Sand dunes rose above X as he made his way through the dusty plains of Area Zero. It was far beyond the remnants of the crash site, but metal crags and mountains of scrap still swarmed around him. Forever looming was the colony itself, Eurasia, nestled quietly at the impact center. Surrounded by its impact crater and the desolate land that only fools would venture into.

X could not help but pause and stare at the beautiful carnage, the birthplace, of this hell. Eyes traced every crag and metal that sprouted from the crater. Even if it laid deep into the earth, the monstrosity was still visible for miles. Its tendrils of destruction grasped every corner of the world, sprawling further and further from its resting place. There to mock X for his failures all those years ago. To mock him for those he could not save. To remind him of that day.

He closed his eyes, that very moment replaying itself so clearly in his mind.

He shook those thoughts from his head.

Slowly, he turned away from the horrible creature. Making his way closer to the anomaly that he had been sent to investigate. Perhaps he would leave this place forever and never return. To finally end the nightmare that haunted his dreams. Desperately X wished that he could hear the voice of Alia or Signas on his comms. It was the comfort of the command that would break through his spiraling thoughts on typical missions. Break him away from the discomfort of the kill. But in this place, so close to the cracked egg, it was impossible that anyone, or anything, could reach his comms. All he had was all he came with. And to return would be a one-way trip marked only by an emergency teleportation out.

Being a coward wasn't something he was. But this hell would turn anyone into one.

Perhaps that was what Stephen wanted. For him to turn back so she could finish what X could not. To extract her revenge and finally put those ghosts who haunted her to sleep. He wondered if that was what would rest her soul. Even if he knew that would only bring her closer to madness… closer to Maverickism.

Slowly he slid down a large dune. Eyes traced the desert. Looking for any signs of life. Or any signs of death.

But there was nothing. Perhaps buried long ago in the sand. Perhaps there never was anything.

Only an anomaly. A fata morgana. Mirages that would dance in the desert. Driving anyone insane.

X scanned the horizon. Watching the sand shift and the clouds above move. There were objects in the distance. Some mirages. Others metal. But it was all the same no matter where he looked. The same hell. The same destruction. The same everything. Desolate. Empty. Only the false images that would provide comfort to the living and soon to be dead. This close to the epicenter where it all happened. The gate to hell.

There was one illusion that caught his eye. One illusion that was not as much as an illusion as all the rest. It moved and wavered consistently but created marks within the sand that no other illusion did. He narrowed his eyes to get a better look at it, but with the heat and storm brewing only blurred the ghost that wavered in the distance. There was no way that X would have been able to take a more conservative approach to his investigation. Even if it may be Zero wavering in the distance, there were too many possibilities (and impossibilities) that steeled his expectations.

He couldn't help but keep wishing upon something that he knew would never come to be. But all he had was hope in the sea of grief.

A step forward. Then another. Soon he was drawing closer to the wavering ghost. He was careful, but only barely. The illusion allowed him entrance to the trance. To the memories of this place. With every step he could feel the howls of what was and would come to be. The place familiar, and was not. It was the same grip that he once felt all those years ago when he protected Alia. When he grasped Zero's saber in his hand and allowed himself to be overcome by the dance.

The system. Its whispers became loud.

His footsteps paused as he stared at the creature before him. Wavering. Crawling. A malformed creature who yearned to be released. To let go of misery.

But it melted away.

"X."

The Hunter turned in shock. The voice familiar. But there was only disappointment as the same old mirage appeared to him.

"You fake…" X tensed himself. Looking at the other with contempt. With disgust.

"My name is Zero." The malformed creature laughed. "Did you already forget about me?"

X narrowed his eyes. He felt his hands touch the saber against his leg. The sensations of war crawled over his hand. Violence thick on his fingers. It disgusted himself. It made his stomach churn. "I still don't believe you." It was all wrong. All so very wrong.

Was this the anomaly? It couldn't be. Not after all those years of praying for Zero to return. Not after all those years of hoping that he would come back to him as normal as ever.

