Well, people asked for it and well I wanted to. I like writing X9. I also like to write something for Christmas every year and with Samurai Jack finally continuing his epic quest, why not also continue my rendition of the previous chapter had occurred as apposed to the actual episode. Merry Christmas everyone!

UPDATE: (12/17/2015) Fixed up some grammatical errors and added some detail to some scenes.

Secret Noel

By: RobotFox

X9's POV

The last several months have been an experience, one of which I didn't ever see coming. I once was content with her, the next thing I knew, I was aiding and abetting a wanted criminal, and next I'm on the run.

It all started with Aku taking her away...Lulu...sweet thing. I wouldn't get her back unless I stood up against his biggest thorn in his side, a wondering samurai simply known as Jack. I confronted him as I was forced to do and surprisingly I came up on top. But Aku bamboozled me, he didn't just take away her away, he killed her. My Lulu...sweet thing.

From there, Jack and I teamed up and we were able to escape from Aku's grasp. After that Jack needed to heal from his injuries and I needed to bail as well. I left him a radio in case he ever needed help, because I knew as long as he was standing, Aku would always have someone to fear.

Since then however, I've become a like a drifter or an underground jobber. While I'm sure my bounty isn't nearly as desirable as Jack's or even that Scotsman's guy I've seen advertised now and again, I knew I had hired guns after me as well.

So mostly I just drive wherever while occasionally do some work for money, need to keep a low profile so mostly do simple guarding of events or whatever quick buck I can get while staying low. Fortunately being a machine meant money was easy to save, I usually just got whatever I or my car needed. Though I am considering upping my arsenal, things may be getting rough with mercs on my back.

Which leads me to my current position now. I was hired as part of a small protection detail for an event for a religious ceremony that apparently a group of believers celebrate this time of year. The celebration must remain hidden from the general public or else they could be in serious trouble.

Religion wasn't illegal under Aku as much as it was just strongly regulated. Aku didn't play favorites either; Christians, Judaism, Buddhism, didn't matter, unless of course it centered around him. All sermons had to be monitored by Aku thus having them heavily rewritten in turn making Church and Temple services completely lose their meaning.

And with that all of them have their own holidays but the Master of Darkness made celebrating any of them, regardless of the traditions within each holiday could not be celebrated. Which is why I am hired, keep a lookout for any of Aku's goons or mercs so they could celebrate the holiday in peace, underground, shielded from the outside world.

Christians around this time celebrated a holiday called Christmas. I have no connection with this or any holiday so I have no true attachment to any of this beyond the check. But it's not my place to judge, Aku took away something from these people, just like he took away something from me...

Third-Person

The hired machine patrolled the underground city just on the outskirts of one of my many mega cities. It had it's own charm however, the above ground look like a bunch of simple homes and some smaller shops, but underground was a small humble city. It wasn't nearly as impressive as one of the mega cities, but it had it's own charm, that being a haven for people searching for a place away from Aku's always watching eye.

The city was covered in garland, wreaths, lights, and trees. There were some declarations of a holy family in a manger in some locations and of course a church that was made sermonize freely of the religion's meaning of the Christmas Holiday.

Aside from the church, the town was merely a walking town, no vehicles. It was made up of simple prefab buildings though set up in a permanent locations. It was made up of mostly small shops, eateries, and other services that the underground city could provide. The whole city was lit by solar flood lights from the service as well as simple oil lamps. But the city was fully decorated with the bright colors, trees, and lights.

X9 however stuck to the job. He didn't socialize with anyone as much as he just monitored everyone looking for any of the many different goons or mercs he happen to know about. He wasn't sure if Aku would really spend time and effort just to stop a particular holiday to be celebrated but he didn't fault the believers for wanting to be extra cautious and hired some extra protection just in case.

But the machine had to admit, he was curious about what made this celebration stand out as so grand as to decorate the entire city with all the bright colors. After walking around the perimeters of the underground city he finally stopped at one of the many shops that was selling paraphernalia pertaining to the holiday, most of which were handcrafted due to manufacturing of said items was illegal as well as risk for the believers themselves. The one most noteworthy was the thing he had seen many times already, a manger with a mother, father, and a baby in a straw bed.

