Miles upon miles of desert emptiness lay below the night sky...

...or at least, things would've been empty, if not for the roar of hoverbikes speeding through it.

Swarms of them, all nondescript ones piloted by Mavericks, were all aiming their mounted blasters at the one blue bike they were chasing.

They wouldn't get far before getting both normal and fiery crossbow bolts to either their bike engines (causing them to crash out) or straight through the head.

The archer, despite the high-pressure situation, had saw fit to complain about her enemies even as she was still taking aim.

"Will you idiots just get lost already?! Geez..."

"You know that they probably aren't programmed to care what you think or say, right?"

X was busy driving, the two having agreed to that the second they touched down. When asked whether she wanted to, she simply winced and said seriously, "You don't want that."

Regardless, London was proving herself to be a more than sufficient gunner given what she was working with: a makeshift perch on the one-seater they were making do with. Her complaints, however, were something he could live without...

Eventually though, their luck ran out. One of the bad guys got a good shot off, forcing their ride to spin out.

Neither needed to even look at the other to know what they had to do. While London dove upwards and let herself hover over the ensuing wreck, X chose to simply roll out of the way.

The latter got a sight he wasn't expecting. If he were more like his New Generation comrade, or maybe didn't associate such bad memories with this place, he might have been filled with a sort of nostalgia.

They were in front of an abandoned reploid factory. The very same one where the adventure to reassemble his dead best friend the first time he lost him all those years ago.

The one where another friend of his died on the way to...

The comment that the girl would've made about the place being a landfill died in her throat when she saw the look on her fellow Hunter's face.

There was something uncomfortably familiar about it that she couldn't quite place.

"Do you...need a minute?"

Those words were enough to snap Dr. Light's creation out of his thoughts.

He shook off whatever was in his head. "I'm fine..."

He found himself cut off by his own words, thrown right back in his face. "...because you have to be, right?"

X didn't have a response for this. "Let's just go."

"If that's what you want..." She had meant to brush his words off casually but couldn't stop the feelings of unease from creeping into her voice.

The route ahead was filled with hordes upon hordes of the usual enemies, but it didn't take a genius to sense something...off.

"This is way too easy."

X had grumbled the comment under his breath, very much still on edge.

The heiress heard this as she lagged just behind him, but didn't exactly know how to respond. "So? How hard is it supposed to be?"

"Harder than this," was all the Hunter could answer, eyes now nervously scanning the room.

London gave him an incredulous look. "Maybe...we're just that good, then... Wait, what're you looking for?"

"The catch. You should keep your guard up, too."

"Hold it!"

As if to confirm his concerns, Bailey's voice came over the line, barely holding back panic.

"The area's rigged. Watch your step," Layer supplied more calmly, her composure honed from years of experience shining through.

After mouthing the word 'bombs' to London for her sake, he asked Layer, "Where?!"

"That's the scary part," the farm girl replied. "We can't tell. It's like their positional readings keep changing. That's been happening ever since you guys got into the building!"

"Has Ruby and Sapphira's location changed?"

"No. They're still deep underneath this installation. Regardless, you two need to be extremely care-"

The line instantly went dead.

"What the...?" X's attempts to reestablish the connection ended in failure. They were on their own. He turned to his partner.

"You heard them, right?"

She nodded, tense, but much more serious than she'd been up to this point.

It wasn't very long before they found exactly what they were looking for. Every now and again, amidst the piles of debris, they would find a black, disc-like object.

What would happen from there was troublingly inconsistent: something, the beeping the device would emit would lead to a small explosion, no different than that of the enemies they destroyed.

Other times, the explosion was more than enough to take out anything within a good radius (including them if they had been foolish enough to tempt fate).

Other times, nothing would happen. Those were the worst.

They eventually entered into rather forced conversation, not out of boredom, but in a desperate bid to stay sane.

"You know, your job kind of sucks..."

"It... has its rewards," X offered, not even remotely perturbed by the girl's whiny tone. How could he possibly disagree? The burn marks and even some exposed wiring in places alone told the tale of their various brushes with death.

"Like what? What do you people do for fun?"

X didn't have to rack his brain to answer this. Really, he could've said "just about anything that doesn't have to do with work", but instead just decided to keep it simple. "I volunteer."

She knew what that was. After all, Cody had done plenty of it, even competing with Bailey at one point for who could get the most college credit, whatever that was, for doing all that. There were even times that Zack had to do it, though usually because he got in trouble for something. London herself never quite saw the appeal, but she knew it made people happy.

"Where?"

The two had to pause to deal with another couple bombs, one a dud, one a medium-sized one that they had to evade.

"I look after kids, most of them not far from the base."

"I... could see that," she admitted, looking him over and nodding. "You seem pretty nice."

"Yeah... I try not to tell them all that much about...this stuff. Zero, he...kind of just trains. Axl messes around with the recruits and plays video games. We all have things outside of our main job."

Before London could point it out, X casually blew away a Maverick that had been trying to catch him with its laser eyes from above.

"What about you? You have the money to do pretty much anything you want back in your world. Do you have something special you like to do?"

