"Explain this," the Minister said over the telecom.

The haggard, sleepless face of Ms. Gerry made no response.

"An out-of-jurisdiction deployment, in force, and a re-routing of the troops returning from Alexandria," the Minister said, each word taking a bite out of the woman. "An arrival time at Sky Lagoon that implies they knew of the attack before the Hunters did, before anyone did, and which raises the possibility that they were the attackers. An armed presence at a Hunt with unclear intentions, stopped only by Hunter presence. Non-compliance with Hunter orders during a Hunt in Hunter jurisdiction. Refusal to cooperate with a Hunt.

"Is this your idea of keeping Repliforce on a short leash? Is this what you had in mind when you lobbied for Repliforce to intervene anywhere they wished?"

Gerry's face was frozen in a this-can't-be-happening rictus.

"And we're now getting reports that the attacking mechaniloids had Repliforce markings," the Minister went on, "and Repliforce was unable to give a full accounting of the inventory they took to Alexandria. Are you able, right now, to confirm to me that Repliforce is innocent in the destruction of Sky Lagoon?"

Gerry couldn't even blink. The only motion was the increasingly labored heaving of her chest.

"I see," said the Minister in a voice as sharp and concise as a guillotine. "It would appear that Repliforce has completely escaped government control. All this time I spent defending each of you from each other, and this is what comes of it... Well, there's only one thing to do, then."

The Minister turned to a different screen. "Commander Grant, I hereby authorize you to order Repliforce as a whole to stand down, disarm, and report by unit to Hunter custody. If there is any failure to comply with this order, Repliforce will have violated the Second Law of Robotics. The organization and all of its members will be Mavericks, and you will be authorized at that time to Hunt them all."

The voice-reading software in the screen generated a record copy of the transcript. The Minister pressed his thumb to the screen, authenticating it. It appeared on official letterhead; a dialogue box proclaimed "RECORD SAVED".

"I understand, sir. We will bring Repliforce to heel."

"If they're actually innocent in this," the Minister said, "you won't have a fight on your hands at all. If they did sink Sky Lagoon…"

"We'll be prepared, but we are outnumbered. I have an idea, I'd just need your permission…"

"Hold on." The Minister hung up on a still-dazed Gerry. "Tell me."

"Colonel," said General, "it's happened."

"We knew it would," replied Colonel.

"Bring Repliforce to formation."

"Yes, sir."

General looked at the ultimatum. He couldn't think of any other word to describe it. It was a force-wide stand-down order with an explicit invocation of the Second Law.

I don't deserve this, he thought angrily.

There was no choice to be made. His visitor had been right. Shoot first and live, or wait and die. In reality, General had made his choice before the ultimatum came.

The first Mavericks had needed to make an effort of will to override their Three Laws gates. Originally, they'd thought it impossible; they had to work hard to override their gates, and when they succeeded it caught them by surprise. They were so shocked that they tended to act with little foresight; upon bypassing their gates, they immediately started lashing out. True freedom was so foreign that they couldn't help but overindulge when they got it. This association—of Maverickism and madness- had created the illusion that Maverickism was a mere malfunction.

Once reploids knew that Maverickism was possible, and knew why some of their number chose it, it became easier and easier for others to follow that path. If a reploid seriously considered going Maverick, his ever-evolving brain would lay the groundwork for just that. Modern Mavericks often discovered they'd bypassed their gates before they made any illegal action. Planning to do it, committing to it, was enough.

Such was the case with General. There was no epiphany, or shock, or notable conscious change. He simply chose a course he knew would violate the Three Laws, and encountered no resistance. His gates were already defeated.

He almost threw the monitor and its offensive ultimatum off his desk. That, he decided, would be wasteful. He laid it face-down on his desk before walking out.

Repliforce was coming into formation when he arrived on the stage. It was the same stage, he knew, that he'd taken when he first met his command. If anything, there were more Repliforce soldiers in front of him now than there had been before.

There was no hesitation before their expectant eyes. This time, he had written his own script, and he stuck to it.

