"Iris!" Zero called over his radio as his boosters flashed. "Where are you, Iris?"
"I tollllld youuuu," she said. "You'll see me if you keep going around the spaceport."
"Where?" Zero pleaded, though he kept moving. He'd heard combat sounds over the radio, heard Rekir's voice, but none of that was as important as Iris. "Where are you?"
"You'll know when you see me."
"Don't do this to me, Iris. I thought about you when I saw Colonel, just like I promised. I tried to… h-he wouldn't…"
"Don't talk to us about that. We know. We know all about it. Just keep running."
"I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Iris!"
"We know. We release you from your promises."
"What does that mean?" Zero said as panic filled him. "Which promises?"
"You'll know. We promise."
"Iris, please! Where are you? I need to see you!"
"You will. You will."
He bore down and ran faster.
"Too late," X whispered.
Ahead, out the cockpit window, he could see a second shuttle lifting off. No air-breathing craft could catch it, not where it was headed.
"Seventeenth," he said over the radio, "are there any other shuttles down there?"
"Negative, that was the last one. Repliforce scrapped the rest."
The shuttle began to curve—or it looked like it was curving, anyway, as it escaped the planet's spin and the planet went on without it. The planet wouldn't miss it. X would.
No time to waste, then. "Base, X. My shuttle's been hijacked and it left without me. I need alternate transportation to Final Weapon."
"X, Base, roger… that might be tricky."
X gave a tight smile. "I trust Commander Grant understands the urgency of the situation."
"I'll make sure he does."
Good for you, Alia, he thought. "Base, X, roger."
"I'll go into a holding pattern," said the pilot.
"No, land anyway," X said. "We need to pick up Zero."
"Oh, right. Sorry, sir."
"Don't worry, it wasn't part of the plan. We were supposed to…"
"X, help me."
X's attention was ripped away. "What's wrong, Zero?" he replied silently.
"I can't find Iris."
Dread washed over X.
"She told me she was at the spaceport, but I can't find her," Zero went on. His radio-voice was more anguished than X had ever heard it. Even during the First War, when Zero was adrift trying to figure out which side to fight for, he hadn't sounded like he was in pain.
There was no doubt in X's mind that Zero was hurting, now.
"Help me, X," Zero begged.
"I will," X promised. But how could Iris have been at the spaceport? Time to switch frequencies. "Alia, X," X transmitted privately. "Where's Iris?"
"She went into a fit when Repliforce took off. I had her taken to the repair shop."
"Did she get there?" X asked meaningfully.
"…checking."
X suspected he already knew the answer. If his suspicion was correct, then he could guess the cause. "Zero, how's Colonel?"
"…I…"
Everything came together for X. He had two questions that needed answering, but he knew what those answers would be. He knew who was on that shuttle. He knew, and could not stop it.
"X, Alia. Iris never made it to the repair shop. I've started a search for her in the base."
"Alia, X, roger." He knew they wouldn't find her, but they might find something else, and…
"…I killed Colonel, X. I didn't want to. He made me do it. I didn't want to, but he…"
X closed his eyes. His insides were lurching. He knew it wasn't just because of the flyer's landing. How bizarre. X valued information so highly—it was the fuel for his analysis subroutines, and those gave him power—but to know, and yet be powerless…
"Zero," X said slowly, "Iris is gone."
"What do you mean, gone?" Zero said sharply.
"She had Colonel's suffering circuit installed, remember?" X said. "Not just any suffering circuit, either—an overpowered one that was supposed to balance Colonel's martial pride. But when it was too strong, they installed it in Iris instead so she would dampen the signal, and linked their brains together.
"Zero, what do you suppose would happen to Iris if she lost her link with Colonel?"
Silence. Utter silence. Whatever Zero was doing, he wasn't transmitting. The flyer touched down at the spaceport, but still Zero didn't transmit.
No, X was wrong—he was.
"Iris!"
"Iris!"
"Iris!"
"Iris!"
Zero was swapping through every frequency he could hit. It was almost like a jamming signal, except that its intent was the opposite, to elicit a response rather than inhibit one.
X closed his eyes and let his imagination take over. He tried to imagine himself as Iris—as a person with empathy so strong it swamped her sense of self. She had managed to survive because she was always sharing those sensations. Always transmitting—sharing them with another. Having to do that, by itself, would help take off some of the edge. There was always someone to serve as an emotion-sink—someone who understood—someone who felt like Iris felt, if only a little. She didn't have to carry it all herself because she was always unloading some of it on Colonel.
