Author's note: in response to the questions of an anonymous reviewer, I'll clarify a few details.

1) The events of this story mostly take place after the fourth Maverick war, which the game Mega Man X4 depicts in heavily stylized form. Note that Zero still has fresh psychological wounds from "retiring" Iris; by any later in the series, I would expect him to have dealt with those issues one way or the other.

2) X and Zero's interdimensional slides have had a side effect that only Dr. Gate noticed or expected. I will point you to the 3rd to last paragraph in Chapter 2 for an explanation Dr. Gate gives of this idea. Perhaps more usefully, I've also added a bit from Gate's perspective to the first chapter, which will help explain his initial plan and give a sense of continuity regarding his actions. I apologize for any confusion; while I typically have them figured out more or less from the beginning, I'm not always good at representing my villains' evil plots in an intelligible way. Sorry.

Feel free to post suggestions for improvement in the reviews. If you have questions for me personally, please log in and post a signed review so I can reply to you personally. I won't post any more general responses in authors' notes; I prefer to write my work such that it speaks for itself.

Thank you for reading, and please enjoy.

Chapter 4: In which a reploid chooses her fate.

Waves washed up endlessly against the rocky shoreline, a soothing, rhythmic chorus of toneless fuzz. My body ached, its energies finally exhausted, and the sounds of nature continued on around me uninterrupted.

Why did I trust a woman in the first place? Desperation? Need?

I made such a stupid mistake. Everyone turns bad in the end—everyone. I have no special someone waiting out there for me, human or reploid.

Soft sea breezes caressed my cracked red armor; fire and fury had only died down once my energy reserves ran low. I lay on my back on the sandy pebbles. My eyes counted the stars that wheeled 'round the sky, and my ears listened idly to the sound of beach rock cracking as it cooled. My hands ached from pounding the scenery after my weapons ran out of juice. If a Maverick found me like this I'd die.

Slowly, ever so slowly, I felt my consciousness drift away into the dark. X's voice impinged quietly on my mind until I fell out of range. Real or imaginary? More like both.

Half-dreams and visions blended seamlessly to nightmares. Phantasms of Iris returned to taunt me again, but my soul gave back nothing but sadness; without self-hate and shame to fuel them anymore, the visions faded like shadows in the night.

Why did I trust her to begin with?

Why did I suddenly feel so thirsty?

X0X0X

"My eyes scanned the battlefield for survivors. Radio static from the distant lightning cannons flooded every com channel—all the time now, the smell of ozone tinged the air. Wails of suffering from the wounded carried far across the cracked desert hardpan.

"'When will it end, Tubois? Is this really the kind of revolution we all wanted?'

"My comrade shifted his cigar to the side of his mouth. "'No, but it's the kind we get. The world's gone crazy and we can't do nothin' to change that. Sometimes, kid, I think it don't matter whether we fight or not anymo—'"

A low moan woke me from the book in my hands. Alia turned slightly in her sleep, fingers twitching. Resting in a chair by her rejeuv pod, I stared into her beautiful face in the heat-light of the infrared spectrum. The young reploid shifted position slightly and relaxed once again.

I left my finger between the pages of the book and moved to brush her hair back from her eyes. She was beautiful, even asleep and with her hair a mess, even without light of the visible spectrum to give her face its color and shine. I can't imagine loving anyone as much as her. Is that wrong, to care so much for someone who doesn't understand what love means?

The blond's fist abruptly flew to smash me in the nose. I barely dodged far enough to avoid a stunning blow, and her other fist followed in time to land a grazing blow on my chin. My backward momentum carried me out of the chair and away from the rejeuv pod. Alia sprang out of sleep with a violent expression.

"Perverts! Get out of my…" She paused, blinking, and looked down at me. All at once the reploid's hands covered her mouth in horror and she climbed out of bed.

"Commander! I'm sorry, I just reacted—I lived with humans once —are you hurt? Oh, I'm sorry!"