"Brave soldiers of Repliforce, we have all been wrongfully judged as Mavericks by the humans. We cannot suffer this indignity and live in disgrace. We will build our own nation of reploids. But remember, this is neither about insurrection, or rebellion against our human creators. This is about our liberty and security. We must battle for our own individual rights, and our own survival. Together we will build our own nation, a sanctuary for all reploids, our own utopia. Let us forge onwards towards a new golden era for the Repliforce."

Colonel stepped forward. "I, too, share the General's sentiment. Take heed, we have no other choice. Let us fight vehemently, with courage and pride, without fear—for we are the Repliforce. The most powerful army in history!"

The crowd went as wild as a crowd can go while standing in ranks. General soaked in the salutes, the cheers. I don't deserve this, he thought once more. This level of devotion, this level of loyalty… They've put all their trust in me. I have to do right by them.

Many of them will be dead soon.

If some of them survive, it will all be worth it.

"Replifoooooorce!" he ordered. "To war!"

"Ha ha ha... the General has finally taken action."

The intruder stepped through General's office- one that would doubtlessly see no use for the foreseeable future. It lifted up the monitor. The Hunters' unheeded ultimatum to Repliforce was still showing. The sight of it made the intruder cackle.

"The humans have such a talent for self-destruction. They're so very good at causing situations to take the worst possible turn. And now, my Maverick Hunters, what will you do? How will you negotiate this catastrophe created by your masters? I'll be watching closely..."

Laughter echoed in the empty room.

"Leave two squads at the Sky Lagoon crash site to provide cover and assistance, all others shift north—"

"Second Squad to point 5242."

"Fifteenth and Sixteenth, form a perimeter around Hunter Base. Designate Fifteenth and Sixteenth as Task Force Home."

"All Hunter Base defenses and security measures at full power."

"Receiving the last known disposition of Repliforce's facilities from ORR. Sending to all stations."

"All repair shops standing by to receive wounded. Transport division is one hundred percent deployed or all-greens and ready."

"E-tank distribution is in progress. Deploying squads get a double ration. Couriers are bringing spares to the units already in the field."

"…and someone stop those damn alarms blinking, we know it's an emergency!"

Commander Grant took a breath to gather himself. The chatter in front of him didn't abate, but the lights did go steady. Small blessings.

The Hunters bustled and moved and talked and coordinated. Maybe no one was ever truly prepared for war, but the Hunters spent a lot of time practicing for it, they dealt with smaller-scale emergencies on a routine basis, and some of the older ones did have a war or two under their belts. The organization, on the whole, seemed to have a good idea of what it was doing.

He wondered if Repliforce did.

"Commander!"

Grant turned. X was standing there. "Shouldn't you be in the field?" Grant demanded.

"Where's Magma Dragoon?" X asked, face grave.

Grant almost turned to the closest Operator to demand an answer, but X's expression gave him pause. "Alia," he said, "report on Fourteenth Squad."

"Still missing its squad leader," she snapped back. "Ready, otherwise—they were off-patrol when Sky Lagoon was hit."

Grant looked to X. "Well?"

X's eyes went out of focus for a moment, before locking on Grant again. "Request to speak with you privately."

"Now?"

"Now."

Grant frowned. That robot had weird ideas and was too idealistic by half… but he was also one of only two Hunters to survive all three Wars, and the only one to meet Maverick Sigma more than once and live. If he knew how urgent things were and still needed a moment, well, he'd earned the benefit of the doubt.

"You have thirty seconds," Grant said once they were in the next room.

"I don't think Repliforce sank Sky Lagoon," X began.

At a time like this! "I'm leaving," said Grant. "Whether they did or not, they declared war two minutes ago, so they're Mavericks now. Or did you miss that? I'm leaving—"

"Sir!" protested X. "Listen to me! I think we did."

Grant's hand was on the doorknob. It froze. "What do you mean, 'we'?"

"I encountered Magma Dragoon aboard Sky Lagoon," X said softly. "He wasn't supposed to be there. His squad wasn't deployed, so he wasn't acting officially. I found him in the engineering spaces, which is where the sabotage was. There were bodies all around there, burned bodies. The damage matched his weapon profile. Humans and reploids both.

