"Sargeant!" the soldier-bot called out. "We've got the tanks in line! Perimeter is now fully established!"

The lanky robot, each limb massive chunks of metal armor, ran up to his armored but human leader. The grizzled man, his thick body far too accustomed to the metal platelets and heavy helmet he wore, turned his trunk-like self to his metal subordinate.

"Good job, Hammer Joe. Do we have the anti-teleport field up?"

It's in place." Hammer Joe affirmed. "The other platoons just confirmed. Zero's trapped for sure, this time."

Sargeant James Harrow wasn't so sure about that. Two platoons already had gone down, and though the Monstropolis street was now blocked by both tanks and another full platoon of Hammer Joes, Harrow didn't want to make assumptions. Still the anti-teleport field was up, and that by itself was an accomplishment. Harrow turned and eyed the pillar to the rear of their position. The thing looked like a sci-fi show leftover. Three angles legs stood a six-inch thick iron beam up on its end, and at the top the beam tapered into a soft point. This was one of several shutdown beams set up around the city. Harrow wished the technology would improve. The desruction of one such pillar left the others practically useless unless they got in closer.

"Where's the choppers? Tell them to get above us and keep a lookout for Zero." The sargeant said this to the Hammer Joe beside him, then barked out further orders for the platoon. "HJs one through seven, left side! Eight to fourteen, to the right! HJ Fifteen, you stick with me."

"Yes, sir!"

"Get the Sniper Joes on the radio!" Harrow continued. "Confirm they're in position. Zero's going to be heading for one of our pillars first, so they've got to be ready if this is the one he chooses."

Communication was much easier in the age or robots. Hammer Joe 15 simply used his internal comm, saving on both radio equipment and time. Before Harrow finished speaking, Fifteen had already communicated the inquiry to the Sniper Joes located in the hotel on the right and the four story mall on the left. Fifteen nodded with satisfaction.

"They're in place, Sargeant!"

"Then let's do the same."

Harrow and Fifteen huddled behind the "anti-robot" barrier between the tanks ("anti-robot" was what it said on the label, but both the human and the technology had seen what Zero could do), and got into place behind Hammer Joes Seven and Eight. Two Sniper Joes lay at the space between the tanks and the barrier, their eyes always open and ready to fire a shot. Harrow hoped it would be enough.

"Sarge, why are we setting up like this?" HJ-7 asked. "We should be going in there and hunting him down. Zero's just one robot."

"Seven," Harrow kept his eyes on the empty street before them as he spoke. "Zero has killed almost forty Wily-bots in the past two hours. During that same time he has also blown the top off Kauffman tower, destroyed another estimated sixteen buildings, and killed a number of our men I don't know and I'd rather not guess. He needs to be contained, and only by presenting a tight, strategic defense can we get him to make a mistake. He can't leave here until one of these pillars is destroyed, making it optimum bait for him to fall into our trap."

The robots too turned their eyes to their tanks, feeling more sober than ever. HJ15, however, still wasn't quite daunted from talking. This annoyed the sargeant a bit, but the moment was so tense, he could hardly judge the robot for trying to break it. Thankfully, Hammer Joes were programmed with only a marginally ability to feel nervous.

"I wish Mega Man was here." Fifteen said quietly. "He'd take Zero down."

"No, he wouldn't." Harrow focused his steel eyes on his subordinate. "You saw the footage. Zero took out Bass in half a minute. It used to take Mega Man well over a minute to defeat Bass back when they were still enemies. No, Fifteen, Mega Man can't fight Zero. You do the math. It's up to us this time."

Hammer Joe 15's heart sank. He knew it was his job to not depend on Monstropolis' favorite hero, but Sarge's glare spoke more than his words HJ15, if nothing else but to keep his sergeant from staring at him, put his mind back on task and readied his flying projectiles. It was a big responsibility to fill in for the blue bomber.

"Contact the choppers. See if they spot anything."

