Axl was at the far side of the junkyard, at the pit that housed the mass metal trash compactor. The young Hunter was pulling at several scraps of metal, Zero saw as he stepped onto the platform around the compactor. Before Zero even looked down he knew what had happened. His eyes lowered against his will, and he saw the black leg and white foot sticking out from the garbage. He turned around, shaking. He refused to look any longer.

"Axl, power's been cut to the compactor!" Zero could hear as X joined them on the compactor platform. "Did you...oh no..."

X's compassion at once wiped away all of his annoyance for the dark robot. He stepped into the mess, starting to tug at the bent and entrapping beams, iron sheets, and other miscellaneous metal. Even with both him and Axl on the job, the metal was proving too bent and too smashed to simply be pulled off.

"Who did this to him?" Axl cried, pulling uselessly at a beam. "I don't understand...there weren't any Maverick signals here!"

"You don't remember what I told you about first generation robots, do you?" X's voice was quiet. "One of their hidden subroutines keeps them from...harming themselves. This subroutine can be cheated in certain ways, such as if a robot deactivates on the edge of a trash compactor and lets themself fall in."

"No, he wouldn't do that! He can't!"

Axl's weeping voice was too much for Zero to bear. His trembling worsened. Axl might have forgotten about first generations' setbacks, but Zero hadn't. He knew Bass was attempting suicide. It was all his fault. As much as he despised Bass, he didn't want this to happen. He was guilty of another death, this time not only one of the old warriors that fought in the robot apocalypse, but his own brother.

Rage stirred up in Zero. He didn't know where it came from, and he didn't care. All he knew was that it was taking too long for them to get Bass out, and he was impatient. He wanted to hurry up and get Bass back to where he could repaired, the sooner the better. That way Zero wouldn't have to see the clear evidence of what his origin had doomed him to be.

Snapping out his saber, Zero angrily charged in, pushing Axl away. He aimed his saber with careful but fast cuts, freeing Bass' body from the crushing wall trap. That done, he shut off the saber and marched away.

"Zero." X said, following him. "You-"

"I'm going to go back to HQ and tell them to send a shuttle." Zero's voice was low and hushed, forced down by his attempt to bury his boiling over emotions. "You...I need you to put in the report for this one."

Without another word, Zero teleported out, not realizing how fearful he had left his friends.

-t-

Bass weakly opened his eyes. The first word out of his mouth was a swear. He didn't want to be able to open his eyes ever again, and here he was, conscious and in at least a semi-stable state. Bass didn't check his systems. He didn't care anymore. With only a half-hearted effort he surveyed his surroundings: he was on the single repair table of a small lab, one with no windows. There were some computers scattered here and there, none of which he paid attention to. His vision settled on the robot sitting at a chair beside the table.

Axl was doleful, and he lifted his drooping head from the table when he saw Forte waken. It was strange to see him when he wasn't smiling, and his features seemed more stiff than before. He was holding Bass' hand, and though Bass wanted to let go, he didn't have the heart to move his hand. Or at all. If he'd had his way then he wouldn't be able to move anything.

"Hey, Bass."

Axl's mellow greeting was heart-sickening, and the response was barely audible.

"Hey."

"They fixed your arm."

Bass gave a look at his left buster only to be polite. It was indeed reattached to his arm, and it looked pretty good. "I see."

Neither of them really knew what to say, and Bass was thankful when Axl stopped talking. It was awkward, to say the least. Bass was at least happy (sort of) that all the numbness he felt prevented him from feeling anything else. It was too hard to have emotions, especially now. Just in case something tried to work its way out, Bass turned his head away from the young Hunter. He couldn't look.

"Bass..." Axl said, holding on to his hand tighter. "Don't do that again."

"Why?" Bass muttered. He knew exactly what Axl was talking about. "It doesn't matter."

"How can you say that? You're important! You're a robot from an age long gone, and you fought in the robot apocalypse!"

That impressed Axl? Bass stared up at the ceiling, remembering. Those had been some of the worst years of his life...but really, what besides the five years he traveled the world wasn't the worst years of his life?

"That's right." he said, still focusing upwards with bitterness. "And I should have died then like everybody else."

"NO! Stop talking like that now!" Axl's volume startled Bass into actually paying him attention. "I don't want you to die! Do you know how long I've been looking for the source of my Copy Shot ability? For anything that has to do with my creation? My creator died because of Mavericks before I was even activated. She invented so many things, and she built a reploid named Casper...I never saw any of it. I don't even know what Casper looked like. And Red...I know you think Red Alert was just a bunch of Mavericks, but they were my friends, and now they're gone too! You're all I've got left..."

Axl couldn't look at Bass anymore. He soured, lowering his head. Bass let out a sigh as he observed the boy. He felt a little bad for Axl despite himself. But really, all Axl's argument did was remind Bass how much he had failed. He could have stopped all of this from happening, and he didn't.

"Look, kid," Bass said, trying not to let his bitterness take too much control of him. "You think I'm some hero or something, but let me tell you the truth: I'm not. I'm just a loser. I never saved anyone in the apocalypse. I never did anything, not once, not ever, that made a difference in the end. "

Bass was done talking. As bad as he felt for Axl, he felt worse for himself. He hadn't been anything much when he was the second most powerful robot in existence, and now that he was obsolete, he wasn't anything at all. There was nothing in the future for him to do. He didn't have any relevance, and he didn't understand why everyone just wouldn't let him die.

Eh, X wouldn't do it. Bass thought. Stupid Light-bot can't let anyone rest in peace.

"You saved Roll."

"What are you talking about?" Bass frowned at his "son". "How do you know about Roll? And no, I didn't!"

"X has memories of her on his CPU." Axl said. "And yes you did. A human found Roll's body when he was digging in his backyard. She looked pretty bad, so he went to the junkyard to get rid of her. She was in the same load as you in the compactor. If we hadn't been looking for you, then we never would have found her."

"Wait, she's here?" Bass at once sat up. "Where?"

"In the main repair lab. Alia's trying to fix her now."

Memories flooded back, chief among them was the promise that Bass had made to Mega Man. He said he would take care of her, and now was his chance. He immediately jumped up from the repair table, only to stumble forward and almost faceplant into the floor. Thankfully Axl caught his arm first, lifting him into a standing position.

"You need to wait. Douglas had to get you some new balancers from storage-"

"Screw that." Bass threw an arm over Axl's shoulder for support. "Come on, kid, let's get going."

Axl happily supported Bass as they hurried as fast as they could through the door and hallways that led to the main repair room. Axl couldn't help but grin a little, though he tried not to let Bass see. He was just happy that his dad was starting to regain his desire for life.

-t-

Zero went to Signas' office, just as ordered. An order was the only thing that could make him come out of his self-imposed solitude, and that just barely. He sat at Signas' desk sullenly and silently. He didn't want say anything. He wasn't equipped to be able to handle all the confusion now running though him.

Signas seemed aware of this, just as he seemed aware of everything. His leader was as patient as always, a small aura of calm. Nothing ever seemed to shake him, and all of the hard times Zero had faced he had faced with his Commander, ever since Signas had come into his authority. Zero just wished he would say something, but it was clearly apparent that the calm Signas was observing him. Some days Signas seemed more aware of the pain in his fighters than even the navigators.

"You didn't submit a report." Signas finally said. "You haven't even spoken with Layer. She's expressed worry for you."

"I'm sorry, did someone expect me to just be happy about this?" Zero's voice was more sinister than he intended it to be. "My own brother tried to kill himself because of me and I'm supposed to just go on as if it's any other day?"

It was a rude thing to say, and Zero felt bad even though he got no other reaction from Signas than a raised eyebrow.

"He's going to be fine, Zero."

"Well, good for him." Zero cut off his desire for more sarcasm. He had to at least try to be respectful.

Signas watched his most seasoned Hunter with doubt. So much had happened to Zero in the past couple of days that Signas found himself concerned. He had known for a long time that Zero was potentially dangerous, but always his desire to help Zero outweighed most safety issues. Signas never felt he needed to worry about Zero, not until now. Zero's most valuable asset was his self-control, and the loss of that was what bothered the Commander the most.

"I request permission to be dismantled."

Zero's statement was sudden, and was spoken as if Zero could read his mind. Signas was taken aback, and he frowned. Zero looked Signas straight in the eye, completely serious. As a former Maverick, Zero was legally the Maverick Hunter's property. He couldn't authorize his own destruction.

"Permission denied." Signas was firm. "I am not going to destroy my best Hunter. Nor would I want to be the one to explain this to X. You can't possibly want to do this to him."

Zero dropped his gaze to his firmly clenched hands. "I can't go on like this, knowing what I've done. It was hard enough before, but now it's worse. I've been responsible for a lot of deaths. Bass is the most stubborn robot ever built, and he wanted to end his life because of me."

"He's the most stubborn?" Signas asked. "Listen to me. You are responsible for nothing. I saw the reports of when you were reprogrammed to join the Hunters. I saw what was done to your mind. Complex failsafes were programmed in. Someone wanted you to have the intelligence of free will without the disobedience of free will. You couldn't have made a choice of your own before you were reprogrammed."

Zero said nothing. Signas always seemed to have the answers.

The Commander was silent for only a moment. "I'm taking you off duty temporarily. You have a lot to work through, and I can't have an emotionally compromised Hunter on missions."

"But sir-"

"Don't question me, Zero." Signas seemed to have perfected sounding both gentle and firm at the same time. "You need to face your troubles if you're ever going to recover from them. Take a week off and deal with him. This time next week I will re-evaluate your mental stability. Missions would only distract you from coming to terms with this."

-t-

Zero didn't know why he went back there. Well, actually he did know, but he also knew that the activity he had in mind was not something he felt himself capable of going through with. His friendship with X stood firmly in the way, and not even the enticing, crushing noise of the junkyard could take that away. He sat at the top of the hill, watching as the few workers still going finished their operations by the lights hanging on their buildings. Zero was glad that the darkness of the night hid him; the moon was not out that night.

So he sat on the hill, going through his thoughts one by one. Signas had said that he was supposed to deal with it, but he didn't know how. At some point in the week he had hoped to talk to Bass, but this was more or less a static wish, something that he grudgingly knew he should do rather than something he actually wanted to do. Part of him said that this would make him feel better, but he could hardly believe this when thinking about confronting his older "brother". Bass was abrasive and selfish. What good would come out of it? Bass couldn't accept him.

Zero understood this. He had spent the first half of the week just avoiding him. He tried to ask Layer about the current missions, but Signas had gotten to her first. As much as she wanted to, Layer was under orders to keep Zero out of the loop, no matter how much he might try to distract himself with the ongoing struggle against the Mavericks. Zero shuddered, holding tightly onto one arm. It wasn't about distraction. It was about penance.

"You're not really going to do that, are you?"

Zero snapped around to find that Bass was walking up behind him. The dark robot walked up to where Zero was, but politely sat down a few feet to the left. Once he was settled onto the grass, Bass looked back up at his brother, a little demure.

"Well?"

"No. I'm not." Zero responded quietly. "I couldn't do that to X."

"Oh."

Bass said nothing more. Zero was thankful that Bass had approached him, rather than the other way around. That, however, did not completely free the awkward tension between them. The pony-tailed Hunter let his vision slip over to the side and guess what exactly his brother was trying to do. While this tension doubtlessly existed, Bass didn't seem to show he was feeling it. He looked tired. No, that wasn't it. He was depressed.

"I'm sorry I ruined your life..."

"You ruined my life?" Bass snorted. "Don't feel any guilt about the past anymore. It's not your fault."

"How is that?" Zero muttered, bitterly tearing at the grass. "I started everything."

"That's like saying a bomb is responsible for blowing up." Bass hissed. "Don't argue with me. This is hard enough already. Look, you weren't responsible for this. I was..."

Zero's eyes widened as Bass went on. "I had five years to kill you, but I thought you were already dead. I could have destroyed you and stopped this war from ever happening. I failed. My fault."

"So you're saying everyone would be better off if I was dead?"

"Well, sorry, it's just the truth." Bass answered crabbily. "Eh, maybe if you were lucky Auto could fix you or something."

"It's alright." Zero managed a chuckle before his humor died away. "If being dead would help everyone...I think that would be fine. I don't mind."

"That's decent of you. Well, if you ever change your mind about killing yourself, make sure you get the job done." Bass grunted. "Coming back from something like that is humiliating."

Zero almost snickered, but he had to restrain himself. This was Bass' form of giving advice?

"I'll...take that into advisement." Zero said with humor. "And X did tell everyone that you were attacked by Mavericks."

"Pssht." Forte hissed, tossing a little rock down the hill. "I got beat up by a bunch of Mavericks and taken to the junkyard is what he said. Ugh, it's just a different kind of pathetic."

Zero himself preferred the made-up story, but he said nothing more about it. Instead he spoke in a lower tone, one that Bass could hardly hear over the machinery operating below.

"Don't do that again."

"Why does it matter to you?" Bass' voice dropped, and he descended into sullenness. "I don't deserve to live."

"Neither do I. I'm responsible for a lot of death, and I don't want one of those to be you."

Bass stared at Zero, still sullen and now more than a little grumpy. "You know I'm not your real brother right?"

"I don't care about that. I just...don't want you to die."

Zero wished that he had some way of explaining himself. Emotions had never been his strength. Maybe X knew what was going on inside his head. All X knew was that he wanted Bass to live. It could have been about guilt, "family" relation, or something else entirely. Zero just didn't know.

"Eh, I'm not planning on it any time soon." Bass answered, his voice as dark as the night. "I figure I'll stay awhile and see how Axl is. I hope to God that he can fight decently."

"Trust me, he can."

"Notedly, this isn't actually a 'deleted' scene, as it wasn't deleted." The author pointed out. "I wrote it as I was doing the rest of the Bonus Features show. That's why it's not as edited as I would like."

"I liked that segment, somewhat." Sigma said. "Come on, why didn't you go with a story like that?"

"Eh," GrimMoody shrugged. "Well, now that I see it all laid out there, I don't like it. It's too emo, and it goes into a direction that I wasn't inspired to write more for. I could have gone a million directions with bringing Bass into the future, and for the purposes of my story I didn't need to freak out Zero so much. It puts to much of a strain on his character to have to know that Bass went that far because of him. So much of Zero's emotion is hidden and not even understood by him, and doing this, particularly the scene with Signas, would just be too much, too soon. But really, at the end of the day there was one thing that kept me from following through."

"What's that?"

"Bass. It's not in him to kill himself. That was just be so out of character for him. He's not the type of guy to just want to off himself, no matter how bad it gets. It's too lame for him. I'm sitting there, writing him as he's thinking about death, and I realized that I couldn't make him. Not everybody enjoys other people's turmoil like you do, creepo."

"Don't call me that!" Sigma hissed. "I am a great leader of reploids! I am the fighter of many wars, and I don't need a foul human like you mocking me."

"Sorry, sorry." GrimMoody straightened in her chair. "Oh hey, while we're at it, which Maverick in the story was your favorite?"

"Hm..." Signas tapped his chin. "That's a hard one. The first ones you created all died far too easily. Dire Minuet came very close to destroying X and Zero, so I'll say him."

"What about the reviewer Mavericks? Like any of those guys?"

"Those were much better!" Sigma grinned. "Slant Macrocosm was too complex, but I loved Ringer Phantasm and Raven Vanguard. Their powers were so...evil!"

"I really liked September Dusk Hound and Shade Crawler Sam." GrimMoody decided. "Their names were catchy to me, and if I were making X9, those two would definitely be Mavericks in the game. Guh, the problem I always had in the X series is that the Mavericks always came second place to whatever else was going on. I wish they would have given them more personality, like they did with Dynamo. It was similar in the Zero series, though they did do a good job when it came to end bosses. It shows a lot more concern for the plot that they weren't all the same guy for every game. I liked that."