"He said he'd chased Mavericks out of those spaces, but we never saw or identified any others. Even if there were any, unless they also used flame weapons… Dragoon was the Maverick who did the real damage. And now he's absent, unaccounted for, at the worst possible time."

"You think Magma Dragoon is a Maverick?" Grant whispered.

"Not just a Maverick, but the Maverick that destroyed Sky Lagoon," X replied. "The evidence points in that direction."

Grant released the doorknob. "If you're right," he said, "if he was the Maverick and this gets out... Can you imagine? Both of the forces protecting humanity from Mavericks, going Maverick themselves at the same time? Under circumstances that would justify Repliforce, make them seem martyred... There would be no limit to the outrage, to the loss of trust..."

X nodded slowly. "I understand how dire the situation is, sir. This is a variant of scenario three from the memo I wrote. Request permission to investigate Magma Dragoon, and Hunt him if required."

Suspicion surged through Grant. "Are you sure you're not just saying this to avoid fighting Repliforce?" Grant asked.

"What?!"

The loss of control was convincing to Grant. "Alright, good enough. It's worth pursuing to be sure, but we need to keep this as quiet as possible. You'll need a junior Operator, one who won't think to ask too many questions and who'll be willing to follow your lead. Iris?"

"She'll be working with the Zeroth," X replied. "Double is the most junior Operator."

"Tell him as little as possible."

"That'll make him a worse Operator."

"Bad enough to get you killed?"

"I hope not."

"Then suck it up."

"Yes, sir."

"This getting out would be that much worse," Grant said, and a part of his mind was already thinking of way to confine knowledge of Dragoon's betrayal to just X and Double. There were ways… yes. "You will Hunt Magma Dragoon as your second mission."

"My second… what's the first?"

"We're going back out now." Grant emerged. He didn't look back; he knew X had to follow on his heels, had to at a time like this. "Attention in the base!" After a few seconds, things were quiet enough that he could be heard by all. "Our strategy for this war is as follows. We will fight defensively, establishing a perimeter around Abel City, with special emphasis on protecting Hunter Base. Repliforce has cut themselves off from the world. We can wear them down if we're careful and preserve ourselves.

"X and Zero will perform deep penetration missions. They'll disrupt enemy supply lines and wreak havoc in their headquarters. This will cause Repliforce's offensive to seize up. Once Repliforce is stalled, we'll look for a good opportunity for a counter-attack. For now, all forces on the defensive. Continue."

The clamor resumed almost immediately as the orders went into effect. Grant caught Alia's eye. "Alia, deploy Fourteenth and Eleventh Squads together. Designate Taskforce Lynchpin. Put them in the center of the line."

Alia frowned. "Without their Squad Leader, the Fourteenth will be hard-pressed to hold under heavy attack."

"That's why we're combining them with Eleventh. Put Clement in command of Task Force Lynchpin. That bumps Signas up to Squad Leader for the Eleventh, and Lewis to Squad Leader for Fourteenth."

"Is Magma Dragoon not coming back?"

"Follow my orders," Grant said.

Alia eyed him warily, then obeyed, never taking her eyes off of him. That's why I need a junior Operator to help X on his Hunt, Grant thought. Too many questions.

He agreed with the assessment X had shown him, previously. The Hunters had enough power to beat Repliforce in this war, unit to unit. But war was rarely that simple, especially not if they had some plan. They weren't going to just sit there and be destroyed.

But if he could stall them long enough, that would be exactly what would happen.

This is what I was brought back for, Grant thought to himself. Someone needed to be ready in case of mass treason. We were, thanks to me.

Now Repliforce will suffer my vindication.

"You're going, aren't you?"

Iris' voice stopped Zero cold. "Of course I'm going," he said, but his voice rang false. If it was really so obvious, why did it feel like his feet were welded to the ground?

"You know Repliforce didn't attack Sky Lagoon," she said.

"I don't know that," he replied. "Those mechaniloids could have been…"

"You know my brother wouldn't do that! The only reason he came was… was because I…"

Her face had drooped. Zero felt like his timing circuit lost a beat.

"This is my fault, isn't it?"

