The "true" Lucien looked at the many screens he had with interest. Not concern, per se, but interest.

He still held all the cards, after all.

The scientist may still have been running around with Zero, but he'd been inconspicuously keeping tabs on both of them.

Neither of them would get the last laugh.

He'd have to alter his plans when it came to that girl that he'd planned to use against the Hunter, but given another relationship he could think of, that wouldn't be very difficult either.

A thought suddenly striking him, he quickly radioed his shark ally.

"Have you made the modifications I ordered?"

"Indeed, Master Lucien. I must say, though, that even by Reploid standards, their AI is incredibly complex."

"I hope you're not implying that there's a problem..."

"Nothing serious," the Maverick was awfully quick to answer. "It merely fascinates me how human minds can be so easily duplicated."

And yet ultimately still absorbed into my will, the villain added mentally.

Not entirely convinced, yet also unwilling to press the issue, Lucien chose to move on.

"I have an assignment for 'Iris', given that her boyfriend isn't with us at the moment. Have her on standby."

"And the Red duplicate?"

"Keep him that way, too."

Some noise on the other end, and then... "Signas?"

A smirk appeared on his face. "Leave him alone for now. I have plans for him."

"As you wish." With that, the shark took his leave.

On the airship proper, the rebellions and odd behavior from his clones and the brainwashed workers had finally slowed to a halt.

He knew that it wasn't time to strike yet, however.

That pleasure would only come only when X and his allies were well and truly broken.

He would prove to him and every single organic and inorganic being once and for all that he and he alone was rightfully in control.

-000-

The shark examined the tanks that the three doppelgangers were in.

They were such fantastic specimens, really. An entire scrapyard cavalcade of interesting data to plumb the depths of even at the surface level, and…

His train of thought was broken off by something he just noticed.

Was one of them…awake?

He checked the console again, ensuring that he'd done nothing to alter it.

And yet, the one modeled after Cody Martin, aptly named Dark Cody, had suddenly opened his eyes. A dark grin reached all the way to his pink pupils. His hair was a contrast from the original, too, being platinum blonde as opposed to a dirty blonde, his overall tone giving off the impression of a tan.

Reflexively, Metal Shark Player moved back, pointing his anchor at the glass.

It began to crack as she literal evil twin formed a blade of pure energy out of his left arm.

"S-Stay back, demon!"

His words meant nothing, as faster than he could ever hope to perceive, the tank was broken through, flooding the lab.

Metal Shark found himself with the blade to his throat.

"Now then, you wretched mockery of an aquatic lifeform, you're going to tell me where Hunter Base is…"

The now-victim felt searing hot pain in his side from the blade making its way through it like a hot knife through butter.

"…or it goes in even deeper. Make the smart choice."

"GUARDS!"

Quickly, Dark Cody found himself on surrounded by what he deduced to be about a dozen Lucien copies. He looked back at the robo-necromancer with genuine curiosity.

"So, this is the path you've chosen… Very well."

In a split second, the minions were in pieces strewn about the lab, and in relatively neat piles, on top of it.

The poor Maverick didn't even see him move.

"Now, we're going to try this again," Dark Cody intoned with a chillingly condescending tone. "Where's the Base? I want coordinates. You know what will happen if you don't."

Seeing no other choice, he complied.

"Why thank you, Imitation. Unfortunately, you are no longer of use to me. Farewell."

Metal Shark Player didn't have time to think about how foolish he had been about his choice of profession, whether in general or working for Lucien in particular, because he was scrap metal in an instant, with the boy stretching amidst the carnage as if it had all just been a warm up.

"Now, then…"

Stepping around the bodies, he found his way to the nearest teleporter at the end of the room and put his destination in.

The last thing he did before warping away is throw an energy slash with his blade at the other tanks with just enough force to break the glass free his "sibling" and "friend"…

-000-

To call what transpired once the Hunter Base was repopulated "chaos" would have been a drastic understatement.

Cody didn't even get much of a chance to dwell on the disappointment he'd felt with himself over not finishing off his enemy, as everyone's attention was taken up the moment Zack came back alone and Palette had to formally break the news of what had happened throughout their mission.

"…and now we still can't track him!"

"Maybe Lucien has him? We should be able to get some information out of Black…"

Cody froze as his eyes made their way to X and London. The former just shook his head while the latter…

It was amazing that she was even on her feet, and not just because of her injuries.