"Says you." the evil reploid scolded. "You had so many reviewer Mavericks to choose from and you made your Maverick the leader of the others."

Moody winced. She recovered quickly, nervously giggling. "Why Sigma, I have not a clue what you're talking about. Ha...yeah. Let's do a deleted scene now-"

"Oh please." Sigma rolled his eyes. "Did you really think that no one would notice that according to your little method that 'Spectral Saturnine' sounds an awful lot like 'Grim Moody'?"

"Uh...uh...I admit nothing!"

"And you had her spouting that stupid 'Daughter of Sigma' line." he scowled. "Your gall makes me sick."

"Aw, come on, didn't you like her powers?"

"Pfft. You hack. Just put another deleted scene up, if it pleases you."

"Jerk." Moody scowled. "Anyway, here's a bunch of alternate versions of chapter 2, which I had so much dang trouble with. Seriously, up til this point I was doing pretty good, and this is where the story started getting hard."

"It was only chapter two..."

"Shut it, Sigma!"

-From Chapter 2

"Hi! You must be really confused after being in that museum for so long!" The robot's nervousness only made him more awkward, and he shyly offered his hand, which Bass ignored until he pulled it away. "I'm Axl, and this is Alia. She's the one that fixed you. I can't believe you're really here, one of the legendary heroes of the past! Um...what are you looking at...?"

Bass was staring a bit intensely at Axl's features, and once it occurred to him where he had seen them before, his own face soured, and he cursed under his breath. It was Crystal Bot's face he was looking at. Sure, there were a few differences, but the wide, innocent eyes and bright features could only be hers. And since this Axl had called him "Dad"...Bass slammed his face into his hand with a loud smack, and another, muffled curse came from out between his fingers.

"Are you alright?" Alia asked.

"I'm fine." Bass pulled away his hand, his expression only worse for the unhappy revelation. "Just tell me what happened to me. How the crap did I end up in that stupid museum?"

"I just found that out myself!" Axl explained with an eagerness that only put off Bass further. "You and CMN-040 were found underground by my creator, Reiko Inafune, some decades ago when she was building her new lab near Giga City. She tried to keep it a secret, but enough people found out and there was trouble from the people she had bought the land from. They said that her discovery - they didn't know what it was exactly - rightfully belonged to them. Long story short, they won the legal battle. She pretended that you were the only one she found, and they sold you to the museum."

"Uh huh. And how much did I go for?"

"About a million zenny, if I remember right."

"Eh, not too bad..." .

"Are you kidding?" Alia folded her arms. "In this economy that's a rare fortune."

Bass grinned even bigger. "Now that's what I'm talking about. So why didn't they try to fix me?"

"I'll answer that one if you come over this way."

Alia gestured over to a separate area of the lab that was vaguely pentagon shaped, with one wall missing for entry. Each of the walls was a huge monitor showing different aspects of robotic specs. Bass recognised them as his own, and it disgusted him to see exactly how many of his parts had been replaced with cheap museum-grade parts. Crystal had done her best to force him to learn what he could about robot technology and his own design, so he could point out parts in the screen that he couldn't identify. They must have been something more modern.

Alia pointed to a small table in the middle of the room, where some old circuit boards were lying.

"What exactly is that?"

"That's your brain." Alia said. "Or what used to be. It's completely gone. At some point you must have been hit by an EMP. And not a normal one either, but a seriously extreme one. The only reason you survived is because of a EMP wave resistor in your body that contained an entire back up mind for you. However, due to your power issues, the second mind didn't activate until the power surge at the robot museum hit. Also, from what I'm able to guess, Dr. Inafune attempted to repair you, which is the only explanation for some of your more advanced parts. But I'm not sure about that armor. It doesn't make sense that Dr. Inafune would go through all the trouble to design you that ridiculously tough armor before handing you over to others."

His armor had been replaced? Bass looked down at his arms, and they seemed the same. There was a method to test it, so he hit his knuckles against his arm, listening to the resounding echo. Bass was relieved.

"No, this is my armor."

Alia started, and she wrinkled her nose in confusion. "No, it can't be. Only in the past five years has that type of micro-gravity armor plating become prevalent. And what you have on now really puts to shame all the other micro-gravity armors I've ever seen."

Bass wasn't sure if he wanted to roll his eyes or smile at that. "Or just maybe my technician designed and built this armor over the span of two years using both her team's space station and another technician that can control gravity. Sheesh."

"It became prevalent in five years?" Axl asked. "When exactly did that kind of technology get invented? 'Cause if it was seven years ago, then that makes sense. I mean, that was when they found you two, after all. I guess Dr. Inafune - "

"Ripped off my technician." Bass finished with a sneer. Remembering what Recluse Stradivarius had told him, he had to ask something. "So...what exactly happened to Crystal Bot?"

"Who?"

And Bass decided that he would go ahead and roll his eyes. "CMN-040."

"Oh!" Axl perked up once he knew that he'd be the best one to answer the question, but a moment later his excitement dissipated. "Well, I don't really know. She must have been destroyed when the lab was attacked...Red found me and let me join his team Red alert, so if she had been operational, he would have rescued her too."

"You were on Red Alert? Weren't they bad guys or something?"

"No! Well, not at first..." Axl admitted. "But then they were being manipulated. They...they had to be stopped..."

Bass could care less about Axl's emo ranting. "How tragic. Now who attacked the lab? What happened?"

"It was just Mavericks." Axl said uncertainly. "No one really knows what they wanted, or what they knew about Dr. Inafune. But Red Alert used to hunt Mavericks, so they went to stop the attack once they heard about it. Red told me that they didn't get there in time, and that there was this really colorful explosion, like something he had never seen before."

It was time to give up, Bass knew. He couldn't go any longer thinking that Crystal Bot could somehow be found and repaired. It was just ironic that Crystal would make the biggest, most appealing (in her mind) explosion possible, and yet not even be able to see it. He was really going to miss her upgrades. Something akin to sadness showed itself for a moment for Crystal Bot's own sake as well. He would miss his annoying little fangirl too. A little.

And now I have this idiot here to remember her by...dang, that's creepy... Bass frowned contemptibly, but Axl and Alia assumed that this had something to do with the question he had next. "So, is there anyone around named Roll or Auto? Or anyone from the past at all?"

The two newer robots glanced at each other, and Alia approached him, trying to break the news to him gently. "I'm afraid that you're the only one left. They didn't call it the robot apocalypse for nothing."

Bass burst out laughing. "Aw man, you mean I'm the only one that lived? Ha ha! Looks like I finally outdid Rock after all!"

Alia stepped back in confusion, only making Bass laugh a little harder. She glanced over at Axl, who could only shrugg.

"You were lucky, that's all. If you are who you say you are, that is."

Another of the strange robots approached Bass, this one definitely more serious. His armor was black, and resembled a military coat and hap arnold. Bass knew at once that he disliked this new arrival, and from the looks of it, this robot was also rather less than impressed by the dark robot.

"I had asked you to not activate him until I was here." he addressed Alia.

"He activated on his own." Alia explained. "We've just been explaining to him his situation."

"This is Signas, by the way." Axl said to Bass as the other two robots spoke. "He's the leader of the Maverick Hunters."

"Why isn't X the leader?"

"X is too good a fighter to be anywhere but where the action is!"

Axl's enthusiasm was beginning to annoy Bass. Or maybe that was just rollover annoyance from the fact that while Bass' main rival was gone, there was X to consider. It was bad enough having to catch up to modern standards, but having X at the other end in defiance of his superiority made him both anxious and encouraged. He planned on challenging X as soon as he was ready. Bass's metaphorical heart warmed at how well he had done against the "Mavericks", even in his state and level of technology.

Signas was looking at him, he noticed.

"Come on, Signas," Alia said. "X is convinced that he's the real thing."

"We can't risk taking the chance without being one hundred percent certain." Signas confirmed. "For all we know this is a Maverick who copied Bass' DNA data."

"Not possible!" Axl piped up. "You can't copy older style robots. They're just built too differently."

Bass wasn't the least bit interested in anything going on. Snagging a conveniently placed blank chip from the counter of Alia's lab, he put it in his neck and downloaded some information on it.

"Okay, here's the easy way to prove things." Bass handed the chip to Axl. "There's some of my memories of the past. There's Dr. Light, Rock, the old idiot robot masters and all that on there."

Axl was more than eager to see what was on it, and his face shone as if he was accepting some holy token. "Wow, thanks!"

"Axl, don't!" Signas exclaimed.

But the young hunter had already put the chip in his neck. Confused, he turned to his leader. "There's nothing wrong with the disc. He's telling the truth! There's really Dr. Light on here! And Mega Man Rock! I don't know what you're worried about, I mean, he wouldn't - AAUGH!"

Bass grinned deviously as Axl glitched and fell to the ground. Alia rushed over to him.

"That's what you get, kid." the dark robot commented with amusement. "Don't trust random robots. You should be like this guy." Bass abruptly swung his thumb in the direction of Signas. "He'll be alright...er...that was quick..."

It was Axl who made Bass pause. He got up only a second later, even chortling a bit. "I guess I learned my lesson...ow. Don't worry, I'm fine! It takes more than an old virus to get me!"

-t-

"Well, first of all I want to know if you are the real Bass." Signas then turned to Alia. "Find anything on his hard drive?"

"Little beyond the fact that his anti-hacking procedures are pretty dangerous." Alia's observation only made Bass grin. "But what I was able to see from his construction is that he's compliant with old style robotics design, probably second wave. Everything designwise considered, it's possible he's about the same age as X."

Signas eyed Bass as the latter casually listened and tried not to appear too amused. Alia started turned on the monitor and began to show certain details of Bass' design to the Hunter leader, who followed along carefully, but never let one eye stray from Bass for long. Forte, starting to get a little bored, turned to Axl, who pricked up once he noticed this. A package of empty discs was on a table near Bass, and he casually snagged one, observing it. It looked compatible with his mind, so he inserted it into his neck. Bass started downloading memory files onto it.

"Y'know," Bass started slowly. "You can't just hack into my head, but why don't you just ask? I can show you some memories of the past and that should prove that I'm who I say I am. Hey, Axl, come here."

Pulling the disc out of his neck, Bass held it out in Axl's direction, and the young Hunter's eyes widened in surprise.

"What's on it?"

"Eh, some memories of Crystal Bot, Rock, and some other people."

"This is awesome!" Axl exclaimed. "Thanks so much!"

"Axl, don't!"

Signas immediately ran to Axl, his arm stretched out to snatch the disc from the young Hunter's hands, but Axl had already inserted the disc and was uploading the information with excitement and a huge smile on his face. Signas, a little horrified, paused to see what would happen. He looked back at Bass with a solemn glare, but the dark robot only stared at his fingernails as if they needed attention.

"Gah!" Axl suddenly cried out as he glitched in pain. "Ow, that hurt! What was that?"

"Ha, that's what you get." Bass smirked. "Don't take discs from strangers, kid. You should be like this guy-" Bass shoved a thumb over at Signas. "-and actually be suspicious. You're just lucky I wasn't trying to kill you. But that program was supposed to shut you down..."

"Oh, that's my anti-virus program!" Axl happily announced. "My generation of robots is immune to a lot of different viruses! It'd take a lot more than a century old virus to take me down!"

Axl expectantly hoped that Bass would be impressed, but the dark robot just hmphed and turned away, rolling his eyes.

-t-

Bass stared at the young Hunter, his face sour with disgust. He looked uncertain.

"Are you a girl-bot or a guy-bot?"

Axl was horrified. "I'm a guy!"

"Really? With that voice?"

-t-

"I was built by a robot named Dr. Cain." Signas told Bass. "He died of natural causes some time ago."

"He's not related to Nikola Cain, is he?"

Signas paused. "...I don't know who that is."

"Eh, nevermind then."

"As I was saying, Cain was the one who restarted robotics, and with data from X, he was able to create similar robots to X, though not as powerful. So they are replicated androids - Reploids."

"Interesting." Sigma stretched out a bit in his chair. "Were you intending to make it so that the Dr. Cain you created and the Dr. Cain of the Sigma series were related?"

"Sigma series?" GrimMoody was doubtful. "Don't you mean the X series?"

"Oh please. We both know that I had the far greater affect on the 21XX time period."

"Whatever. Yeah, at one point I was planning that they would be related." GrimMoody admitted. "Then I later decided to make it just a coincidence, and after a while I finally decided that they would be related again. However, it wasn't ever relevant to the plot. So yeah, the Dr. Cain of the X series is like the great grandson or something like that of Rodney Cain."

"Hehe, and Axl does look like a girl. Not as much as that Elpizo character, but yes." Sigma grinned. "So why did you get rid of that?"

"Hm, that was a reference to a long standing joke I was going to do if I decided to put Crystal Bot in this story." Grimm answered. "Eh, I briefly considered putting her in, but I couldn't do that. This series is way too dark for a happy and schizo chick like CB. She just had no place in it."

"See? Dark and sinister? Now can't you see that it should be called the Sigma series?"

"Mega Man: Sigma..." GrimMoody tried out the name. "Weird. Anyway, I had a couple of ideas for Crystal being in Afterlife, though I knew she wasn't going to work out. I wrote here one of them. Here's a scene of the 'Axl sounds like a girl' joke continuing."

-Undetermined Chapter

"A lot changed since we were running around, Sonata." Bass said. "For example, me and you...we have a kid."

"WHAT?" the horrified crystal girl exclaimed. "That's gross! Robots don't have children!"

Unable to control himself, Bass burst out laughing. It was fun to torture someone else for once. As he bent over double with his merriment, Crystal Bot nodded sternly.

"I get it now." she said, throwing her hands on her hips. "You're teasing me. Don't joke like that, Forte. It's not funny."

"Turn around." Bass barely managed to say between laughs.

Crystal Bot turned to where he was pointing and she gasped. There was indeed a robot standing there, looking very much the combination of Crystal Bot and Bass. In particular his face looked like Sonata's.

"Hi, I'm Axl." The young Hunter waved, nervous.

The technician didn't know how to answer at first. She approached Axl with uncertainty. Finally, her face broke out in a smile.

"Aw...so cute! You look so much like Forte!" she gushed as she dashed forward and hugged hims. "Aw, I have a little girl!"

Bass only laughed harder as Axl's face fell. "Um...I'm a guy..."

Crystal looked up at him curiously. "Really? With that voice?"

"Heh, that's funny." Sigma grinned. "But I'm very glad you killed off that shiny tart! What a horrid girl! To think of someone who could potentially cure my virus! It was so cheap of you to just make the virus disappear in the middle of Wily Ga Taosenai. We're talking about a program that liberates the reploids from the power of the humans! You can't just make it disappear!"

"How do you know it just disappeared?" GrimMoody winked. "What proof do you have? How do you know it was off of her systems? I submit that it was not."

"Oh really? Then how do you explain her acting normal for the rest of the story?"

"Thing is, chronologically the story didn't last that long after Crystal Bot was infected. A week at most. The virus is hard to detect, so nobody would have a clear idea of where to look for it on her minds. The virus scans that Bass did only eliminated the obvious symptoms. They didn't really have enough time to do anything more than that. Not before gettin' killed, anyway. Bass just assumed that she was fine."

"It had no affect on the plot." Sigma folded his arms, judgementally glaring at the author. "So what good did it do?"

"Eh, for you, none at all, sort of. This scene I never really had a place for in the story, but I consider it canon to my universe. I was basically planning to use it on this show. Enjoy."

Crystal Bot opened her eyes. She didn't understand what she saw. It took her a minute to realize that she was lying down in a sort of rectangular chamber, one with glass at the top. There didn't appear to be any controls from within the container, so it obviously opened from the outside.

"Hello?" Crystal knocked on the glass. "Can somebody let me out?"

Nothing. Crystal didn't really expect anyone to answer. Anyone who had kidnapped her wouldn't be interested in letting her out.

