The third round wasn't open to the public, and Axel and Roxas watched from inside a theater with the other technicians, so they could see the remaining ten face off. The challenges were sometimes in the moral gray, and ethics were occasionally trampled on. Would you save a child or its mother? Would you cross the river even though it's dangerous or walk around. Why? Could the AI kill a man if another human's life was at stake? Was the AI appropriately selfish at moments? They had whittled away for hours until they were down to the last three. Some of the people had opted to leave once their robot had been eliminated. A few of their competitors had chosen to stay. With the last three, they had opened up their hard drives and had begun looking at craftsmanship and code. Axel was thankful to the heavens that he had taken out the NC parts.

One was immediately disqualified for using a base, "I'm sorry." They directed to the screen, "But no bases from Moshiva, Oltheleon, Nimbus, or Poltun may be used. This is your first warning. If next year, you are found to use a base again, you'll be barred from the competition." Level 6 and up corporations sponsored this tournament, they didn't want more of their own product. With the other female AI eliminated, Xion and a taller male counterpart were competing for first. "Is this one the measuring stick?" The man in white asked his assistant as they looked over the male AI.

"Yes, so that means…" There was a bit of confusion as the screen turned off and the lights in the theater came on making the blond wince in surprise.

A woman in a blue pantsuit appeared at the side door, "Can Axel Brennant please come with me?"

Roxas watched as his boyfriend stood and smiled down at him, "Meet you in the lobby, love."

"M'kay, congrats and all." A giddy feeling was beginning to build in his chest, and he knew the redhead's mother would be so proud considering she'd been hounding Axel to get into this competition for years. Now, he'd won…Well, he'd done something. Roxas wasn't sure if they'd won or not, but he was pretty sure of it. Otherwise they wouldn't have called him back. The term 'measuring stick' stuck out to him. They must have had a corporate sponsored robot to help compare the other AI to? He wondered if in the past they'd accidentally eliminated the measuring stick.

Locating his boyfriend's mother in the lobby, Sora, Riku, and Kairi were present as well. "Hey!" The brunet greeted, "We just got here like…thirty minutes ago. How'd it go?"

"They called Axel back to answer a few questions and stuff, but I think we won. One AI got thrown out for being mostly a base." Roxas shrugged, a large smile breaking out on his face as a tingly feeling broke out across his body.

"That's cool." Kairi beamed, "I know that they only check to see if you're a base at the end because they don't care if it's original or not unless you get to the top three. I think that's kind of cool, but kind of unfair at the same time."

Riku spoke up, "They were having a debate about in on the competition's forums, but they weren't getting enough ground in time to switch it this year. On top of that, if they checked to see if it was a base first, then someone might change out the hardware after it had been checked and then they'd get through the whole competition with something that wasn't theirs."

"I'm in support for checking if it's a base last." Sora shrugged, "If your AI is good enough to make it to the final three, then it shouldn't matter to you if they check. If yours is better than the others, enough to surpass the bases, then you probably took the competition." He laughed.

"True, true." Kairi grinned before raising her hand to point straight at the wall behind them, "Hey look, the TV's are all signaling to head to the stadium."

"Have they already announced the winner of the aesthetics comp?" Roxas questioned, trying to figure out if this was the end of the day.

The redhead's mother nodded, "Yes, they have. This is it and then we're heading home." It'd been a long weekend, and even though he was really excited and the adrenalin was pumping, he couldn't wait to be back in his own bed.

"I wonder if he's going to actually go through with what he said yesterday." Riku muttered, "Turning down a work contract with Moshiva after he gets out of school isn't a smart thing to do. It's not like they'll black list him or cause trouble, but I've heard things from their employees."

Sora rolled his eyes, "Like what?"

"…Never mind." Riku bit the inside of his cheek, "I won't share things if you guys are going to be like that." Out of the three of them, the taller teen had the most connections and information, so Roxas really valued his words. Kairi and Sora had become jaded to the immense amount of knowledge Riku had, though. There was a bit of competitive edge between the two males that sometimes caused friction, so Roxas and Kairi knew to keep their mouths shut at that instant.

About to try and reopen the conversation to hear what Riku had to say, he was interrupted by Axel and some competition officials walking out onto the stage, "We'd now like to introduce this year's winner of the Reality Composition category." The woman in blue spoke with authority into the mic. "This year we are proud to announce that Axel Brennant with his AI, Xion, have taken the competition in this selection. They have been awarded the allotted twelve thousand and if at any time when they chose to accept, a contract with Moshiva." Roxas hoped he had turned them down politely, "That concludes 2046's Competition. We hope you enjoyed your time and continue to improve your AI. Have a good year! We hope to see you back here soon."

"Somehow that was a lot less eventful than I thought it'd be." Roxas muttered under his breath as they went back to the lobby, "Hey, Sora, can I get your guys' numbers?" He asked whipping out his cellphone, so he could get ahold of the three next time they wanted to hang out.

"Oh yeah, sure!" After a quick swap that had killed a small amount of time, Axel and Xion appeared with smiles on their faces.

"Congratulations, Xi!" Kairi was the first to shout, "Queen of AI! Robot of the ages! Conqueror of all!"

"The most beautiful!" Roxas followed with a smile, "The wisest and most wonderful!"

Sora laughed, "An unforgettable indisputable victory!"

"The future of AI." Riku beamed.

"And to Axel!" Sora followed, "Well done!"

The redhead blushed along with Xion and they both giggled nervously for a moment, "We couldn't have done it without all of you!" The robot brushed the hair out of her face, tucking it behind one of her ears, "Honestly, thanks for everything."

"You all helped us out." Axel continued, "You really are the best friends we could ever ask for."

After hugs, and a bit of crying on Kairi's part because she was honestly so happy for Xion (who would have cried too if she could), the groups made their respective goodbyes as Axel's mom directed them to the car. The pleasant thing about cars by their current year was that they were completely computerized and could travel much safer and faster than they had in the past. The driver only had to push in the destination, and then everyone could sit back and relax. The redhead and Xion chattered on about what had happened in the backroom for most of the drive before the Axel decided to text while Xion and Mrs. Brennant took a nap. That just left Roxas there to look out the window in relative silence.

'It hurts.' He touched the spot on his arm which was beginning to bruise. The pain had only started a bit ago, but the burning continued as he gazed out the window. He wished he could have a shot of medication to soothe the fire in his veins. Lost in thought, he tried to distract himself, 'It's only another hour until the car ride is over. I can make it.'

Thanks for your purchase. They'll be in the mail by next week. If you need any help with them, just text me. – M

"Roxas, you okay?" Axel asked in concern after he had deleted the texts off his phone, noting the blond had slumped against the window.

In a crippled whisper, he mumbled, "It hurts. It really, really hurts."

Guess he couldn't make it to the end of the car trip after all.

Been there. Done that. Got the chap done. Review. Layla. Yada yada. We all know how it goes.