Note: Very sorry for the late update!

I unfortunately had my sciatic nerve start acting up and the constant leg pain sort of made my motivation to write difficult to manifest.

Still, when this gets out, I hope it's at least halfway decent.

The Unfortunate Dreamer

"What in the world?!" Signas exclaimed as he and Zero rushed to the railing, the barrier between solid ground and the vast ocean. From the moment the tremendous vibration was felt, a deafening crescendo of water and air pressure surged from the depths to the surface, rising several feet high before raining down on the navy-armored Maverick Hunter and his superior. "Was that an explosion down there?"

Signas's inquiry went unanswered. Or rather, he didn't receive what he was initially expecting. A flash of red was spotted in the corner of his optics, yet before he could process what or who it was, he heard a splash echo throughout the area, his focus turning downward to see ripples disturbing the once smooth formation of blue, knowing well where his Commander had gone, let alone what he was attempting to do.

Floating.

"When I heard what you had done, when you first attacked Rock, I found little reason to like you."

He had gone down to try and find Marty, yet he misjudged the sheer force that would come from the Utuboros' obliteration.

"And when I learned of what happened with Roll, and several others due to your actions, intentional or not, I saw little reason to believe in what Dr. Light or even Rock saw in you. Had Roll not survived, and you provided Dr. Light with the means to aid humanity, I would've declared you a remorseless murderer. And even with that, the human casualties caused by the Blackout remain. Indeed, there are some who would still consider you such for what you and Wily helped Ra Moon bring to the Earth."

He was blown back, the sensation of his already beaten body smashing against rocks doing him little favors for his physical condition, as well as dismantling his consciousness for a short time.

"And when you punched a hole in the wall, when you broke the portrait, with the shattering of glass ringing in my ears, realizing how close it was to my head, even if you didn't strike me…the same sound as the ice…for a moment, I wondered if you would do to me what you had done to Roll. Or, at least attempt to."

X couldn't discern whether he was still in the ocean or another location entirely, his normal senses steadily slipping away as a familiar voice once again invaded his processor.

"Then Mother came. And she scolded you. Then you stopped, as if you weren't certain how to respond to what you just heard. And I waited, unsure of what was next. She said that, had you truly wished to cause harm, you would've. But, at that moment, I didn't believe that. It wasn't safe to trust you anymore."

Unlike before, however, her voice wasn't riddled with tension, uncertainty, or confusion. Doubt, yes, but there wasn't a sense of underlying hostility.

"Then, when I saw that you weren't going to retaliate further, I found myself overtaken with something different," the voice paused. And, with that, X found an environment beginning to form and develop around him, his optics steadily piecing together an image before him that he found himself completely flabbergasted by. "Instead of fear, like before, I felt hostility towards you," all that he had seen before did not match up with what was before him now. "At that moment, I had decided that I hated you. I had no need or want for someone like you in my life. You only did what were 'good deeds,' both before and after you encountered Wily to maintain your image or to ease your own guilt. I even countered Mother and Vesper Woman that maybe those deeds weren't even your entire doing, seeing as, if you are the first of all robots, then you would be compelled to serve and accommodate man. Wily, or maybe even Ra Moon, had set you free to wreck the havoc and destruction you truly wanted to inflict."

X found himself no longer in the depths of partially clouded water filled to the brim with particles of sand, but in the enclosed and confining, yet oddly protective and secure area of a moist cavern, the owner of the voice sitting on the rocky ground, a small collection of materials and equipment nearby.

Although she seemed a bit roughed up, X quickly inferred that the life-saving devices and healing properties weren't intended for her, the strongest evidence being the motionless figure beside her.

Suffice it to say, Blues looked like an absolute wreck, and if not for the monitor hooked up to his systems, X would've assumed at first that the robot was straight-up dead. His helmet, along with his shades, had been set to the side to reveal a nasty head wound that tore through his hair and artificial skin, revealing the metallic being underneath, sparks of electricity occasionally releasing from the injury and landing dangerously close at times to a nearby puddle of varying sizes. Indeed, X found that this wasn't exactly the ideal environment for damaged machinery, let alone electricity as a whole, but the blue Hunter found it doubtful that the green, violet, and silver Robot Master knew of the risks as well.

If anything, it was as if this place was chosen because there was no other to choose from. This was their only option, at least for the time being.

"Status report."

Quake Woman and subsequently the observing X whirled around to see another figure standing at the entrance of the cavern, her initial panic soon dissolving into subtle apprehension. "Can't you make your entrances a little less startling?" She inquired, annoyance creeping into her tone. "It's no wonder Blues thinks you're one of Wily's goons half the time."

