During both missions...

By the time he caught up with her, X found London in the one place he least expected.

She'd managed to wander her way into his Sanctuary.

I really need to remember to lock this place up, he noted internally as he walked into his own personal space, lined by an indoor garden, but with the centerpiece being...a certain diorama. Formerly a spare conference room towards the back of the Base, he had had it secretly renovated for his own uses.

Being the physical basis for all Reploids and de-facto leader of the organization had its perks.

Regardless, he would have to be very careful about how he chose to handle this. Obviously, another direct confrontation would not end well, but maybe he could try something else...

"Beautiful, isn't it?" His carefully chosen tone was soft, yet contemplative.

London pretended not to notice. His keen vision made him aware that she ever-so-slightly stiffened.

"I always come here when things get to be...too much. I suspect it might be that way for you?"

An answer came sounding almost reflexive in its delivery. "Fine... I'm doing just fine."

He inhaled softly before letting it back out again, knowing what he was going to have to concede.

"I'm fine too... I have to be. Especially when the world's counting on me to be that way. No matter how many battles I fight, no matter how many press conferences I attend, or comrades that I have to...kill."

At that last word, the rich girl perked up, clearly listening, even though she didn't turn to face him. She also took a subtle step away from him.

He needed to address this part directly, if only to put her mind at ease.

"London, look at me." When he got no response, he repeated his command more firmly, forcing the girl to finally face him for the first time.

It was clear that she was trying her hardest to look stoic, but there it was again, bubbling just beneath the surface.

The exhaustion, the fear...

"It hurts, doesn't it?" He let his mask slip for just a moment, letting her look into what was a mirror image of the pained look she'd flashed mere moments ago.

It was so similar, in fact, that he could see the gears turning in her head as she visibly debated opening her mouth.

"You know," Knowing her less technical level of understanding, he made sure to speak very plainly. "I think I have more in common with you than you know."

"No, you don't. You're p-" She caught herself and tried to correct her statement "You're mid-" She did so yet again. Unable to come up with what she wanted to say, she settled on... "You're not me. We're different."

"I know you're rich, London. It's not like that's a secret at this point."

"Not here, I'm not. Here, I'm...nothing."

A touch of annoyance shone through, but X tried to keep his speech level. "First of all, you are far from nothing here, and you know that as well as I do. Secondly, I can see it weighing on you, and while I don't think I'll ever understand wealth like you do, I know what it's like to inherit something that puts a lot of pressure on you."

Her tone softened with curiosity. "You... You do?"

"Indeed." He hit a button on the side of his helmet to undo it and reveal his mess of pitch-black hair underneath.

"You can take that off?"

He nodded the affirmative. Sensing her getting distracted by said hair (as she started commenting nonstop about it like Layer would do with her romance novels), he got her back on track.

"Anyway, this hair means something. It's the same kind that my..."

He paused and thought for a moment, having to work around the term "predecessor".

"...my older brother had."

"Older brother?"

"He was a regular robot, one that fought over a hundred years ago."

"Wow... When did he die?"

Just great, he thought. Now he would have to dance around the idea of obsolescence and keep ahold of her rather questionable attention span at the same time.

"Well, he just did his job. He got used until he just...couldn't be anymore. You understand that, right?"

She scrunched up her face for a moment before just shrugging her shoulders, as if the idea was foreign to her. Given her apparent background, this was...less than surprising. "I guess so."

"Eventually," he continued, "He'd get older and fall ill. I was his last project: a way to protect humans and reploids in the future and help them get along."

"And how's that been working out for you?" Bluntly delivered as the question was, it was rather realistic. He considered giving her a flowery PR answer like he had done with his own student, but would she even accept that?

"It hasn't been easy..."

Now she was looking at him oddly, as if trying to size up the veracity of his answer through his expression alone.

"It never ends, does it?"

X raised an eyebrow.

"The fighting, I mean. Even I can tell that you do this a lot."

"It'll end someday..."

London was now really staring at him, slowly shaking her head. She seemed to see right through his facade and into his very soul.

Lying to her really would have been pointless.

"That's...what you tell yourself, isn't it, X?"

He didn't answer her. She looked away, unsure of what more to say for the moment. Then...

"How long...?" She asked softly.

"Longer than you've been alive. A lot longer."

"Can't you just...you know...retire?"