Nightmare laughed. "Did you go Maverick looking for me? Its me, the true Zero." He stepped forward. "Are you still upset that I put down that rabid dog?"

The cries of Asard pierced through the air. Emanating from the broken fragments of Eurasia. The blood curdling screams that haunted his nightmares along with the last vision of Zero in his arms. The torture that Asard went through as his body morphed into something unrecognizable. He felt ill.

"The real Zero would never say something like that about his friend." X had to bite back the feeling in the back of his throat. The video of Asard mutilating the human replaying in his mind. How the gore covered him. How he had become a rabid animal-

"The real Zero wouldn't put his fellow comrade out of its misery?"

X fell silent.

The wind howled.

The fish in the sky swam.

The hunters continued to pierce the shadows in the sand.

"What did you do to Zero?" X broke the silence. The graveyard no longer felt real. No longer felt as if it had ever been. That this place was merely a figment in his imagination. A nightmare. A basin of death. Of regret.

Nightmare only shrugged. "That junk?" he shook his head with his eyes closed. A sickening smile. "You don't have to worry about that machine anymore."

"He's not a machine!" X yelled. "He's more than that!" But no one would hear that cry. Not even the machine who laid forgotten.

He was a machine. Always a machine.

"I am more than that." Nightmare approached X. His movements soft. His steps glided across the dunes as the sand morphed around his legs. It appeared as if it had become him. As if the desert finally unveiled its secrets to Nightmare, and turned him into something more. Something else. Something not machine. Not human. "This place made me human."

X took a step back. Fear overcoming him. But the desert did not allow him to hide. Eurasia loomed.

He felt the touch of the other's hand on his arm. He had become so close now. Pale. Inhuman. Machine. A broken mirror to Zero's perfect body.

"See. I'm real. I'm alive…" The smile was wicked. The touch was corruption. He could feel it crawl all over his arm. Into his very soul. "Wouldn't you want someone who isn't dead?"

The touch was comforting for only a moment. X could not deny the yearning. It was only human to yearn. Human to want what could never be gotten. Human to writhe upon the ground in self-deprecation and pray to be given that which could never be had. To want back what had been taken so violently from him. But it was soon replaced with disgust. Replaced by hate. He was overcome by the urge to push him away. But he wanted to bring him closer into an embrace. He took a step backwards, shoving the hand away from his arm as Nightmare stood with a simple smile.

X breathed hard. His body shaking.

It was obvious to see the confliction.

"You're just like him." Nightmare said those words slowly. "Do you think he'd be disgusted in you?"

Those words sent him over the edge. Before he could think, before he could process the words themselves, he felt his body move. The hand touched the saber at his side. In one fell swoop he felt the blade light and the pulsing green strike through the air. His clenched the saber tight as he raised it above his head, prepared to strike downward at Nightmare where he stood. But instead of the sickening metallic gore that X had never become accustomed to, he felt the resistance of another blade. Green met with a purple light. Their bodies glowed. Molding together into one. Into a single person.

A laugh sliced through the air. "That won't work on me," Nightmare smiled in the glow. Sickly sweet. X gasped as he felt something hit his stomach hard. His body plummeted into a sand dune below as he was kicked several feet back. The yellow gold flung itself upward into the air, raining down upon them. The sand glittered downward, turning into rain.

X shook his head as he tried to regain his bearings. Before he was able to react, he felt a sudden pain in his lower abdomen. A cry of pain escaped his lips as he lurched his arm forward to swipe at the other blindly. As his vision became clear, he saw Nightmare standing several feet away. Slowly he looked down, seeing a newly formed hole in his abdomen. A frustrated huff as he moved to stand, staring down the false other. Even as X tried to pull himself away from the sand, it seemed as if it only drew him deeper into it. Deeper. Deeper.

He breathed hard. Trying to focus. But his vision swayed. The desert called to him.

"Why don't you give up?" Nightmare called to him.