Before Fifteen could obey, a great mass of flame streaked out from behind the crossroads before them, crashing into the ground with a final flash of fire. Only the soldiers' training and constant exposure to military equipment allowed them to know exactly what they were looking at. Needless to say, one of the choppers had found something. And paid the price.

"All eyes open! SJs cover the pillar!" Harrow shouted. "Grenade throwers, get ready! Wait, hold your fire! Some idiot's in the way!"

It was an assumption, but surely it was stupid for one of their own tank drivers to suddenly appear from around the corner of a street ahead of them, not only near Zero but in the platoon's direct line of fire. Even more strange, the tank turned itself and its cannon directly toward the platoon.

"Tell that man to stand down!" Harrow could feel a nerve bulging on his forehead as he screamed this out. "Tell him to get out of there!"

"No response, Sarge! He's not listening!"

That much was true. Instead the cannon of the tank lowered, as if refining its aim. In fact, this is exactly what it was doing.

ker-BLAM!

At once the scene became a madness of tank and gunfire. The first blast impacted between the armor panel and the tank to Harrow's right, hitting an unfortunate Sniper Joe and Hammer Joe Eight. The half blasted panelling barely managed to protect the rest of those huddling behind it. The right tank was only damaged in the tread, so it too joined in as the barrage of gunfire exploded out to their target.

"That's enough! Cease fire!" Harrow ordered. "Someone tell me what the hell's going on!"

"Target destroyed, Sarge!" a Sniper Joe called out.

"Go check it out, will you?"

"Right, Sarge!"

As this Sniper Joe approached the tank, Harrow found himself eyeing his troops. Several Sniper and Hammer Joes were still in position, covering the Joe sent to investigate. Two "medical" robots painted in white cautiously approached to pull out HJ8. One of them whispered to the sargeant pointing backwards before hurriedly taking the damaged robot and scurrying away. Alarmed, Harrow immediately snapped around. The pillar was already slashed across, and the two Joes closest to it were stabbed clean through.

"Hey Sarge!" the Sniper Joe searching the enemy tank, almost forgotten, called out. "There's marks at the back of this tank! The shell is cut through like a guy cut himself out of it!"

Harrow cursed. "Zero's here! HJ15, contact-"

With a thunk, Hammer Joe Fifteen hit the ground. Behind that, still as a statue but for his golden hair in the wind, Zero stood with a brilliant smile on his face. Harrow had no time to lift his rifle or see what Zero did to the other robots around him. In fact, he had no time to even scream. Zero, like red lightning, swiftly punched Harrow right in the throat, bending Harrow's armor and snapping the delicate tissues of the human's neck. His weapon went flying, to be seen no more.

Zero still grinned down at the choking human. He bent down and held his saber dangerously close to the human's chest; Harrow winced. He had studied too much in school: he knew exactly what sort of effects plasma type weapons had on the human body. Already Harrow could almost feel his skin peeling. He knew the armor was in-between the sword and himself, but how long could that last?

And what was taking Zero so long to kill him?

It was actually only a few seconds. Zero's left hand held the sword in place while the right seemed to fumble with something. A little slip of something silver-ish fell from Zero's hand. Zero still held something, and as he bent down with it, Harrow finally saw what it was. A strangled wheeze escaped his broken throat, but that was all Harrow could do. The grenade that now lay next to his head no longer had a pin.

And Zero swiftly flitted away.

In mere seconds, the red robot of destruction was up on one of the higher rooms of the hotel, watching in glee as the surviving soldiers below scrambled in fear in the aftermath of the grenade. They scrambled about, trying to guess what awful surprise Zero had next for them. These soldiers and their Hammer and Sniper Joes were very lucky, however. Zero had no awful surprises for them, only a mildly pleasant one: he was going to let them live. For now, in any case.

Zero turned away from the window. As much as the fear in their eyes delighted them, it could only do so for a short amount of time if he wasn't going to kill them. Also, he had other matters to think about. He was perturbed, so he turned to the hotel room, ignoring the decor as much as possible as he paced back and forth through it.