The chuckle that came out of X's mouth made the girl back away. There wasn't a shred of humor in it though. Instead, it smacked of desperation and near-hopelessness.

"Don't you think I've tried that?! I did it twice, in fact. I can't escape this..."

Something in London resonated with this hopeless, trapped feeling.

"What... What happened?"

Instead of answering, he asked a question of his own.

"Did you happen to actually hear any of Cody's freakout when Lucien had Zack?"

He got a shaking of the head for an answer.

X looked at her with a mixture of guilt and pity. "You know those Mavericks we keep fighting? Well, a lot of them were once partners, friends. And I had to kill them just because they happened to be on the wrong side thanks to Sigma."

After quickly filling her in on who Sigma was, he kept going.

"And then there was Zero. He died right in front of me. Twice. Imagine if Lucien got to take out one of the boys what would happen to the other one."

"I... I don't want to."

"Exactly. It's like that, but a thousand times worse." …and repeated over and over and over again…

"Then how… How do you keep doing all this?"

X gave a meaningful look towards his diorama, trying to force himself back out of his feelings. "I keep going for a few reasons. Like I said before, I'm doing this to carry on the dream that my older brother and our creator…" He cut her off before she could question what that meant. "…um, pretty much my father."

"There are other reasons, too. There's everyone who's still fighting alongside me. "Zero, Axl, Alia, Signas, the list goes on. Then, there's this."

"Some weird city thing?"

"Funnily enough, that's what Axl said about it too." X smiled at the memory. It had taken quite a while for him to even trust the New Gen Reploid enough to let him into what the latter had dubbed his "panic room", and even then, it was done on the proviso that he didn't touch anything.

It would take him a while longer after he inevitably broke that rule to regain said trust.

Appropriately enough, X snapped out of his reminiscing just in time to stop London from somewhat childishly doing the exact same thing with his model, having to literally shield it with his body like a mother hen protecting its young.

"D-Did I forget to mention that you should absolutely not touch anything in here?!"

"All right…" she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms in a mini-pout. "What's it supposed to do, anyway?"

"This is a model of what will one day be a safe haven for both Humans and Reploids. I plan on calling it… Arcadia."

To the golden reploid's perplexity, X seemed to be having his own little nerd-out moment (as Zack would call it), his fist put triumphantly on his chest and seemingly on the verge of tears, prompting her to think that maybe he and Cody really were more alike than not.

Another realization she came to was much more depressing on her end. She didn't even notice that she was voicing it until it hit the air.

"At least you...matter."

That snapped the Azure Hunter back to normal and reminded him why he was here to begin with. He was stunned. "After all you've been through, HOW CAN YOU SAY THAT?!"

When she didn't respond, he kept going. "You matter. If it weren't for your inv… I mean, if you hadn't been there, both of the boys would probably be dead! Don't you understand that?"

"Any of you guys could've done that," she grumbled half to him and half to herself. "I just sort of happened to be the one that was there, is all... That's not what I mean, anyway."

X crossed his arms, mentally preparing himself for what was likely the cause of that outburst earlier. "Then help me understand, what do you mean?"

She was silent for some time, debating in her head not only what to say, but how to say it.

The blue Hunter loosened his stance a bit. Having been used more than once in the past as the Base's therapist, he liked to have thought that he had acquired the patience of a saint.

"I'll never be like them..."

"Like who?"

"The boys, Bailey, take your pick." There was a harsh, self-condemning tone he remembered using with himself on more than one occasion. "People think that since I have all this money, I should be fine, but I'm not... I'm scared. I-"

Telling her to hold on, he answered what turned out to be a call from Bailey.

"Alia just got a call and had to leave, but she found where Black, Ruby, and Sapphira are located, or at least their data signatures. Someone needs to go over and check it out. Is London with you?"

"Yes," he answered slowly as the two made eye contact. He then gave her a more serious look. "By the way, she has something she'd like to say to you."

She gave him an annoyed look, but he didn't budge. She wasn't getting out of this.

After teaching her how to work the comms herself, she patched herself into the conversation. "Sorry about earlier. I'm just dealing with some...stuff. I shouldn't have taken it out on you. Friends?"

"You're really lucky we don't have time for hard feelings," the farm girl scolded with clear annoyance before her tone softened again. "But, friends."

A trip back to the Navigation Room and putting in of their destination later, and they were off.