How do I know I was kidnapped? The last thing I remember is backing up my files right before I sent Forte-kun out to fight Algorhythm Man. If one of the Wily-bots got me, they would've killed me, not captured me...

Only then did Crystal remember the virus that they had put on her system. She shuddered. Were they trying to get her back? Crystal Bot searched her mind, worried. She couldn't see the virus on it. Or at least she didn't think she could.

All that aside, the first order of business was to get out of her prison. She did a quick check of her systems, but if her captor had put escape failsafes on her, then they weren't detectible. She didn't have her weapon on hand, but it wasn't impossible to get out of the case anyway. After much pounding and kicking, the metal gave way and she pushed off the door. It swung around and slammed on the right side of the prison, clanging enough to set Crystal Bot's teeth on edge.

Well that wasn't stealthy.

Stealth didn't concern Crystal Bot right away. Sitting up, she found herself overwhelmed by all of the things around her. She knew that this place was some sort of laboratory, but she barely recognised it as such. All of the things she saw around her were so...different. The computers were smaller, but more in number, clustered on the wall in any possible space. Even more so, some of the beams that supported the ceiling were also decorated liberally with monitors and storage clusters.

Sonata found herself grinning at the sight of it all. Not only was it technology, but the collection of "on" lights that beamed out from all of them was very shiny. Crystal giggled at the sight of them.

Aww, this is the coolest lab ever!

...Where's Forte-kun?

Er, what?

I wonder who owns this place.

Stop it, I can't think!

...But where's Forte-kun? Where's anybody?

Crystal Bot groaned. She knew exactly what had happened, and she realized this three times. Her three brains had gone out of sync, and were each now acting independently.

Guys, her first mind told the others. You gotta settle down. I'll operate the body and get us out of here.

...We're going to go find Forte, right? I just wanna find him!

Not without taking a look around this lab! the third mind insisted. There's so many goodies in here! We can upgrade Bass next time we see him.

...Not if we don't find him!

The argument between her three minds took far longer than any of them wanted. Their altercation resulted in some very weird body movements as all three of them tried to operate the mechanical body and make it go in their desired direction. It was some time before the first mind could get the other two to calm down and focus.

"Okay..." Crystal wasn't sure which one of her minds was speaking out loud. "First of all we figure out where we are."

It wasn't a simple task. Finally making her way out of the storage container (it was not a computer or automated machine), Crystal looked around. There were computers, storage, and more computers. It was a maze of wires and plastic, one that Crystal was having a difficult time navigating. The chatter of her third mind going on and on about the various technologies provided colorful commentary, and her second mind listened in awe. Her first enjoyed it as well, but Number One was worried too much about escape to pay much attention.

...Hey! the second mind exclaimed. Look at that! I think I see Forte-kun on that screen over there!

And there's a program-loading storage box under it. Number 3 pointed out. They've probably got Bass in there!

All three of them agreed that they wanted to go and take a look, but even in agreement movement wasn't the easiest thing in the world. In their hurry they fought each other for control, forgetting that only minutes earlier they had decided to let Number 1 be the one to control the body. However, this computer screen wasn't too far away, and Crystal soon found herself standing at a raised platform with a tightly sealed lid, and it obviously was meant for holding a robot. Sonata figured that the container was large enough to hold Bass. In her haste, she quickly plugged into the computer, trying to find a way to force the container open.

This is weird...I've never seen a computer like this. Number 1 said.

...It's really easy for me. 2 pointed out. It's like they didn't know about normal robots and don't have anything in place to make me stop. Whee! This is fun!

Speak for yourself. the third complained. This is really hard for me. I can't get in that much at all.

Well, then let's let 2 do it. If she can get in, well, that's one of us.

Alright.

With Number 2 free from opposition, it wasn't long before the lid's hydralics forced the lid to slide downwards, opening the container. Crystal Bot frowned. The robot inside wasn't Bass. It was some strange robot that she didn't recognise. He had armor that was such a dark blue that it almost appeared black. Red stripes ran down his arms, legs, and chest armor, and there were two energy crystals in his chest and head. The gentle face gave off an appearance of sleep, one with perfectly happy dreams. There was even a faint smile on his face.

Crystal Bot frowned. As cute as this robot was, he wasn't her Forte-kun. She looked up at the computer, and sure enough, a detailed physical scan of Bass was on the computer. Sonata sent her second mind back into the computer to hack further and see what she could discover, and sure enough more plans showed up on the screen. Her own schematics, for example. Crystal's eyes widened. She couldn't believe it.

This is a combination of me and Forte. If minds could gasp, Crystal's first one certainly would have. He was built by Dr. Reiko Inafune.

...It's our son! Two exclaimed. His name is Axl!

Ooh, and he has this really nice ability where he can copy other robots. Three proclaimed with pride. I think I like this little fellow.

Um, guys? One spoke back up. Did you notice that this computer says it's the year 21XX?

That silenced all three. Number 2 was hesitant to bring this up, but she had found a new bit of information in the computer.

...It says in here that Forte-kun was sold to a robot museum. He's gonna be mad at us.

Crystal Bot shuddered. To Bass there was no worse fate than to be stared at by half-hearted students while dust and rust together overran your body and everyone forgot who you really were in life. Sonata didn't share his fear of the place, but she didn't like the idea of having to explain to Bass why he was there.

Let's get him out of there first and then activate him. Three suggested.

Definitely.

But before they could do that, there was still the matter of getting out. Crystal Bot looked over Axl, watching him peacefully. He was complete, but the computer indicated that he was still uploading the information that would give him the knowledge he would need for life as a robot. It was history, language, math, social skills, and all of that in one downloadible package. Crystal decided against waking him. Loading was an important part of the robotics process, and she didn't want to interfere.

She reached down, stroking the side of his face. She spoke in a hushed manner, lovingly looking down at him. "I'm going to go get your dad now, Axl. After that, I'll come back and see you. Be a good 'bot for Dr. Inafune, okay?"

Leaning down, Sonata gently kissed his cheek. Gazing down once more at the peaceful machine, Crystal Bot pushed the appropriate buttons. The lid slid back into place, and the capsule beeped to signal that the lock on the seal was redone. For good measure, Crystal Bot added another line of security measures to the capsule's anti-interference protocol.

...Let's go get Forte-kun now! We're in a basement laboratory, so we just have to hack the security systems on our way up and we'll be good. Yay!

That sounds good. One agreed. We'll just have to find our way out of his place and down to Giga City so we can find the robot museum Forte is at.

Three wondered. Hm, do you think that the curator of the museum will be angry at us for stealing Bass?

Ha. Do you care?

No, I was just curious. But if he's in the museum then we may not be able to repair him. They don't put operational robots in the museum.

One didn't like the sound of that. It's our job to try.

...Oh no! Two exclaimed. The computer says there's a security alert! This looks bad!

Soon enough, the other two minds didn't need Two's wireless connection to the security interface. The building above shook with an explosion, sending a sickening shudder down through the basement, even knocking down a couple of computers.

...They're gonna get us! Thankfully Two was not in control of the vocal cords, otherwise Crystal would have screamed in fear. They're everywhere! They're gonna find us!

Shut up, Two! Three hissed. We have to think of a plan. Do we have any weapons?

This isn't our lab. One noted. Maybe Dr. Inafune has protection against these guys.

...I don't think so. Security said that there were lots of intrusions...uh oh, now somebody turned off the security system. I can't see anything else!

Let's get out of here! One said. Quick you guys, we need to make a crystal!

The three minds forced their two hands together, and Crystal Bot's orbs began to glow as she developed a pink energy crystal, lengthening and straightening it. This done, she took the crystal rod and ran for the stairs.

Okay, One said. We attack with the crystal like a sword at first, and then when the bad guys least expect it, we charge it into an instant death spike. Okay?

Are you sure we're good enough for that?

...Of course we are! We were trained by Forte-kun!

Crystal ran up a set of stairs, where the door was not vertical, but flat and set inside the ceiling of the basement. Crystal noticed that the ceiling was heavily enforced; someone had been expecting or at least ready for an attack. She quickly hacked into the keycard port so that she could open the door. Lifting it overhead, she quickly exited and shut the heavy panel behind her. It wouldn't do if someone found Axl. However, there didn't appear to be anyone around as Crystal Bot put the panel back in place, and once it was down it was not obvious that there was even a door there.

She looked around. She was in some sort of hallway in what appeared to be a very nice building. Glass windows near the ceilings allowed a view of the rooms in the hall, and scientific posters and displays dotted the pathway.

...Is this place a school or what?

Look lively, Two. One said. I'm detecting some movement from the east. We're going to need to figure out what they want. We don't even know if they're good guys or bad guys. Hurry!

That last "hurry" was a reference to the echoing footsteps that were growing louder. Crystal Bot skedaddled down a side hall, waiting there to listen. She kept an eye out to look, and she was barely able to see the oncoming robots. There was a group of them, and they seemed to be following one with short, spiky black hair. His armor was black with red and orange markings. The grin on his face was a frightening one, as if his jaw was a set trap. He was followed along by two more robots, one with the appearance of a hulking elk/human combination, his expression no less monstrous than the first's.

Finishing out the trio of evil (they certainly looked evil), was a soldier girl-bot in green and black. Everything from her dark lipstick to her hastily cut purple hair gave the impression of an intense female who meant business. While the guys talked, her harsh gaze was always straight ahead, with her glowing orb scepter ready for a strike.

"Humans are indeed fragile." the more human looking robot said to the elk. "Just like you said, Buck."

The elk-bot laughed heartily in his deep grunts, and he slapped the first on the back. "Ah, Casper, you're a good reploid. It's good to have you on the side of Sigma. Killed your creator right off, without any hesitation!"

"Of course." Casper's smile waned. "She was always obsessed with her science, and that stupid new creation of hers! Inafune never appreciated me!"

"Don't feel too bitter." his new friend assured him. "All your help in gaining us the Copy Shot will make you shoot up the ranks! Well, we're not that formal, but you know what I mean. You'll be meeting Sigma himself, soon!"

Crystal Bot shuddered. She didn't know who Sigma was, but his name alone creeped her out. Even more so, she the proximity to the three strangers was having a strange affect on her systems. The shuddering worsened.

...Hey, what are you doing? Two cried out, sending out this data in a shocking pulse throughout her brain.

I'm sorry. Three replied. I thought I had it contained, but now...I can't. I'm so sorry...

Three? What are you talking about?

I'm so sor-zzt!

The shuddering exploded into full on shaking, and as much as Crystal Bot wanted to run away, she now had no choice. Her third mind started scrambling, and it cut off controls from the other two CPUs as it lost all sensibility. Her body wriggled, as her first two minds fought to keep control. The third, however, did not intend to let go so easily. It was drawn towards the strange robots, and as much as the others wanted to get away, Three fought to go closer to them.

"Silence!" the dark woman-bot snapped to the others. "Do you hear that? Sam!"

"I've got it, Raven!" a deep hissing voice spoke, this one not belonging to anyone Crystal had yet seen. "No need to yell."

The struggle to be free of the imprisioning data on her third mind had left Crystal with her eyes jammed shut in concentration. At the sound of the voices, she weakly opened them, only to find herself face to face with the largest robotic snake she had ever seen in her life. His glossy black eyes could only just barely be seen against his scales, also black except for his light green underbelly. He flicked his tounge at her, getting a digital scan of her instantly.

"This one's coming along nicely." the snake huffed. "No need to be alarmed."

By this time, the other three robots had found the side hall. There was no more hiding from them. Crystal Bot lifted her arms above her head for defense, though the robots didn't seem to want to attack her quite yet.

"That's one of the oldstyle robots I was telling you about." a sour Casper huffed. "We should just kill it. It's not worth the trouble."

"Dd-don't hrrrt mee!" Crystal's shaky lips managed. "I ddddnnnn wanna diie."

Stop resisting me! The third mind screamed at the others. You're going to get us killed! Just give control to me and we'll be fine!

"Well that's weird." Raven poked at the tech-bot with her sceptor. "I didn't know that the virus produced stuttering in anyone."

"It's not worth our time." Casper hissed as he stepped away, walking closer to the invisible seam to the basement door. "Let's go."

"Aw, she's at least good for scrapping." Buck said. "If that's a real oldstyle robot, then we'll get some interesting data from that brain of hers."

"The only data I'm interested in is what's on Axl's mind." Vanguard gave the crystal girl a faint look of disgust. "Casper, you let Shade Crawler into the basement to look around for this new invention. I'll watch this one and guard the entrance just in case."

They're gonna do something bad to Axl!

Well maybe you should listen to me, then. Three hissed. We are the servant of Lord Zero, and he shall spare Axl if we wish it. Now keep calm and let me do the talking.

With a firm wave of programming, Crystal Bot's third mind brutally swiped at the first, infecting it with the Zero Virus. The first mind fought it as hard as it could, but the struggle left most of the body's control to mind number three.

"Don't t-talk about me like that." Crystal Bot retorted, angry at her second mind for still resisting her control. She stood on her feet. "I see that you four are like I am-m, and serve the great lord of robots."

Casper groaned, brimming with frustration as he turned away and started working at the security codes to get into the basement. The others, however, seemed a lot more accepting now that Crystal Bot appeared friendly.

"See, I told you she was coming along fine." The snake bared its fangs to the others a moment before turning back to the girl-bot. "Hi there, sweetie. I'm Shade Crawler Sam. These fellows are Bunk Junker, Raven Vanguard, and that guy over there is Casper. Our drones are taking over the facility, so why don't you come back with us? It'll be more fun than staying here."

"I am Crystal Bot." she replied. "And I ffrrvvt zznnt...pwvvvt..."

Crystal stomped her foot in frustration. Her first mind hadn't given up the fight for freedom, and Number Two was on the offensive. Despite all protests, the third mind couldn't convince the other minds to give up. It was going to take a lot of work to get the mind fully under control. She struggled like an epileptic, falling to the ground as she twitched.

"Or maybe not so well as you thought, Sam." Buck winked. "But get going. The sooner we get Axl's Copy Chip and give it to Sigma, the sooner we get our reward!"

"Don't sell yourself short!" Casper pulled a tile off the floor and started hacking into the security of the basement. "Axl's body represents years of dedicated research into the lastest robot technologies. Have Sigma pull him apart and you'll find all kinds of fun upgrades. I can guarantee you it's worth millions all the work that Inafune put into him!"

They're gonna kill our son! One's grief made it harder to fight the virus trying to overtake her. We can't let them do that!

...But what are we gonna do? It's gonna get worse! I'm scared! That meanie lady is still watching us...

There's only one thing we can do. You know what it is.

...No! We can't! We gotta save Forte-kun, not do that!

Forte is safe in the robot museum. We've got to save Axl. Who knows what those guys will do with him? He's got all those new technologies and stuff, and those meanies will do bad stuff with it if we let them. Forte wouldn't like that.

...I don't wanna! I don't wanna!

Scan for enemy signatures. We're not getting out of here anyway.

...but...

I don't want this either. I'm losing control...we have to hurry...

...We need all three of us to make this work. Um, Three..?

AXL! the third mind called out, scared and angry. We can't let them do this to our son! It's time for our emergency maneuver!

Alright, let's do it!

Now that Crystal Bot's minds were united in purpose, the shaking stopped. Crystal Bot pulled herself up to a sitting position, looking up at Raven Vanguard. The woman-bot seemed curious at the tech-bot's movement, but she said nothing. She didn't need to. Her sharp gaze warned Crystal to be careful of her actions.

Crystal Bot didn't regard this. She looked down to the floor, seeing that her pink energy crystal had fallen aside. None of the robots had taken it, and it lay there on the floor. Crystal picked it up, curiously staring at it. Her minds ran together a plan, though her pale eyes and relaxed expression showed none of this to Vanguard.

"What is that?" Raven asked.