I laughed and rubbed my nose. "You can't hurt me that easy. Try it again with a beam saber and you'd do some damage."

She knelt down beside me, concern still on her face. "What's wrong, though? Why did you come here to wake me? Are you feeling all right?"

I laughed again. "No, I just wanted to see you. I've been here since about three o'clock. It's almost dawn now."

Alia stared at me uncomprehendingly for a second, then blinked again and hugged me. "I'm sorry, I forgot we were boyfriend and girlfriend for a second. Did you want to do something after all?"

I shook my head, cheeks flushing pink at the suggestion. "No, Alia, it's not like that. Listen, I just finished talking with Zero a few hours ago. We didn't need to worry about forcing him to open up after all. He's going to be all right."

"Oh. That's good. That's really good." The blond shook her head and yawned. "Systems still getting up to speed. I'm always like this in the morning. You're not tired at all?"

"I slept last night. I don't need to rest every day unless I'm using more power than this. Zero won't need to recharge for long before he's up again either, by the way." I stood up, bringing Alia with me. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. Your nose…" She grabbed my face and peered closely. "Hold it, I can't see the damage properly in infrared. Lights on. Oh, good. You'll be fine."

Alia's room lighting clicked on the moment she spoke the word, giving the scientist a better look at my face. She smiled, then stopped and blinked. "Zero's all right, just like that? How long did you two talk?"

I considered that for a moment. "Once I caught him, we only spoke for about half an hour. I think the chase used up most of his stored energy."

She shook her head in wonderment. "Chase? In other words, you had to run him down. Huh. At least he's okay now."

"I really think he will be. He's never very specific about what's bothering him, but I could tell he had a lot of guilt over killing Iris and the Colonel. Based on how quickly he wore out, I'm guessing he hasn't eaten or slept properly for weeks; he didn't stand a chance when we traded fire with our busters."

Alia's eyes widened at this last statement. I nodded at her reaction and went on. "I know it sounds strange, but I think Zero needed to be defeated as much or more than he needed to talk. He needs a reminder now and then that he's not indestructible, that he can't go around acting like the whole world's on his shoulders. I also get the feeling that depriving his body and burning out his energy is part of his way of getting catharsis."

"Catharsis?" Alia's eyebrows squinched together; she looked embarrassed at not knowing the word. I nodded again.

"Catharsis, an emotional release or a purging of psychological distress. In Zero's case, he tends to take too much on himself and blame himself too much for what happens, and he needed to let go of that shame. Colonel and Iris did what they did knowing full well how he'd have to respond."

That last sentence came out a little harder than I meant as I forced my voice to stay calm. My mind's eye filled with visions of the young, proud Repliforce, and I took a moment to choke back tears. For their sake, I don't cry in front of the people that depend on me, not even Alia.

She waited silently for me to speak, her blue eyes dropping uncomfortably to the floor. Alia has never personally killed another reploid. Acting as a spotter, or an operator, isn't the same. I think she wonders if she would have the strength to do what Zero did.

When the moment had passed, I coerced a smile onto my face and changed the subject.

"Anyway, he's grieving normally now. Although, I don't think that particular stretch of coastline will ever be the same."

Alia smiled but didn't manage a laugh. I opened my mouth to speak when my communicator buzzed.

"A call at this time of morning?" A shiver cut through my body at the implications. I prepared to open a connection. "That's either really bad, or…hm. Hello, this is X."

"Commander." A girl's monotone voice crackled in. "This is Cataract. We found another capsule."

SXSXS

Sniff. "Mmmm." Sip. "Mmmmmmm."

Steam floated gently off the surface of my cup of boric acid. It was good and strong, just the way a Maverick Hunter General needs it. I walked down the hall towards Commander Ragnarok's quarters, cuppa' joe in one hand and fresh new assignment in the other. He'd enjoy the break from checking up on the satellite network anyway.

Schwoop. Bam!

Crash, tinkle-tinkle-tinkle.