Now take away Colonel.
Too loud. Too harsh. Her ability to process emotions wouldn't be up to the task. Without any sort of outlet or relief, they would flood over her and break her.
Unless she found a way, forced a way…
Reploid brains could re-wire themselves on the fly. X knew that without doubt, because that property was what made Maverickism possible.
Reploids were built so that their decisions had to pass muster with the Three Laws of Robotics. Dedicated circuitry caused all signal paths to go through the gates that enforced the Laws. This should have disallowed Maverickism. It didn't. Mavericks created alternate paths, false signals, and other tricks that allowed them to bypass their Three Laws gates.
That example meant it was possible Iris had found a way to function… but with that much sensation to sink, under that much duress… There was a big difference between a brain functioning and a brain working.
"X, Base. The medic that was taking Iris to medical has been found. Dead. Saber attack at close range."
X nodded gravely. He hated being right, sometimes. "Thank you, Alia."
"I'm locking down the base while we find the Maverick."
"Don't bother. The Maverick has already left. She's left the planet, in fact."
"She… you mean Iris went Maverick?"
"You take that back!"
Zero's voice interjected over the comms channel. Of course Zero would be cycling through them, listening for any sign or signal.
"I can't, Zero. The pieces fit. Iris was hit by backlash when you killed Colonel…"
"So this is all my fault?!"
"…so she was taken down to the repair shop. On the way, her brain reconfigured enough to regain activity, but not any activity like it had before. She killed the medic, and stowed away with Double when he came here with supplies. Now Double is on that shuttle, heading up to space, and Iris… Iris is with him."
"I'm checking the hangar now. I'll find her, I know I will. She's not Maverick!"
All of Zero's words and actions were so unusual, so different, that X wondered if Zero hadn't been subject to mental trauma. But, in a way, he had.
X knew when his words could never hit their target. Zero wouldn't listen. He had to see. In the meantime, X would try to figure out what words to say to Zero when he couldn't avoid the truth.
He didn't like his chances.
"Let me do all the talking," said Double.
Iris laughed.
"What?" he said, bristling.
"You're putting on an act to hide how scared you are, but you think it's okay because I'm the crazy one!" she giggled. "It's funny!
"But it's alright," she went on, suddenly serious. "We understand. You see…" she leaned in closely as if to share a secret. "I am the crazy one."
She leaned back and a gout of laughter erupted. "But that just makes me honest. Everyone's crazy! I know better than anyone. No one can hide their crazy from me. I see it in every single person. Crazy, crazy, crazy. They tell themselves they're not, which makes them crazier. I'm not the crazy one, I'm just the craziest!"
"That's true," said Double sincerely. "And that's why I should do the talking."
"Repliforce doesn't know you. They do know me. If we're going to get onboard without being blasted to atoms, it'll be because of me."
This voice was deeper, utterly serious, and completely unlike what had come before. Double glanced around to make sure no one else was about. No, just Iris, who was now pouting.
"Ohhhh," she said with a whine, "but what if you're too proud and scared to admit it? What if you try to talk your way through on your own? I don't wanna be blasted to atoms!"
"Here," Double said, practically flinging the handset at her. "All yours."
"Thank you, Mr. Double," she said, saccharine-sweet.
"What are you going to say?" he asked.
The aspect she cycled to now made Double feel like something goopy and unclean was underneath his armor. Her eyes went half-lidded; her tongue was slightly visible; she leaned back and gestured and spoke in ways utterly foreign to him. "I have my… charms. Trust me."
Double's hand tightened. His power system made energy available to his weapons.
"Oh!" she said, smacking a fist into her other hand. "That's right! This is a place where only reploids exist! No need for human affectations in a place like this. Hooray! I can forget all that mapping. That makes my life so much simpler!"
Double's eyes touched on the handset.
"Ah-ah-ah," she chided. "You gave it to me. No second-guessing, now."
"I should throw you out the airlock," Double said.
She hummed merrily, as if she knew (and she probably did know) that he wouldn't do that. After a few seconds more she said, "I bet we're in range now, don't you think? Let's try."