Shadow Man appeared unaffected, X finding the female robot's musings echoing in his own mind of how the rogue DLN and mysterious android found in the same ruins as Ra Moon held the same blasted ability to pull the most convincing poker faces in existence. True, her own emotional circuitry was still going through the motions, the ambiguity they somehow mastered (mostly in Blues' case) made them almost entirely unreadable. There was always an air, a sense of unpredictability. And it seemed that, recently, she had little choice but to take hold of its embrace, lest something potentially worse happen if she didn't.

"Who's to say I'm not?" Shadow Man responded, fierce and calculating red optics focused on the still form of the damaged Blues. "But I repeat, what's his status?"

X felt the temptation of Tempo to retort with the request to ask nicely, yet, in the end, such a thing would only take up unnecessary time. Time that needed to be carefully measured now more than ever, perhaps. "He is currently stable," she answered, directing her optics to glance at the other humanoid machine. "His core isn't showing any energy spikes, and my Gueger counter isn't responding to any potential leaks of radiation, so, for now, the main concern is keeping the equipment and necessary materials in working condition," she then paused, a droplet of water from a hanging stalagmite hitting her helmet and trailing down the green surface, meeting her cheek and then her ivory digit when she dabbed her finger on the offending moisture. "Which would perhaps be more manageable if we were in an environment where general wetness isn't a present issue."

The reformatted Shinobi-based robot only huffed in response, crossing his arms. "Would you rather me relocate you to a more open location where Wily or any of the others that still serve him can easily dispatch you?" He mentioned, X feeling a sudden chill at the realization from the green and purple digger. "Blues still holds value to Wily, if not out of pride in regards to having power over one of Light's creations," the ninja explained. "You, however, are no one to him at best and an obstacle to be terminated at worst," he then paused. "Of course, after this, you may very well have earned his ire after what you've just done."

What she had just done?

X pondered what this could mean, yet, as if answering his inner inquiries for him, various images and segments of events from before began to play out in his mind's eye. No, not his, hers.

The Topaz was hers.

A normally clothed Tempo stood outside of a door, Mariachi pawing at the barrier as if he wanted to get on the other side. While she wasn't exactly intended for such destruction when it came to human-made structures that weren't meant for demolition (not even that, as her line of work was in breaking rocks, not walls), the brunette Robot Master transformed into her far stronger self and began drilling her way through the door. The process in itself wasn't exactly quick, let alone simple, the door's thickness and material forcing her to put in a considerable amount of extra effort, yet, even if she perhaps didn't openly display on the same level as her rodent companion, Quake Woman too wished to know what was on the other side.

Another hostage like herself? A prisoner who had been kept down here? Her own mother?

These thoughts and more consumed the android's processor as she continued her work, X's own body registering the strain that was being put on her body, especially her built-in drills. Yet, when Quake Woman finally managed to break through, able to dismantle the hinges and proceed to go with the more direct plan of kicking down the door, her vision, as well as X's, began to glitch and become eroded.

Once the dense barrier had been rid of, a flurry of distorted images and scenes played out in quick succession, the Maverick Hunter barely able to comprehend just what exactly had flitted before his eyes.

What he realized Tempo had just thought. She was reminiscing on what had occurred before her current position in this cave.

The first image was Proto Man, or rather, a beaten and bruised Blues robbed of his red helmet and shield, his scarf draped over his slouched shoulders as if he were unconscious. Or maybe, he was rendered incapable of responding. Tempo's optics then caught a series of four monitors seemingly hooked up to Blues himself, specifically his processor, cords, and cables linked from his ear canal on both sides to the subsequent machines indicating the presence of some form of connection. Each of them displayed the semi-grainy, steadily phasing in and out footage of the interiors of four chambers, Quake Woman and subsequently X taking note of a particular trait each held in common: the destroyed remains of large, bulky robots fitted with some impressive weaponry laid in the center of each room, the robots themselves bearing various individual characteristics, yet they each displayed the same purpose and function of creating destruction.

All save for one.

On the fourth and last monitor was Rock, Mega Man, fighting Proto Man, the two contrasting creations of Dr. Thomas Light engaged in fierce combat against one another, although the former was displaying a considerable amount of restraint, even with the sheer aggression his sibling was presenting.

Yet he was here, Quake Woman realized.

Proto Man was present in the chamber, yet Blues sat right in front of her, head cast down and, as she soon realized, wrists and ankles restrained to the cubic, minimalist chair the robot reclined in. Mariachi began to claw at the chair, as if attempting to climb, or perhaps, Tempo wondered at that moment, trying to alert her of something.

Then, her audio receptors heard it. "…free me…"

She stepped back, unaware that the other robot was even conscious. Even more, he sounded as if he were breathing heavily. Breathing, that wasn't right. Robots, he, her, they didn't need to breathe. And even then, humans and other oxygen-dependent life forms held various functional reasons and techniques to acquire said oxygen. They, however, held no reason to, at least not for any reason she could think of.