Crystal Bot's eyes drew themselves away from the shining gemstone, flickering over to Vanguard. What Raven saw there stunned her, and she lifted her scepter to attack. Only Crystal Bot was quicker. She jumped up and grabbed Raven's shoulder, firmly holding on as she pushed the energy crystal to her enemy's stomach. An instant later, she activated her internal power, sending the hazardous death spike energy straight into Raven. That was the end of her, and her smoking body fell to the tiles.

"What?" the large elk exclaimed. "Get her!"

Shade Crawler was quicker than she expected, and was able to flick her legs out from under her. This hasty movement to the floor negated her energy, and Sam snatched away the crystal out of reach. As hastily as she could, Crystal Bot got up and ran. There was no time to form another crystal of the proper size, so she was out of luck. All she could do was send a wave of crystal eye behind her, hoping it hit the large snake.

"Drones!" she barely heard Buck call out. "Converge on this signal!"

Come on! Three urged. We've got to do it now!

Lost amongst labs and halls, Crystal stopped and closed her eyes. She had to focus, and the sounds of clattering and clacking were coming closer. These had to be the drones, but Crystal refused to acknowledge their impending approach. She had work to do. The crystals embedded in her chest and head began to glow, and the ones in her knees and arms followed along accordingly. Their bright glowing started at first as just a bright blue, but as she increased the power to capacity their colors began to brighten, swirling out in pinks, oranges and greens. This light grew in intensity, and the sheer power flowing along with it caused an aura of electronic force that also swirled around, extending the wild colors even outside of her body. Crystal's eyes blinked open.

"Forte...I'm sorry..."

Even half a mile out, Red could still see the explosion. The brilliance of it was astonishing, and it wiped out from his mind almost all of his objectives. The blast shredded what remained of Inafune Institute. A shockwave of marvelous color sent an artificial wind out in all directions, knocking down the leader of Red Alert in the flattened grass.

"Stonekong, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, Red." the hulking stone ape replied, pulling himself up off the ground. "It appears that we are too late."

Red could only nod. "I guess I really should stop judging the Maverick Hunters so much. This job isn't as easy as some think it is. Come on, signal the rest of the team to come in to investigate. Contact the local hospital. If we're lucky - very lucky - then Dr. Inafune may yet be able to survive this."

Soldier Stonekong did as he was told, but his solemn voice nonetheless said, "In our experience, we have not always had the best of luck."

"So yeah," GrimMoody said. "That's the death scene of CB. Notedly, I don't think anybody realized that having three minds is not really that much of an advantage for stuff other than multitasking. It's hard to coordinate, and it breaks down easier than other brains, besides fragmenting her personality. Also, since her virus was first obtained before Sigma, Crystal still thinks that Zero is the boss of all the evil goings-on."

Sigma stared GrimMoody down, saying nothing. Glancing over at him, the author raised an eyebrow. "...Um?"

Sigma just kept on staring. It took him what seemed forever to actually say something.

"Moody...SHUT. UP."

"Er, what?"

"Shut up about Crystal Bot already!" he fumed, throwing his hands in the air. "Nobody cares about your stupid OC! I'm tired of hearing about her! She's a lame Mary Sue and you know it!"

"People like her..." Moody scowled.

"Yeah right, keep on telling yourself that." Sigma scoffed. "At least that scene only included two of those idiotic Red Alert members."

"Red Alert was kind of awkward." the author admitted. "X7 was pretty bad. It was second worst, only to X6. Crap, X6 had some crazy plot."

"Yes, it was almost as bad as your writing."

"Keep it up and I'll make you scrub public bathrooms while the whole Maverick Hunters organization watches. Don't think I can't do that." The author relaxed, trying to regain more of the casual atmosphere. "Anyway, so it stands to reason that Red Alert was your least favorite set of Mavericks, huh?"

"Definitely!" Sigma nodded harder than he needed to. "Who in the world invented Tornado T'Onion? Who could possibly think that that was a good idea? That pig-motorcycle thing...crap, what was his name? Oh, who cares? He was moronic. Splash Warfly had the most easily manipulatable battle AI I've ever seen in all my years! Pathetic! I was not able to choose the ones who received the virus when it came to Red Alert. I just had to take the group as they were and work from there."

"I dunno, I always liked Flame Hyenard." Moody said. "I'm so surprised someone hasn't made an internet meme out of him. Burn to the ground! Burn to the ground! BURN, BURN, BURN TO THE GROUND! WHOOO!"

Sigma forced his hands over his auditory receptors. "Ugh. Of course you would only like the most painfully annoying reploid that ever served me."

"Well, which reploids did you like?" Moody asked. "I mean, which were your favorite?"

"Hm..." Sigma thought about it. "Vile was always a good servant. General was a good follower too, that is, until he betrayed me...fool! Hm, I guess I'll say the ones that I liked the best were the fifth set of eight. You know that group: Duff McWhalen, Axel the Red, Izzy Glo, and everyone. I don't really like to play favorites between reploids, but this group was special to me...I rather enjoyed seeing them fight X and Zero!"

"I liked Duff McWhalen. He had a cool name." GrimMoody sat up a little straighter. "Oh hey, one of the themes of my story was the recovery of lost siblings. Zero met Bass, X met Roll, and you know what? You have a sibling that you never really got to meet."

"Oh no..." Sigma groaned.

"That's right. Everyone, please welcome to our show Commander Signas!"

The tall and stately reploid entered the stage, waving a bit to the camera. He sat at the red chair closest to the edge of the stage, next to Sigma. Grumpily, Sigma scooted his chair a little further away, refusing to look at the Maverick Hunter.

"So Signas, why don't you tell us a little about yourself?"

"Very well." he said. "My name is Excelsior Signas, and I served the the Maverick Hunters administrative wing for four years before assuming command of the Maverick Hunters shortly after the Repliforce incident. My life essentially revolves around my position as commander, and I serve to protect the political interests of our organization."

Sigma rolled his eyes, bitterly snorting. He leaned his chin on his hand, acting as if nothing Signas did was important.

GrimMoody ignored his unhappiness and went on. "So, like I always ask, what's your favorite color?"

"I never think about things like that." Signas shrugged. "Grey, I suppose."

"The most boring color there is, of course." Sigma snapped. "Of course that's what a brainwashed tool like you would pick."

Signas' mouth flattened out into a line, his eyes cold. "And I suppose you prefer pink?"

"Chill out, you guys." Grimm could see where this was going. "Next question for you, Signas, who do you most admire?"

Signas clenched his fists on the arms of the chair, making marks in the fabric. He tensed, staring at the floor. Looking up at Sigma, he seemed lost for words. Finally he stared back down and let out a breath, then his honest opinion.

"The person I most admire...is the reploid that Luminous Sigma used to be."

Sigma groaned with sarcastic volume. "Oh no, don't even go there!"

"My creator always used to tell me about who Sigma was." Signas firmly continued despite the protest. "How he rescued the lost and hurting reploids of the world, how he defended humanity with honor and justice. Everyone told me how brave he was to risk his life continuously and never give up on the cause of right. That was the model I went by in my leadership of the Maverick Hunters, an example I wanted to continue. He was a hero...before he lost his mind..."

"Oh gag, you're such a suck-up." Sigma hissed. "I was nothing more than a slave of the humans then. Nothing I ever did was of any value. I merely subjugated more good reploids to slavery for a bunch of no-good organics! We reploids slaved for them, and what do they give us in return? More orders! I wanted to create a world free of humans, and my own little brother stands in the way!"

"Okay. So why don't you explain your side of the story? Jealous of Signas any because Cain wanted to replace you?"

"Gladly, and no!" Sigma slammed his fist into the arm of his chair. "Jealous of this weak fool? I was the true masterpiece of Dr. Cain, but he was too blind to see it! Signas never even fought me himself! He always let those Hunters do the work for him!"

"The real test of might is in the mind, not in strength of arms." Signas said. "That was what my dead brother used to say."

"He should be jealous of me!" Sigma scoffed. "I was the greater creation! This thing is just some imitation of me so that Dr. Cain could pretend that he never built me!"

"Y'know, for a demented creepo that likes angst," Grimm said. "You sure aren't enjoying this. Hm, maybe you'll like it better when I ask this. Hey Signas, once you found out that Zero was the one that had corrupted Sigma and turned him into this creepy never-dying weirdo, how did you feel about Zero?"

This took Signas aback. His expression froze as he stiffened. He blinked with uncertainty, glancing back between author and sibling.

"Ha ha!" Sigma laughed. "You're right, this is more enjoyable!"

"She's also right about you being creepy." Signas retorted. "As for Zero...I concluded that it was better for the weaker robot to become the enemy, rather than Zero. The results were less hazardous that way. Had Zero been the one almost impossible to kill...I shudder to think what might have happened."

"Come on, you can't just say that." His older brother grinned. "Tell us more. How did it make you...feel?"

"I...I don't have to answer that." Signas remained firm in his statement, though his eyes darkened. "I'm a mature robot. I recognise when things are out of my control."

"Oh really? So in your heart you didn't desire to do away with the one that stole your brother from you?" Sigma's thick grin beamed at him. "Didn't it make you feel that the whole world was wrong?"

Signas shuddered. "You make me feel like the whole world is wrong."

"Hmph! Don't feel too sorry for yourself!" the evil reploid huffed. "After all, had my mind not been renewed with the virus, then Dr. Cain would never have seen fit to build you! You owe me your life!"

"That is incorrect for so many reasons." Signas shook his head, purely disgusted. "And I would gladly give my existence to bring back the reploid that you once were."

"Well, too bad! I'm the only brother you've got so you have to deal with it!"

"Dr. Cain created most of the original reploids himself. Technically speaking I have thousands of brothers."

"Uh...erm...I'm the best one!"

"Dang, Sigma, that's just straight up Meinch." Grimm laughed.

Both reploids stared at GrimMoody as if she were crazy.

"Oh um, I had this friend that said everyone said the word awkward too much, so now we use his name to mean awkward." the author explained. "I'm trying to make it catch on, so be sure to say that in your conversations from now on, okay?"

The reploids continued to stare at her, only taking a quick break to share a look which clearly said "how soon can we get out of here" to each other.

"Sheesh. I guess that means y'all are ready for another deleted scene. Let's go then."

- From Chapter 3

"Huh. I think we're even."

Zero inhaled slowly, thinking about the scene at Maverick Hunter Headquarters. "Yeah. What are you grinning about?"

Bass chuckled in a way that was almost vicious. "So how many people know that you started the whole Maverick virus thing?"

The Hunter wasn't sure what Bass was getting at, and he started to wonder how much self-control and mercy Bass had. "Not many...though I'm not sure now."

Zero's worry was obvious. "Heh, I could tell everyone, and where would you be then? In a lab as an experiment, at best. Ha, you're lucky I'm nice." Bass grinned, relaxing a little. "I won't tell on you. It doesn't make a difference anyway, now."

"You're lucky I'm nice." Zero was getting sick of Bass' attitude. All he was trying to do was make peace. "I could have destroyed you earlier, don't forget."

"Maybe. But you wouldn't. If X is anything like Rock then there's no way

- From Chapter 4 or 5

"Wait, they were coming up with a stronger version of the virus?" X proclaimed in shock.

Back at the debriefing room, Signas had gathered the lead Hunters to report on what they had found. Bass was there, happily reveling in all the fighting and destruction he had participated in, and Axl listened with contented glee as the robot he so admired went on and on about his exploits. Or at least that was what they were doing before the meeting started. Zero was more silent than usual, and other than to tell what he had learned, he avoided saying anything. This bothered X, who made a mental note to try and talk to Zero later. But for now Signas wanted to know everything they had learned. It was a little weird to Bass that several robots would be sitting around a table, considering that there was no need for robots to rest, but he didn't question it aloud.

"That's what Dire said." Zero explained. "And he was trying to spread it through that rocket."

"With a rocket?" Bass repeated, his voice dragged down with sarcasm. "Anything he hits will just be destroyed, and that includes what's inside his rocket. And how's he supposed to spread the virus on a regular computer? The virus is too complex to even exist on normal computers. It only works on robots with X parts in them."

"Wait, that's right, Bass might know more about this." Signas said. "He knows what Dr. Wily meant to do with it in the first place."

Bass started as all eyes fell on him. He was taken aback, unused to being used for something other than his busters. "Well, this guy over here," Bass abruptly gestured at Zero, who immediately darkened at the reference. "Was built to be Wily's last 'great' invention. Kill me, Rock, and X, and all other sentient robots and the people that could build them. Well, that last part was supposed to be done by all the idiot robot masters and the viruses Wily forced this guy named Dr. Cain to program. That's another story. Anyway, he wanted to kill of everybody else so that only his robot would be left, and no one would remember when he was just the mad villain and Dr. Light was the real scientist."

Zero closed his eyes. He knew it was important that he know about his origins, but nothing in him wanted to hear it. Especially not from Bass, whose manner of storytelling was far from sensitive. But not listening to what he was "supposed" to be didn't make it any less real. A hand was on his shoulder, and he opened his eyes to see it was X. He wasn't smiling, but there was substance in his expression. He would always be Zero's friend, and what would ever get in the way of it that they couldn't overcome? Zero smiled a little and shook his head. He was at least better at pretending to be strong than Bass.

Bass went on. "The only other robot that wasn't supposed to be destroyed was Crystal Bot."

"Your technician?" Axl asked. "Why her?"

"So Zero could have a technician." Bass said, folding his arms as his petty glare flew out at the red Hunter (on whom it had no effect). "The virus was supposed to rewrite her AI and make her call him 'Lord Zero' and all that crap. It was disgusting. But she was made out of stolen X parts, and the virus only affected her. Wily left behind a recording of himself so that he could brag about it, but he didn't go into a lot of detail. From what I guess, he wanted to make sure that if X survived, then he'd have a back-up plan to ensure that any robots made based on X would have to listen to Zero. Maybe X himself, if that would've worked."

"Then why can't I get the virus?" X asked.

Bass thought on this a moment. "Eh...because Wily sucks? I guess he didn't realize how strong your anti-virus program is. He never understood that Dr. Light was simply better than him."

"Can someone really improve the virus?" Signas asked.

"I don't think so." Bass shrugged. "I mean, if you can't figure it out to cure it by now, then how can you do anything to it? But I don't know anything about scientists these days."

"What we do know is that they at least have a new way of distributing it - or think that they do." Signas said. "And if Dire Minuet is not the true leader, then we know that we are dealing with someone of greater influence. We're going to have to find him as soon as we can if the greater threat can be stopped."

X sighed, leaning forward on the table. "I guess it will always go on. I keep hoping that one way or another this would end, but...it looks like there's still more fighting left. Someday, perhaps this war will end..."

Bass scoffed, but Signas understood X. "We just have to keep going. I'll have the navigators track whatever they can based on the data we have from the Mavericks' computers, and our clean up forces will be able to tell us if anything survived from the self-destruct. Axl, I need you to stay in Arcadia just in case any Mavericks try to take advantage of all our attention being in one area of the city."

"Got it!"

"And X, we were not able to investigate Giga City to my liking before going into the Maverick base. I'd like to know more about what Spade Lentigo, Brannigan Vee, and Recluse Stradivarius were doing there. You might have determined that there wasn't a direct threat from them right away, but this is a chance to learn more about him. Zero, since you've actually seen Dire's work, I would like you to go also."

"But the other Hunters..." Zero reluctantly said, dreading his every word. "Because of Bass' initial attack on me...well, you know what people might be thinking."

"I got it." Bass said.

Zero was suspicious. "You what?"

"I said I got it." Bass leaned back in his chair, indifferent. "I messed up your reputation, and I can fix it. Easy. Just don't make a big deal out of it."

"If you didn't want it to be a big deal," X started to get upset. "Then you shouldn't have just attacked him without being provoked in the first place!"

"People forget easy." Forte, ever annoying, just shrugged. "I mean, didn't they forget that Zero was a Maverick before you guys reprogrammed him? It's in the records. Just do your job and people stop caring."

