Proto Man was awake for the first time in days. He wasn't sure where he was, but as it was probably some REA facility, he didn't care much. The specific room he occupied was little more than a cement rectangle with the blocks that made up its walls all painted a bland white. One wall had a door - locked beyond locked - and another held a thick glass window. On the other side he could see more boring concrete block walls and a chair, making it only slightly more interesting than Proto Man's side.

Blues' arms were bound in front of him by the usual robot handcuffs, and his feet were shackled. He regarded both of these facts without emotion. He was a prisoner, and that was all that mattered. It seemed a little redundant, however, especially since he was barely put back together at all from his fateful encounter with Zero. The only thing that really bothered him about that moment was his lack of helmet. The knowledge that now the entire government potentially knew what he looked like made him sour on the inside. And now his picture sat inside some computer, just waiting to be hacked.

He didn't sigh. He didn't do much of anything. Somehow he was tired and didn't really care about his surroundings. He was scheduled to be deleted, wasn't he? What was the point of this? Proto Man didn't try to guess, though his mind, rebellious thing it was, started guessing anyway.

Bad brain. he told himself. You don't need to know everything.

Nevertheless it guessed, telling him that he was going to be interviewed very soon, if the chair across the glass meant anything. Proto Man gagged. He didn't want to explain himself to anyone. It was too exhausting to put up with questions he didn't want to answer. Still, what else was he going to do? At least he looked decent for the interview. Proto Man's hair was usually as unruly as his brother's, but thankfully a cop had seen fit to brush it for him. He glanced at his reflection in the glass, but only for a second. He wasn't particularly eager to look at himself any time soon.

The door in the other room opened. Proto Man couldn't see it from where he was sitting - the window in the other room was only so large - but the sound was unmistakeably door-like. There was a moment's pause before the person who opened it came into view. It was a young person, pale and skinny. Her brunette hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail, aside from three or four curls too short and stubborn that popped out over her forehead. The outfit she wore was as cold as the girl's face: dark jeans and a gloomy printed hoodie.

Proto Man managed a polite glance into Leila Copenhagen's eyes. Normally they were hazel with a touch of green, but today he swore they were a terrible, frozen blue, . Her aura sucked away all warmth. It was perhaps for this reason she pulled the hoodie around her so tightly. Leila shuffled over to the chair in the opposite room. Proto Man wondered if she really needed that hoodie hanging about her face. He checked the tempurature. Fifty-two degrees. They sure wanted it cold in ther office buildings. Proto Man tried to ignore the skull print on the side of Leila's hood.

But as he watched her, Leila was watching him as well. This was the first time Leila had ever seen him without his helmet. There were times when going without his helmet was a better disguise than wearing it, but Proto Man never went without in front of Leila. He didn't want the girl to see his face. Blues, when de-helmeted, looked too much like his brother. A little more mature, but still, it was very much an innocent, naiive look. One that couldn't defend itself against Leila. There was no hardness in it, and only Proto Man's emotional exhaustion and years of control kept him from hanging his head in shame. He lowered his eyes, and that was all.

"Hi." she said.

"Hi."

Akward pause. Then another. Just one more. Then finally, Leila spoke.

"So, how is it behind bars?"

"I don't know. I've been shut down the entire time."

"Oh."

A fourth silent pause.

"So..." Blues dared. "What have you been doing?"

"Not much. Just hanging out with some old friends." Leila hunched lower in her chair. "Nothing really interesting."

Proto Man wondered what sort of rabble those "old friends" were. He had a feeling he might could name a few, and the names that came to mind didn't please him. He knew many of Leila's old...friends, and they weren't the sort of friends that warned you that you were going down the wrong path. After all, who were they to judge those that shared the same bad habits as them? It didn't help that most of their habits were illegal, and the ones that technically were legal Proto Man didn't like at all. It had taken a lot of work to get Leila to stay away from those people three years ago. Proto Man decided, in the most sensitive way possible, to check and see what Leila meant.

"Did Sarah pay you back that ten dollars she owes you?" he asked.