Wait a moment.

Her Geiger counter, she realized as she placed a hand over her chest. It was reacting.

"…get me out…" Blues croaked again, pausing only to breathe in more air into his systems as if he were…Tempo froze.

"Overheating…" she muttered, optics widening as the familiar and crippling sensation of fear's cold and sharp, stabbing grip seize her core once again, the growing peril of her situation, as well as Mega Man, and potentially Dr. LaLinde's, fully began to sink in.

She stepped back further, catching Mariachi's attention, the robotic hamster giving off an inquisitive chirp. Then, the green and purple Robot Master registered a figure approaching from behind, turning her head, her long twin tails of hair circling around. It was in this motion that X realized that the world was seemingly slowing down, the movement of Quake Woman's hair indicating that another transition was going to take place.

And indeed, such a thing occurred, the small, enclosed room that very much held the same air as a personalized torture chamber had transformed into that of the cavern once again, Shadow Man situated at the entrance, eyes locked onto the partially damaged Quake Woman and far more grievously injured Blues.

"You still do not entirely trust him, do you?"

The green and violet Robot Master didn't respond at first, somewhat taken aback by the other android's boldness. Still, X quite literally felt she wasn't ready to be honest about such a thing yet. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Still, it appeared Shadow Man wouldn't be content with such an answer. "Even with everything you've seen, you still question whether or not he wishes to have any further association with Wily?"

The blue Maverick Hunter felt the rock buster's tension rise, her teeth biting down on her lip. "He's already worn three faces and held three names," she responded. "For all I know, all of this could still be part of some elaborate plan."

"And the brains of the operation would be who in your mind? Wily or Blues?" Shadow Man questioned. "Then again, if you're still having doubts, then perhaps you've already made up your mind on what you think."

The armored Tempo furrowed her brow. "And I'm in the wrong to be cautious, let alone at least somewhat skeptical of someone with a rather less than savory history in regards to relations between both man and machine?" She questioned. "As in, how they potentially see us now after all that's happened?" Despite the small yet persistent urge to stop where she was, she found herself continuing to go on. "Don't you ponder what they may think of you? Your origin is tied to the one that plunged the planet into darkness. What would those that know of such a link wonder about you, much less your intentions?" A short pause, the brunette gauging the Shinobi's expression, of which, akin to that of his equally ambiguous comrade, was almost near unreadable. "What if, like Ra Moon, you perhaps decided that you simply didn't care for the lives of anyone who could potentially get in your way?" A quick glance in Blues' direction. "He only intended to hurt…to kill one, and it led to several others who had no part in it losing their lives," another pause. "A majority of them… human," her teeth bit down on the flesh of her lip. "Even if he was ultimately instrumental in helping to bring the world back online, those people can't be brought back," she stopped again, although, this time, her gaze lingered on the seemingly dormant robot. "No matter how badly he, or anyone else wants it."

Shadow Man didn't respond, at least, not to her speech. Rather, he turned away from both her and Blues, tilting his head up to glance at the moon, full, fat, and shimmering with gentle white light. "Believe what you want," he told Quake Woman, voice dismissive, yet there was a small hint of registration in his tone as if he were expressing disappointment. "Pretty soon, it may not even matter in his case."

Quake Woman looked at Blues, then to the reading presented on the monitor. "What do you mean?"

The ninja took a few steps away, his indigo and ivory form outside of the confines of the cave. "Given his current state, whatever the truth is, whatever you may think," silence took over for a few seconds, the light breeze echoing throughout the still night. "He may take it to the grave by the end of the night."

At the very utterance of "night", the world began to grow dim and black, the already present darkness of the cavern swallowing everything and every one the natural shadows of the location could touch. X tried to protest, too many unknowns hanging in the air that now would potentially never be answered, all things tangible and those that were concealed beneath mental barriers began to fade, the present and conflicting concoction of doubt and hope.

Take it to the grave?

"…how is he?"

But…did that mean…?!

"Hm," a feminine voice hummed in response to the previous question directed at her, the Maverick Hunter's vision steadily parting away the inky blackness that had previously overtaken his sight, revealing two figures in red and sporting prominent blonde hair. "I think you'll be able to ask him yourself soon enough."

From the cavern to the seemingly fathomless darkness, X found his body was in contact with a solid surface, lying on his back on an examination table while a nearby monitor tracked the rhythm and motions of his internal systems. Ai stood on the Hunter's right, one hand on her hip as she glanced down at the Reploid that had just awakened from stasis, expression neutral and stoic as it always had been. Zero, on the left, bore a similar face to the blonde Navigator, yet there was a particular sense of unease that rested underneath a veil of invulnerability he presented outward to the world.