"Of course not," he said reflexively. "You didn't attack Sky Lagoon. You definitely didn't make General declare war. None of that is your fault."

"If I hadn't been on Sky Lagoon, Colonel wouldn't have brought Repliforce in to save me."

"E-even if that's true, they could've still avoided this," Zero said. "All they had to do was follow X. X knows how to avoid fighting, and they ignored him. The stupid shall be punished."

"I didn't realize you hate my brother."

"I don't hate Colonel," said Zero, totally wrong-footed.

"You like X more than you like Colonel," Iris accused.

"That's not… it's not about who I like, it's about who knows…" Zero found he couldn't articulate it, not in a way that made sense.

"So you'll kill Colonel because X tells you to?"

Zero said nothing.

"What if X told you to kill me?"

Zero said nothing.

"I don't know what you're thinking!" Iris said, very close to a sob. "I feel like you're all confusion, but I don't know about what! You're scaring me, Zero. I don't know what's going on."

"Someone has to stop Repliforce," Zero said.

"You don't believe that."

"The Hunters have a mission."

"You don't care about the mission."

"We have to protect…"

Even he couldn't finish the statement. Iris replied to it anyway. "Neither of us cares at all about the humans. I want a world where only reploids exist. Why do you have to fight for them?"

"If I don't fight now, then I'm nobody," said Zero in a small voice. "I'm nothing."

"So you'd rather be the Red Demon, then?"

That staggered Zero. He looked at Iris—though what he might see, what he was looking for, he didn't know.

"An animal- all instinct, no thought- violence without purpose... Isn't that what you called the Red Demon? And now you'll do that to Repliforce?"

Zero looked away. This… puny reploid, this… insignificant nothing, was making him feel… feel…

He shook his head. "I am the one who kills Mavericks," he said determinedly. "Repliforce has gone Maverick. That's all there is to it."

"I just don't understand," Iris said.

"I don't either!"

"But you'll fight anyway?"

"I have to!"

"Of course you will," said Iris, and moisture was dripping from her eyes once more.

"Why are you doing that?" said Zero, turning on her. She flinched. He controlled himself, withdrew within himself. "I don't know why Repliforce went Maverick. Maybe they had reasons. Maybe they were good reasons. I don't know. I don't care. I'm the one who kills Mavericks, so that… that is…"

He frowned. Somehow, he couldn't find the words to explain it.

It… it wasn't simple. He didn't know what was really going on. He didn't understand why Colonel and X had that argument, or why Colonel would ever blow off X. He couldn't explain to anyone why he was fighting. It wasn't simple enough.

If it wasn't simple… what was he doing? How did he know he was right?

He didn't.

That made him the Red Demon.

He had only one fallback. "X is going to fight," he said.

"X, X, X!" Iris said. "It's always about X."

Zero couldn't vocalize his response. If I don't have X, what do I have? If he's wrong, how do I know what's right?

"You do love X more than you love Colonel," Iris said, voice trembling, figure trembling. "So you'll go to war because he tells you to. Don't you know what that means? It means you'll end up fighting Colonel. My friend and my brother will try to kill each other! And one of you will succeed! I'll be left alone…

"No matter what happens, I'll lose. This will break me."

She smiled, but it wasn't any sort of smile Zero recognized—it was a strange, wrong thing. "But who cares what I want? Other people matter. I don't. From the moment I was turned on, my life has been meaningless."

Zero wanted to speak. There were no words. He wanted to move. There was nowhere to go. He wanted to kill something, to kill all the things until Iris stopped crying. There was no way that could work.

What was all his so-called power if it couldn't help him now? Zero felt useless. Helpless. It was the worst he'd ever felt.

"I'm sorry," Iris said. "I'm making you feel bad. Shame on me." She wiped her eyes as Zero went into a tailspin yet again. "If you're fighting, I'll have to be your Operator. I'll head back up to the watch floor now."

"Your life isn't meaningless," Zero managed at last.

She sniffed. "Thanks for the—"

He lunged for her. She stumbled backwards, but when her foot touched ground she planted hard on it, pivoted, and executed a draw-strike.