"Sarah from church? Oh, I forgot about that." Leila gave a lazy, teenage shrug. "No, I haven't seen her in a while. She's being a snob right now, so I'm giving her some space."

Proto Man was tempted to roll his eyes, only he didn't have his visor to hide the action. He knew Sarah, and that she was about as snobby as a hamster, and as harmless as one to boot. Sarah's "snobbery" probably hadn't been anything more than saying, "no, I'm not going to tell your mom you're at my house when you're not." Out of habit, Blues examined Leila's face. The girl only put a cursory effort into hiding the truth. After only a brief flash of vague shame, Leila's eyes tensed, glaring at Proto Man and almost daring him to inquire further. He didn't take the bait.

He wished she would look away. He couldn't hide without the protection of his shades, but now she could see him for how he really was: vulnerable, naiive, and completely incapable of reasoning on his own. All the years of his wandering and learning were stripped away with just one hateful look from Leila. She had the power to hurt him far more than Zero could. Proto Man sighed, turning his head to the door. How long were the cops going to let him endure this?

"Leila, why are you here?"

"I wanted to see you again - and ask you some questions." she cleared her throat, shifting into a more forward position on the chair. "First of all, when you...when my dad died, was it an accident?"

Proto Man's bindings tightened, along with his resolve to keep the tension from showing. He didn't know he had enough emotion left in him to hurt this bad. There was no candy-coating this answer, and Leila would have noticed at once. She wasn't anybody's fool. Those cold eyes would stare right through him like glass. Blues wished more than ever for his visor.

"No." he said simply. "Long story short, I was a fool. I was afraid of the consequences of Gamma on the planet. I thought he would be too powerful and be used to intimidate the countries of the world. So I went with Dr. Wily in the hopes of destroying it. I didn't know that he was planning on taking it himself. And your father...he was in the way."

Leila's muscles tightened. Her confusion, however, made perfect sense to Proto Man. She knew him as a wise guide. She'd never seen him as a fool. But he had been, in his youngest days. An he never wanted her to find out.

"Was it quick?" Leila nearly choked on the question.

"No. He was badly hurt, but I had attempted to allow the emergency workers to find him. Quick Man attacked the first ambulance. By the time the next one was able to come, it was too late."

Leila didn't have to guess the implications. She swallowed hard, but she was unpracticed at holding in her hurts. Tears too hot to cool her reddening cheeks streaked down. Proto Man's heart sank. He'd tried to do so much for Leila and her mother over the years, but talking about Richard made all of that so worthless. It couldn't change the fact that he'd killed her father.

"Leila," he knew he had to say something. "Your father was very brave. All the other guards fled when we attacked Gamma's storage facility. Your father was the only one that stood his ground."

"Fat lot of good that did him!" Leila snapped. "He didn't do anything good by staying! He didn't even stop you from stealing Gamma! He should have ran away like all the others and let Mega Man deal with Wily like he always does! He was such an idiot! If he was thinking about his family instead of himself he'd be here right now! Mom even told him not to get that job with Dr. Light!"

"Your family needed the money-"

"Not as bad as we needed Dad!" Leila snapped. "We'd have been alright without Dr. Light's stupid money. Why didn't he just build a bunch of security robots anyway?"

Leila slammed herself back in the chair, tightly folding her arms as she went back to her tears. Blues wished she would look up. If she looked up, she would see him and know how horrible he felt. Of course, if he was going to be making wishes, he wished instead that he could go back and change what he had done. Dr. Wily had dabbled in time travel. If only it worked...

Proto Man couldn't stand it any longer. "Leila, please believe me when I say I'm sorry. It's true. I am sorry. There hasn't been a moment afterwards when I didn't regret what I've done. After all of this, when I'm deleted, please forgive me. I'll be dead, you might as well. Don't let your anger for me ruin your life. Please live well. I couldn't stand it if you threw your life away because of this."

"Throw my life away?" Leila growled. "What exactly does that mean? Why should I care about you? You're just a murderer! I'll do what I want with my life, and you don't get to tell me what to do!"