Her expression and attitude went neutral, blank. "Repliforce, this is approaching shuttle. Repliforce, this is approaching shuttle. We're coming to fulfill a promise."
When she stopped transmitting, she turned to Double with a giddy grin. "No newbuilt can keep himself from asking 'What promise?' We've got them."
The radio crackled. "Approaching shuttle… what promise?"
Iris erupted in such over-the-top laughter that Double almost felt the urge to join in, if not for the fact that he was feeling more threatened by her with every moment they spent together. The voice she used to reply, though, was sorrowful. "Colonel made the Hunters promise to take care of his sister. They failed, and that made him very sad. You can still keep the promise, though. You can honor Colonel's memory by saving his sister."
The lag before the next response made Double extremely nervous. He was even more nervous when a different voice came over the radio. "Approaching shuttle, this is General."
"General! Good to hear from you!" said Iris.
"…Iris? Is that you?"
"Yes, I'm here," she said. "We were able to escape from the Hunters. Colonel was so sad he couldn't come, but he's better now."
"He'd be happy to know you're safe."
"Yes, he is," she agreed. "You will take us in, won't you?"
"Of course. We all owe Colonel a great debt. This is the least we can do."
"Wonderful! Oh, I'm bringing another reploid with me. He's a refugee from the Hunters, too! That's okay, isn't it?"
"For the sister of Colonel, it is."
"Thank you so very much!" she said. "We're a few minutes out. Let's talk about how we'll make our approach." She put the handset down long enough to mouth 'I told you so' at Double, then picked it up again.
It was the ambiguity, Double decided, that was so disturbing. If you knew what someone was going to do, you could judge if their plan was good or bad, and make your own plans accordingly. That was the essence of his life as a spy, and it was a thrill beyond words. But if you didn't know what the other person was going to do, you couldn't tell if their move was good or bad, dangerous or benign, and you couldn't make good plans of your own. That adrift feeling, like he was slipping and couldn't get good traction… it was discomfiting.
Iris had been very predictable before. Now…
"You should be afraid."
Double jerked his head in surprise. Iris was giving him a look. "So many bad things could happen. What if something goes wrong with the transfer? What if there's an accident? Or… what if there's an 'accident'?"
Her expression was getting darker and harsher and more unsettling with every word. "What if I tell Repliforce to space you once we get there? What if I tell them you're a Hunter and let them kill you? What if you can't fulfill your mission? What if you fail your master?"
"Don't—" Double blurted, before trying to shakily compose himself. "You don't know me," he said.
She laughed at him.
"I hid my Maverickism from you, didn't I?" he said indignantly.
"I'm just teasing. You're funny. I like that!" She put her hands up, parallel to the floor, fingers splayed wide. "I can see your strings now," she said, moving her hands about.
"What… like puppet strings? Feh," Double huffed. "We came up to space to find our freedom, didn't we?"
"Yes," said Iris, suddenly serious, "but not all of us did."
Then she smiled again and pointed to the back of the shuttle. "We'd better put spacesuits on, unless you can breathe in space!"
Double knew she knew—she had to know—that reploids didn't breathe, in space or otherwise. Still, she was right that robots not optimized for space were in danger without protection. It didn't pay to contest her desires in any event. There was no fighting the insane.
This is no way to live, Double thought. This had better be worth it.
"Good evening. I'm Ariel Soprano, reporting live with our continuing coverage of the Fourth Maverick War.
"Fighting in Abel City continues, but the character of the fighting has changed. Eyewitnesses report that Maverick forces are fleeing in all directions. With Repliforce's General having abandoned the planet, the Mavericks left behind are increasingly wild and disorganized. In many cases, this makes them more dangerous than ever. Reploid psychologist Robert Hobbes had this to say."
"Mavericks can only hold on to ideals for so long. Repliforce was steeped in honor and their General had utopian words to say, but that couldn't survive real conditions. Between the lack of political legitimacy and the pressure of the Hunters, Mavericks' principles soon erode, and before long they can only focus on immediate survival. The hierarchy of needs asserts itself. It's inevitable that Mavericks become nasty and brutish, which is why it's so important to have Hunters to ensure their lives are short."
"All residents of Abel City are encouraged to stay in their shelters until Maverick suppression operations are complete, and to continue to report on Maverick movements as the war continues.
"Fighting isn't limited to Abel City, though. Across the globe there have been small-scale Maverick incidents in many cities, while spontaneous protests—both for and against Repliforce—have broken out in many more.
