Author's Note: Sorry (Again) to keep you all waiting. I've been working on some projects of mine, including planning for a fully independent book series whose first book I have almost finished planning. I've been working on improving the length of my chapters, and think you deserve a nice, long one after the wait. Well, here it is. I hope it does not disappoint.

World of Advent Chapter Nineteen

The tattered field surrounding the assembled group of Advents rippled with the stagnant air and smoke from the battered factory's collapse. A mixture of dying and green grass swayed in the rare gust of wind that brushed by. The blue sky was clear, save for the black hovercraft carrying the message that chilled Cipher's veins.

"Sibling rivalry?" Cipher wondered aloud. Surely Light wouldn't be up there; he fought against the Arcadian corruption. And Cero was simply out of the question. In preparation for the inevitable battle that threatened to unfold any second, he allowed the thin red sheen of metal to exude out from his pores.

The sensation was not unlike sweat, save for the peculiar molding feeling that followed with his skin hardening with the metal, dormant metals within his body taking surface. It was an odd sensation, but a welcome one. It was one he associated with the power to act. The power to protect.

"Be careful," Specter muttered under his breath, eyes not leaving the hovercraft floating above them for even a second. "Venti, do you think you can take that thing down?"

"I could," Venti said, "If only Zazhong weren't there. He's powerfully gifted in electricity, even if he's not as strong as I am. It would only be a waste of energy. Besides, it sounds like dear Mist and Flare are back."

"Just another family reunion then," Specter remarked dryly. "Cipher," he addressed the son of Zero. "Whatever does come out of that hovercraft, we need you to fight it. Even if you're still green, you have Zero's blood. We can't be sure that we can beat whatever Zazhong has in store for us in addition to our cousins."

Cipher swallowed a lump hardening in his throat, nodding. He wasn't entirely sure what would happen if Light appeared, but he was prepared to fight in any case. Still, he couldn't shake the thought that he was still tired from using his first full oversol. A second time might kill him if used so soon. His body had already expended its reserve minerals stored for such occasions. If it came down to using another full oversol, he couldn't guarantee that it wouldn't exhaust his energies to a fatal degree.

Overhead, the hovercraft hummed gently, drifting lazily towards the group below, almost as if a bird of prey would, just before circling in for the kill. Its rotator blades circled in an almost hypnotic fashion, descending a mere hundred yards away.

Zazhong was the first to step out. He carried with him a voice amplifier, which was held up to his face. His dress was the typical Arcadian general uniform, with the emblem of Harpuia's army, the Rekku Gundan army, patched into a space below his right shoulder. His face was taut with determination and arrogance, a strange mix that had Cipher immediately admire and detest him for it. He carried with him a sense of authority, something it was clear that he had become accustomed to.

"Surrender," Zazhong began, "And we will spare your lives, soldiers of the Resistance. We will forgive your harboring these traitors in favor of keeping the peace between the great city-nation Neo Arcadia and that of the heroes in the Resistance. Fight, and we cannot guarantee your safety. We will fight with extreme prejudice until our mission prerogatives have been completed. That is to say, we will not end this combat until the self-exiled Ex Generals of Neo Arcadia step forward and give themselves up."

"Eat dirt," Venti called out. "Sorry, old lieutenant, but this isn't going to go the "easy way". For you."

"Very well," Zazhong said. "I can't say I wasn't hoping for a chance to show up my former commander. How you've fallen, Venti. You are a disgrace to your father's legacy."

"I am my father's legacy," Venti spat. She drew twin violet blades from her oversol, rising through some unknown force that propelled her forth in the air. "Nothing could take that from me. Even if I choose a different path than he does, I am still the daughter of Harpuia."

Two more bodies appeared to propel themselves from the cavity of the hovercraft. Each bore an aura of power and authority similar to Zazhong, something that appeared, however, a slight degree more natural for them. If Zazhong was given a position of power, they were born into one.

"Flare. Venti." Specter greeted his cousins. "I was hoping we would not have to meet like this."

"We still don't, ya know." The only male of the two said. He had wild red hair and a fierce grin on his face. It was obvious that he belonged to Fefnir of the Four guardians – his son, Flare. "Just give up. You can't win against me anyway."

"Please don't make us fight." This statement came from an Advent on Flare's left. She had light blue hair and grey eyes. She seemed to be fighting back some emotion as she looked at Cipher, turning away almost as soon as their eyes met. "I don't want to see more bloodshed from the people I care about."