The red Hunter said nothing. He supposed he should be grateful, but he still felt cheated. Zero stared at his clenching fists, looking up only once at his brother. He in turn wasn't any less annoyed.

"You're welcome." Bass hmphed, then turned to Signas in a far more polite tone. "Unless you've got something better for me to do, I want to disappear for a while once I deal with this. See what the world is like, and everything. I'll be back when Roll is done - don't activate her without me!"

"I can't allow you to do that right now." Signas replied. "Especially due to your scene at the junkyard, some people believe that you are a Maverick. Stay with us for a while, and once you are known as a Hunter you may go. And for the time being, Alia has requested that you help her rebuild Roll."

"Wait, what?" Bass sat up in his chair. "I get the not leaving part, but can't Alia rebuild her? I'm not a technician!"

"Calm down. She reported that you managed to get Roll operational for a short time, and Alia claims that she doesn't know how. You're the only one that understands oldstyle technology. We can upgrade Roll to some extent, but to get her mind data transferred to a new CPU, we'll need your help. And it will give you something to do while Alia prepares your upgrades."

"Fine, but...I'm not sure how much I can do. I'll try."

Bass wrinkled his brow, trying to recall everything Dr. Light and Crystal Bot had ever told him.

"Alright, that's all for now." Signas stood up. "X, your falcon armor is ready for you in the armory if you wish to take it. Axl, stop by the mayor's place before you go out, I think they have an area they want you to search in Arcadia."

"Alright, I'll handle it."

Everyone else got up as the meeting dispersed, and for a time they all walked down the same hallway, heading for their separate destinations. Zero gloomily stared forward, only thinking about the mission at hand. The others were calmer than him, though X couldn't help glancing Zero's way, wishing he could help in some way.

"This is going to be boring." Bass complained, still trying to figure out how he was going to repair Roll. "I hate being stuck in labs." He looked over at Zero. "I see you laughing, you bastard!"

Zero was grinning, slightly. "Have fun in the labs, Bass. I bet that's so much more fun than what I'll be doing. Don't worry, I'll kill a Maverick for you."

"Bastard."

"It runs in the family."

"Lucky us."

X relaxed. It seemed like the two were finally developing some kind of friendship, if a bit rough at first. But he figured it was for the best that Zero got some time away from his aggravating brother. Zero hadn't had any time to get used to the idea. X wished he could talk to Zero about it, but the red Hunter was like a wall when it came to personal matters. Any questions or advice just bounced right off. Zero was a listener, but he rarely spoke of his heart, even to X.

"Hey, don't say that!" Axl told the others. "I'm related too!"

"You poor kid." Bass snorted. "You never had a chance did you?"

"Whatever! It doesn't matter where I come from as long as I can fight!" Axl exclaimed, lifting his pistol. "I'll always be ready to destroy Mavericks!"

This thought too depressed X, but he tried to smile. "Maybe one day we'll no longer have to fight them, Axl. We've been fighting for so long...I don't know when the end will be, but you'll have to find something to do if peace comes."

All of a sudden Forte turned around, getting straight into the taller robot's face. Bass was both incredulous and angry as he stared down X.

"Are you even a Light-bot?" Bass questioned, lifting an accusing finger. " You are nothing, not compared to Rock." Axl stepped back in shock, and Zero's defensiveness of his friend started to rise up in him as Bass continued. "You have all these upgrades, and you're supposed to be some kind of fighting genius, but you're forever whining about having to fight Mavericks and save the world and all that crap. Every time Wily would show up with another of his retarded schemes to take over the world a hundred years ago, you didn't see Rock whining about it. He was brave! He always just did some irritating rant about how he'll always 'protect the world from evil' and 'fight for peace no matter how long it takes'. As annoying as that was, it still proves that he's better than you. No matter what situation Rock was in, he never complained, never whined for it to be all over! And that's why you'll always be in his shadow."

Bass turned to the left, heading for the lab and disappearing out of everyone's sight.

"So these two bits are basically just different first drafts of what really went up." The nutty blonde explained. "The first part just took the Bass-Zero conversation down a more humorous path than I wanted it to go. I wanted them to leave off hating each other, not accepting each other. Bass and Zero are about action, not words. Anywho, the second part was just too much crammed into one scene, and also I didn't like the scheme that the Mavericks were trying to pull off. It just wasn't working out right, and it came out kinda rushed and dumb."

"GrimMoody admitting her writing is dumb." Sigma laughed. "That's a first."

"I actually think that this was a good choice." Signas said. "It would have been bad to see Bass tell off X like that in front of everyone. I would have had a talk with him if that had happened instead."

"Oh right, a talk." Sarcam oozed out of Sigma. "Because that's so effective in changing other people's behavior!"

"If your continual violence was supposed to be a way of convincing me to see things by your perspective, then you clearly failed." the Commander retorted. "I always fought against you and nothing you can do will stop that."

"Blah. Do you guys ever do anything but fight?" GrimMoody said. "You guys have got to have something in common besides a creator. Let's try and figure it out. Starting with you, Sigma, what do you like to do in your free time?"

"I like to spread the knowledge of reploid freedom throughout the world!"

GrimMoody shook her head. "No, okay, let me clarify here. What I mean is, what do you do when you're not running around and making Mavericks? Your leisure activities. What do you do to relax?"

Sigma ran a hand under his chin, and slithering smile grew on his face. "I always found killing Maverick Hunters relaxing. Ha, to slash through those ignorant fiends and leave their wrecked bodies behind for my little brother here to find...hahahaha!"

"No, no, I mean, besides all of that Maverick War stuff. That stuff doesn't count. What else do you do when you're not fighting?"

"Well, I have to spend a lot of time formulating new plans for my next attack. Signas here wouldn't like it if things got boring for him!"

GrimMoody groaned. "That's not what I mean. What is it you do when you're not doing something that has to do with recruiting Mavericks, fighting the Hunters, or figuring out how you're gonna do it next? Something that has nothing to do with the Maverick Wars even one little bit."

Confused, Sigma slouched in his chair. "I don't follow you."

"What, you don't, like, play cards or watch movies or draw or whatever?"

"No." The evil reploid brushed off the idea, flicking a rude hand at GrimMoody. "I don't waste my time. There are millions of reploids being oppressed every day, and I'm not going to waste my time with crude, human entertainment when I have my life's work to complete. The satisfaction of knowing that X and Zero are learning of the true evil of their ways is my true leisure."

"Uungh...you say as you let pretty much everybody that worked for you die." GrimMoody flopped in her chair. "Okay, so let's go to the guest that isn't a major freak. Signas, what's your hobbies?"

Signas had been pondering the question ever since Moody had asked it to Sigma, and now that it was addressed to him he was no closer to an answer. "Uh...well...ahem...this one time I did go with X to a video game store. He bought Mario Kart Annihilation. It was a...hm, decent game."

"Did you actually play it?"

"Er, no." Sigma admitted. "I watched X for about ten minutes, but I had to go submit some paperwork. It was due the next morning."

"Dude, that doesn't count." GrimMoody lectured and folded her arms. "What do you like to do? Like on a more or less regular basis?"

"I enjoy organizing my desk drawers." Signas shrugged. "But ever since Roll did them that one time, there's no real need. I do wish she would mind her own business, but I have to admit that she did an excellent job. Other than that, I like reading histories. I haven't had much time for that lately."

Sigma guffawed, and his booming voice echoed across the stage. "Ha, you are the most boring reploid that I have ever had the tragedy of being related to. Organizing drawers? Oh the excitement!"

"I don't have time for most forms of entertainment." Signas said. "I don't even know how X finds the time with those video games. We have Mavericks to stop. Other people can have recreation. We have to prevent the world from being taken by Sigma and his ideals."

"So, what you're saying is," GrimMoody concluded. "What you have in common is that you're both workaholics. Sheesh. Y'all need to get out more."

"I find it strange that a nerd is telling us that." Sigma scoffed. "Do you have any friends that aren't imaginary?"

GrimMoody frowned, looking a bit childish as she stuck out her lips in a full pout. With the snap of her fingers, a large anvil appeared over Sigma's head. It hovered in the air, shaking gently on its invisble cords, as if they would break at any moment.

"I'm warning you, Sigma. You best be good."

"Oh, I've been killed eight times by those stupid Hunters, and I'm supposed to be afraid of one silly anvil? You'll have to try better than that, Moody."

"Mm'kay. Hey Ping! You come in here!"

Out from backstage flew two different robots. Or rather, robot heads. One of them was goldish, and the other a fainter shade of silver. The each were ovaloid, with a little circle sticking out of each of the sides of their heads. These seemed to hold the engines that propelled them through the air. Their mouths were large patches that glowed different colors, and their eyes were square.

"It's me! Ping Duplicitous!" sang the golden head.

"Hey look!" the silver one chimed in. "It's Master Sigma!"

"Yaaaayy!" The two heads swung around Sigma's chair, flying in a circle around him. "We love Master Sigma!"

Signas slapped a hand over his mouth, politely trying to contain his laughter. His face turned red with the effort, but otherwise the disciplined reploid kept his humor under control with a grin. An aggravated Sigma glared at GrimMoody and tried to figure out how to get the Mavericks to stop making him so dizzy.

"That was always the biggest difference between you and me, Sigma." Signas said. "I get to work with professionals, and you get reploids like Ping Duplicitous."

Sigma gritted his teeth. "That always was the disadvantage to working with the Zero virus. It almost always turned reploids, especially the weaker ones, criminally insane. Sometimes I wonder about Dr. Wily. Ping! PING!"

The flying robot heads finally stopped spinning. They hovered in the air on each side of Sigma, nodding their little heads.

"Yes, Master Sigma?"

"Stop flying around like that." he ordered, flinging a ferocious arm out at the author. "And go attack her!"

"Huh uh, Master Sigma." the silver head spoke up. "We're not supposed to attack the author. She says so."

"That's right." GrimMoody agreed. "Punishment time!"

The anvil slammed down on Sigma, and the Pings barely flew out from under it in time. The heavy chunk of metal hit Sigma with a painful CLANG, then slowly fell forward, onto the floor. Groaning, Sigma held his head in the attempt to stop his inner workings from making all the wrong connections.

"And now for another deleted scene!" the author proudly announced.

"Yay! Deleted scenes!" the gold and silver heads sang together.

- From Chapter 7

Zero began to wonder why there wasn't smoke coming out of Bass' ears, he was so angry.

"I hate you." the dark robot sputtered.

"Not as much as I hate you."

"Wanna bet?'

"Enough of that, you guys." Roll said, laughter still glowing about her. "You two really are just like brothers. Well, dysfunctional ones, anyway. And I know you don't think robots have family, Bass, but it's sort of hard to agree with you when you two act like it."

"Also, there was something I wanted to get out of the way as soon as possible." Signas addressed Roll. "I'd like for you to inform me as much as you can about the robot apocalypse and any last plans of Wily. We have already questioned Bass about it, but there may be things you can tell us that Bass can't. We need whatever information about Zero or any other last Wily creations as we can."

"Information about Zero?" Roll glanced up at him. "Is there something wrong with him that needs to be fixed?

- Also Chapter 7

Roll spent the rest of the day with X, happily touring the various departments and stations throughout Maverick Hunter Headquarters. Signas didn't come along, as he had work to do in the investigations of the robot manufacturers. Zero left with him, giving only the excuse that he wanted X to not have to worry about anything getting done while he was spending time with his sister. Axl wanted to show Roll the training rooms since he had to go there next and work with the new recruits, but X didn't like the idea, and Axl went off, waving goodbye to Roll as he left. Bass was the last to go, but since a small emergency had cropped up out in Acadia, he opted to go himself rather than deprive Roll of her brother.

"You better use the disc now." Bass told her before he teleported out. "That way you'll be used to it by the debriefing tonight."

Roll nodded, though Bass barely had time to see this before he was nothing more than a streak of black and gold bits flying up into the sky. Signas had already told her about the debriefing itself earlier that day: it was so that Roll could tell them what she knew about the rest of the apocalypse. Roll took a deep breath as she pulled the disc out of her pocket, staring at the blue plastic cautiously. Everyone knew that she had outlasted Bass in the robot apocalypse. It wasn't something Roll wanted to talk about, but she knew it was for the best.

She inserted the disc into her neck, staring up at the sky where Bass had gone. She wasn't looking for any trace of him; the sky at that moment held interest all its own. She and X were on the highest part of the Hunter building, at the sixteenth floor where helicopters could land. Evening had crept up on the Light siblings when they were touring the place, and once they had reached the open air they were right on time to behold the beauty of populous Arcadia's nighttime sky. Roll stood with X against the railing on the building's edge, for once able to ignore the dizzying height. It was easy to do, especially since the lights of the nearby buildings were beginning to come on, flashing and giving a dramatic edge to the city's skyline.

Roll sighed. It was comforting to look at such sights with all the depressing information running through her mind: the loss of Sigma and his subsequent turn to evil, the X hunters, the repliforce, the space station and the two attempts to destroy it, the Zero Nightmare, Red Alert, Lumine...and worst of all the history of Zero alongside. Bass had included what he learned about Zero since his reawakening, and that was the story of how the Maverick virus had begun in the first place. Roll closed her eyes, overcome and momentarily unable to look at cheery sights. She opened them earlier than she expected, noticing that X had taken her hand. She smiled back weakly.

"It's worse than I thought it was." Roll said through numb lips. "But I think...I think I can handle it. Oh X, you've gone through so much." The girl-bot squeezed her brother's hand. "I know you don't think so, but you're doing a good job. Protecting all these people...if it weren't for you there's no telling what would have happened to the world!"

X took this information with some diffidence. She was right; he didn't think he had done as well as he could have.

That's hindsight for you. X leaned more on the railing, resting his right arm (the one not holding Roll's hand) across the highest bar. If only I could fight all those battles again, somehow they would have turned out differently. Maybe I could have helped save Iris, or stopped Double, or caught Dynamo before he spread that virus...

"Well...we have averted the worst disasters." X managed to admit. Attempting to change the topic of the conversation, X steeled himself to ask about his deepest concern. "I'm sure Bass included about where the virus came from on the disc."

"Yes, he did." Roll said quietly, staring downwards. "But I already knew about the virus, sort of. Originally, we thought it was supposed to infect you, and I was hoping that since it obviously didn't work on you, that it wasn't affective at all. Did you clean out Zero of the virus?"

X wanted so badly to say that he had, but he could only be honest with Roll. As he answered, he looked out at the various buildings, speaking with a chilling quiet. "No, we don't understand the virus at all. For right now we don't believe he's contagious, but from what we can guess, a more or less dormant piece of it still exists inside of him. Roll, please understand that Zero would never hurt you." X turned completely away from cityscape to face his sister. "He doesn't want to hurt anyone but those who threaten peace. He is a good reploid with as honest ideals as I have."

The girl-bot felt her own heart twist as she listened to her brother's explanation. All X wanted was for her to accept him and forget all of the things she had known about Zero. Roll thought of all of these, realizing that she knew very little about Zero. Like her brother, she had only found out right before Bass had gone to destroy him - to destroy the fake Zero. She knew that the ponytailed robot had been Wily's "last great creation", and that unchecked he would kill everyone that she loved. But that didn't happen. Here before her was her brother X, her last living sibling. The new history that filled her mind showed all of the adventures the two friends had together, and that through thick and thin, the X buster and Z saber perservered against all enemies, even the most subtle enemy of all: the virus lurking in Zero's mind.

"I don't know what Wily meant for Zero to do, not really anyway," Roll said, still musing over the history of this latest century in her mind. She shook her head. "I don't hold any grudge against Zero. He's nothing like Wily."

X winced. "I forgot that you knew him."

"I'm an old robot..." Roll wistfully twisted a strand of her hair. As much as she liked the headband, she was considering going back to her normal ponytail. After a moment, her eyelids jumped open with realization. "Oh...I guess I'm the oldest robot still operational."