"I'm just saying, over the years I was something of a...father figure for you-"

"Don't you dare say that!" she screamed. "You're nothing to me! You hear? Nothing! You killed my father! You don't have the right to boss me around! I'll screw up my life as much as I want! So what if I drink or do drugs? You don't get to tell me no!"

"Leila, STOP!" Proto Man snapped. "Stop that RIGHT NOW! I haven't spent the last ten years watching out for you just to have you act like this! Getting angry isn't going to bring your father back! Would you want him to see you being a brat? Doing drugs? I owed you my protection, and I'll be damned if you're going to ruin your life over me! So calm down and deal with it!"

By this point - and neither of them had noticed themselves moving - both of them were up at the glass, standing and facing each other with anger in their eyes. But there was only a moment's standoff. Proto Man didn't want to stare her down. He wanted her to understand.

"Leila...I really care for you. I want you to have a great life and have all the best." he began uncertainly. "Please don't torture me like this. I just...want you to be happy somehow, even after all this. That's all I want. Don't look at the past anymore. Just...be happy. Somehow."

Leila said nothing. She was hot - her skin was still a steaming red - and she was angry. All the same, she seemed to temper a little. She stared down at the floor a moment, then her brown eyes flicked back into his. Out came an open hand.

"I want your scarf. Hand it over."

Proto Man looked down and realized that indeed he was still wearing his scarf. He was a little surprised that one of the cops hadn't taken it from him, though he could think of no reason why they would. He just reached up with his cuffed hands and started undoing the knot. As he did this, he shuffled over to the door (darn those shackles) and worked at the yellow stuff with his fingers. It finally gave way, and he hung it on the doorknob before heading to his chair again.

"The guards will give it to you later." Proto Man said.

"Oh. Good."

There was silence for a minute, and Proto Man noticed that she was back in her chair as well, sitting there like an active volcano putting up a single stream of ashen smoke. The moment was just too awkward for him. Proto Man cleared his throat to speak one more time. If he said nothing else, he was going to say this.

"Do you remember that night when you were acting in the school play?"

"No." Leila said, in the exact, stuffy voice that you instantly knew was a lie. "I don't."

Proto Man just went on. "Remember what you said afterwards? Afterwards when you didn't go with Jared?"

Leila scrunched up in her seat, squirming awkwardly. There was no point in denying it now. "I told Jared he was a moron if he thought I was going to go home with him."

"And after that, when I was there?"

"Pssht. You were there already. If I was dumb enough to go with Jared, then you would have punched him out or something."

"Of course. But what about when I approached you?"

Leila said nothing. She didn't even point her sour face in his direction.

"You said you promised never to put yourself in harm's way." Proto Man said softly. "You said you were never going to let yourself be taken in by all that 'stupid stuff the other kids do'. I'm holding you to that promise, Leila."

"Mm." Leila slouched a little more. "You know, Blues, the whole reason I came here was to find out that you didn't mean to kill my dad. Maybe it was an accident, or a different robot was torturing him, or maybe my dad was a part of Wily's plans and you were trying to stop him. But that didn't happen, did it?"

"No."

The tears that now spilled down the girl's face were worse than her angry ones from before. Proto Man could barely stand to look at her, she was so sad. But Leila showed no mercy. She didn't look away. She said nothing at all, but stared at him with her pinched and twisted face, silently sending out the few words: how could you?

"Leila-"

It was too late. The girl was headed for the door, and it was only seconds before she was out of Proto Man's vision, and out of the door on her side. Proto Man's head hung to his chest. He wished they wouldn't let her speak to him. What good would it do? The only purpose it could possibly serve was to make Proto Man feel as guilty as possible about shooting Richard Copenhagen. It was a burden Proto Man had carried for many a year, and it only grew heavier throughout that time.

Proto Man leaned back in the chair. Part of him really hoped that Leila was trying to torture him. If so, then she really didn't mean all those horrible things she said about drugs and such. Blues couldn't stand it if she fell in with the wrong crowd and started...well, he didn't like to think about that. Did she want him to die thinking that she was going to ruin her life?