"It's too late," Venti said. "We're not on the same side anymore, cousin. If you don't want to fight, then don't. But I won't hold back."

"Why have you abandoned your duties to Neo Arcadia and Master Xavier," Flare demanded. "Why did you leave your post, cowards?"

"We believe that serving Neo Arcadia and Xavier are mutually exclusive," Specter said calmly. "If you had seen what we have, then you might share our sentiments."

Flare glared at them. "I won't allow you to make such remarks in front of Xavier himself. Come out and fight!"

Venti froze. "What did you just say?"

Zazhong laughed, a deep and forboding sound to Cipher's ears. "He's here. In fact, he may want to say hello. It's been a long time since he stretched his legs, after all."

Venti cursed under her breath. "Even if he isn't at 100 percent, he's still a formidable foe," she explained. He needs our DNA to be complete. I hate to do this, but Cipher, Sorra, Skie – do you think you can handle him?"

"You said yourself that he's not fully stabilized," Sorra said.

"We can handle this," Skie assured her, adjusting the settings on his rifle.

"I'll be counting on you three," she said. "Here we go! Get ready."

Cables from within the hovercraft appeared, attached to a rather thin, wiry frame. The being in question was slightly smaller than Cipher, dressed in armor that resembled a Pantheon. His hair was dark blue and possessed red eyes. He disconnected himself from the wiring, taking a long draught of some unknown substance. Xavier, the Advent X had taken to the battlefield.

"Zazhong," Xavier ordered. "If you ever suggest what I do again, I will have you stripped from authority. As for my blood subordinates, I suggest giving up. This should not end with blood being spilled."

"Like hell." Specter growled. It was the closest Cipher had ever seen Specter get angry. "We know what you are. That front can't hold up forever."

"What front?" Xavier appeared genuinely confused. "I am merely fulfilling my duties to Arcadia, just as my father, X would have done. I fail to see the logic in your insubordination."

"I heard about you," Cipher said. "Specter and Venti told me. By the sound of it, you're just another failed attempt to bring X back into the world. You're just another Copy X."

Xavier lifted his left hand, a blaster reforming where his clenched fist was a mere second before. In hardly a second, a massive blast of energy barreled towards Cipher's chest.

Cipher barely had time to dodge, hurling himself out of harm's way. With that shot, the fight began.

Venti was the first to respond. She leapt forward, an arc of electricity flinging itself in Zazhong's direction. In response, Zaszhong activated his own oversol, a black and yellow sheen that swirled in areas like the center of his chest and his arms. Sharp spikes appeared from his knuckles that crackled with electricity.

Venti threw the first punch with a quick secession of cuts, all of which Zazhong dodged or blocked with a wall of electric energy. She spun and twirled in the air, almost appearing to be in dance as she parried Zazhon's own attacks in the form of calculated punches only a martial artist could be capable of. She continued this deadly dance for what seemed like an eternity to her, waiting for an opportunity – any opportunity to break through Zazhong's defense.

Zazhong himself appeared strained, but resilient. His barrage of punches, kicks, and currents of electricity throughout made approaching him a difficult manner. Venti even tried an aerial assault, one that involved sending shock waves from her blades towards him, but only ended up with a bruised side when Zazhong appeared behind her when the dust settled. Fortunately, her oversol was tough enough to soften the brunt of the blow, and the shock that it came with was quickly absorbed.

"Just… give… up," Zazhong grunted. He smashed the ground in front of him, sending dust and chunks of earth flying into the air, which Venti quickly cleared through a small tornado she created to suck up the debris.

"Never." Venti collected a concentrated mass of electricity at the tip of her blades, pushing it like a bullet at Zazhong, who caught the resulting mass of energy in the chest, winding him.

Zazhong recovered faster than Venti would have liked, an odd gleam in his eyes. "You may be stronger than me still, but I have something you don't."

"An excessively large ego?" Venti grinned wickedly. "Face it, you've lost. No lieutenant of mine could ever hope to match my abilities."

"No," Zazhong said, activating a device he pulled from his pocket. "The Sentinel program."

Venti's expression grew dark. "Harpuia gave you permission to use that?"

"Of course," he said. "When the mission objective was to bring you back home, he spared no expense."

Venti blasted Zazhong with a quick burst of electricity, knocking him out before turning her eyes to the sky. She had a new enemy to deal with, one significantly more difficult.