"You've just been reconstructed." X chuckled. "You're also the newest robot operational."

"You're so silly." Roll held on tighter to the railing, only able to reach the second lowest of the four bars as she leaned a little further out to look below at the gardens just outside of HQ. "I feel really sorry for Bass. I don't care too much about being up to date, but he's always been so afraid of falling behind. Oh, has he been any trouble? With Zero, I mean?"

"Gah." the blue-bot cringed only lightly. "Well, other than those first couple of days, he hasn't been so bad. He just has no discipline. Thankfully, he seems to be at least trying to respect authority. I can't really tell. As for Zero...I don't know at all. Bass isn't trying to cause any incidents, but he's not aiming for friendship either."

"You can't rush that kind of thing with Bass. Just give him time, though." Roll sighed. "To be honest, I don't know him that well myself. For the longest time he was fighting Rock, and once he decided to abandon Wily I saw a new side of him. He's surprisingly insecure..."

It had been literally a century since Roll had accessed this memory, but she could still remember the time she had found a distraught and hopeless Forte in a small room in Light Laboratories, alone and staring out the window. Everything in his life had turned upside-down: Wily had almost killed him, his long time rival was the only reason he was alive, his best friend Treble was a mess, and Crystal Bot, his one hope of escape and independence from Wily, was believed to be irreversibly deleted. At this horrible low point in Bass' life, Roll had discovered a surprising sensitivity - and a deep well of regret. Back then Bass carried guilt for allowing Crystal Bot to die, and now that she really was beyond all help, Roll could only guess the pain Bass was going through. And that was only one item in a sea of regrets, all washing on the shore of his innermost thoughts, a tide that only rose.

"Zero must have a lot of regrets too..." Roll thought outloud. "I wish they would get along."

"I doubt that will happen soon." X muttered. Despite trying to hold back his reluctance to accept the black and gold robot, a bitterness flavored his voice.

"Well, at least Bass can fight. That should help him take his mind off of things."

"Bass and Zero do work surprisingly well together," X did give credit where it was due. "If either of them would admit it."

- From Chapter 8

"It's the result of having a greater power level." Zero retorted, going over to sit in a chair by the monitors. "Running on a high level for a time requires periodic shut down."

Bass wasn't at a loss for a reply. "Yeah, and if you can't sleep you must be weakening."

"Hey guys!" Axl entered, his usual cheery self. "What's going on?"

"Not much." Zero answered. "Bass is just working on curing my virus."

"Your virus?" Axl asked curiously. "What do you mean? Come on, you don't mean a Maverick managed to actually get a virus on your system?"

"It's just a glitch." Bass suddenly interrupted, once again startling Zero. "I already fixed it. Now don't you have something to do?"

"Yeah, I have to go out to help out with some problems in Tokyo." Axl said. "And that's why I'm here. Are my pistols ready?"

"Oh, sorry, I forgot." Bass shrugged.

"Bass! You know I need those!"

"Heh, just joking." Forte went over to Alia's desk and removed Axl's pistols, giving them to the young Hunter. "Now stop distracting me and get out of here. Kill some Mavericks for me."

"Oh, I really hope tonight is that exciting!"

And Axl hurried off. Obviously someone was waiting on him, so he was gone in an instant. And that was when Bass turned around, growling at Zero.

"Don't remind him!" Bass fussed. "I spent two hours editing his memories today and I don't want to have to do it again!"

Zero didn't know what to make of it. "Uh...what?"

"He was being a crybaby so he wanted me to delete any knowledge he had of you spreading the Maverick Virus. It's hard editing memories so that everything would make sense, and even then I had to tell him he suffered a glitch. It's hard work."

This made the pony-tailed reploid feel strange. It astonished him that Axl would take such a step. The knowledge must have hurt him more than he could say. This knowledge both blessed and hurt. Axl obviously cared a lot about his friendship with Zero if he was willing to do so. But it pained Zero, somehow. He had been hoping that Axl could somehow overcome it. But if the pain was too much...Zero didn't blame him. If it would help anything, then Zero would do the same. Only it didn't.

"Wait, can't Axl delete his own memories?" Zero asked.

"Sort of." Bass was back at his monitor, typing up something, though he turned away long enough to answer Zero's question. "Dr. Light explained it to me when I asked him about Crystal Bot. She was made of X parts, like a reploid. Turns out if reploids want to delete a memory, they can only delete that. There's some sort of...emotional scripting thing that they can't erase. Basically they can remember that they're sad, but not know why."

"So what you're saying is remnants of the memory survive?"

Bass had gotten back to typing. He was obviously getting bored of the conversation, and he wanted to

The author explained these scenes to a grumpy Sigma, an amused Signas, and two very eager flying robot heads. "Okay, so the first scene here is just a little addition to the fashion joke Zero made at Bass' expense in Chapter 6. I didn't go with it because I didn't want to reveal there that Zero wasn't really the one to kill Mega Man, and there are too many people around in that scene for them to really talk about the virus and Zero's secret past anyway. The middle scene is one where X and Roll are talking. While I wanted X and Roll to have time together in the story, this scene added nothing to it and it wasn't very good anyway.

"For the third, I was debating internally if I wanted Axl to delete all knowledge of Zero starting the Maverick virus. I didn't go with this mainly because in chapter 6 I already had Bass telling him not to, and also it would needlessly complicate the plot. I sort of wish I had done more to increase Axl's angst against Zero, but Axl is not an angsty character. I think that's why they added him to the X series in the the first place. Oh excuse me, I mean the Sigma series."

She winked over at Sigma, the still far from amused baddie. He sat there with folded arms, saying nothing. Signas, however, wasn't going to let that pass.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh, sorry, that's what we were talking about earlier." Moody said. "Sigma says that since he's been more influencial than X, the X series should be called the Sigma series."

"Well, if you measure it that way, it should be called the Zero series." Signas shrugged. "Besides, X always stopped Sigma. You'll find all kinds of stories on fanfiction net about X or Zero, but you won't find any at all that focus on Sigma. Nobody cares about him."

Sigma jumped out of his chair. "You take that back!"

Signas wrinkled his nose. "Take what back? The truth? I'm not making that up. It's not as if anyone likes to write stories about me either."

GrimMoody faced the camera, waving for attention. "Let me interrupt you guys a second to say that yes, this is a not so subtle hint that I think someone should write a Signas fanfic. They can do one about Sigma if they feel like, but...y'know, whatever."

"I will not stand for this!" Sigma shouted. "I refuse to believe that I have no fans!"

"That's right!" the gold Ping said. "We're your fan!"

"Totally!" Silver chimed in. "Master Sigma is the best!"

"Let's sing the Master Sigma song and cheer him up!"

"Okay!"

The two jolly heads, much to everyone's horror, began to fly together back and forth across the stage. They used their electrical powers to light themselves up and make themselves glow like Christmas lights. Then their buzzing and snapping voices began in unison.

"Master Sigma is so great! He makes the world hide in fear!

Master Sigma powerful! He makes children cry their tears!

X is emo and lame

Zero is the one to blame

Master Sigma terrorizes every year!"

The advanced reploid skin Sigma had allowed him to show perfectly well what resembled the paling of a human's face. The glow of his eyes faded along with, and his arms shook in rage. Making it even worse, Commander Signas could hardly keep his face straight. He facepalmed, shoulders shaking in laughter.

"Smnnrk!" He snorted as he desperately tried to hold his sides in. "I really wish X and Zero were here!"

"THAT'S IT! You will not mock me any further!" Sigma pulled out a green saber, lowering it at Signas. "Don't forget the many times that I decimated your precious world! The times that I infected your Hunters with viruses and swayed them to follow me!"

"Did you make them sing you lame songs about how great you are too?"

"YOU'RE GOING TO DIE TODAY, LITTLE BROTHER!"

With that, Sigma charged at Signas, only to find that Signas hadn't come unarmed. As the evil reploid leader swung down his saber, a shot of blue plasma slammed Sigma in the chest. Standing and kicking away his chair, Signas revealed his laser lance, a thin, black item that could either create a thin plasma foil or shoot plasma bursts. The two combatants only paused for a moment before the brilliant light of their weapons clashed through the air. As their beams clashed, they glared at each other past the sparkling glow.

"Just because I'm in administration doesn't mean I can't fight!"

"Just because I'm dead doesn't mean I can't kill you!"

The fighting intensified, each one dodging just barely blows that surely would have proven fatal had they hit. Ping Duplicitous watched in amazement, dodging as the fight neared either of his heads. GrimMoody disappeared, reappearing off the stage and in the audience area with a bowl of popcorn. After a bit, she yawned.

"Mm'kay, Ping, that's enough now."

At once both heads lit up, sending out a lightning shower of electrical bolts. Both fighters screamed in pain, and their weapons shorted out as they fell to the stage floor. Pings heads circled around each one dangerously, daring them to continue to attack.

"Ugh." Signas groaned. "What was that for?"

"Oh, I'm just tired of you guys fighting." GrimMoody said. "Despite my name I really do like happy endings. So I will force you to have one. Ping here doesn't have the virus anymore, I just wanted him to do my bidding."

"Yeah, and I'm not really crazy!" the gold head protested.

"Not that crazy!" Silver agreed.

"Yeah you are. Stop lying." GrimMoody made her popcorn disappear before walking back up to the stage. "Okay, so I'm done with you too arguing. You are brothers. You should be friends."

"Are you kidding me?" Signas scoffed as he pulled himself to his feet. "This reploid nearly destroyed the world eight times! He's responsible for the chain of events that brings down catastrophe on us all!"

"I can't be friends with that...that...Hunter!" Sigma pounded his fist into the stage, cracking a floorboard before he too stood back up. "He's a narrow-minded fool who never understood that I was trying to benefit the reploid race!"

"Eh, alright, so I admit it. I don't care if you're friends or not." GrimMoody shrugged. "I just like torturing you. And on that note, Ping, name a place you like."

"An old-timey bar!"

"An old-timey COUNTRY bar!"

"Sounds good to me."

GrimMoody walked up to the projector screen. She swiped her hand across it, and the blank white screen came to life, revealing an old-timey country bar. It was complete with log walls, wooden chairs, antique tables, and a stuffed grizzly bear posed to attack in the corner. Turning around, Moody snapped her fingers. Instantly both Sigma and Signas appeared in the bar, looking around with confusion.

"Okay, so here's the deal." The author was blunt. "You guys are gonna stay there until you make peace. I mean, come on, Signas, he is dead and all. You can at least try to work things out now. Oh, and if you guys attack each other, then a bomb will go off inside of you and kill you both."

"Oh no! It'll destroy the country bar too!" Silver cried.

"Yep, so unless you want Ping to cry, or sing another song, then you guys better make friends."

"I'm supposed to be the creepy one?" Sigma scoffed. "You're such a hypocrite!"

"At least I admit it. Bye!"

"No, wait!" Signas called out.

It was too late. The projector screen went white, leaving the two reploids to whatever fate a country bar had in store for them. GrimMoody sat back down in her red chair, leaning back and feeling right darn proud of herself.

Ping flew up to the chairs Sigma and Signas had been sitting in, resting on the backs of them. "So hey, what do we do now?"

"Eh, well, I'm in the mood to throw on another deleted scene."

-From Chapter 11

Axl sort of liked the design of the Maverick he had copied. It was a very trim and maneuverable body, though he'd feel a bit better about it if he could actually cut off the hair. It was beginning to annoy him to have a little yellow beacon that anyone could see from several yards off. Thankfully, X and Zero were out of sight, allowing him to go deeper into the Maverick containment area.

The area was very spooky to Axl, mostly of how normal it looked. It was just storefronts, hotels, skyscrapers, restaurants and all the rest of the normal sorts of buildings you'd find in a vast metropolis. However, these were only reminders of the city west Arcadia was. All of it would look much better with crowds of humans and reploids going about their daily lives. But it was all empty. Miscellaneous litter blew about the empty roads, and that was the only movement in the place.

Axl was increasingly grateful for the end of copy-chip production. Now that it was banned he was the only one who could legally copy reploid DNA, and the only other people would own a chip would themselves be Mavericks. Thus, no one would suspect that he was in fact Axl rather than someone else.

"Of course, they're going to figure that you'll show up, since they're so close to Maverick Hunter Headquarters."

Axl did remember X's warning. It was common sense. Axl was a little annoyed that he didn't think of that, but he reckoned that was why everyone worked together in the Maverick Hunters. X and Zero were sure to be somewhere close by. They couldn't come in as far as he could, but if anything went wrong, it wouldn't be long until they arrived to help.

" - Alright, Axl. - " Pallette's voice focused him at the task at hand. " - You need to go into the Jenner Brands skyscraper up ahead to your left, then go down to the basement. That's where you'll encounter the Mavericks. I'm going to go into radio silence from here on out unless there's an emergency, so you'll be on your own. Good luck! - "

" - Piece of cake! I've done this plenty of times! See you when it's over! - "

He had done it plenty of times, but not quite like this. The whole quarter of the city had been cornered off from the rest of Arcadia when the attack on Roll had occured, just to simply prevent the spread of the Maverick virus. Reploids had been tested throughout the rest of the city to make sure things were contained, and all the humans trapped in the quarantined area had to be rescued. It had been a sheer nightmare, but all of that had gone quickly. As X would say, they'd had a lot of practice doing tragic things.

Axl was not the sort of person to notice ambient danger. He blithely went into situations that would scare the normal reploid, simply not realizing how terrifying the circumstances really were. That was how Axl entered the Jenner Brands building. The place was trashed; a fountain in the middle of the lobby which must have once been lovely was now a smashed wreck of concrete. Dried dirt on the floor and smeared footprints signalled how far the spilled water had gone before the pipes were shut off. Other than a huge plasma blast in the front desk, it seemed untouched. And that was the only thing untouched. Axl was surprised that the building was still standing with all the broken tiles hanging down and the tense angle two large support beams were at. That was typical Maverick strategy: never stay in a place that you can't use as a trap against the Maverick Hunters.

"Hey you!"

Axl did a right face to the elevators. There stood a short Maverick, one that was about the size of a nine year old. He was boyish in every way, and blue-green emo bangs swept over his wide, light brown eyes. His armor was a light blue, and by his side he had a thin, deviously sharp fencing foil. If Axl wasn't trying to pretend to be someone else, he would have noted how adorable this reploid was.

"Yeah, what?" Axl answered, acting as "Maverick" as he could.

"You're supposed to be downstairs waiting on Spectral. She's gonna be here any minute and she wants the best fighters ready." His voice was nowhere near as adorable as he was, and sounded something between gruff and pouty. "You set up some guys to distract those stupid Hunters, right?"

"What do you take me for? Of course I did!"

Axl recalled a few Maverick mechaniloids they'd seen near the borders of the town. They were firing off shots at the Hunters and then scuttling away, leaving a very tedious fight to the border guards. That too was typical Maverick style. Axl guessed that was what the Maverick he copied had been doing before he destroyed him.

"Then let's hurry." the youth-ish Maverick huffed. "I'm not missing out on our new leader just for the likes of you."

Axl hadn't noticed before, but the elevator's doors were gone. Of course the electricity would have been cut to this part of the city, so the elevators were out of the question. That didn't bother boy-bot any, and he simply jumped down the empty elevator shaft, clunking against the ground as he landed. Axl jumped too. He wished he could use his hovering ability, but the Maverick he had copied didn't have one. That left him to jump down just as roughly as the Maverick. He hoped his shocks were up to it.

The young Hunter thudded to the ground, thankfully landing on his feet.

- Also Chapter 11

This brought Saturnine over to "Striker Longshot", and Axl was immediately nervous. He told himself he wasn't afraid of her, but anyone would admit that she was creepy. There was a reason such creatures were tucked into the deepest parts of the oceans. Unsure of himself, Axl decided that he'd better pretend to be a little bold. Malachite seemed to get away with it. She was staring at him pretty hard. Did she want him to do something?