The sand clouded his vision. Clouded his mind. He felt the sensations take over him. The call of violence beckoning him. But his humanity kept him still.

Oil spilled from the wound. Blackening the sand below.

"Give up…" Nightmare called again. He approached X. His arms outstretched now. Holding something in one. The other beckoned him closer. Try as X might to reject the false idol, his body felt only desire as his eyes set upon the beautiful visage of Zero's frame. It was impulse that wanted to drive him forward into the other blindly. Impulse that needed to take him into himself and feast upon a hunger. A desire. His eyes looking around in the dream.

What did he hold? What was he trying to give him? The shadow came closer. Came closer to embrace him.

Fading into the sand. Fading into the desert. Fading into Eurasia. Into the nightmare.

Then came a whisper.

"…Just like Zero did."

X gasped a hand grasped his neck tightly. The sand blew away to unveil Nightmare holding a vail in his hand. He brought it up over his head, prepared to smash it down on X's face. But before the action could be complete a sickly green sprayed across the sky. Splitting the clouds. Splitting the storm. Lighting Eurasia on fire.

Nightmare's arm fell to the sand. The earth consumed it. X could only stare in shock, eyes wide at the vision before him.

The haze fell away. The darkness that clouded his vision parted. A blackened figure stood beside Nightmare as the sand swept away in the wind. The thunder rolled. The sky turned red. Eurasia called out to the damned.

A wolf howled.

Zero stood before him.

The pelt of death draped over him.

A machine. A human. A hunter.

A wolf.

A hideous, beautiful, wolf.

"Zero…" X called the name. The words were holy. The words echoed prayer. He was breathless as he looked upon this vision of God in the desert.

But the wolf did not regard him. Did not look at him. X could see the fear in his eyes as he trembled, not daring to peak at the angel beside him. His lips quivered as the name sent every piece of his body on fire. Even in this hell, even in this battlefield, X tried to connect with the other as he always did thousands upon thousands of times before. Tried to pull his soul towards Zero to try and nurture it as he always did. Tried to find the human in the machine. Tried to reach out to touch him as he had so many times before. To know that this was not a mirage or a trick. That this was the real Zero.

In his grief, he tried to find what he had known before. The happy. The sorrow. The agony. The despair.

But people change.

People.

Change.

And machines do too.

"You…" Nightmare growled as he turned to stare at Zero.

He let X's neck go and the reploid slumped to the floor. A gasp. A sputter. The pain returning all at once through his body. The grief was soon to follow. The shock next. X could not help but tremble uncontrollably as though he had seen a ghost. But he knew that there was no ghost. Only the living dead.

"I thought I killed you."

Zero laughed. But it was a laugh X could no longer recognize.

Who is that?

"You know me…" The voice was unrecognizable. It was cruel. Hollow. Filled with disgust. "Afterall… Gate made you to be just like me…"

Who is that?

X looked up from the ground. Looked towards heaven to find not the angel he had been anticipating. Not the God that had graced his vision before. No longer was the beauty in filth. No longer was the ecstasy of the dead reborn. Now… stood before him were two devils. One draped in the skin of a hunter. The other draped in the skin of a wolf.

The fish swam above them. Their shadows looked so much like them.

Who is that?

Before Nightmare could reply, a single shot rang out in the empty desert.

The hunter finally caught the shadow.

Zero stood in silence watching as the Nightmare fell over. Rolling down the dune to stop at the feet of the fisherman. X watched in silence as Zero turned his head to look down the dune where the body now laid. Watched as the unseen hunter begun to crack open the shadow. X could not see below, but could hear the metal squeal. Could see on Zero's face the disgust twisted into bliss. There was a smile as he watched the gore unveil before him. Watched as the carcass was dragged across the desert. Watched as screams of laughter erupted from the grave.

A laughter echoed through the desert. A laughter that was familiar. A laughter that called for more.

Zero did not look at X. But X was fixated on him.

Why won't he look at me?

He heard movement in the sand. Heard the slow and calculated walks up the dune. Huffs. Breaths. An animal that thirsted over its meal as it clambered closer to the main course.