On the opposite end of the field, Specter and Flare fought. The two exchanged blows with a comical difference in style. Whereas one would use calculated strikes, aiming for critical areas of weakness, the other would blast the entire field in fiery explosions.

"Face it, Specs," Flare taunted his cousin, "An assassin like yourself has no chance like a trained warrior like myself on the battlefield."

"I told you not to call me that," Specter said. "And it only takes one good strike to finish someone off. Honestly, didn't Fefnir ever teach you how to aim?"

Flare roared in anger as Specter phased through another field of fire, conjuring a single, massive cannon. Soon the area surrounding them was filled with craters and a very haggard looking Advent, drained from the energy it took phasing through all the blasts of fire.

Specter cursed inwardly. This was the worst possible matchup for him. Even making Flare lose his focus had only worsened things for him; that cannon of his wasn't going anywhere any time soon and it prevented him from getting close enough to strike. His only option was to phase through all the incoming blasts of energy until he got close enough to engage Flare in close quarters combat. Shuddering at the thought of how much energy he would soon be expending, Specter flickered from sight, rushing towards Flare.

While Mist refused to fight, Master Xavier had no such inhibition. Cipher, Sorra, and Skie all practiced a series of dodges and counterassaults, aimed around what would have been a crippling weakness of Xavier had it not been for the blast radius of his blaster shots.

Occasionally, as they found out, Xavier would go into a fit of coughing up mucus and blood for a few seconds before returning to normal. This gave them time to fire back, but he was always surrounded by a series of Arcadian guards that protected him during these brief bouts of sickness. They had already taken out two of the guards, but three remained.

"This is insane," Cipher gasped as they dodged a round of blows from Xavier. "How can any one Advent have such a powerful oversol?"

"I imagine you can be just as strong," Sorra said. "You are Zero's son after all. If only you could use his full power."

"Believe me," Cipher said. "I'm trying."

"Focus," Skie said as he took down two of the remaining guards with a well aimed series of shots. Sorra took down the last of them with two plasma shots to the knees.

Soon, Xavier was alone on the battlefield. He, too was gasping for air, ragged breaths deceiving how quickly and how ferociously he could attack.

"You think you've won? Pathetic Resistance wretches… I am Xavier. I am X, reborn. You cannot beat me!"

"Oh yeah?" Skie took aim. "I think we have."

"Foolish human." Xavier glowed brightly for a second before sending a shock wave that hit Cipher, Sorra, and Skie head on.

"An EX skill," Cipher thought as he caught the blow. He took the brunt of it, but even in oversol, the pain was tremendous. Skie and Sorra were knocked unconscious immediately upon being hit. At least, Cipher hoped they were unconscious.

"Now that we're alone," Xavier said, "Would you like to know more about your half-brother?"

"What are you talking about?" Cipher said warily as they circled each other from across the battlefield. "I only have two brothers, of full blood."

"And me." Xavier grinned with an unhinged expression as Cipher blinked in confusion. "I suppose you wouldn't know. Ciel herself gave the egg that I was conceived in. We are blood, you and I."

"You're lying." Cipher stretched his oversol further, ignoring the sense of impending doom that came with its further use. "Why would she do that?"

"Who knows?" Xavier smirked. "But I relish the opportunity to prove my worth against one of my brothers. I will claim my destiny as the avatar of X's will. Join me, Cipher. Zero and X can walk together once more."

"You're insane." Cipher shook violently as his oversol taxed his body. "You're not X and you're not taking my friends."

"Friends, are they? Well," Xavier said, "Interesting. I thought you shared a more adverse relationship. At any rate, they don't have much longer left. Not after getting hit by my attack, Burst Nova."

Just then, Xavier's body shook as another of is fits overcame him. Cipher rushed forward, pointing his sabre at Xavier, but couldn't bring himself to deliver a finishing blow to an incapacitated opponent.

Xavier smiled, blasting the ground at Cipher's feet, sending him flying beside his teammates. In the distance, Cipher saw a series of reploids of varying shape and size swarm Venti. Specter fought close by Flare, but was caught off guard by a heat wave Flare emitted. Both were soon knocked out, deposited in the womb of the hovership.

"Say hello to the real X for me," Xavier said, lifting his blaster up. Cipher's side erupted in pain as it broke through his oversol. Crimson blood poured out into the soil. As his vision faded, Cipher reached for something in his pocket. Praying that it worked, against all odds, he activated the short-range emergency transfer, sending Sorra, Skie, and Cipher to the Resistance, leaving Venti and Specter behind.