Even if he did care for interior design, Zero could hardly be blamed for trying to ignore this place. The dull beige carpeting that all hotels seemed enamored with was so boring a sight that Zero couldn't even stare at his feet as he paced. Neither did he sit down at the couch, even though red was his favorite color. Robots don't need to sit. And they have absolutely no use for little pink lamps either, though this hotel had one on each side of the couch, each resting on a bland, wooden side table. Zero didn't even regard the rest of the hotel room. It was sure to be as dull as the living area.

Zero was indeed perturbed. As much fun as it had been to run through Monstropolis and wreck everything that dared resist him, they were not his targets. Zero grinned to think of Bass' demise. It put happiness in Zero's heart - a happiness that swiftly disappeared as he remembered the arrival and quick disappearance of Mega Man. Destroying the blue bomber brought a craving upon Wily's Masterpiece, and that his craving for destruction would go unsatisfied caught Zero up in a fit of anger. He swung out his saber furiously, slicing through one of the tacky lamps (who in the world thought that shade of pink went with a red couch anyway?).

But there was a greater craving. No, not for Proto Man, though that death bore its own delight. Zero thought it splendid how he would destroy Rock's traitorous brother. First he would sneak up behind Proto Man, politely tap him on the shoulder, and give him just one brief moment in which to see who it was that killed him. That was what Proto Man deserved for how he had treated the Master.

Auto's death wasn't his main craving either. In fact, it was simply a mild joy, one that would not last long. But Auto was the key to the Craving, to the one death that mattered more than all the rest. Mega Man X. Zero beamed at the thought. Unlike his plans for Proto Man and Mega, he had none for X. He was programmed to know by heart all the strategies of the three "greatest" robots, and the plans for the Light brothers would surely work as well as his plan for Bass had. Zero knew nothing, however, about X. This was fine. He would destroy Auto and drain the repair-bot's mind of all its secrets, and surely the location of X was one of those secrets.

The trouble was not that he couldn't find Light's Laboratory or get past the defenses. Zero knew where it was and had some estimate as to what the Lights were capable of doing as a defense. The real problem was, Zero wanted to fight Mega Man first. Zero was not afraid of auto cannons, force fields, or whatever else the Light used to protect their lab. Neither was he afraid of the bomber, but all the same, he knew Mega Man's track record. It was simply more logical to fight Mega Man away from his lab, kill him, and then attack the lab without the renowned robot hero protecting the place.

Zero reckoned he hadn't much choice. He'd attacked all of Mega Man's favorite places. Kauffman tower was a frequent look-out post for Mega Man, so that went first. Next was the sporting goods store (especially the soccer section), REA headquarters, Monstropolis stadium, and the robot pet shop that produced Rush's favorite kinds of bolts. Then Zero targeted the places where humans who hadn't evacuated would surely gather. Zero had destroyed all of this and more, and a ton of Wily-bots besides, and still Mega Man didn't show. Why wasn't he taking the bait? Surely Mega Man couldn't handle the destruction of his precious city?

That was the way the strategy was programmed into him, but Zero wasn't constrained by it. Assessing his situation, Zero figured that the logical solution was to just go to Light Laboratories and get it over with. As much as he would rather fight on his own terms than Mega Man's, Zero didn't mind. He was not programmed to feel fear. Nor would he if he were capable. A delighted smile rose to his face as he imagined the lovely little pile of armor that would remain once Mega Man was gone.

There was no more time to delay. Zero's mind was made up. and he strode towards the window and peered down. Foolish humans. They didn't have any spare anti-teleport pillars. Oh wait, he had already destroyed the trucks carrying those, hadn't he? Zero grinned. It was time to go.

An electric click sounded in his head, startling him. It wasn't painful or disruptive in any way, but the sheer surprise shocked him. It was a transmission. Zero could easily hack into anyone's encoded transmissions, and at any given time there were plenty of people trying to send him messages to get him to stop or trick him into opening his mind to their hacking. The difference here was that the transmissions sent by others had either no encoding or the simplest forms of it. The only encoding on this transmission was that it was unreadable to anyone without Zero's trans code - this was a message sent directly to him.