He was beyond tired of thinking about it anymore. Proto Man engaged his shut down function, only to find it didn't work.

"Great."

A minute later, some of the guards walked in. Proto Man didn't move. One of them took away the scarf, but Blues didn't watch. He only sat there patiently until one of the people came and shut him off.

-t-

Mega Man took a deep breath. He both wanted and didn't want to be there, but the latter feeling, the stronger of the two, was obligated to yield to the first. So Mega pushed open the door to the courtroom, entering the small place to testify about his brother's behavior. As imposing and harsh as the moment felt, really the Sacremento REA courtroom wasn't anything too unique. There were a few rows of wooden benches in the back, separated by the typical little wall from the plantiff's and defendant's tables. No one was going to sit at those, however. This was just a testimonial hearing. No one was going to be sitting at the juror's panel to the front left, either. Times like these Rock felt thankful that robots didn't have the right to a jury trial.

Of course, not too many robots would receive a hearing like this one.

Mega Man hoped that was a good sign. He looked up at the judge's podium. Again, it was not unique, but someone would definitely be sitting there. It was going to be someone named Judge Greg Palmer, but Mega Man didn't know him. The chair next to the judge's was, quite obviously, the witness stand. Somehow the boring wooden thing seemed more imposing than even the judge's seat, though of course Rock knew his feelings about that were bound to change.

"Excuse me, Mega Man. I'm going to need your zip drive, please."

Mega Man startled as if he hadn't seen the police officer standing at the door. He quickly reached into his armor and pulled out five zip drives, each a different color.

"Oh, here you are. This first one is from my memories of Proto Man that you don't already have on file. These others are from Roll, Auto, Crystal Bot, and Bass. Those robots weren't able to be here today, but they asked me to bring their testimonies. All of them except Bass have prepared a recorded statement."

"Alright."

The brown-haired human remained thankfully unemotional as he accepted the zip drives, placing them inside a briefcase that rested on a metal stand. It was tradition in those robot days to follow a specific procedure: the cop takes each zip drive, sets it inside the foam lining of the briefcase where the holes inside provided snug shelter for each, and then he writes the name of the robot on a little paper tab above each. The cop unhooked a clipboard from below the stand, lifting it up and handing a pen to Mega Man. The bomber signed his name in his perfect handwriting (Dr. Light always made him practice) and turned to find a place to sit.

He hoped it didn't last long. Mega Man was already doomed to have a raw mood, but he was the only one there from the lab. None of the others had opted to come with him. Auto gave the pitiful excuse that he had work to do, but that wasn't very true, not with Monstropolis' shipping still out of wack and the lab not having the supplies they needed to continue their work. Likewise Roll turned the trip down, looking up at her brother with pitiful eyes and timidly saying that she still wasn't fully repaired.

She's operational enough to talk. Mega Man couldn't help a little spite, and he tossed himself down on the bench. That doesn't take a lot of effort.

Crystal Bot of course wasn't going to come. Mega Man knew before he asked that she was going to back away nervously and mutter pitiful things, offering no more than a zip drive for Proto Man's sake. Of course, Rock wasn't so sure Sonata would be a comforting companion anyway. Emotionally speaking, she was a wimp. Strangely enough, Mega Man found himself the most angry at Bass, though Bass had the best excuse and the least reason to come. He was still deactivated, stowed away in a side lab. Besides, he and Proto Man weren't exactly on the best terms, so even a fully activated Bass was unlikely to be there, he thought.

Oh, what am I thinking? I can't think like that! I really have to be strong now! Mega Man made a determined fist. This is for Blues!

"Mega Man? There you are!" a thick, Russian accent from ahead of him called back. "You come here and sit next to me!"

Surprised, the robot looked up to see Kalinka, her father, and Pharoah Man sitting in the very front row of the left side of the seating area. Kalinka waved her hand at the seat next to her, and Mega Man warmed as if with a hot drink. Now there were friends and company!

"I'm really glad to see that you guys made it." Mega Man said as he hurried to sit beside Kalinka. "I wasn't sure if they called you or not. They aren't publicizing this hearing."