The following days were spent in a haze of pain and varying degrees of consciousness for Cipher. At the height of his conscious mind, he woke to see Neige by his side, as well as Sorra and Skie on hospital beds beside him.

"Hey there," Neige said, sounding immensely relived to see him awake. "I was afraid you wouldn't make it."

"What me," Cipher said weakly. "After something as small as that? Never."

Neige laughed nervously. "Just make sure you don't find yourself in another position like that if you can help it. Why didn't you use your transport right away?"

"It was jammed," Cipher explained. "And Specter and Venti didn't have one. We couldn't just leave them behind. Not without fighting first." Cipher turned to see Sorra and Skie, sound asleep. "Are they alright?"

"Yes," Neige said. "You took the brunt of whatever hit them. They explained most of what happened, but refused to give the full mission statement without you. Just what happened down there?"

"A lot happened." Cipher sighed. "You were right, by the way."

"Right? About what?" Neige asked.

"About who my parents are," Cipher explained. "I took the blood test a few weeks ago."

Neige smiled, tears in her eyes. "I always knew you were Ciel's son. You act just like them."

"How do I tell them?" Cipher asked in a pained voice. "They've never even known me. It might be too late."

"It's never too late," Neige said. "They never really healed from losing you, you know. Losing you and Light was the hardest thing that ever happened to them. They would love to have you as part of their family again." Neige paused. "Do you want me to tell them?"

"No." Cipher laid back against his pillows. "I want to be the one who tells them."

"I'm so proud of you," Neige said. "You know that, right? No matter what happens, just know that I will always view you as sort of a surrogate son."

"Thanks, Neige," Cipher said. "For everything."

"No problem," she said. "Just focus on recovering. Go back to sleep. I'll be here, in the Resistance if you need me."

The next time Cipher woke up, Sorra and Skie were up as well. They gave muffled cries of surprise as he stirred, relieved to see him awake.

"You're up!" Skie threw a pillow at him. "We were worried."

"Skie!" Sorra scolded her brother. "Don't throw pillows at him; he's wounded."

"So what's been happening," Cipher asked. "Where are Specter and Venti?"

Sorra and Skie exchanged looks. "They're still in Arcadia. Zero and Ciel don't want to risk provoking war."

"So that's how it is." Cipher glared at the ceiling. "I suppose that couldn't be helped though. They are the Guardians' children, after all. Did you give the mission statement yet?"

"Most of it," Skie assured Cipher. "We thought some of it should come from you."

Sorra nodded. "Especially that part about, you know, who you are."

"I guess it's time we give that statement then," Cipher said, swinging his legs over the side of the bed. As he wobbled on his feet, he asked them, "Care to help me stand up?"

Sorra didn't want him walking at all, but Skie helped Cipher wobble over to the Command Room.

"Cipher!" Colbur was there, rushing over to Cipher. "You're alright. Mostly. You shouldn't be here. You should be resting; we can wait for the official report later."

"That's okay," Cipher said. "I have something to say."

"What is it?" Colbur asked.

"I found out who my parents were," Cipher said, loud enough for everyone to hear. "Actually, I knew a few weeks ago, but was too afraid to say anything."

"Oh?" Colbur asked. "Hardly the place for such an announcement, but go ahead."

"It's easier if I show you." Cipher took a deep breath and allowed his oversol to cover his body. In a matter of seconds, he was a duplicate of Zero, with a few distinct differences.

Silence. A pin could have dropped and it would have echoed across the walls. Ciel's mouth was agape. Zero had a stunned expression. Cero was smiling, saying "I knew it! I knew you were alive." under his breath. The rest of the Resistance, down to Colbur and the Operators were stuck in a daze.

Ciel stepped forward, almost as if in a trance. She touched Cipher's face, almost as if to reassure herself that it was really there before enveloping him in a tight embrace. Tears streaked down her face as she sobbed "You're alive. You're alive."

Cipher awkwardly hugged her back. "Yeah, I'm here."

Zero even came close to hugging Cipher, but faltered before actually touching him. He settled for gruffly telling Cipher that he looked just like him in oversol.

Cero even gave Cipher a brotherly punch on the shoulder. "Welcome home, brother," he said.

"Welcome home," Ciel and Zero both said, tears threatening to appear once more.

Home.