Zero paused. The only people that could have known his trans code were the few pathetic Wily-bots he had killed before heading to Monstropolis. Was it the master? Master was in the hospital, from what data he had gathered. Well, whoever it was, they had at least piqued his curiousity. He accessed the transmission. The message in the air wasn't really a message. It was robotic memories dated...well into the future? 21XX? Someone was doing some serious malfunctioning.

"Great work, Zero!" Mega Man X said, approaching the computer console where Zero stood. "Those Mavericks won't know what hit them."

This confused Zero. Mega Man X was approaching him casually and he wasn't even swinging his saber at the snooty Light-bot? And what was he doing with his face? Was that...smiling? Mega Man X was alive and unharmed and he was happy about it? Who had recorded these memories?

"It's just a trick." Zero explained. "It was Alia's idea to hack into the computer and leave a virus that would automatically send us the location to the Mavericks' alternate bases."

"Hey, I'm not the one in there that got in and installed it without even tripping an alarm." a pink-armored blonde robot said. "You've done a wonderful job. It's handy to have you around."

"Don't forget me!" a fourth robot with light auburn hair and dark blue armor lifted two pistols as he spoke, pretending to fire off into the distance. "I got the Maverick leader and two of his guards too! I missed the third guy, but then I jumped clear over him and hit the force field controls. After that, getting rid of the generator was a piece of cake! I mean, how do you think Zero got through there so easily?"

"Oh, sure it was a piece of cake," X laughed. "Especially with me protecting you from the army of mechaniloids out in the hall."

"You're just mad I got there first." the robot laughed. "I beat the mighty Mega Man X for once!"

"Alright, victorious leader Axl." X was only mildly sarcastic. "I'm going to give our report to Signas so why don't you and Alia go and tell the other navigators to get our energy packs ready? I'll meet you at the navigation port for the next mission."

Zero, Axl, and Alia waved goodbye before heading through a hall toward some massive computer monitors and the girl-bots that worked them. As they did, Zero spoke to Axl in a very approving manner.

"I'm proud of you, Axl." he said. "I admit that when I first met you, I wasn't so sure, but if it weren't for me and X, you'd be the best Maverick Hunter out here."

"Gee, thanks Zero!" Axl's boyish grin showed up on his face. "You must have known how skilled I am even when I first showed up, huh? You always believed in me!"

"Um, actually I thought you were annoying." Zero confessed. "Luckily for you, I'm wrong sometimes."

Zero paused and considered this memory. Who were these people? What was a Maverick? Why was he working with X? Someone must be trying to corrupt his files. All of this was some sort of animated farce...right? A second memory started to come through. Zero figured he might as well watch this one too, if only to use it to pinpoint the location of whoever sent it to him. Wherever it was, the robot recording the memory seemed to be walking through a hallway alongside Mega Man X and just behind Zero and Bass.

"Screw you, Sis." Bass scoffed. "That's the kind of engineering that gets people killed."

"As long as the 'people' involved is you, I don't see a problem with it." Zero retorted, casually running a hand through a tangle in his hair. "If you're so worried about having those little purple pea shooters upgraded, then either get experimental or give up."

"You'd just like to see me explode, wouldn't you?"

"It'd be a nice change from looking at your ugly face all the time."

"We can't all be as pretty as you, honey."

From there on the conversation only descended, growing all the more disturbing. It quickly got so bad that Mega Man X blushed, and he'd heard Maverick talk most of his activated life.

"You guys!" he said. "Don't talk that way in front of my sister!"

Both offenders glanced back at the viewpoint of the memory, and they both winced a bit, silently apologizing. They both walked on, and little grins started to creep up on their faces. Bass glanced once more backwards, then let a full, but mischevious smile take complete hold.

"Zero, I just want you to know. You're a sapphic, imbecilic piece of detritus."

"How sweet." The pony-tailed robot replied. "I was just about to say what a homely, languorous abberation you are."

"Foppish sap!"

"Demeritorious juvenile!"

"Oh, I'm the juvenile one, you calamitous suckling?"