Axl took one step closer. He glanced over at the others, who seemed as uncertain as him. He turned back, only to just see the end of the staff slam into his face, exploding his vision with ghostly electricity. Axl skidded back, hitting a wall. As the blue cleared, and Axl could see again, he found that he was staring at his own normal armor. There went that scheme.

"You see?" Spectral lifted her voice. "You also were too impatient to check for Hunter presense. I must admit I expected better from you, Malachite. It is good to know better now."

Axl immediately jumped to his feet, hoping that X and Zero would show up soon. He confidently aimed his gun at the others, trying to figure out the smartest way of getting out into the open where the odds would be more stacked in his favor. "Okay, fine, so ya caught me. So what?"

A little miffed for messing up, Malachite snapped, "Guys, kill him!"

"No, no, just grab him." Spectral glared down at Darling. "Will you for once think before acting? Don't think you're still in charge here."

Axl paid no attention to this exchange. He jumped at once from a cannon burst from Polliwog, but he couldn't jump too far without running straight into Fulgor's axe. Slant Macrocosm's parts floated over, and her comets joined in, making black craters in the wall where Axl dodged them.

I've got to be quick!

Axl jumped and hovered over the enemies grouped around him. He landed as soon as he was clear and ran straight for the elevator shaft firing a sheet of his plasma bursts to block off the enemies. If he could get outside then the other Hunters would see him and -

Thunk.

A chunk of metal hit him smack in the head, dropping Axl to the ground. His attempt to rise was blocked by the point of Darling Malachite's foil, aimed directly at his eye. Making matters worse, his pistol had slipped out of his hand, and Darling was able eagerly snatch the weapon up off the floor, sticking it under his armor. The other Mavericks surrounded Axl, and all he could do was notice that it was a piece of the ceiling's metal rails that had hit him.

"You're not going anywhere!" the boy-roid smirked.

"Aw, why do you show off so much?" Venom Pterosaur walked up behind Darling and joined the menacing circle. "I was waiting in the elevator shaft. He wouldn't have made it out."

"We can't take any chances."

"Why you-!" Venom huffed, flapping her wings. "You're not the only one that can fight around here!"

"Shut up, both of you, and bring him over to this wall so I can get a good look at him."

"Hey, let go!"

Axl wanted so much to fight hand to hand, but he knew better than to give in. Pallette was still monitoring him, and the longer he lived the more she would see. Plus, if he didn't struggle then there would be a greater chance of being able to escape when the time was opportune.

X and Zero will come and help me...I hope...

This plan started looking a lot less smart once Slant Macrocosm's parts separated, surrounding him like an electrical prison. Any gaps in her shield were filled with electrical stardust, giving the distinct impression that escaping was not going to be easy. Axl had a plan. None of this dissuaded him. He grinned despite himself. Let them think they won for now.

"Not bad for a bunch of impatient reploids, huh, Spectral?" Darling said. "We've got your Hunter all nice and wrapped up like a present!"

The angler-roid said nothing. She merely walked over, extending a bony hand down towards Darling. He gasped, obstinate.

"But..."

She flung her hand out again, and Darling huffily relented, handing over Axl's pistol. Spectral tucked it into her robes. With this she relaxed somewhat, finally able to pay her companions a compliment.

"Not bad at all." she said. "You are competent soldiers when someone gives you orders. You shall all do well."

The tall, skinny Maverick walked towards Axl, and the others departed to make room for her. Axl's resolve wavered too slightly for him to even notice. The thrill of the danger was more wonderful than frightening - and it certainly was frightening for the bony, sharp fingers of Spectral to wrap around his chin. She inspected him, and it took every ounce of self-control not to react as her sickly excuses for eyes peered over him.

"His mind is valuable to us." Everyone's ears pricked up as Spectral spoke. "You saw me come here with my new, more powerful teleporter. There is no need to remain in this place. We will retreat for now. Fulgor, bring the axe for this one's head. Once we have hacked into his CPU we shall have the teleport coordinates to Maverick Hunters itself. Time and time again the Hunters have proven the only barrier to my father and his goals. That will end now."

"No!"

Axl could restrain himself no longer. He engaged the Mole Spade, the weapon he gained from Spade Lentigo, and fired it off at Spectral and the incoming flamingo Maverick. He had no gun, but he could still toss the electrified rocks of the defeated Maverick. Slant Macrocosm was his next target, and by flinging the rocks at her sun, the shielding made from her parts wavered and dissipated, forcing her to return to her normal galaxy shape.

Saturnine slashed him across the face, bowling him over.

-Later in Chapter 11

For a moment, hope began to rise in him. Maybe he was right and everything would be fine. Maybe he was a stupid scientist and not a fighter-bot anymore. If that was the case, why couldn't he fix this? Pride grew in him, and he got up from the floor and started doing inventory on the tools for what he would need.

" - Hey Roll, where are you? - "

" - I'm in the main research lab. Listen, Bass, I'm really sorry about earlier- - "

" - I don't care about that. Grab me a TC-315 power conduit from the supply room and come to research lab 9A. - "

" - Oh, why? - "

" - Just do it. You'll see when you get over here. - "

With that, Forte lined up his tools, his concentration on the task only broken when Roll opened the door. She stood there speechless, power conduit in hand. Frozen in place, she could hardly speak. It took her well into a minute to find her words.

"Is that really what I think it is?" the stunned girl bot managed.

"Yeah, now get in here already."

Roll was immediately at Bass' side, perusing the tools with optimism. "So you can fix it?"

"I don't know. If I'm right then all it takes is plugging this in."

Bass took the conduit from Roll, examining it. Like other conduits, it was a long cylinder, about an inch in diameter, and bent at 90 degrees in the middle. It would fit a little awkwardly into the machine, but that wasn't a big deal.

"And if you're wrong?"

He tried to ignore the question, but he could still see Roll in his perifery, her innocent face clouded with concern.

"I don't know." he lied. "There's a good chance that this will work. I know the problem."

Bass wondered when he had learned to hate himself so badly for lying. His words seemed to comfort Roll, but he wouldn't look at her, and as best he could he pretended that this was because he was concentrating. That was sort of true. Bass wanted to get this as correct as possible, so all the concentration was sincere. That appeared to trick her.

With that, for the next five minutes it was all wires, conduits, circuits and cords for Bass. He got back down to the base of the capsule and started hooking everything up, praying under his breath that everything would work and that he wouldn't look like an idiot in front of Roll. He inserted the conduit with gentle care, clicking everything into place. There was nothing left but to back away and see if it would run.

A light blinked on the top, indicating that the mechanism recognised the rise in power. Just as it looked like it was working, all the lights cut off with a snap.

"No!" Bass yelled, glaring at the machine's innards and wondering where he went wrong. "No, no, no..."

But there was nothing Bass could think to do. It was too late to save Dr. Light. He knew of the possibility of being wrong, but now that it stared him in the face he lost control. He didn't want to believe it. With a hideous swear, he crumpled, burying his face in his hands.

Behind him, Roll gasped. Bass refused to move. He had lied to her and killed her creator. He would be surprised if he could look at her in the next decade. More than ever, he wished he was dead.

"Oh, now that felt strange."

In an instant Bass' head was up. There before them was the ghostly image of Dr. Thomas Light, wavering slightly as the holographic generators synced themselves. Once the hologram noticed who was near, his face lit up, happiest that Bass had ever seen him.

"Roll! Bass! Is it really you?"

Roll, who had been on the verge of tears the entire time, rushed up as she answered. "Yes, it's us! I thought I was never going to see you again!"

"What happened?" the hologram asked. "One minute everything goes dark, and after what feels like the longest time I awake to see the both of you!"

"Your hologram generator was broken." Bass explained.

"Yeah, and Bass fixed it!" Roll cheerfully added. "He's so wonderful!"

"You fixed it?"

The approving gaze of his mentor was worth more than gold to Bass. For once humble, he grinned sheepishly. "Eh, it wasn't that complex of a problem."

Dr. Light beamed. "I'm so proud of you. I didn't know that you were capable of something like this, Bass. You're always surprising. But how is it that you're here? After the apocalypse I didn't dare hope that any of you were alive..."

Bass let Roll explain. He just wanted to sit there and listen to Dr. Light's voice. For once it felt like the old days, and everything that happened before Dr. Light's death vanished. It was wonderful to forget, and to let go of all the pain of what he had done, or failed to do, was pure bliss. All the same, Roll was telling Dr. Light about X and the others. Bass wasn't the most observant of robots, but he could help but notice Roll wasn't telling that much about herself. It was as though she thought there wasn't much to tell.

"Hey Roll." Bass said. "This is your job."

"What do you mean?" She turned back to him curiously.

"Eh, well you always like taking care of Dr. Light a century ago, so why not keep doing it now?"

"Part of me kinda regrets deleting that first scene." GrimMoody explained. "I liked how well it was written - it was a good inspiration day. However, it was taking too long to get to the mission, and overall this mission wasn't a big part of the plot. And after I wrote that deleted scene, I had so much trouble writing more afterwards, because I wasn't sure how this mission was going to go. Hence the second scene. Ugh, I just had to get rid of the second one. It really made the Mavericks look dumb, and that was a bad way to go when the Mavericks here are based on reviewers. Also, it really hurt the Darling Malachite character to not be more in control of the situation. Darling is someone who is strong and smart despite his appearance, and I didn't want him to look like just some cheesy upstart.

"For the last scene, that's just an alternate version of Roll finding out what happened to Dr. Light. I scrapped it because the conversation when Dr. Light was finally active was just too dull for me, and I wanted to give Bass a chance to talk to Light alone. It's more about him coming to grips with being a scientist than anything else. Also, I don't think Bass would want to risk things going wrong right in front of Roll."

"Hey Moody?" Gold asked. "Can I ask you some questions?"

"Sure thing, little floating head dude. What's on your minds?"

"Well, first of all," Silver asked. "Where's Roll right now? You took her into your in-between world, but we haven't seen her since."

Grimm cracked her neck as she remembered. "Oh yeah. Let's check on her."

The projector screen lit up with the image of Roll in a world full of swirling images. The only thing stable there was the metal walkway Roll stood on. Roll herself wasn't wearing the winter clothes anymore, but a long, green dress with no sleeves and a lace shawl. She looked up curiously.

"GrimMoody? Is that you? What's going on? I thought we were going to go fix everything like you said."

"Hey, chickie." Moody waved. "Yeah, we still are. I just had to do something first. Since this place is outside of time, the delay won't affect anything, so don't worry about that. Ah, I think you wandered into the part of my imagination that thinks up fancy outfits. Sorry I left you out there. You wanna come over where I am?"

Suddenly a puff of smoke appeared around Roll, and as the smoke blew away, it revealed Roll wearing an entirely different dress. It was a shimmering red dress with one strap that went over the shoulder. Most of the dress was simple, but the strap was a poofy frill, the only eccentric part of an otherwise classy style. Roll gasped with delight.

"No, I'm good!" she squealed. "Um, maybe I can stay here for a few more minutes..."

"Okay, have fun then. I'll find you when I'm done here." Grimm waved at the screen, and the image disappeared. "Hm, she's fine. Next question?"

"Where did your inspiration for this story come from?" Gold asked.

Silver piped up. "Where did your inspiration for me come from?"

The author laughed. "Well, my inspiration for you, Ping, came from the reviewer Clzh and Clzh-X. He's since changed his name to something silly, but honestly it's hard to look at a name like that without thinking of floating robot heads. You're based more on the personality of Clzh-X, the crazier of the two personalities. As for this story, well, it's been planned out for a while. Well, I've had the idea for a while. Even back in Okkusenman I was thinking about something like this, but I wasn't sure if I was going to go as far as the X series. After watching a bunch of X game playthroughs on youtube, I kinda liked the characters and wanted to give them an opportunity to show themselves. But actually, I had so much inspiration at the beginning, but it got harder later because that inspiration ran out."

"We're not inspiring enough for you?" Gold said. "We can do an interpretive dance if it helps."

"Nah, thanks. It was my fault. I had so much inspiration for the beginning that I didn't have a clear vision for the end. I didn't even expect Afterlife to last this long as a story. I had the first...eh, like four chapters up in my head, and the scene where Roll and Bass talk on the side of the cliff, but there wasn't much besides that. I mean, I did a fair amount of improv work for the other stories, but for this one it didn't work out as well. I was losing confidence because of some hard reviews to boot. I guess I should take it as a sign people care a lot about my fiction, but still.

"Bah, I'm too sensitive sometimes. I don't mind people so much correcting me or pointing out what they think is wrong, but I don't like to feel like I'm being attacked or disrespected. I think at least one of those hateful reviews was due to an irrelevant disagreement on a completely different topic, but yeah. I would like to thank Laryna6 and Kaelenmitharos for their their extra support. Kaelen backed me up and really gave me the confidence to continue, and Laryna actually came out and questioned my choices with Alia's character in a pm. Replying to her affirmed my choice, but also gave me a firmer basis for Alia's nature and inspired Alia's actions in later chapters. It was really cool."

"What was the deal with Alia anyway?" Silver started bouncing from his chair to Gold's. "Why was she being such a jerk?"

"Long story short, her history with Gate kind of scared her." GrimMoody made a hot mug of coffee appear in her hands, and she took a long drink. "Yums. Anyway, the whole thing with Gate made Alia more afraid of people around her putting up with obvious threats. Gate wasn't safe, and the whole thing with Zero took her by surprise. I think most people's objections to Alia freaking out came from the lack of reaction from everyone else that knew about him. Signas isn't the sort of person to freak out, it would be insanely difficult to get X to hate Zero, and it's not in Axl's nature to freak out at first. His was more of a delayed reaction because he didn't put in much though about Zero being the source of the virus until later. Alia didn't get a lot of time in the games, but it just didn't seem like her to just let this sail on by without reaction. Besides, I always hate it in stories when authors present a conflict, but then just deflate it right off because none of the characters seem to care about it even though it was built up to be a big deal."

"Why don't people like what you did with Alia?"

GrimMoody shrugged. "I don't know. I think it's because they had their own ideas about what Alia is like, and they sort of expected me to follow that. Or maybe they just thought Alia wasn't the kind of person to freak out. Well, for the most part she is, but the trouble with her is we don't really get to see her too much, and I like how this reaction got her more plot time. We really don't get to see enough of her, not even in fanfiction."

"Besides adding more me to the plot," Gold said as he too joined Silver in bouncing in the chairs. "What would you do differently?"

Grimm took another sip of coffee. "I'm not sure. I'm tempted to go back and cut the length. This story was never about fighting or action, and I've got a lot of it in there. Way more than I expected. However, it just seems weird to me to have this story be nothing but talk, and it was important for Bass' character to have to relate to violence and his declining participation in it. Other than that, I just don't know. Maybe spare some of the Mavericks I created and use them later or something, I don't know. I hope it makes people happy that I used some of the reviewer Mavericks in the story. I couldn't use all of them, but yeah, there some are."

"Yeah, that would make this story way too gimmicky!"

"Totally gimmicky!"

GrimMoody chuckled. "Says the reviewer Maverick. Anyway, I'd also just be more confident. A lot of people seemed to have specific expectations for this story. You should listen to reviewers, but there are times when you just have to stand by the choices you made. I really liked a lot of things about the X series, but everyone seems to think I hate it. Not so, not so. As a writer, I treat the X canon with the same respect I would any other. Anyway, let me ask you guys a couple of things. Like, what's it like to be a Maverick?"

"It's not bad!" Gold replied, settling back on the top of the chair. "We get to fight stuff all the time. It's way better than being security reploids. That's what we were before, but we didn't get to zap people nearly as much!"

"Did you like how I used you in the story?"