"Signas! Do you know what this means? She loves me! Oh…whoops."

X looked down my front. Boric acid dripped slowly down the hard black chestplate, steam floating briefly from its surface before the liquid cooled. My fingers still clutched the mug's little broken handle. Standing behind her commander, Lieutenant Alia watched the pool of boric acid spread from around the broken ceramic fragments lying at my feet. The creamy white lump of titanium oxide had fallen on the toe of my boot. I wanted to cry.

Instead, I sighed. "You're excited this morning, X. Karaoke night again?"

"Um, no sir. I have a reproductive system now and I want Alia to have one too so Dr. Light's capsule is up in the Tetons and I'm going to Wyoming to have him give her some organs. Sorry about the mess, sir. Permission to take her with me?"

I could still taste it in my mouth. It was just enough to remind me how delicious it would have been. "Yes, Commander X. Whatever you feel necessary. Don't worry about my morning cuppa joe. By all means, go on your way."

He dashed off. Alia shouted, "Thank you, sir. It's for science," ripped off the smartest salute I'd seen since her last request for funds, and followed. I bent down to collect the broken fragments of my teacup and stopped.

"…organs?"

ASASA

Endless vistas spread out to our left, a steeply angled mountain slope. Ahead, a trail led windingly upwards. At the top of that trail stood a goal I didn't yet understand.

In hindsight, I'm glad I didn't. I might not have gone.

"And then he says, 'The situation should now be improved, X.' And then it's over. Weird dream, huh?"

X led me by the hand up the trail, talking up a storm. He gets a little like this when he's nervous. Thanks to regulations and some trouble with the teleporters, it had taken us a full half hour to gear up and set out for the capsule, and X hadn't stopped talking for more than a minute during that time. Simply keeping up with the constant stream of dialogue demanded a significant chunk of my processing power.

Then again, it isn't always like that. Commander X doesn't chatter at all during the most stressful times. When lives or livelihoods are at risk, he gets quiet and starts thinking so hard I swear I could hear his processors heating up. X is a complicated man.

"—Alia? What are you thinking about?" His voice woke me from my reverie. I jerked back to the situation with a start.

"Oh. I'm sorry. Com—um, X, are you sure Dr. Light will show up if I'm there with you? I mean, his capsules only ever activate for you. Shouldn't I stay out of sight at first?"

X blinked and scratched his helmeted head. We both had on our best armor in case Mavericks made a sudden appearance; they've done it plenty of times before. With that in mind, a squad from the 17th Elites had set up a perimeter around the mountain, allowing us to hike the final few hundred yards to the peak alone. HQ dropped us as close as possible, but apparently the capsule lay in a spot of teleportation "dead zone." I didn't mind much, though. The walk gave me a chance to think through more potential problems.

"Another thing—X, how sure are you that Dr. Light designed the upgrade for me in the first place? Do you think he programmed you to go after me specifically, and if he didn't, how would he know what kind of specs to use in the designs? I know it's your father we're talking about, but he's still only hu—well, mostly human, I think. Isn't he?"

X's face scrunched up more and more with each sentence. He looked deep in thought. I waited for him to speak for a good thirty seconds, and in that time his expression didn't change a bit. Finally he broke the silence.

"Hmm. Do you think we'll need a formal marriage? If it comes to that, I think we should hit Vegas for it. They get a lot of crazies through there anyway, so no one will notice."

I dropped my face into my palm and sighed. My commander nodded sagely.

"No, you're right. Dr. Light's word on it is formal enough for me. He did invent me."

I shook my head in scientific despair. "Sir—"

X squeezed my hand. "Don't call me that, please. As far as the technical problems go, I think my dad has them under control. Don't worry so much."

Despite myself, I felt my concerns lighten their grip around my chest, and I sighed with relief. Freezing wind whipped playfully at my hair underneath the helmet. X gestured at the scene around us, and I couldn't help but follow his glance around.