"Hm, I think I found the perfect word to describe you, Bass." Zero confidently folded his arms. "It's 'base'. Morally low, without estimable personal qualities. Dishonest and meanspirited, selfish and cowardly. Great, I have a new nickname for you. Base Bass."

"You better take that back right now," Bass growled. "Before I pummel your malapert glute."

"See? Base Bass strikes again."

"If you don't want me going through Hunters caling you 'Gaylord' then you better change your attitude."

Mega Man X laughed. "Is there any way in the world we can stop these two from arguing?"

"They really are real brothers!"

That last comment came from the robot recording the memory. Zero initialized a voice scan to confirm his guess. It was Roll. He didn't really need the confirmation, he just did it out of habit. It was easy enough to guess that X was referring to Roll when he spoke of his sister. Unless Dr. Light had a girl version of X that he didn't know about, Roll was the only person it could be. Since there was no logical reason to assume someone else had transmitted her memories, he figured that it must be her at the coordinates he traced the signal to.

The robot thought about it for a moment. Roll wasn't one of his specialized targets. He was supposed to kill her at some point, but her death only brought about as much pleasure as anyone else's. It was probably better to ignore her and go for the lab. Only now Zero was curious.

-t-

Roll stood there in the warmth of the May sun, shivering. The park was as good a place as any for a fight, Roll decided. It was a large, open area, other than the crowd of trees far behind her, blocking out the sight of one of Monstropolis' most busy roads, and the playground several yards ahead. The little play area for children with its brightly colored playground equipment hadn't been touched by the destruction of Monstropolis, thus far anyway.

Of course, what would Zero want with a destroyed playground, anyway? Roll wondered. There's nothing here he needs to fight. Except me! I have to win! It's my fate!

As much as Roll tried to make herself excited about being the one to destroy Wily's masterpiece, she still swallowed down a knot of fear catching in her throat. It was no small thing to fight a robot that had made such mincemeat of her beloved city. Dr. Wily had destroyed it many times before, and yet no single scheme had ever caught Monstropolis off guard like this one. Zero annihilated every robot he ever fought, leaving a wake of destruction behind him. The evidence of this was very present. Roll had only to turn her head to the left to see what Zero left behind. Roll didn't look. She also turned off her scent detection technology. This technology wasn't anything compared to a human nose, but it clearly conveyed the burning rubber and smoky ash quality in the air.

Roll glanced over to the right out of mere curiosity. She wished she hadn't, and her teeth bit down into her lip. The buildings closest to her were fine, but behind them the roarings of army fire, army radio, and army screaming burst out of the urban setting. Something exploded in the distance, and even that far away Roll shook. Two towers of smoke rose into the air, and Roll tried her hardest not to guess what caused them.

The girl-bot looked down at her right...well, not hand. The poor hand was now nothing more than a series of metal strips peeled back at the wrist, allowing the energy beam sword to erupt from her arm. Roll didn't activate the weapon yet.

Wish me luck! Roll spoke to her brothers in her thoughts. It's ironic. So many times you've rescued me, and now its my turn to rescue you!

Roll couldn't fool even herself. She knew how her brothers would feel if they knew what she was doing. Already their voices cried out in her head, protesting and demanding that she get back to the lab. She couldn't fight, they told her, and she wasn't wearing any armor. More than anything else, she simply hadn't been designed to fight because Dr. Light himself never wanted her to go to the battlefield.

You don't understand...Bass trained me! I'm ready for this! He gave me a plan and the bravery to see it through!

Somehow this didn't work either. Bass had gotten angry at Mega Man for volunteering to fight Zero - if he knew about Roll, he'd probably throw a fit. Roll shook those doubtful thoughts out of her head. It was too late, and she had to carry on. The memories were sent, and Roll knew it was only a matter of time before Zero got there. Roll pulled herself together. Hadn't she been the one to defeat Epidemic Man? Fought the scattered enemies of the years post-Robot Apocalypse? Defended herself against a Maverick? None of those things qualified her to defeat Zero, but it was enough to at least spring her trap. And that she had every intention of doing. All she had to do was look helpless so that Zero would underestimate her.