"What? Of course we're going to be here." Kalinka pulled down on her expensive dress jacket, smoothing it over with extra dignity. "No one is going to stop us from helping Proto Man. He is like family!"

"They didn't actually tell us to come." Dr. Cossack added, not looking nearly as spendid in his ordinary lab coat. Though he did add some dress pants instead of jeans for once. "Auto told us about it when he called about Dive Man. I don't know why in the world my robot feels like he had to fight Zero, but at least I found out about this because of him."

"They were not going to tell us!" Kalinka huffed. "They said that we are biased! But they were not going to keep us out. I made sure of that!"

Mega Man smiled at that. He knew how stubborn Kalinka could get. Dr. Cossack was really the only person that could tell her no, and that wasn't true all of the time. Or perhaps Skull Man could sway her sometimes. As her bodyguard, he had to be aware of danger at all times. Apparently the courtroom didn't present too much of a threat, because Skull Man wasn't there. Mega Man turned back just in time to see Skull Man coming up with two hot cups of something, probably coffee (Mega Man didn't have smell adaptors, so he wasn't sure). Rock made sure to scoot aside so that Skull Man could hand the cups to his humans and then take a seat on the other side of Rock.

As the blue bomber looked back, he also noticed another robot sitting far as he could, huddling off in a corner. It was Spark Man. The poor robot looked terrible. He wasn't fully repaired from the Battle of Zero (so people called the incident), and much of his armor was sub-standard. Besides this, the two poles that normally made up his arms were gone. Instead, to be compliant with the court's no-weapon rule, he had two little robot arms. They were too skinny and puny-looking compared to Spark Man's shoulders, and the orange robot definitely seemed self-conscious as he stared at the floor.

Mega Man turned away. He didn't want to look at Spark Man. He already knew what Spark Man had on his memory drive. Spark Man was one of the robots from Team 3, and he, Gemini Man, Flash Man, and Top Man were told they had to be present to testify, as they were part of the scheme to steal Gamma. The other robots protested, saying they didn't know much about Proto Man's involvement - "Wily always told him to do special things that didn't have anything to do with us" - while Spark Man didn't say anything at all. Of course, the others were quick to point the finger at Spark Man and say that he'd actually talked to Proto Man the night of, and that his testimony was more important than theirs. Spark Man refused to say anything about it to Mega Man before.

"Really, Rock, you don't want to know." Spark Man said quietly. "You'll see it at the hearing anyway."

"Why does Spark Man bother you?" Skull Man asked him. "Is he a witness to the killing?"

The bomber facepalmed. He thought he was going to be sick.

Of course Skull Man is going to be as blunt as possible. Mega Man rubbed his eyes, trying not to snap. "I think it's a confession, actually. Spark Man apparently talked to Proto Man when...the night of."

"Pish posh!" Kalinka snorted. "There's no way in the world Proto Man ever killed anyone. Anyone who didn't deserve it, anyway."

There was nothing Mega Man could say. He knew the truth. As much as he wanted to feel the same way as Kalinka about it, he'd seen his brother's face when asked about it. There was no longer any question. Mega Man hoped only in the mercy of the court. He settled his stare into his hands and wished that Roll were there. As if this wish would suddenly make Roll appear, Mega Man turned again to the door. It didn't open, so instead he looked around.

Mega Man recognized only a few of the people in the room. Most of the people he knew were people from around Monstropolis, or had known Proto Man when he rescued them from one of Wily's schemes. What surprised him was the number of people he didn't know. Were they friends of Proto Man? His fears told him that they were more than likely to be dissenters: people who knew all of the bad things that Proto Man had done. Rock remembered that the murder wasn't the only crime his brother had comitted in the early days, and that surely there were other people who had complaints about him. Even worse, they might be rightful complaints.

Rock turned away from them, sour. When is Mr. Briggs going to get here? He said he was flying in yesterday. Was his plane delayed?