As was often the case, the shorter of the twins was the one to rip the Band-Aid off.

"Black's dead, isn't he?"

"Yes," the golden girl confirmed, whispering in a timbre that bordered on inaudible. Her eyes kept moving between the unconscious Ruby and Sapphira.

"I'll…just be taking them to the Med-Bay," Axl volunteered, not liking the uncomfortable situation.

No one moved to stop him.

X took the initiative in making everyone move on.

"Zack, did Zero say anything in particular about who was controlling him?"

The blonde shook his head. "All I got from that was that it was someone that was apparently worse than Lucien. I didn't think he could get scared of anything, let alone turn into that…"

While most of the room exchanged concerned looks, Palette and Layer seemed to know more than they were letting on.

X merely froze.

"No. Not him…"

Zack read his lips and got in the Blue Bomber's face, anger mixing with panic. "Him? Who? What nearly tore me apart back there?!"

"An old man with a grudge," was X's bitter answer after a moment of hesitation.

-000-

Alia simmered in her own self-loathing, berating herself as she finally sank back into her Navigator's chair.

How could she have been so blind? Of course it had all been a trick!

She had been a fool to think that Gate could've really returned when it could only have been a clone.

She was surprised that the management at the Point had even bought her excuse…

Worse yet, she still had no clue where Commander Signas was.

As she turned on her monitor, Alia could only hope that the others were at least starting to get ahold of things on their end…

The Base got the feed the moment X began his tale.

"Hold on," Bailey said. "We're getting a transmission from…Alia!"

The taller twin's sense of relief was palpable. "Finally, something's going right…"

They all took note of the disheveled state of the Navigator but had to push it aside for now as she was caught up to current events.

"Wily? Figures," She kneaded her forehead in exhaustion and irritation.

At the guests' questioning looks, she rattled off an explanation that was just slow enough to be understood.

-000-

A century prior, there lived two of the foremost human scientists in the field of robotics, named Doctor Thomas Light and Albert Wily respectively. While Thomas focused on having the robots he made assist people in various everyday tasks, Albert only saw the benefits of them in combat. An eventual schism that formed as well as Wily's megalomaniacal desires to conquer the world so that all would acknowledge his genius would send the two down their different paths. Light would use his robots, mainly X's predecessor, Mega Man, to stop Wily and his "Robot Masters" time and time again.

At the end of their lives, they would each make their final marks on the world with their greatest creations: X would serve as the herald of the new age of robotics while Zero was a dying gambit by Wily to strip the world, and Light, of everything they held dear for denying him and to make him ruler of it, even if it was to be done posthumously.

-000-

"Wait a minute," the golden reploid chimed in. "If he's supposed to be the bad guy, then why is he so…nice?"

The other teens' queries boiled down to that and wondering why he was a Hunter in the first place given his original purpose, which Alia and X were ready to address once they were all quieted down.

-000-

Zero's capsule had been found on a routine mission by none other than Sigma himself, back when he'd been a Hunter. It had been when his team had accidentally awoken him that Zero went berserk in his Maverick state and not only scarred the soldier but infected him with what's now known as the Maverick Virus, driving him insane and tyrannical and giving X the mortal enemy that he'd fought for decades while oddly rebooting Zero's own systems and rendering him docile, leading to the advent of the Hunter that is known far and wide today.

As the Hunters would find out later, though, Wily's ambitions had never truly died with his body…

-000-

"Right now, we don't have time for much more than that, but that should about cover what you guys need to know. Any quick questions before we split up to finish this?"

Bailey was the one that spoke. "I have one. We don't have any idea where Zero is. If this 'Wily' really has his hands on him, we can't just leave things like that…"

"We're already pretty split as it is," Alia commented, her nose now to her work. "not to mention that everyone needs to heal."

There seemed to be an internal struggle of sorts for X before he came to his decision. "Zero's going to have to wait, at least for a little bit, but I'll deal with that myself. How quickly can we get Ruby and Sapphira operational?"

The remaining group expressed surprise in their own ways.

"Can we even trust those two? What if Lucien still has them under his control?"

Axl, having returned midway through, made a good point. However…

"He seems to only want power, and to play mind games, not so much them or anyone in particular."