Apparently Zero already did. Instead of sneaking up, the tall blond teleported down, several yards away but still directly in front of her. Seeing his expressionless eyes staring at her, Roll shuddered and backed away a step. Catching herself, she took that step forward again and began to speak, haltingly at first.

"I...I know you don't remember those memories I sent you." she said. "That's because...well...they haven't happened yet. And you don't want them to happen. That future is the future I came back to prevent. You see, Zero...in that time you were my friend. Not only my friend, but X's and Axl's...and everyone's! You were so kind and strong, and you always did what you thought was right.

"But the problem is, you're not in control of yourself. You're a slave to Dr. Wily. In that future, before you even able to think for yourself, you spread a virus to a reploid - er, robot, named Sigma. You in turn were reprogrammed into a hero and a good friend, but Sigma took that virus and spread it all over the world. Because of it, robots became crazed and angry, and they fought to destroy the earth. So many wars happened over the centuries all because of this virus, and in the end humanity and robotkind both died out entirely."

Roll dared to walk forward, hardly disguising her surprise that Zero just stood there and listened. "Please, Zero. I know who you really are, when all the tricks and failsafes of Wily are taken away. I know that you're kind and you're a hero. You and Mega Man X worked so hard to protect justice and stop the virus from overcoming the earth. But it was already too late and you didn't even know it. I came back because I know that's not the future you want, Zero. You were so burdened all the time by the guilt of what you had done. You tried to hide it, but I could see it all the same. I have to help you, Zero."

The girl-bot stopped where she was, drawing in a deep breath. Saying this pained her more than she realized. Though this Zero hadn't shown himself to be anything like the future Zero, Roll could hardly help her grief.

"You had friends, Zero, and you had freedom. Everyone admired you so much." Roll felt as though tears would pour from her eyes at any moment. "Please, Zero, let me help you. My family can save you from the virus so that that future never happens, and that for once you can be happy. You can live without fear or regret. But if you don't...I...I have to destroy you."

Roll activated her energy sword, and Zero made no move to strike. He observed this action silently, making Roll a little unsure how to proceed. She hoped that her training was enough, and that she looked pitiful enough to trick Zero. Roll, however, felt no fear even now. She told herself that this was the reason she'd been sent back to the past in the first place, and that of course she would win. If no one else could, she could. It was fate. She lifted her sword.

"So, Zero...what is your answer?"

It suddenly occured to Roll that Zero might not be able to talk. Wily might have stunted him so that he couldn't talk back or communicate with good guys, just in case he decided to rebel-

"You must be insane."

Roll startled, woken from her thoughts. Zero very well could speak, and now that Roll was finished he actually had an expression on his face other than evil glee. Instead it was disruntled incredulity.

"So I'm supposed to watch those false memories and just believe you're telling the truth?" he said, lifting his beam saber. "That's a nice trick, Light-bot. It's so sweet you tried. You're still my enemy. Thanks for coming, though. It'll be a lot easier to get your brother here with you dead. Then I can hack into his mind and use it to find Mega Man X. Good job."

Roll very nearly quailed of the unfamiliar sharpness of his voice, but she forced herself to stand there, gritting her teeth. "I...I'll have to fight you!"

"I'm so scared." Zero grinned and readied himself to charge. "Care to dance, sweetheart?"

Roll didn't reply. She just forced her battle A.I. to get into place for the plan, and focused on what she needed to do next.

Good, he underestimates me. she thought. I tricked Zero before with this move, but now it's not just a training session. I can do this! Bass, I'll make you proud!

Zero charged. Roll's little beam sword defiantly clashed against the Z saber, the little red thing looking remarkably adorable compared to Zero's mighty weapon. She parried his strikes with surprising grace, just as Bass taught her in that other, desperate timeline.

Alright, and now the turn!