The double doors at the back of the room opened, and Mega Man looked expectantly for the Californian Senator. Only it wasn't him. It was instead a pony-tailed brunette in a hoodie. She looked only straight ahead at the judge's booth and sat down at the back row on the other side of the aisle. Next came her mother. Mega Man knew it was her, though today Tessa Brown was more formally dressed in a black pencil skirt, grey blouse, and blazer.

Mega Man wondered why he didn't expect them before. Of course the Copenhagens were going to testify. Rock let go of his hopes. The poor girl and her mother were so grim. Tessa tightly gripped her daughter's hand as if nothing in the world were more precious. Leila leaned her head on her mother's shoulder, and only then could Rock see the dark circles under her red eyes. She'd been crying, and hard at that.

The robot turned away, feeling more sick than ever. How could he hope any longer that his brother would be saved? The Copenhagens deserved justice, and nothinig Mega Man could say would change that fact. He slumped down in the bench, trying not to shake. He wasn't ready to say goodbye.

\\\\\

Author's Notes:

- Sorry, guys, I hope you don't like Proto Man...:D

- Actually, if Bass were activated, he would have come to the hearing. Mostly to figure out what Proto Man's deal is. Proto Man would be very glad to know Bass isn't there.

- Dr. Cossack's accent isn't as strong as Kalinka's. He's spent more time with non-Russians than his daughter. Crap, I need to write a story about Skull Man. I love his natural brutality, and how having him do undignified things, like having a tea party with Kalinka, is extra hilarious as a result.

- You know, I didn't actually intend originally for both Hard Man and Shadow Man, the two witnesses to Proto Man's crime, to get destroyed by Zero. Well, I did mean it for Shadow Man, but then Hard Man just ended up being with Zero when he was activated too. I wrote myself in a bit of a hole there, but yeah. I figure they have Proto Man's memory card, so it's not too necessary to have Hard's or Shadow's also. For years the REA suspected Proto Man. They knew of his friendship with the Copenhagens over the years, but they didn't know if it was compassion or guilt that made Proto Man take such good care of them.

The REA never interfered with Proto Man's efforts to help the Copenhagens. They knew the family's situation, and they figured they might as well let Proto Man do whatever good for the family that he could. Of course, that was before they knew Proto Man was guilty.

Character profiles!

=====Leila Copenhagen

"What do you want?"

Good point: Practical

Bad point: Ill tempered

Likes: Being comfortable

Dislikes: Stuck up people

Leila Copenhagen is too emotional for her own good. Most of the time she's aware of her bad temper and tries to avoid the things that make her angry, especially when her mother is around. Sometimes, however, she just has to let it out. You can tell how much she likes you by her level of self control. If she tries to be nice, good and well, but if she doesn't like you, she won't even hesitate to be "honest" about all your nitpicky little flaws.

Leila wasn't always that way. She was actually a very happy and social child. She was a little spoiled, especially by her father. Richard would have done anything for her, and he loved his little girl very much. However, when he died, Leila didn't know how to accept it. She was very young, and she kept expecting her mother to tell her when dad was coming back. No matter what answer Tessa gave her daughter, Leila usually ended up throwing a tantrum. These were no ordinary tantrums either. She would bang her head against cabinets, punch walls, and throw toys across the house. Her uncontrollable anger prevented babysitters from wanting to watch her, and this made it very hard for Tessa to keep a job.

Proto Man noticed their financial problems and stole several thousands of dollars from Dr. Wily to pay the mortgage. It was the night that he tried to sneak up to the Copenhagen's house that Leila met him, and the girl insisted that Proto Man come back later for a tea party. While Proto Man told Roll about this tea party, he didn't mention that Leila threw one of her tantrums and tried to bite him. Notedly, she only did that once. Attacking a robot hurt far more than attacking a wall. This earned respect in Leila's eyes. Proto Man was not someone she could manipulate, and so she stopped trying. Their friendship calmed Leila down, and Blues often substituted for a therapist or even sometimes a babysitter.