"How?" Cody asked.

"He had you and Zack vulnerable several times. He could have just taken you over completely or fried your CPU-er, brain, and killed you there. Why didn't he just do that?"

No one wanted to so much as think about the alternate reality where Cody went through all he did just to find his brother's corpse.

"He's sending a message…" Layer stated gravely. "Something Sigma himself wasn't above at times."

"He pretty much wants to break us before we ever get to him." Zack was admittedly a little impressed at the strategy, but knew this was not the time to voice that.

Not that he wanted to give that monster any credit...

"Well he didn't succeed, did he?" Bailey offered when the room went disturbingly quiet and the three other Navigators nervously focused on their monitors, trying to look busy in a desperate attempt to avoid looking at her.

"No. He didn't…and he won't."

X's cold, resolute tone steeled itself against the atmosphere of dread like fortified castle walls, ones that he didn't plan on allowing to come tumbling down anytime soon. "If nothing else, we now know how he operates. With that info in hand, we can work out a way to stop him, after we deal with the other five, that is."

"But there's only five of us here, and we're not exactly in a position to turn around and run back out there…"

X's tone softened a little at Zack's assertion. "We don't have much of a choice. Signas is still missing and going off of how powerful this latest batch of Mavericks are...well, it's like Bailey said, we can't just leave them there. We'll just have to take turns healing up and getting all that dealt with as quickly as possible." He looked seriously at the three teen Hunters. "I hope you three comfortable enough with your abilities, because we'll very likely need to split up—"

"Incoming Transmission!" Palette blurted out, grabbing the others' attention.

"I'm guessing it's that idiot here to spew out another round of threats…?"

"Idiot? So uncouth of you, Dear Brother…"

The voice sounded so much like Cody's that every other pair of eyes in the room went to him. He kept his eyes on the viewing monitor that showed a silhouette similar enough to his own to unnerve him.

Even more notable was how cruel the voice sounded. That didn't sound like him…did it?

"…but then again, how much should I really expect from an impudent child that still cowers in fear of a middle-aged British man?"

He tried his absolute hardest to pretend that nothing had just been said, and failing by the wavering tone in his voice "What do you want?!"

"Hmph."

A snapping of fingers was heard, and the room was awash in light, forcing everyone to readjust their vision as they got a good look at the doppelganger.

Unlike how it was with the twins themselves, it was like looking at a literal mirror image, certain details aside.

That alone wasn't the terrifying part. It was the background around him that made the experienced Hunters' hearts race. Had X been human, he might have had a heart attack on sight of all of the live weaponry on display.

"You're at a… That's a…"

Dark Cody grinned, but there wasn't a shred of the warmth or benevolence of the one he was based off of. "A missile silo. How astute of you, X. Anyone have any good guesses as to what's about to happen here, provided you don't make it in time?"

"You wouldn't dare…"

"Oh wouldn't I? Let's test that theory."

Quickly, he zipped out of frame, tapping on something before zipping back into it, a knowing smirk on his lips.

"Well, are you just going to take my word for it? Check for yourselves!"

"H-Hunters, we've got bogeys, live ones, and they're headed straight for the Base!"

"I'm heading out." It went without saying, as he was already halfway to the teleporter, barely registering the black and red-clad blonde tailing him.

Bailey's jaw would've hit the floor if there was time for that. "W-Where are YOU going?!"

"What does it look like?" The elder twin shot back, teeth gritted with a determined, set sort of look not too dissimilar from the one he had back when he went to face Magma Dragoon.

There would be no talking him out of this, but that wouldn't stop someone from trying…

"B-But I'm faster… I'm—"

"…inevitably going to hesitate, which we can't risk." Zack's harsh tone made his brother back away, leaving himself and X to depart for the launch site.

Cody just stood there as it happened, unsure how to feel about the parting words. He couldn't deny that he was right. Still! Had he really grown so little despite his experiences?

"C'mon, Cody. We need to go heal!"

A voice and the feeling of being dragged snapped him out of his thoughts enough for him to do as he was told. He was so lost in them that he didn't grasp the irony of London Tipton of all people being the voice of reason in a situation…

-000-

Meanwhile, a familiar face was situated on a cliff face far closer to the Hunter Base than anyone ever imagined.

"Those fools really fell for it… Now, how to get this done…?"