Roll swung around, kicking Zero in the back of the knee to knock him over. Next she was to snatch up his saber, then hold both it and her own weapon to his neck. Roll loved her family more than she loved Zero, and she knew in her heart that she could slice his head off without regret. She was Zero's friend, and she knew that the good and kind Zero would rather die than cause the future that Roll knew awaited them all.

That, of course, is what Roll should have done. But as she kicked Zero's knee out, something went wrong. She felt her power level flunctuating, and her systems started fading out simultaneously. She looked down, only to see Zero's green saber embedded in her gut. She had enough hearing left to hear Mega Man's scream. The last thing she saw was Mega Man, and Zero tore his saber from her and dashed off to fight the bomber.

"Rock..."

Roll collapsed into the grass, heedless of the the battle around her.

\\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Sorry this is a mite late. I had to do a lot of rewriting. Trust me, the wait was worth it. It wasn't good enough in the old version. We'll discuss this more in the Bonus Features.

- I know there are those who will want to criticize my use of the military in the first segment. Feel free to do so, but if anything doesn't make sense, figure that this is the work of a different military. Or the branch of the military you don't like. ;)

Character profiles!

=====Alia

"Hailing frequencies open!"

Good point: Focused

Bad point: Doubtful

Likes: Fashion

Dislikes: Violence

That's right, Alia doesn't like violence. That, however, doesn't stop her from doing her job. She is the consummate professional, and most of the time is able to keep her fears from interfering with her work. Very few things are able to shake her resolution. Mostly these involve the loss of friends. Alia holds her friends very close to her heart, and casualties break her heart. She has become very strong emotionally over the years, and it's gotten to the point where she doesn't believe anything can shake her.

Alia was created by Professor Gerald Rudenbaker, a family man with three boys and a baby girl named Ruby. This little girl was born several years after the youngest boy, and she was the delight of Gerald's eyes. Rudenbaker created Alia's first edition to give the girl a playmate, as his scientific lifestyle kept him moving from one town to another. Because robots couldn't grow up like human children, Rudenbaker later on created a second version of Alia (but with the same personality A.I.) that remained her friend once Alia grew out of childhood.

This version of Alia was a lot more sensitive than the current one. She delighted in helping Ruby Rudenbaker with schoolwork or going shopping. One day, however, a gang of Mavericks attacked the Rudenbaker home. Ruby was killed, and the grief of it nearly drove Alia insane. Gerald wasn't exactly in his right might either, and from that day onward was a less happy man. Alia took Ruby's place in his heart, and for her sake he gave Alia a more professional nature. He didn't change Alia too much, but he knew he had to make Alia stronger if she was going to live in a world with Mavericks in it. Alia wanted to give Ruby some sort of legacy, so she asked Gerald if she could join the reploid research industry, to which Gerald said yes. She stayed with her family for one full year while he upgraded her into a research model.

Alia was pretty good at her job, though part of her felt like it wasn't quite right for her. All the same, Alia worked hard and learned a lot. She developed a love of learning how things work, and ended up being very close friends with the reploid Gate. Contrary to popular opinion, Alia was not interested in him romantically. She might have been, if Gate didn't have these little "quirks" in his personality. For a while it was nothing but the odd comment, but later he began to obsess compulsively over his work. Eventually his experiments grew so dangerous that the reploids he created had to be destroyed.

Alia participated in this, though at the time she regretted it and wished that some better option would have been available. Post X6, she feels a little better about it. In any case, the incident both scared Alia away from the organization she worked for and got her interested in quelling rebellious reploids. She left her research to join the Maverick Hunters, undergoing one last upgrade from Professor Rudenbaker to adapt to the military environment.

Since then, Alia has remained very calm about her past and tries not to let it interfere with her future. She basically considers herself Gerald's daughter, more for his sake than her own. She tried her best to be the daughter he lost, and Gerald was always very proud of her. Gerald died of natural causes shortly after MMX7, but Alia remains in contact with her "mother" and "brothers". From time to time Alia leaves the Hunters to take care of her mother, who lives in a nursing home. Most of the Hunters don't know that Alia can bake a mean shepherd's pie, and frequently does so for Mrs. Rudenbaker.