Leila never saw too much reason to be very girly as she grew up. She was okay with makeup, fingernail polish and the like, but seeing other girls get obsessed with it made her feel sick, because she knew there were more important things to life than falling for shallow things. In almost a hypocritical fashion, Leila ended up hanging out with some drug users, though they mostly stuck to weed. She herself didn't use herself at that point, but she claimed she understood them. At this point Blues stepped up his visits and made it very clear what sort of life that led to. Proto Man often went out of his way to stop crime rings, and he filled Leila's head with the stories he found out during his secretive work. He told her about how selling drugs was what crime rings did for their funding, and the sort of things that happened to runaways. Leila hadn't actually been planning to run away, but Proto Man figured it was better to be safe than sorry.

Proto Man's friendship always made Leila want to be smart. She admired him and his knowledge so much that she wanted to do well and work harder in school. For a while it was hard for Leila to get along with her stepfather, as all her admiration was Proto Man's, but she did decide to be nice to him for her mother's sake. Actually, she had a mild grudge against him early on, because when Roger Brown and her mother ran off to Vegas to get married, they had left Leila behind. Proto Man brought her to Vegas so that she could be at the wedding, but the incident didn't earn Roger any points.

What did earn Roger points with his stepdaughter was his actions when Leila found out the truth about Proto Man. He let Leila cry in his arms, then he called the police and told them everything so that Leila didn't have to talk to them. With the robot out of the way, Leila found herself more willing to actually find out what sort of person Roger was, and while her early assessment of him was correct (namely, that he was boring), she learned that sometimes boring is a good thing, especially at times when life is too emotional.

=====Luminous Sigma

"I will make a world free from humans!"

Good point: Strong warrior

Bad point: Huge jerk

Likes: Angst

Dislikes: Following orders

Yep. Totally didn't make up that first name for Sigma. All Dr. Cain's idea. Uh-huh. Notedly, nobody calls him that, especially after he caught the Maverick Virus. It's just too weird to call a bad guy Luminous. Occasionally a Maverick calls him that, but they learn pretty fast not to.

Sigma was one of Dr. Cain's earlier creations, and also one of his favorite. The early Sigma was a hero who enjoyed doing good and protecting people. Sigma and X were actually good friends, and as Sigma was one of Dr. Cain's personal reploids rather than a marketplace model, the two often hung out, though Sigma never liked video games as much as X.

When a batch of reploids were reprogrammed by a baddie to attack Arcadia, Dr. Cain got the idea to create the Maverick Hunters, a reploid anti-crime agency. He said that since reploids were causing trouble, they could be responsible to end it. Sigma was the first volunteer in this effort, and soon gained great popularity within the Hunters as his natural leadership ability made everyone want to follow him. He even convinced X to volunteer as well, though X at first wasn't very good.

Sigma was much more kind in those days, even when he encountered the worst Maverick he would ever fight: Zero. Zero was a violent but mighty fighter, and Sigma only defeated him out of what then appeared to be luck. Zero started to glitch due to a programming error, and when Sigma took advantage of this to finally defeat Zero, he ended up not only contracting the Maverick Virus, but also gained the ability to spread this virus. It latched onto Sigma even more violently than Zero; while Zero was able to withstand and even resist the virus (even without knowing it), Sigma was not strong enough. Sigma's last act as a good robot was to have mercy on Zero and allow him to be reprogrammed.

Since then, well, you've played the X series. Sigma tries over and over again to take over the earth, only to fail each time and yet mysteriously return from a believed death. Eventually Sigma figured out that he alone could not bring about the dream of a humanless world, so in X8 he changed his plan: instead of infecting robots himself, he could create numerous "little Sigmas" using the sort of technology that made Axl so unique. This plan too ultimately failed. It did, however, result in the loss of Sigma's ability to return to the realm of the living. He'd given his powers to his "children", and so once X, Zero, and Axl defeated him for the last time, that was it. No more Sigma. Ironically, his efforts only doomed reploids in the end, and even though humans were gone so too was Sigma's dream.

Sigma was just as popular to his followers as a bad guy as he was when he was good, despite the fact his insane plans generally get all of them killed. Sigma was admired by those with the Maverick Virus for many years after his death, and the rebellious reploids carry out their awful deeds in his name. It would make Sigma proud to know this.