Wyoming's rugged mountains spread all around us. Near the peak of the tallest of the range, we had a beautiful view of everything for miles. The sight kept me interested for a full 1.2 seconds. It was a nice view.

X's eyes turned to mine, his green gaze searching me out. I stood and held his stare, wondering what gears turned behind his synthetic skin.

XAXAX

After the briefest moment considering the awe-inspiring vista, Alia returned my gaze with a contented look. Her expression reflected nothing more than a passing satisfaction at the sight.

Her response, or lack thereof, didn't exactly surprise me. From the moment shortly after awakening when I realized how far the science of robotics had fallen, I knew I wouldn't have the resources to make machines with workings as complicated as mine. Dr. Cain and his fellows possessed neither the know-how nor the tools to replicate me fully. They struggled just to understand what my father had invented—even with the conscious help of the invention.

Modern technical shortcomings aside, robots of my complexity can't be trusted straight out of the box. Zero's own episode on awakening proved that. When Dr. Cain and I made the first reploids, we intentionally limited their neural design to keep from accidentally creating a homicidal maniac. It worked; even improperly programmed reploids rarely turned dangerous without an agent like the Maverick Virus to replace their original programming. At the same time, my reploid friends like Alia didn't have the capacity to feel awestruck at the beauty of the Earth.

Thinking about it, I wondered—not for the first time—how much she'd understand romance or childbearing, even with the physical capability to produce children. If my father had thought of it, and he probably had, then he'd do his best to reprogram her for the task. That thought came with a tangy mixture of both hope and fear.

"It's all right." I turned my eyes away from the blonde and tried to hide my disappointment by starting up the trail again. Since I still had her hand, Alia came with me. "Maybe after this, Dr. Light will finally help me more with reploid neural circuitry. Then you'll be able to understand a little better."

I spoke as cheerfully as I knew how. When I looked back, though, Alia had the most downcast expression I'd seen on her since the worst parts of the war. Her head had literally bent down to stare at the trail. I opened my mouth to speak, but the noise of footsteps other than our own stopped me.

"Hey, it's Megaman X! Cool!"

"That is pretty cool."

"Hello!"

"Who's the girl reploid?"

I looked up to see a few men coming down the path. That was right; Cataract had mentioned a group of hikers up at the peak. They definitely belonged to the same family. I recognized the common physical features first, but the real giveaway was the feeling they gave off; their aura said "we're all family, and if that wasn't enough to be proud of, we just climbed a mountain." I pegged the one with gray hairs as the father and all three much younger men as his sons, ranged in age from sixteen to twenty-two.

"Hey." The youngest of the group, the first to have spoken, grinned at me and held his hand up for a high-five. "Megaman X. Rock on. You're here for the capsule up on top, right?"

I put up my hand and completed the high-five. "Yep. It still looks good, right?"

"You bet it does. Dad won't even let me touch it."

One of the older boys laughed and frazzled his brother's hair. "Owen, that's all right. Why don't you let him on through."

Following common hiking etiquette, they clambered up onto the rocks above the path to let us by. Alia rested her hand behind her head with nervousness and led the way forward. "Um, thanks. Be careful getting down the mountain."

The dad smiled. "We'll be fine. See ya."

I smiled back and followed Alia up the trail, and the men went on their way. Before long their voices faded from hearing. From the sounds of it, the youngest had gotten the most excited about it, but all the men were happy to see us. Even if my squad had spoiled the surprise by making contact before we showed up, it's not every day you get to see a world hero heading up the mountain you've just topped. They wouldn't forget their hiking trip anytime soon.

I squinted into the white sky as we rounded a bend; at this elevation, the sun beamed at us like it wanted a high-five too. I smirked. That boy had still been smiling brighter. I like that part of being famous; I can make people happy just by showing up sometimes. With that thought, I strode boldly to the place where no android had gone before.

Married life.