The machine's red optics merely blinked looking at the sight. Obviously it was centered around the birth of this child, but what significance did it hold? Who was it? What had the birth of this particular child any different from another?

He didn't have time to dwell on this, he had to keep moving on his patrol, but he did keep an audio receptor active to listen to any persons explaining all the fun they were having and got some clues on the events of this child that made it stand out. But he could only process so much, his priority was still on keeping the place safe for the people so they could celebrate.

After another hour of patrolling the area, X9 was planning on making his way to the entrance to stand guard for awhile till he noticed something that caught his optic. One person within the crowded small underground town stood out. The man was merely walking around with his eyes blankly forward, barely making any notion of any of the people he was passing by. He was wearing normal clothing like the rest of the people, just a brown shirt and black pants. He also had energy rifle on his back.

Guns or weapons in general weren't suspicious really, most people in cities like this, regardless of their security were often armed. But not many people would carry more than just a knife, a sword or some kind of handgun. Unless their occupation warranted it, it stood out to be carrying a weapon like that.

X9 also noted his walking...it was, for a lack of a better term, stilted. Even he moved more fluidly then it did. The machine did his best to keep his attention on it without drawing attention, trying to be focusing on something completely other than the being he was trailing. The machine keep his optics on the being as it stiltedly continued to walk through town, seemly toward the center, where the church was.

All of a sudden, X9 bumped into something so hard it knocked him to the ground. He looked up his red optics and saw a large muscular orange haired man, wearing a plaid kilt, white shirt, had a broad sword on his back, and perhaps most notably a machine gun as a leg.

"Watch where you are going to bucket of bolts!" He sneered out through his teeth with a Scottish accent.

X9 stood back up to face him, only to realize the man was actually taller than him "I've heard of you."

The large man smirked at the machine "Aye, the most wanted man on this planet." he chuckled "Of course I have competition now with that Samurai with the magic sword, good fellow though."

X9 only blinked "You mean Jack."

"Aye." it was then the large man squinted for a moment before growling and drawing his sword looming down at the machine. X9 reacted quickly jumping to the side as the large sword came crushing through the ground. X9 drew his two pistols as the man faced him with a sword in a fighting position.

The people in the street either ran or loomed over the two of them as they made their seen. A circle formed as everyone watched intensely on the two of them with their drawn weapons of choice.

"What was that about?" X9 questioned.

"You think I'm dumb? I know what'ch you are. You're one of Aku's battle drones. You guys wreaked one of my families' bars. And I sure as my wife's haggis that I'm not going to let you ruin these peoples' Christmas!" The Scotsman growled.

X9 couldn't honestly remember what he was talking about. But then again, he and his emotionless 'brothers' as it were did take down numerous bars that Aku or any of his superiors felt needed to be eradicated. "I don't work for Aku anymore."

"Sure you don't." he mocked though no humor could be seen in his expression or tone "You just thought you'd stop by celebrate the holidays. I don't see it."

X9 glared at him "I was hired protection for this celebration, last thing I need-"

BOOM!

An explosion occurred a distance away from them, coming from the church. All the people surround them immediately ran away from there, fearing for their lives along with people coming from the church's direction. The two of them were no longer focusing on each other but at the explosion that just occurred a distance away from them.

X9 immediately ran through the crowd, guns still drawn to see what had just occurred, his processor focusing on the man he was following earlier. Not too surprisingly he noticed the Scottish man he was facing earlier was running toward the explosion too though not necessarily toward him.

The small city's population had cleared the area as well as the church which may have been occupied. When X9 made it there, the man he was looking over was facing the explosion now holding his energy rifle. The explosion merely blew out the doors of the wooden church and there was only a small fire but the area was clear.

The black fedora wearing machine glared his red optics as he aimed one of automatic pistols at the man he was trailing earlier "Lower your weapon."

The being turned it's waist holding out the rifle in one hand and fired. The machine dodged the red beam of energy as it hit the ground behind him, causing a crater. X9 returned fire but to his surprise, while he was hitting him, it wasn't doing anything to him, aside from the pealing flesh, it didn't phase him as he fired again turning around completely.