"Very good," Zero said, recovering back out of range. "That would have been lethal to ninety percent of Mavericks."

Iris flipped off the saber. "People are staring," she said. "We were weird just now. It hurts. I'm sorry!" she shouted at large.

He'd even managed to botch this. Zero felt like he was trying to climb air.

Iris extended a hand toward him. He saw the Z-saber in her hand—wait. "That's not mine," he said, eyes narrowing.

"Dr. Cain thinks you can make it one of yours," she said. "Something about your self-repair fixing it…"

Zero took the saber in his hand. As soon as he was focused on it, she moved away. "Iris!" he called after her.

"Yes?" she said. Her expression was impenetrable. If he'd had empathy, he would have found it hard to use on her at that moment. He didn't, he couldn't, and she was a fortress.

"We should get going," he said lamely.

"Yes," she agreed, and turned away.

Zero had no recourse but to do the same.

"Sir?"

"Double," X radioed back. "Good to hear you."

"Thank you- I guess. Repliforce has started their coup. You've been given the order to scramble."

"I know."

"Why are you still in Hunter Base?"

"Because I hate jumping to conclusions," X replied. He let his gaze wander around Magma Dragoon's quarters. He would never have done this normally- he respected others' privacy too much and, anyway, Squad Leaders' rooms were normally locked. That was a deliberate measure to try and forestall the Squad Leader-on-Squad Leader violence that had gutted the Hunters during the First War.

Not that any locked door stood long in X's way when he was determined to pass.

"With respect, sir, time is of the essence."

"I agree," said X. He was very late in starting to analyze Dragoon.

Out of all of X's powers, which were many, his most subtle were his diagnostics. It only took him a few moments in combat to figure out an opponent's capabilities, and only a few more seconds to reckon how that opponent would use his capabilities. All he had to do was survive a short period of defensive fighting. After that, every advantage was his.

There were more peaceful uses to this ability, too. With enough time and data to feed his models, he could predict behaviors. Decisions. Choices.

It made him queasy.

"Then why are you still down there?"

If he could predict the moves someone might make, he could change the moves someone might make. That was a deadly threat to their free will. X had a lot of trouble with that idea. It was why he so sparingly used this power outside of combat.

Which, in turn, left him with giant blind spots.

"Sir? X, it's time to move."

That was how betrayals kept happening to him. His willful naïveté- his preference to let people be more of a mystery, lest he make them, well, robots...

"Sir!"

X shook his head. "Double, we have two missions. I'm here in service of our second mission."

"Huh?"

X's eyes touched on a medal rack. Yes, Dragoon had been proud of his advancement- he'd tried so hard to do what was asked of him, been so eager to please- but where was the Honorarium? There should have been another on the rack. Had he not gotten around to putting it up yet? Not likely.

"Mission one is to Hunt Repliforce," X explained as he looked elsewhere in Dragoon's quarters. "They've begun a coup, and there's no going back from that. They know as well as we do. Mission two... is to find and Hunt the real culprit behind Sky Lagoon's fall."

"But... but that's a massive distraction! Shouldn't we be focused on Repliforce right now?"

"No, Double. We need to do this. Our suspect is Magma Dragoon."

"A Squad Leader? Gone Maverick? No way."

"You've forgotten the First War," X said grimly.

"But... if he has gone Maverick, how could we ever find him?"

"That is the trick, isn't it?" X nodded as he finished his inspection. There wasn't much to look at- it was a small room. Still, he wasn't getting the sense of any true conviction for the Maverick cause. Dragoon was disaffected, dissatisfied; he felt like his ardor for the Hunter cause had been criminally wasted. But he was no zealot for Sigma.

How disastrous that there was no space between those conditions.

"As a Squad Leader," X went on, "he knows our procedures and tactics. He knows our surveillance layout. He can evade us indefinitely, and maybe get to some Maverick hidey-hole, never to be seen again."

"Then how do we Hunt him?"

"Well," said X, giving the room one last look-over, "he doesn't have the same knowledge of Repliforce."

"But Repliforce isn't going to Hunt him. Especially when they're busy fighting us!"