Fortunately for the Asian girl, there was a suitable means of buying time for her, in the form of a section of fast-closing corridors for them to climb up to the next section.

Having narrowly avoided being crushed to death, she was greeted by her expectant partner.

"I..." She quickly ran through all her options. She could've (and almost did) tell him about her fashion-related exploits, but the words didn't leave her mouth.

Yeah, she did that...but so did other girls like her. She had a group of friends (one of their names was "Chelsea" she thought) that did it too. They liked shopping even more than she did.

That left the other choice. Normally, she wouldn't dare say this aloud even to the people closest to her. It would change the way everyone thought about her, and she wasn't sure if she could even handle that...

...but X had opened up so much to her and she owed it to him to do the same, and if there's one thing she didn't like, it was owing people.

So, after giving him a look of resignation, she softly let out, "I like to draw."

Part of her expected, as silly as it was, for X to laugh in his face. After all, her father had...

"That's nice, my little diamond." he'd remark afterward whenever she'd bring it up to him when she was young. "But one day, you're going to be the head of Tipton Industries. You can scribble on your off time."

It wasn't much different from the few other times she asked before she finally gave up. She made herself live this lie, to keep playing the role she was stuck in... for everyone who knew her.

To her surprise, X's smile wasn't mocking, but a respectful, supportive one.

"That's great!" He exclaimed, but quickly sobered up a bit, as if reminding himself that they were still on a battlefield. "Do your friends know about this?"

She shook her head. "Only a few people do."

"Oh... Well, if it's okay with you, I'd love to see some of your work before we get you guys home."

Her eyes widened a little at this. "R-Really?"

Just as he opened his mouth to respond, their communicators whirred back to life, both their guides sounding urgent.

"...don! Tell me you're receiving this time..."

"Report!"

"We're in pretty deep," X responded. What happened on your end? The comms just got cut off..."

"We're still working that out. Thank God you're okay!"

Layer sounded uneasy. "As nice as it is to hear you again, we have bigger problems brewing just below your location."

"Yeah, remember those bombs we told you about?

"We've been taking care of those this whole time!"

"That's not what we're talking about, London. There are three more that we've found, and neither of you are going to like where they're located!"

The moment X put it together, his face paled as far as a reploid's could. "Oh no... Oh, God no! Layer, please tell me this is some kind of cruel joke!"

"I'm not kidding, X. Ruby, Sapphira, and Black are all down there and rigged to blow, each with bombs in their skulls."

"WHAT?!" disbelief and terror mixed in equal measure into her shout and the stutter coming after it. "X, w-what do we do?"

The Maverick Hunter's only responses were to clench his fist and grit his teeth in frustration.

The girl didn't necessarily want to think about it, but the question had to be raised. "We're not gonna have to...?"

"I said it before, didn't I? I don't want it to come to that."

She recalled his words from way back when Zack was taken. She knew they weren't aimed at her now, but even with that she wasn't sure if he could make things go the way he wanted. "But what if it does?"

He gave her a pained, sympathetic look as they both began to pick up speed. "Try not to think about that, alright? Let's just focus on getting them out of this, whatever this is..."

Their now frenzied trek ended with a final wall climb downwards. At its bottom was a door with the absolute last person either of them wanted to see.

"Hello, there. Going somewhere?"

"Y-You!"

Lucien almost seemed amused at the contempt in his enemies' tones. "Follow me if you want them to live!"

"Enough!"

Infuriated at the Maverick's toying with them and the lives at stake, London detached from the wall she clung to aim and fire an arrow at him, only for it to be sidestepped.

"Ah, ah, ah. Even you should know how this goes at this point. To get to them, you'll have to go through me."

Gladly, she thought. Before she could fire another bolt at him, though, the pathway to the bottom of the scrapyard opened.

They landed on a high-up series of platforms. Lucien was making his way to the bottom of the room on the left side while the three hostages' readings were on the right. Thinking quickly, X decided.

"Go find them, then radio me. I'll take care of him and catch back up with you afterwards. Don't move them yet!"

With a death stare at the other golden reploid, she headed off to do her part.

The second his partner left, X headed straight for Lucien, who smirked.

"We meet again, X!"

"Shut up! You're going to answer for what you've done here!"

Dodging the fire (both figurative and literal) that came his way with athleticism that was impressive and somehow familiar, he returned fire with something that X should've expected: his own copy of London's crossbow.

Sliding under the shots, he aimed said slide at his adversary's exposed foot.

He was surprised to hit solid diamond instead. Lucien stomped on the ground, almost catching him with an array of crystalline spikes.

Switching tactics (and taking a page from his lifelong friend), he decided to go for a melee approach. He managed to get a few solid punches in before the angelic reploid managed to block, of course, using the girl's shield.

Even with the moderate damage taken from X's punches, his demeanor didn't change.

"How do we stop the bombs from going off?!"

"You could try having the brat shoot them in the head... Maybe that'll work."

He was halted in his taunt by another fist to the face. "Believe it or not, I'm more than capable of ending you-"

His incoming fist was caught, and they both wound up in a brief test of strength. "-but you won't because of that nasty little 'suffering circuit' of yours..."

A mutual headbutt knocked them both back to a neutral position. "You don't know me."