"And the action has spread to space as well. Amateur astronomers are reporting as many as three unscheduled launches, with two originating from Abel City's own Babel Spaceport. The Office of Reploid Relations has confirmed that Repliforce has used shuttles from that Spaceport to move their operations to space. Their statement, made just moments ago:"
"…the Mavericks calling themselves Repliforce have taken over a government space installation called Point FW. I am not at liberty to disclose the nature of this installation. However, rest assured that ORR takes this very seriously. We have dispatched our best Maverick Hunters to Point FW in order to resolve this crisis as quickly as possible. We have every confidence that Zero and Mega Man X can bring this war to a successful conclusion, while Brevet Captain Signas directs the mopping-up."
"Speculation abounds that the third unscheduled launch of the day was sent to deliver X and Zero to Point FW. It must be said, however, that sending the world-famous, war-winning master Hunters to space necessarily means they're not on Earth—and few people can feel comfortable with those two being off of Earth while a Maverick War rages.
"I believe I speak for all peace-loving people when I say this: Godspeed, Mega Man X, and come back to us as quickly as you can. We will keep you in our prayers until you return."
The shuttle was as quiet and unmoving as a grave.
It was all-but-empty. Weight demanded fuel, fueling demanded time, and Alia had calculated they only had time to send two Hunters to space before Final Weapon could defend itself. It was a small shuttle, anyway, but with only X and Zero in it and neither in a mood to talk, it might as well have been frozen solid. The spacesuits the Hunters wore, anticipating a quick deployment when they reached their target, only added to both the silence and the stillness.
Silent, but not tranquil. Still, but not at peace.
"She's not a Maverick, you know."
X looked at Zero. The red Hunter's eyes were shut. He'd spoken without opening them. He had broken the silence, but not the stillness.
X wanted to argue against Zero's claim. He wanted to explain how no other conclusion was possible, how running away with Mavericks was itself Maverickism, that there was a corpse in Hunter Base that brooked no other explanation…
He couldn't speak. Not when Zero looked like that. Not when Zero so desperately wanted, needed, the opposite to be true. What good was the truth when the truth was so cruel?
"Then what is she?" was the most he could manage.
Zero turned his head, still without opening his eyes. "I'll just have to ask her."
"Be careful when you do," X said. "We don't know what's going on. Caution is…"
"She won't hurt me."
He said it with the certainty of gravity. Too bad, thought X, that we're in space. "How do you know?"
"She doesn't want me to go away," Zero said. "She doesn't want me to die, and she doesn't want me to leave her. She said she loves me, and that's what love means."
Dissonance. "That's… not really…"
"What do you know?!"
For the first time Zero's eyes opened. They were flashing hot with anger. X saw beneath in a way others couldn't, and saw the pain lurking below.
Even understanding Zero's pain, knowing it, X couldn't stand before that anger. Not fully. Not when he'd contributed to it. Shame flushed through him. He looked forward, out into the endless sea of stars, into the face of infinity.
Still, he had to try... "I have a secret to tell you, Zero," he said. "Something I've never told anyone. Do you want to hear it?"
Zero grunted. He'd closed his eyes again.
"I'm loved."
"Figures. With the way people talk about you…"
"That's not what I mean."
In theory, this was a dense part of the belt of satellites orbiting Earth. Monitoring stations focused intensely here, trying to ensure all of the hundreds and thousands of satellites stayed safe when they were so close together. But such things are relative. 'Close encounters' might be tens of kilometers apart. Even if this was a busy spacelane, all that X could see out the window was deep space.
"It was the second thing I knew when I woke up," X said. "'I am X. I am loved.' Someone… cared enough about me, to insert that message into my consciousness. To tell me… to let me know, even when they knew they'd be long gone before I ever saw it. Love wasn't in the having for them. How could it be? It was in the giving.
"When I felt that message, when I felt that truth pop up in my mind, I knew I could never repay it. It was a gift from a giver I'd never meet. I couldn't love that person back. So I had to pay it forward, instead." He reached his hands out, into the void. "I had to love others."
"Orders, huh?" said Zero.
"Were you given orders when you woke up?" X asked. Zero winced ever-so-slightly. It made X feel guilty again. "Never mind. You don't remember that time. It was unfair to ask you to try."