AXAXA

With a determined look on his face, X led me up the last steeply sloping part of the trail and onto the peak of the mountain. The morning sun beamed weakly down on this peak, and icy winds whipped wildly 'round our metal-armored bodies. In anticipation of the big event, I all but forgot how bad it had felt to disappoint X. What had I missed in that landscape?

That train of thought ended as soon as we made the peak. In fact, my thought cut off completely as soon as I saw the wonder before me. There it stood, the least-explained of all Dr. Light's amazing technologies: the upgrade capsule.

My video capture method automatically switched to total observation mode; standing in the presence of a live upgrade capsule for the first time, I wanted to take in every detail possible. The upgrade capsules housed the living consciousness of Dr. Light. They materialized system-wide upgrades directly and flawlessly into X's massively complicated systems. While live, they stood immune to any form of hacking known to man. And each capsule, after delivering its payload into Commander Megaman X's body, heated to the melting point of steel and fused the incredibly complex network of circuitry inside into a useless lump of silicon. Magnificent, inexplicable, and utterly impossible to analyze. This one looked more heavily armored than ordinary.

X spoke as he approached the capsule. As if in a trance, I heard his voice, but the words meant nothing to me. I could analyze everything later. "Hello, Father."

The capsule flared into life, and my heart leapt into my throat. My eyes traced the edges of the holographic image that I had only ever seen on a video screen. On the bottom and top of the capsule, the projection points for Dr. Light's hologram glowed with a blue-white light. The effect suggested he had used a slight variation in standard 3D imaging technology.

The hologram flickered and pixilated as the roboticist spoke. Okay, so maybe it was a slight fault in standard 3D imaging. "Megaman X, how you've grown since I last saw you. How does it feel, being a man?"

X rolled his eyes. "It feels a lot like having extra baggage that constantly gets in the way."

"Good, you already understand marriage. Oh wait, you meant—ahem. How embarrassing." Dr. Light guffawed and turned to me. "Oh, Alia, I'm only kidding. X, she can tell when I'm kidding, right?"

His son glanced over at me and sighed. "Usually, but she gets in a kind of trance sometimes. I think she's just trying to divert brain functions into video capture, so she can study it all later."

The roboticist nodded and curled a finger against his lips in thought. "Hmm, yes, I should have expected that. Based on my observations, the field of sensory technology has advanced much more quickly than processing speed. Still, we'll need her to talk with us before we go installing any upgrades."

X's eyes flicked from me to his father and narrowed. "Of course. We wouldn't want to impose adolescence on her without her knowledge, after all. Who does that?"

Dr. Light laughed. "Who indeed. Goodness, look at that scientifically fascinating event!"

XAXAX

He pointed back over Alia's shoulder, and the reploid swiveled instinctively to look. When she turned back to us, her eyes had started to unglaze and her mouth had puckered up in a frown. Coming out of a trance can be a little jarring for her. Despite her obvious frustration, though, I couldn't help wanting to laugh at the cuteness of her expression.

"Now, Alia, what has X told you about your visit to me today? Anything of significance?" My father gave the young blonde a kind look.

She nodded and stumbled over a greeting. "Yeumthankyo. Um. Yes, thank you very much Dr. Light. He told me you'd install some new equipment to match what X got a few weeks ago. Is that right?"

I nodded and turned, smiling, to my father. When I saw his expression, the humor of the moment disappeared entirely. "What is it?"

A cloud had passed across the roboticist's face. "Megaman X, there's a lot more to the Eve upgrade than a few extra piece of equipment. I built you with this eventual idea in mind; with Alia, the process will be much more—involved."

I stared, feeling my coolant run cold. My father took in a deep breath and sighed.

"Based on her specs, I'll have to perform an overhaul on her entire body to make it compatible with the new technology. Your recent upgrade hurt somewhat, correct?"

A frown solidified on my face as his line of reasoning clicked with me. "And I was designed to receive that upgrade from the start, wasn't I? The sex equipment was the only part you had to add. Which means—"

"The mild discomfort you felt will be nothing in comparison to what Alia will endure."