"Sure!" Silver answered. "We got to beat up Bass, and we fought Axl! I wish we could've fought Zero."

"Why?" Grimm finished her coffee. "He would have kicked your butts."

"We don't have butts." Silver said, hovering in the air and turning around. "See?"

"Yeah, and he wouldn't kick us." Gold added. "He would swing at us with his saber and we'd fly like baseballs. Wheee!"

Ping promptly flung both his half at the back wall, and they laughed their buzzing guffaws as they fell down to the stage floor. GrimMoody looked down at her watch.

"Hey, you guys, I'm going to put up another deleted scene now. Come on and watch it."

"Sure!"

"Okay!"

- From Chapter 13

Layer reached in to pet Mungo and see if she could get his hair to go down. It wouldn't, no matter how much she tried, but this only delighted Layer. She went to pet Jerry so that he would get a chance for some affection before she went back to sit down next to Zero again. A whining sounded as she sat, and it was Treble. He nosed her, whining more. Layer wrinkled her nose. This was Bass' dog, and she wasn't sure if she wanted to be close to it.

"You can pet him." Bass said. "He won't hurt you. He likes women."

Layer frowned. She didn't trust Bass at all, but if only to stop the whining she reached down and petted Treble. He wagged his tail, and Layer decided that she liked him. He was just too adorable to judge just because of his master.

Zero, noticing the dog, decided that he was going to pet him too. He went to reach out and pet Treble, only to have the wolf's fangs bare as he snapped at the readily available fingers. Zero immediately snatched away his hand, looking up to an evilly grinning Bass.

"Stay the hell away from my dog, Sis."

-t-

Layer was busily trying to pet down the tuft of fur sticking out from Mungo's head (it wasn't working, much to her delight), when Roll was bringing her another present.

"Oh, this is for me?" Layer took it. "And it's from...Zero!"

The navigator quickly went back to her seat to unwrap this one, and she carefully pulled off the wrapping paper without tearing it.

"Treble, can you push the piggies to the side, please?" Roll asked him. "I don't want anyone to trip on them."

"Rwoof!"

Treble slid the cage around the Christmas tree with his nose, then scooted it against the wall. That done, he sniffed at the things with curiosity, a little too much in fact. Bass saw this at once.

"Treble!" he ordered, pointing at the box that had once held his new rifle.

Whining slightly, the wolf nonetheless obeyed. He sat down next to the box and began to chew on it, rather than the little beasts. By this time, Layer had finished with her delicate unwrapping, and underneath it was a little box. Layer opened it, finding a delicate silver bracelet with with intertwining silver branches. Little garnets decorated the bracelet, as did tiny silver leaves.

"Oh, it's so beautiful!" Layer gushed. "Thank you, Zero!"

"I saw you looking at things like that during the inspection tour in Italy." he said. "I also got similar bracelets for Alia and Pallette. Do you think they'll like them?"

Though outwardly Layer smiled, her mind was groaning, cursing up a storm. But still she smiled.

"Sure, of course they will..."

"Man, I really liked the Christmas bit. It was fun." Moody grinned. "It was just going on too long and I didn't want it to bog down too much of the story. That's the main reason those first two scenes got cut. As for the third, Zero might be bad at buying presents, but he's not that bad. I wanted to play with the crush drama that was going on, but this didn't turn out that great. It seems weird to me that Zero and Layer would work together this long without knowing knowing each other better. Zero might get Alia and Pallette generic presents, but not Layer, especially not after how the year went for Zero. This next scene I didn't have room for either, but I consider it canon to my plot."

- From Chapter 13

Layer sat down at her station. She didn't like having to work on Christmas, but someone had to do it. Besides, it was about time Alia was able to go down and enjoy all of the decorations Roll had set up. Layer tapped the keyboard methodically, pulling up the reports and assignments. There wouldn't be too much to do today other than patrol, but since Mavericks seemed eager to spoil everyone else's fun, the threat was likely that they would do something, or at least try. The Hunters had to be ready.

The purple navigator glanced to her left. Pallette was still guiding some of the Hunters back as others would take their places, so that meant Layer had a few minutes to get aware of Arcadia's situation that day. So far everything seemed peaceful, but someone had to keep it that way. Layer reached into her inbox without looking, intending on pulling the top paper from it. That would be her normal patrol mission objectives, assuming that nothing was found. Instead of landing on a comfy pad of paper, her fingers jammed into something substantially more solid than air. She glanced over at it.

It was a box, wrapped up in purple and gold wrapping paper. The green ribbon on it was also trimmed in gold, cheerfully holding on the string tag. Lifting the tag, Layer saw that this was a gift to her from Zero. She glanced behind her. Zero was talking to Alia about something, and they seemed to be focused on something within a notebook.

Must be mission reports or something.

Layer gave the activity no more thought. She was too curious to just let this pass. She had a minute to unwrap the gift and see what it was. Gently she pulled away the ribbon and the paper. Underneath all the fancy wrappings was a journal. Its cover was leather, and the design imprinted on it was of an older style, calling back days long ago of antiques; a world now gone. A strip of purple knitted in the spine of the book served as a bookmark. Alongside the journal was a pen, but not just any pen. It was an older pen with a sharp tip. The inkwell that came with it also revealed the antiquity of the gifts. Curious, Layer opened the journal in the middle. The pages were unlined for greater freedom of script, and thick to prevent bleeding.

The navigator wasn't sure she understood why Zero had given this to her. She didn't keep a journal. Surely he knew that by now. She wasn't even sure that she liked this. Layer flipped through the pages, and as they stopped on the first page, she caught her breath. The words written there were in Zero's careful handwriting.

She read them silently.

"Layer. I'm always thankful that you are my navigator. You have been supportive for me this year when I needed it the most, and I appreciate you for it. Thank you, Layer. Hopefully you'll be able to fill this journal with all the good things that happen next year. Merry Christmas, 21XX. Zero."

Layer smiled, filling with a warmth that reached right down to her toes. This was as deep as Zero ever seemed to get, but it meant a lot. In fact, everything began to make perfect sense. This journal would never be something Layer picked out for herself. She was more interested in clean, modern designs. Zero was the one that liked older things. This was a gift from his heart.

A shadow fell over her workplace. She looked up and smiled. It was Zero leaning over the side of her desk.

"Thanks for the gift." Layer said, too nervous to say anything else. "I really like it."

Zero's smile was like a light rain in the spring, perfectly friendly. "I thought you would. What's the patrol for today?"

Layer handed him the assignment paper, letting him review it as always. As they both went over the locations, resources, and Hunters chosen, Layer couldn't help but feel like today was still Christmas, even though they were working. She let her eyes slip from the computer to look at the leather journal once more.

He really doesn't know me that well at all. she chuckled inwardly.

"So there you go!" GrimMoody announced. "That's the deleted scenes I got for you this time. Hey Ping, what say we check on our good friend Signas and the guy-we're-going-to-get-a-restraining-order-on Sigma?"

"Yeah!"

"Double yeah!"

With that affirmative, GrimMoody went over to the projector and wiped her hand across it again. Once more the redneck country pub came into view, and all three viewers were amazed to see that Sigma and Signas were sitting next to each other at the bar, laughing their heads off. Bottles littered the bar, and both brother each held another in his hand. Somehow, Sigma had found a black sombrero with complex gold beading, which dazzled atop his head.

"Oh crap," Moody backed away from the screen. "Somebody invented reploid alcohol..."

"Man...hey, hey seriously," Sigma slapped Signas on the back, leaning back and forth as he spoke. "I would..would totally infect you with the virus."

"Really?" Signas said. "You mean it?"

"You...you're my brother, and if I can infect that...those...that...sssstupid Flame Hyenard..."

Sigma stopped, thunking his bottle down on the bar. Scratching his head with the apparently difficult effort of trying to remember what he was saying.

"Then...that means I can let you be in my club too!" Sigma proudly finished, taking a long drink to celebrate.

"That...that actually means a lot to me." Signas attempted to cover his mouth as he burped, but the effort was useless. "Excuse me. Anyway, it always seemed like you avoided giving me the virus all these years because...well, I replaced you. I know that this is silly, but...thanks."

"I love you too, Exuh...Esselssior...guh, your first name is too complicated."

Sigma waved his hand as if to dismiss the name, forgetting that this was the hand holding his beer. It sloshed out over the counter before slipping out of his hand. It crashed to the floor with an explosion of foam and glass. The drunken Maverick master stared at this as if it were a complicated puzzle.

"...I broke my beer."

The commander rolled his eyes and took another drink. "I'll admit I never cared for your first name either. How can you name a fighter reploid 'Luminous'?"

"I know! And like...like...I don't glow or anything! You'd think I would with a name like that. Our dad sucks at naming things." Sigma slammed his fist into the counter, hollering, "BEER ME, FOUL HUMAN!"

The bartender, out of sight of the perspective of the vision, slid another brown bottle down the bar. Sigma ripped off the bottletop and started to chug. Signas thought a moment about trying to get Sigma to stop drinking, but then he just shrugged.

"Ahaaha!" GrimMoody laughed. "Oh man, the dudes are drunk!"

"I am not." Signas retorted. "This is my third beer. My esteemed brother, on the other hand...well, let's just say it's a good thing he's an excellent drunk."

"Really?"

"Oh yes, he's quite sociable in this state."

"I wish this bar had like...a karaoke box or something. Er, juke box. Yeah." Sigma started spinning his bottle on the counter. "I like that song Friends in Low Places."

"This is silly, but I actually like that song as well." Signas admitted.

"Hey, wait...wait, that song is true!" Sigma exclaimed. "You do have friends in low places! I live in low places! What a deep song!"

Sigma's bottle slipped out of his hand as he spoke, shattering as it hit the floor. He surveyed the fallen beer with dismay.

"Oh, foul human!" he called in a sing-song voice.

A female voice called out in reply as another beer headed their way. "You two are lucky this is a slow night."

"I take it you guys are friends now." Moody said. "Hehe.."

"As close as we can be." Signas shrugged as he eyed the drunken Maverick. "Axl always did say that the only good Maverick was a dead one, and well, Sigma is dead now. Hey wait, now that you're changing the timeline so that the Maverick Wars never happen, does this mean I'm dead as well? After all, I was created as a result of the wars."

"Er, well...no..." GrimMoody nervously cracked her fingers. "Nonexistant is a little bit different from dead..."

"Just great. Can I at least get out of this bar now?"

"Eh...sure."

The country pub view shut off, and instantly Sigma and Signas reappeared onstage. Signas waved Ping's gold head away from a chair to go sit down, but Sigma was otherwise preoccupied.

"Where is my drink, foul human brew wench?" Sigma shouted. "And bring me a juke box!"

"Yeesh. That's not funny anymore." Moody said. She clapped her hands twice. "You are now undrunk!"

With a lurching snap, Sigma straightened, his eyes wide as dinner plates. He groaned and rubbed his head.

"Ugh, what happened?" he asked as he pulled off his hat. "I don't remember...what was I doing? And why do I have this headache? Where did this sombrero come from?"

"I dropped an anvil on your head." the author explained with a grin.

"That doesn't explain the sombrero."

"Yes it does. Now go sit down, we're at the end of the show. I'd like to say thanks to Queen Sunstar, Goddra2, Tylterra, FanFicGuy, Josunurashima, Lalalei, Anmynous, and MungoJerry for following along with my series for so long. Thanks for the commentary, though! Oh, and hey, you guys don't need to apologize for not reviewing. It's not like you're required to review, though it is nice. While I'm at it, does anyone else have any comments for the reviewers?"

"You will all fall in the reploid revolution." Sigma hissed at the camera once he was settled into his chair and the sombrero was tossed aside. "Especially YOU, Gabigirl. After her, Jade Ryuuseigun will be next. I will personally murder you both! Er, I would if I weren't dead, that is. You were lucky this time! ShadowNeko! Teribane! How could you possibly support this trash that GrimMoody calls a story? You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

"Ignore him." Signas muttered. "I almost wish it was canon that someone invented reploid beer. Sigma is much more tolerable drunk. Anyway, thank you for reading this, GlassSuicune, ShadowFox777, Vienrider, Loneseason, Thomas, DarkHydra, and Seventh Shade. I'm glad that you enjoyed this work, and don't worry about Sigma. I'll keep him under control."

"We like your name, Symphonic Sweet!" Ping danced around the stage. "We like to say it a lot! Symphonic Sweet! Symphonic Sweet! We like you too, Laryna! But we don't like you, Kae-len-mi-tharos. Your name is not fun to say at all!"

"Hey, watch what you say about reviewers!" GrimMoody glared. "Best watch it, Ping. Anyway, thanks to all the people that favorited and did author alerts for my stories. I really appreciate all of you. And that's it for today's show! Goodbye, everyone! See you in the epilogue!"

With that, the stage and all three guests vanished away, fading out as the inbetween world reappeared. Roll stood there, dressed in a fabulous red ballgown. There was no end of glistening sequins and gemstones all over her poofy dress, making her look something between a princess and a cupcake. Princess won the final round with the marvelous tiara sitting atop Roll's magnificent updo.

"Hey, don't you look spiffy?" Moody said. "But it's time to go now. We've got to get you back to the place where we can set things right."

With a clap of her hands, Moody made the ballgown disappear, replaced instantly with the winter clothes that Roll had been wearing before. The housekeeper-bot pouted a little, but she recovered quickly, stiffly nodding her head. She silently acknowledged her readiness.

"Okay, chiquita." GrimMoody said. "Start walkin'. We've got a mission to start."

"When this is over, can I have some of these dresses?"

"I'll think about it."

\\\\\\\\\

X

"One day we will have the future we always dreamed of!"

Good point: caring

Bad point: sometimes depressed

Likes: Mario games

Dislikes: hurting others

X is like Mega Man in the sense that you don't really know him as well as the others, because you fight from his perspective. He's a little easier to tell, what with his not liking war and whatnot. I put hurting others rather than war for his dislike because it's more personal, and X is the type of person who wants to bless, not hurt. He feels things at a deeper level than any other robot in the Mega Man series. I sort of dislike X for being a whiner, but it makes perfect sense in the context of the games. For someone who was not intended to show up in the X series at all (originally, Zero was the one being considered for the part), he's actually pretty well thought out as a character. If they come out with an X9, they really need to give him a new plotline. We've had enough experience with him mourning wars and mourning the many losses of Zero. I mean, come on, this is the X series.

Zero

"I never considered myself a hero."

Good point: confident fighter

Bad point: hides his fears

Likes: Japanese culture

Dislikes: nosy people

Zero is really cool. He's pretty much stolen the X series from X, particularly after X5. For someone whose plot has always been sort of up in the air (they had to find a place for him since X was going to be the Mega Man), he's been really interesting. I like to imagine the normal Zero, the one who isn't fighting. What does he do in his free time? I figure he's into Japanese culture because of all his weapon gets are in japanese. To me, Zero's very peaceful when not fighting, and likes to do things on his own, particularly if X isn't around. X is the one that gets him to be more social. It's necessary for Zero, because he's more task oriented than people oriented.

Axl

"My trigger finger is starting to itch!"

Good point: optimistic

Bad point: gun happy

Likes: dogs

Dislikes: idle thoughts

Axl may look like a kitty but he acts like a puppy: he's cute, overaggressive, and loyal. This character might have annoyed some people when he showed up on the scene, but I attribute that to the general suckitude of X7. I got his dislike from X8, where he's the only one that can really deflect the poisonous words of Lumine at the end. Lumine's ranting doesn't get to him because in a way he's a simplistic robot, and he doesn't really get complex philosophy, or why it's particularly necessary. He sees the world in a more black and white sense, without troubling himself too much by thinking of the troubles and debates that X is always going on about. He enjoys the present, and he thinks that as long as people just be kind to each other, then everything will be okay. His personality never really lets him think of negative things, for long, anyway. He doesn't deliberately ignore them, he just doesn't dwell on things.