"On the contrary, X," Suddenly pausing the fight, he went to work tapping a piece of paneling on his less damaged arm. "We know plenty about you, thanks to Father."

X didn't even bother to ask who "father" was. He already had a good idea. "Who's we?!"

You'll figure it out soon, provided you survive, that is."

The air in their immediate area became clouded with some sort of...gas! He instinctively backed away, but it was spreading way too fast.

"Don't worry, it isn't corrosive. It'll only black out your systems for a while. Sweet dreams, X. Hope your brat's good at guessing games!"

X wanted to reply, but his mind almost instantly went to static as his body went rigid.

London Tipton had never been so scared in her entire life.

Granted, she was surprised she felt anything at all considering what she'd been through since getting here, but this still had to top the list.

She guessed the time that her dad was almost sued for everything he was worth in that Class Action thingy was fast approaching the bottom of the list.

Regardless, it hadn't been easy getting to the point she found herself at now. Firstly, the second she made it to them, they jumped up and attacked her. She had tried to bring them back to their senses and remind them who they really were, only to quickly realize that she actually didn't know them well enough to do that.

Having to juggle knocking the pair unconscious without risking hitting their heads and probably blowing everyone up wasn't fun to say the least.

Stubbornness as well as desperation to survive overwhelmed her own panic enough to keep her moving.

"We're trying to pinpoint where the bombs are, but the readings keep changing between the three of them!"

This was one of the many unhelpful "updates" she had got from Layer. Even if she could learn how to disarm the bombs and do so without killing the trio of hostages she was dealing with, she wouldn't know where to start!

Unfortunately for her, things would get even worse once she realized that she couldn't contact X for some reason...

The Navigators back on Base soon knew it, too.

Just before she could give up, however, someone out of the group stirred.

Reflexively, she pointed her bow at the rising figure.

"D-Don't move!"

It was Black, and he looked beaten up and... resigned?

"It's only me. I'm the bomb."

"What?!"

"Those readings... they were false. They were just there to trick you...to stall you."

London's eyes narrowed, though her aim was a little shakier now. "How do I know you're not lying...?"

"I'M A DEAD MAN, GIRL, NOW JUST LISTEN TO WHAT I SAY!"

She fell silent, flinching at being unexpectedly yelled at like that.

"Take the girls, go get your friend, and leave before Lucien decides to blow me sky-"

Beeping began emanating from him. Her heart sank.

The older man shook his head. "It's my time. Go. Get to safety as fast as you can."

As she took them and turned to leave, he left her with these parting words.

"For what little it's worth, I'm sorry for how things turned out."

She couldn't decide how she felt about those words, so she let her actions speak for her and did her utmost to follow his instructions. The degree of super strength that seemed to come pre-packaged with what she was made sure this rescue mission wasn't impossible, per se...

It was just really, really hard.

Like jumping and clinging to walls was, especially while carrying three people at once while said wall was falling apart from a certain explosion that she didn't want to think about...

For obvious reasons, she didn't even bother fighting anything along the way. Instead, she avoided the enemies altogether, finally finding some real use for gymnastics skills she'd picked up in the midst of her self-defense classes.

She was so consumed with completing the mission thrust upon her and as her own survival that she didn't notice that in the process, her heavy load had gotten...lighter.

Panicking once she realized this, she whirled around to see her partner lagging behind carrying the taller of the two girls.

Though it did cross her mind, she didn't dwell on what he'd done or how battered he looked. His serious glare was yet more encouragement for her to drop the subject and get going.

Hitting open desert air at last, the two didn't stop moving until they got far enough out of the final explosion's blast radius.

"Is it... Is it over?" The golden reploid dared to ask once she set Ruby down momentarily to catch her breath.

"Maybe. We just need to find a bike..." He sighed, clearly remembering how they got here. "...that still works."

Now a lot slower in their strides, they searched as best as they could for a ride they could actually use.

The girl looked back for a second, remembering something terrible.

"X... B-Black-"

"Try not to think about it. You... You did what you could."

The gruffness in his voice caught her off-guard. He shook his head, as if trying to dissuade her from any follow-up statements.

"Focus on the ones we were able to save."

The Asian girl's voice fell to a whisper, suddenly hyper-aware of who she was carrying. "But...what if they ask?"

His response was equally as reserved. Regretful, even. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

An eerie silence passed as the two kept on running through their (lack of) options, the only noise coming from their injury and passenger hobbled footsteps.

"You know..." X remarked slowly, breaking the deadlock. "...you should really tell your friends how you feel."

London felt the urge to play dumb here but couldn't find the strength to. She wouldn't tell him so loud, but she was kind of considering doing just that. Nearly dying several times kind of gave you...that "perspective" thing people talked about. "Easy for you to say."

"When you're ready," he added gently as they finally happened upon their goal: a badly beaten bike, but with just enough life in it left to get them both back to the drop-off point…

-TBC-

That's Black off the board. Now Lucien has nothing standing in his way…except maybe Isoc.

On your way out the door, be sure to ask questions, comment, review and show your support in any way available if you liked what you've read here. Also, keep tabs on this story and profile for more. Goodbye until next time!