He jumped to the side, dodging the blast again but started strafing as he now fired both his handguns at the being but still showed little effect.

All of a sudden, the Scotsman that had opposed him earlier came to the other side and slashed the being in half. X9 stopped firing as he looked over Scotsman and then at his former target. What laid there was not a human being but another machine, but had a flesh covering him.

X9 walked over to the corpse and got a better look. There was no blood at all or organs, it was merely robot parts now covered in false flesh. It only served the purpose to cover, the robotic structure was like a skeleton inside, the only fluid was the oil from the machine.

"A T-model" X9 uttered silently. He then looked back up to the Scotsman who was confused at what they were looking at but at least he wasn't trying to kill him still, at least for now.

"A what? Can't say I've seen a bucket of bolts like this before." the man uttered.

"It was another line of my model." X9 explained as he holstered his handguns a took the energy rifle from the ground. "Aku ordered an infiltrator unit when my model was running as his infantry. They didn't workout though. Even though they could take more punishment then the main guys, any rebel group paying enough attention could tell that they were just what they were; a flesh covered drone."

"So what are they doing here?" The large man growled pointing his sword at X9's face "Don't think I've forgotten who I'm talking to. You say you don't work for Aku and here we are. Another bucket of bolts with a birthday suit just happens to be here too. You better start getting your story straight lad!"

The machine merely kept a gaze on his opponent's eyes for a moment till he caught a glimpse of a red beam of energy behind them. "Move!"

The two of them jumped in opposite directions as a beam of energy hit where they once were the impact knocked them both to the ground. X9 however reacted quickly, taking the recently acquired rifle and firing it at the one trying to take them out. The red stream of energy traveled thus causing an explosion, destroying the assassin.

Just as the two of them started to get back up, they saw multiple T-models walking toward them. All of them exactly the same; clothing, blank expression, and an energy rifle. They all came from multiple directions, enclosing them to only the now destroyed entrance to the church.

"How many of these things are there?" The Scotsman yelled out as he readied his sword.

X9 looked around "Don't know. I thought all of them were turned to scrap for those beetle drones."

X9 wasn't lying, he thought all of them were decommissioned and turned into scrap metal. Technically, there are other still existing machines, same model as him but they are mostly now just simple security that people bought back when they were still being manufactured. Only other way to get them would be finding them in an abandoned factory if they still worked.

But the T-model was hard to believe. They weren't as popular as many scientist believed they would be. The perfect killing machine that could easily infiltrate any rebel base of operations. But they all were stock, anyone paying attention would easily catch what they were. They didn't have the same emotions chip that X9 was given, and without emotions, they easily gave themselves away.

But X9 was lead to believe that they all got destroyed since they didn't serve their design purpose well. So where and who sent them to come here to stop the holiday?

"We're surrounded." The machine said idly.

"Brilliant perception." the man sneered thinking of their next move. "Any other things you'd like point out before they start firing?"

It was then a loud, piercing, sound echoed around them. It was the sound of metal cutting rapidly against metal in the matter of a second. The two of them turned to the origin it echoed from. Three of the T-models that were facing them fell face first into the ground revealing their fate bringer, a man holding onto a katana.

"Jack laddy!" the Scotsman cried out with a smile.

X9 stood surprised but didn't complain "Samurai Jack."

The T-models immediately opened fire on all three of them as they all spread out to take on the small army of bio-mechanical beings. Jack went straight to the air to the roof of a building as the Scotsman and X9 went their own directions slashing or blasting their way through them as they continued to advance toward them.

X9's POV

Can't say I'd ever expected to be in a war against essentially my own kind. Along side two of the most wanted men on the planet. I honestly wasn't too concerned about my chances. Even if these things were tougher built and heavily plated armor, I still felt we all had a good chance.

My time as Aku's army showed me that I had some thing over my brothers that made me stand out from the rest in a fight, emotions. I had will to survive, I had anger to fuel me through the fight, and even pain. I could tell by the way they moved, the way they looked, the way they fought, they were no different from my brothers.

Standing there with barely any movement beyond firing their rifles at one of us. My brothers did the same, so much capability and yet they only knew the simplest of motions.