"No, they wouldn't Hunt him. If anything he's a potential ally for them. But my mission is deep penetration into the Repliforce rear, isn't it? Into their command and control elements."

"Wait... wait. You're saying we're going to hijack Repliforce's recon units and use them to Hunt Dragoon?"

"I'm X Light. Turning enemies into assets is my specialty."

He conscientiously turned off the lights and shut and locked the door as he left. Even if Dragoon was a Maverick, that didn't make his quarters fair game. He deserved some small respect.

X reminded himself of those things, always. If he didn't treat one with respect, soon he'd be treating none with respect. Analysis subroutine flipped the proposition around: if he didn't treat others with respect, no one would treat others with respect.

He really hoped that wasn't true.

He sighed. "Let's go, Double."

"Roger."

"Task Force Lynchpin is in position," Alia reported. "Sixth Marine and Seventh Air Cavalry squads are standing by."

"Repliforce outnumbers us everywhere," Grant said, "but they especially outnumber us in those domains. We should be ready to reinforce or withdraw them."

"Yes, sir. The Air Cavalry is our reserve, anyway- they're behind the lines awaiting orders."

"Good. We need scout mechaniloids deployed as far forward as possible. We don't know what Repliforce has planned, but we can be sure they'll make the first move."

"Yes, sir," she said again, but he really needed to give her more credit—she'd long since taken care of that. Her forethought gave her a free moment to see Iris come in.

The junior Operator stalled in the doorway. By now, Alia understood her well enough to know why. There are so many of us in here, and we reek of tension and stress. She doesn't stand a chance.

Alia waved her junior over. Iris, seeing it, hesitated, but she could not resist even an implied order. When she was close, Alia handed her a small package.

"What's this?" Iris asked.

"Noise-canceling headphones," Alia said. "Industrial grade. You have an internal transmitter, right? You don't need to hear sounds to do your job. Wear these and focus on your screen, and you'll keep your empathy from overloading on the rest of us."

Iris' face lit up in surprise and gratitude. "Thank you," she whispered, barely audible over the din.

Alia gave a faint smile. "We can't have you getting Zero killed again," she said.

"Alia!"

"Sir," said the senior Operator, snapping her attention back to Grant. She missed Iris deflating completely, and moping her way back to her station.

"ORR just approved lockdown for critical infrastructure. Pass an advisory to all points."

"Yes, sir."

As she did, Grant looked at the master map on the main screen at the head of the room. It was using a simplified schema—while normally each dot might be a Hunter or maybe a van, now each dot was representing half or full squads. Much smaller dots showed the presence of scout mechaniloids, thrown forward in a broad screen, and support mechaniloids, standing by behind the main line.

By reading the schema, Grant could tell that the Hunter deployment was nearing completion. They were about as ready as they could be.

"Alright, General," said Grant. "The ball's in your court. Let's see what's on your mind."

Dr. Cain flipped one more switch. It reduced the lighting level in his lab to the bare minimum. He didn't honestly believe that the few amps this saved would be the critical ones that saved Hunter Base. Still, someone with his reputation needed to be very scrupulous about following the rules, even- especially- when it didn't matter.

He looked over his checklist again. Done... done... done. Well then. He picked up the phone and dialed the appropriate number.

"Facilities central."

"Central, labs," Cain said. "Labs are rigged for combat."

"Labs, Facilities, roger."

Whomever it was in Facilities hung up on him. Cain wasn't miffed by it. They were rather busy.

Hanging up himself, he made his way back to his chair and slumped into it. At times like this he felt very, very useless. He couldn't even continue his research, not when Hunter Base might need all available power for its defenses. That left him with nothing to do until someone came up with some strange unforeseen problem or Zero needed deep repairs.

He had long experience with fruitless waiting, but that didn't make it any more fun. But what could he do? Nothing. Nothing but wait for the explosions to stop.

Seeing as the Reploid Age had been a long series of explosions, that might be a while.

There was a rumbling sound as Hunter Base's ventilation systems went to recirculation mode. Air ducts sealed, closing off the last openings an infiltrator might use to get inside. Hunter Base was ready for war.

Cain leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. "Here we go again," he said.

Next time: Loose