X slowly stood. Afraid. He too walked towards Zero. His eyes kept on the machine as he wavered in the desert, transfixed on the beast who climbed the dune.

He would not look at X.

The Hunter stepped closer. Terrified to see what was on the other side of the dune.

As his steps drew him closer, the pit of his stomach only grew deeper. The sinking feeling was endless. He could not dare look upon the other side of the dune as he drew closer to Zero. In his mind, if he did not look upon the creature then it would not exist.

But fate could not be changed. Zero learned this lesson well in the desert. Soon, X would as well.

Destiny was cruel.

It makes you cruel.

On the other side of the dune was no beast. Was no fisherman. Was no hunter. Was no fish. Was no wolf. Was no human.

It merely stood the husk of a person lost in the wiles of revenge. Lost to the call of vengeance. Lost to the call of Eurasia. Lost in the desert that claimed one too many souls.

It reached Zero before X could.

There she held the gun to his chest.

Her face wild in the ecstasy of death.

Her promise to the ones she buried soon a promise conceptualized.

Stephen greeted Zero as any old friend did.

Zero smiled at Stephen as he did many times before.

She turned to look at X who stood shocked. Her smile even brighter than when Signas spoke that promise to her. "I told you I would get my due."

X stood paralyzed as he watched the scene unfold before him. There was shock. Sadness. But most of all, anger. Anger that she would rip him apart from Zero so soon after they had been reunited. Anger because X had toiled endlessly to meet Zero once more, only for it to be threatened by another. Anger because Zero had saved the world, and she wanted to kill him for doing so.

But… to her mind… she was not wrong to think that if Zero had never died, if he had stayed alive those many years ago… none of this would have happened. Perhaps everyone would still be together. Dancing the meadows that would lay in this very place. Together with everyone alive. Asard. Driftwood. Perhaps even Katsunari. And everyone would be free from this pain.

X took another step forward, cautious, but enraged. "What are you doing?"

Stephen kept her gaze on X for a moment, before she looked upon Zero. He refused to look at him. "I'm getting my due."

"You already killed the person who killed your friends!" he pointed into the distance. Into Eurasia. Into the carnage. "They've been avenged!"

"No…" Stephen shook her head.

Zero kept her gaze on her. His body unmoving. A monolith to all unspoken desires. A monolith of the desert. A monolith to humanity's sin. To war. His body was broken. Wounds covered every inch of every piece of him. Dried oil stained the beautiful body he once had. Sloppy welds and sand covered him. Synthetic skin peeled away at his face. The beautiful kept hair now was tangled and dirty.

He was the very same angel that Gate once found in the desert.

He said nothing. But his silence was words enough.

"So you get to leave this place with a happy ending?" She turned towards X who now stood between the two. She did not move. Perhaps she was scared to pull the trigger. Scared to see what the future might hold for the to be dead and already dead.

"You don't have to do this—"

"Where's my happy ending!?" Stephen screamed. The desert did not reply. It sat in silence. But it gave her tears. "When do I get to see Driftwood? When do I get to see Asard? What about Katsunari!?" her yells turned to sobs as she stared at X.

X could say nothing that would calm her anguish. The desert had said enough. Had given enough. But still, she wanted more. Who was he to deny her this? This land, this place, it took and it took. For it to give would only end up taking in the end. What would it take from her when she took from it?

Even if he could reach to her soul, someone else did. Zero slipped passed him. Stepped carefully close to Stephen. His hand touched the gun she held. Pressing it to his chest. Pressing it to his heart.

"I can't… bring them back…" he whispered to her. "I'm sorry…" he closed his eyes. His hand slipped from the gun, and slowly he slumped to the ground.

Another shot never rang out in the endless desert. The gun fell to the floor. To be buried in the desert. To be buried alongside their own humanity. A grief that would cover them all in the veil.

Shells of themselves.

Only to wander.

Only to linger.

Only to grieve.

Only… to sleepwalk.