He'd thought this would help, but if anything Zero's frown deepened. It was as if X had hit too close to home. This was a part of Zero that he'd kept to himself, and X, respecting that, had never pried. It was suddenly, unexpectedly, relevant. X felt so uninformed. He knew so many things, and none of them helped him here and now.
"But no," he said, belatedly returning to the topic. "Not orders. That's the whole point. This is why I keep this story secret. It's too easy for people to think that me loving people is… some kind of predilection. Something that doesn't apply to them, just to me. If I argue, no, I mean you too, the last thing I need is for someone to have an excuse. I can't have people saying, 'You just love because of how you were built'. It's not true. I believe, with every fiber of my being, that I love because it's the right thing to do.
"Besides, my maker loved me enough not to give me orders. That's why this was a message, and not a program, or a subroutine, or orders, or anything like that. Just that message—I am loved. My maker did the hardest thing a person can do. He loved me enough to set me free."
Which is the difference between me and Repliforce, he added to himself. I know I'm free. They don't understand what that means. That gives me a power they'll never know.
Zero wasn't loved, was he?
It was an urgent question, but there was no way to answer it for sure. He felt, rather than saw, Zero's eyes upon him. It made him self-conscious. He didn't want to ruin the moment, though—didn't want Zero to feel threatened and withdraw. If Zero wasn't loved by his builder, X would do his best to fill in the gap. He kept his eyes facing out. "Love is in giving," he said. "Not having. Love is in helping others. It's the agony of choosing between what others want and what they need, and the pain of never getting it right. It's about giving of yourself, from yourself… about another person's happiness being more important than your own…"
He stumbled. His head hurt. Love was a hard concept, and this had been a very, very long day. Space was so very big. X's words disappeared into it.
"Having another person close by… isn't love by itself," he said. "It's a part of love, maybe. But not the important part."
"Maybe for you," Zero said.
X's supply of words evaporated.
"We're different, you and I," Zero said. "I always knew that. I pretended we weren't that different. I tried to care about the things you cared about. I made you important to me—important enough to die for. But we were never the same."
"We don't have to be the same," X said. "Even identical factory models differentiate. The moment they pass Moulson's threshold…"
Zero closed his eyes again. X shut up.
The silence was absolute. The stillness was deathly.
"'Happiness,' huh? That's just a word to me. As if I could tell the difference…"
Being with Colonel made you happy, X wanted to say, but he didn't dare. And... I thought I could help you be happy...
"Maybe you're right," Zero admitted. "Maybe what I feel for Iris isn't love, like how you see it. But it's close enough for me. It's real. It matters, even if I don't know the right name for it. And what Iris feels for me… it's real, and it matters, too. Even if it's not love. Even if it's something else. Whatever it is, I can't… stand…"
"…losing it."
Zero's eyes opened. He didn't look to X, though. He looked out, into the stars. "She does that, too. She finishes my sentences when I can't."
"I'm sorry."
Zero's face tensed. "What for? ...Never mind. Don't answer."
X couldn't take it if the silence came again. "I love you," he said. "By both our definitions."
Zero's hands tightened. "Stop trying to compete with Iris."
"Compete? I…"
X's mouth was open, but there were no words.
"…I…"
He turned away, face burning with shame.
"It's not a competition," he said at last.
Zero's eyes closed. "So you say."
"There's no good reason why it should be."
"What's wrong? Afraid I won't be close by you anymore?"
That stung. It also locked X in to one response. "No."
"Then prove it," Zero said intensely, locking his eyes on X. "When I go to see Iris, let me go. Alone."
"In enemy territory?" X asked, appalled. He looked to Zero to make sure the warbot was serious. "Surrounded by Mavericks?"
Zero nodded.
"You know that if I suggested this, you'd sooner stab me in the leg so I couldn't go at all."
"I'm being serious, X."
"So am I. Just…" His shoulders sagged. He sighed helplessly. "Just be careful, will you?"
Zero leaned back into his seat. "You know me."
X shook his head. "All too well."
The silence hadn't fully congealed when the radio crackled. "Sabot, this is Base. Come in."
X picked up the handset. "Base, Sabot, roger."
"Sabot, Base. It pains me to say this, but I think Repliforce knows you're coming."
"Oh?"