Third-Person

The three ran throughout the whole small town as T-models continued to show up from seemingly nowhere for about half an hour. Towns people were still around, however, they mostly went into hiding deep in some of the buildings, keeping them safe. The T-models however, didn't seem to be focusing on the people as they were on the three of them.

X9 strafed to the side as he fired the rifle three times, taking out another T-series before entering into a small building. There he saw Jack slash another one T-models, Scotsman behind him before they both entered the building as well. The machine closed it quickly before turning to them.

"There's still plenty of them." he mused.

"Then we keep fightin'! Aku can send as many he wants of those birthday suit wearing bucket of bolts, they ane't got nothing on the two of us!" referring to Jack and himself. He then smiled looking back at his old friend "Good to see yah though laddy. Come to celebrate the holiday did yah?"

Jack smiled at his friend's kind notion despite the situation "No, I'm afraid not. I have to keep moving. I was only passing through when someone informed me of an attack to this secret city. I will not have innocents be harmed." He then turned to X9 who was currently by the door with the rifle "What has been the situation?"

X9 turned his attention to the samurai "Since our run in, I've been trying to keep a low profile, get the heat off both of us. Need to keep the car and myself running so I do some quick jobs, easy money. I was supposed to protect these people so they could celebrate this holiday."

"You're pull my leg, you two know each other?" The Scotsman asked surprised.

X9 nodded once. Jack continued "We've met, the two of us had escaped Aku's grasp where we met. He also saved my life." X9 was relieved that Jack left out details of how they met and under what circumstances. Also he didn't want to be reminded of Lulu right now. Plus he wanted to stay on the Scotsman's good side.

The Scotsman still looked skeptical at the machine but all of a sudden laughed as he heftily hit the back of X9, knocking him a bit forward "So you and Jack had an adventure too I see. Maybe there is a bit of truth to you after all laddy."

It was then the door made a loud banging noise. The three of them knew their breather was about to be over. "After we turn these things spit buckets, the drinks are on me!"

Jack smirked "No I will gladly buy the drinks."

"No, tis the season. I will-" he stopped when X9 fired through the door thus destroying the intruding T-model before it could get through. The three rushed out the door once again continuing their fight for the secret city and save the holiday celebration.

-One hour later-

The last bits of the fight were surprisingly underwhelming. In total there were only about two hundred but they were scattered all around the city, obviously attempting to merely destroy the celebration in and of itself. People were injured but there were no casualties. Even so however, the celebration and the spirit of the holiday came through.

The town cleared all of the destroyed T-series for liquidation, so they were taken care of and the people were still able to celebrate the belief in their savior's birth. However, the towns people knew that after today, they would have to abandon the town and start anew somewhere else hopefully without Aku's knowledge.

But for this one last day, Christmas would be celebrated in this small town without Aku's intervention or revision one last time. The people while scared thanked the three of them for their protection and praised their savior for working within them.

The three of them however were not going to the services that were for the holiday but rather at a bar inside the town. Jack and the Scotsman compromised by buying each other's drink while X9 was given oil and a micro fusion charger for a tiny energy boost.

"Shame you can't stay for Christmas laddy," The Scotsman spoke as he took a large sip "But for what it's worth, Merry Christmas!"

Jack clanked his mug with him "I wish for the best in merriment for you as well."

The Scotsman then turned to the machine "What about you? You about to hit the dusty trail as well?"

X9 turned his attention to the large man "I can't stay. I admit I find this holiday intriguing though. After all that has happened, they still are happy and willing to spend it together like nothing had happened. But I can't stay, all three of us together will be huge tip for any bounty hunters after us." he paused "Besides, I need to find out where these T-models came from." and with that he stood up and started his way out.

It was then that the Scotsman realized that this wasn't some simple minded machine. He would always remember the bars and everything else his model destroyed. But this one was different, he could feel, think, and seemed more human than any of those T-models they just took on. And if Jack trusted him then he could at least give him the light of day.

Jack turned to X9 as he walked out "I wish for the best in your travels. But don't feel that our paths can't cross again. We may need to assist each other again."

X9 turned to him with a rare smirk "We'll keep in touch."

I admit I like the other story better too. But I tired...and I know it's not very original but I tried...Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!