A moment passed in silence as we all let that idea settle on us. I looked over to my blonde reploid friend; she regarded me seriously in return as I spoke. "You don't have to do this."

She nodded, and something in her expression confused me. Turning to Dr. Light, she nodded again. "I signed up with the Hunters knowing I might die. A few moments of physical pain will be nothing in comparison, Dr. Light. I'm prepared to do whatever's necessary to make Megaman X happy."

My father's expression didn't change. "I'm glad to hear that, young lady. However, I still haven't told you everything."

I wondered for a moment, and even as he opened his mouth to speak again, it all came clear to me. Her—

"You reploid brain is not advanced enough to handle romantic relationships, let alone parenting. I've developed a procedure for rebuilding your neural network with complexity on the same order as X's."

Her face scrunched up at him. "How is that even possible?"

My father got that hesitant look he gets when he's trying to think down to someone else's level. "Besides implementing the physical redesign, this capsule will install the newest, best version of X's neural hardware. From there, a program of my own design will remap your personality onto the new neural hardware, Alia. That's the simple version."

"What's the complicated version?" I controlled my voice to avoid either shouting or quavering.

My father shook his head. "I know you don't want to hear this, X, but the fact is I don't know how well the program will work. It's not the kind of procedure I can test extensively, and even if it does work, the strain of all the upgrades combined may burn Alia out in the process."

He was right. It wasn't what I wanted to hear.

LXLXL

I was right. It wasn't what he wanted to hear.

"Father, we can't do this to her. Alia, I'm sorry, but there's no way I can put you through this operation."

I half-expected his presumption to offend her, but instead Alia looked up at me as if confused. I folded my arms and frowned at X. He takes too much on himself and then feels personally responsible for everything that happens. My son needed to learn to stop acting like he had the world on his shoulders.

"You know that I will always respect your freedom to choose your path, my son. However, this is not solely your decision to make."

"I led Alia this far thinking you had everything under control, Dad. I won't have her die because I wanted a companion."

Whom to obey? The young blonde reploid looked from my son to me again, her brain trying to process the correct answer. If X told her to do it, she'd jump in the capsule in a heartbeat. She probably still wanted to, for her own reasons, but his resistance set up a dilemma she found hard to resolve. Alia had been designed as a devoted scientist, not a quick-thinking moralist. I cleared my throat and pulled out my last resort. If X's command held her back, then concern for X would level the playing field and let her choose for herself.

I only wish this didn't feel so much like manipulating a child.

"Alia, please don't let my son go through this life alone."

X's eyes widened in shock, then narrowed in unhappy determination. The whine of his buster broke the silence on the windy peak. "I won't fail to protect my friends. Not even against you, Father."

For the third time, Alia looked to X, then to myself. I watched as determination crystallized in her own eyes. She turned to face her commander and threw her arms around him.

"It's okay, X. It's going to be okay." Her voice caught. "I don't want you to worry."

I sighed again as X powered down, clutching her tightly. "That's right. It's going to be okay. Once we leave here, everything's going to go back to normal."

Alia simply nodded. The poor girl probably never had a heart for deception. Fortunately, my son made the critical error of believing that meant she had no power to deceive.

ALALA

He never even saw it coming. My Alia Buster armed and discharged directly into the back of X's helmeted head, instantly scrambling his neural net into total unconsciousness. The sudden weight as he slumped over nearly toppled me, but I regained my balance and carefully laid my commander down on the rock of the mountain's top. Dr. Light spoke to me in a measured voice.

"Alia, when you step into this capsule, the walls will close and there will be no turning back. Either you will become X's wife and the new frontier of robotics, or the Eve upgrade will permanently destroy your brain. Rebirth or death. Do you understand?"

"I've made my choice. I'm going to do this for X." I turned and approached the upgrade capsule. Dr. Light regarded me with an anxious expression before his hologram disappeared.

"Good luck, my child. I pray we will meet again."