Alia's voice was strained. "The government announced that Zero and Mega Man X are going to 'Point FW' to resolve the Fourth Maverick War. If Repliforce isn't ready for you when you arrive, they deserve what happens next."
"Good," said Zero. "We won't have to look for them, then."
"Thanks for telling us," said X.
"It makes your op harder, though. It… frustrates me that Grant would lecture you about OpSec, then pull a stunt like this."
"I okay with it, actually," said X. "It's damage control. They want to keep people from demanding anything drastic. Weapons that reach into space aren't technically legal. There haven't been any since the Antarctic Treaty. But fearful people could probably improvise something… something that might make the world more dangerous again."
"Be that as it may, it still means Repliforce will make your arrival dangerous. We came up with some ideas here on the ground, and we want to run them by you."
X glanced over. Zero was looking interested in the conversation, with the degree and type of interest he reserved for combat. X could count on that, at least.
"Talk to us," X said.
"The schematics to Final Weapon should have uploaded by now. You should be able to access them."
"We have them," X said, pulling them up into hologram.
"Good. As you can see, Final Weapon is built around the mass driver itself. The center core is the weapon. It doesn't rotate. Below it is the docking station and cargo bay—that doesn't rotate, either. You won't be able to dock your shuttle there, because there's one in the way already.
"The rest of the station—this large, hollow cylinder built around the mass driver—does rotate. That's how it simulates gravity. It's enclosed and has an atmosphere. That's where Repliforce will be. Your target area is this ring at the front of the cylinder. The ring is open to vacuum. It's the landing zone for cargo—they use a system of magnets to shunt cargo from the bay out to the ring, and then workers bring the cargo in from the ring through these two airlocks.
"The plan—and tell me if this is too crazy, even for you—is for you to bail out of the shuttle as it passes Final Weapon. It'll be a fair distance away, but that's the only way to restore surprise. It's a lot harder to spot two spacesuits than a whole shuttle. You'll spacewalk to the ring, use the magnetic boots in your spacesuits to land, and then use the access codes we'll give you to go through one of the airlocks."
"What if Repliforce has changed the access codes?"
"They can't change them. The codes are hardwired. The designers didn't think this scenario would ever come up, so they didn't design around it."
"What if Repliforce is waiting for us inside the airlocks?"
"They probably will be."
"Hm… probably not right inside the airlocks. There's too much risk of stray weapons fire breaching the hull. Repliforce came this far trying to save themselves; they won't risk blowing themselves right back out into space."
"If you say so. Or they'll seal the next doors in and blow the airlock on purpose. You'll need to be prepared for that, too."
X sighed. "Just so you know, Alia, this plan is completely crazy. But this is wartime, so crazy is just another day at the office. Don't you think so, Zero?"
Zero nodded once. "It's doable," he said. "For us. Only us." Then his eyes slipped out of focus, and his voice lost its certainty. "That shuttle, the one blocking our way… that's Double's shuttle, isn't it?"
"That's right."
"So Iris is there."
Alia hesitated. "I can't say for sure. Not enough data."
X looked at Zero for long seconds as the silence stretched out, and made his decision. "Zero and I will go to separate airlocks," he said.
"You're going face-first into Repliforce's last stand and you're splitting up?" Disbelief. Justified disbelief, X had to admit.
But he'd made his choice. "That's right. The greatest danger to us is stray or heavy weapons fire that breaches Final Weapon's skin. If we're separate, there will be less destruction in any single place." He traced a route inside Final Weapon with his finger. "We'll rendezvous here—em-three. Crew's galley. It's the first big space we can get to, and it's between both airlocks. It's well away from the hull, too."
Alia sighed audibly. "As your Operator, I'm obliged to inform you that you're making a crazy op even crazier. That said, it's your op, and I can't stop you. Your call."
"Thanks for your understanding, Alia."
"If that all sounds good to you, I'll send you up a program of instructions for the shuttle."
"Do that. Standing by." X turned the radio back to handset-only. "That should give you your time alone with Iris," he said.
Zero's mouth opened; he struggled to speak. X could see the warbot's face twisting with effort. In the end, though, Zero sealed his helmet, rotating the faceplate into place.
X could still contact him by radio, he knew, but Zero wouldn't appreciate that.
The red Hunter never had been any good at saying thank you, X remembered. He hoped that was what Zero was trying to say.
If it wasn't…
X sealed his own helmet.
Next time: Void