Alia does have a mild crush on X, but prefers to keep this to herself out of professionality. Considering that they're robots, she doesn't think a romance could be anything better than what she already has: a job where she gets to spend lots of time with him. X, being somewhat of a dork, doesn't really notice this crush. He does like hanging out with her, and Alia figures this is just as well. Alia is particularly career-minded, especially since her job is so important to society.

Of the three main navigators, Alia is the most motherly. This sometimes gets on Pallette's and Layer's nerves, but it's usually not a big deal. The girls hang out together when they can, but usually one or more of them is on duty so the three are almost never together at the same time, unless they're at work. It was Pallette's idea that Alia change her design after MM7, and Alia liked the idea. Mainly she wanted a body that could actually wear human clothes and thus show the Maverick Hunters that she really does have a sense of style.

=====Excelsior Signas

"How can we solve this problem?"

Good point: Calm

Bad point: Too serious

Likes: Peaceful talks

Dislikes: Evil

Nope. I totally did not just make up that first name. No way. His creator gave it to him. Uh huh. That's my story, and I'm stickin' to it. Dr. Cain prefered to give first names to the robots he was most proud of. Dr. Cain was responsible for the mass production of a lot of reploids, but robots like Signas are single editions. Notedly, Signas does not use his first name, and is uncomfortable when the people who know it use it. Of the Maverick Hunters, only X, Alia, and Zero know. Sigma also knows it, but he never uses it. He too has a first name he hates, and he'd rather not provoke Signas into saying what it is.

Signas was completed shortly before MMX3 as one of Dr. Cain's side projects. Upset over the loss of Sigma to the Maverick Virus, Dr. Cain decided to persue a new robot, one that Cain hoped had a personality that would make it harder for him to become a Maverick. Most Mavericks are emotional and prone to bursts of anger, so Signas thus became a calm thinker. There is no evidence this actually keeps Signas from getting the virus, but the Maverick Hunters appreciate Signas' levelheadedness anyway.

It took several years for Signas to be completed, as he was a personal project intended to be nothing more than a companion and mechanical assistant to Dr. Cain. Signas ended up taking care of Dr. Cain during his last years, and through his age-related illnesses. Cain retired from the Maverick Hunters after MMX3, intending to drop out of mainstream mechanics and spend his retirement years being a small town repairman and getting lots of fishing done. He was able to do this for a while, but ended up passing away from natural causes shortly after the MMX4 incident.

X, in the meantime, was pretty shaken by the betrayal of Repliforce, and the Maverick Hunters felt more than ever the leadership void that Dr. Cain created when he retired. Signas had nothing better to do, so he took on the job for himself. In the beginning he was merely an administrative worker, just sorting out logistics and shuffling paperwork. However, his calm, examining nature often put him in the position of solving Hunter disputes. Signas often counseled Zero, who was upset and unsettled about the loss of Iris. Zero was always very grateful to him. Pretty soon it was all too obvious that Signas should take charge of the entire organization, just in time for MMX5.

Signas often wonders if he could have done something else with his life back when he was in the position to make that choice. Whenever he wonders this, he shrugs. What other job would be better suited for a workaholic such as himself? Signas feels very useful and comfortable with the Maverick Hunters, so much so that he doesn't really view it as a job, and thus doesn't really have any hobbies. He's a bit fond of fishing, although since he doesn't eat he doesn't see the point of it anymore.

Signas knew he was a replacement for Sigma, and was pretty much told so by Dr. Cain. He doesn't know how to feel about this. Cain used to tell him so many stories of the reploid Sigma used to be, and how heroic he was. Signas regrets never having met the good Sigma, and takes Sigma's evil actions very personally. He hates evil, and views his few years with Dr. Cain, fixing boats and fishing, as the best of his life. Anyone who gets to know Signas and see behind his stoic exterior knows that he is very kind, and simply wants everyone to live in as much happiness as possible. Sigma can't stand him, often wondering why Dr. Cain replaced him with a robot like that.