Guilt immediately settled in X's core. Even if he wouldn't express it openly, the blue Hunter could more than sense that Zero had been made worried again. Worried about him.

He parted his lips to speak, "X!" Yet found himself robbed of the opportunity as another individual entered the medical wing. Suffice it to say, everything Zero was holding back, she was expressing without any hint of restraint.

"Roll-?!" X began, yet was cut off when the ponytailed Reploid took him in a tight embrace, mindful of the equipment plugged up into him, yet also not being light in the displays of affection.

"You're safe, thank goodness!" Roll sighed in relief, her sibling's helmeted head clutched and held against her chest. "When the communication link got disconnected, I had assumed you just reached the main chamber. But after a while of not hearing anything, I was wondering what exactly was going on and," she paused. "…I'll admit, I began to wonder the worst."

X shifted his green eyes, spotting Zero in the corner of his vision. "I'll admit, maybe Firefly should've smacked me a little harder," he sighed, letting his eyelids fall closed for a moment or two. Although, in that very span of time, X realized he had forgotten a few key details. "Wait," he then turned his gaze towards Zero and Ai. "How did I get here?"

"Your dear hero came to your rescue again, what do you think?" Ai answered with a cross of her arms and a raise of her brow. "Of course, in all seriousness, you weren't actually as banged up as we thought you'd be," she continued, pushing aside her own reservations and getting down to business. "Granted, you're here, so there was still damage that needed to be accounted for, yet given the rank and position of the former Hunter you faced, it's actually surprising you had a semi-decent amount of energy left by the time Zero found you."

At the mention of the other Reploid, X turned his attention to the long-haired blonde (well, longest-haired blonde present), optics filled with gratitude, yet also a sense of regret. "…sorry," he uttered, Roll's teal eyes growing concerned. "You had to go drag me out of trouble again."

Zero, to the blue Hunter's surprise, didn't appear too angry. Daresay, while X couldn't have been too sure, it almost seemed that his Commander was somewhat impressed. "That explosion from before Signas and I felt," he began. "You had something to do with that, didn't you?" He inquired, noticing X's expression change in response to his observations. "And there's the remains of an Utuboros unit with a trident impaling its cerebral chamber," he mentioned. "But there's little to no trace of Octopus, save for a few stray tentacles, and most of those are either halved or torn to pieces."

X wasn't entirely sure of how to respond, yet Roll made her stance on such revelations known openly. "Just goes to show our father took extra special care making you," she then embraced him again, X feeling very much like a smothered younger sibling. Dare he say, the youngest, as much as the thought of being "the baby" triggered a deep sense of embarrassment. "If anything, this just guarantees that everyone is going to get through this fine!"

Ai and Zero said nothing, exchanging glances with each other that reflected their shared skepticism and unwillingness to accept such a notion. Not yet, at least.

This brief moment of attempting to inject some sense of optimism in the setting was broken once again by X, a few more important inquiries on his mind.

A Short Time Later

"So…you didn't see anyone," X paused, noticing Roll's observing optics as he spoke and she mentally jotted down the conversation currently in session. "…or anything? At all?"

Zero averted his gaze for a second, far from caring for the clear dismay in the shorter Reploid's voice, yet he knew it would be a bigger disservice to X if he was kept from the truth. "As far as I know, let alone those of the clean-up crew that went in after I got you, you were the only one found to still be functioning or fully intact."

The blue Hunter's optics widened in terrible comprehension, his head then steadily lowering. "The only one?" He inquired again as if trying in vain to cling to one last shred of hope that what he feared, what he had been trying to prevent, had not indeed occurred.

Zero was still at first, but ultimately nodded in response, cursing both the visible pain X expressed and himself for being the one to deliver it. Necessity aside, it didn't make the act any easier. Before he could speak, whether to try and add some logos to the situation or perhaps maybe try to be understanding of what exactly X was upset about, Ai cut in before he could get a word in.

"Your sister here reported that you encountered another Reploid on your little trip under seas," the red and ivory-armored Navigator began, momentarily glancing at Roll, who in turn was somewhat taken aback upon realizing that she wanted an answer from the other blonde.

Seriously, Ai thought, although she kept what she deemed as minuscule musings to herself, why did it seem like there was always guaranteed to be a blonde of some kind in reasonably close range?

"Oh yeah, right," Roll responded with a confirming nod. "Marty," the mention of the mermaid's name immediately brought forth a pang of guilt that forced itself onto her brother's features, in turn cursing herself for not considering the true sensitivity of the subject. "…you managed to find her in the fortress, right?" She asked, hesitant, yet Ai's constant and present, prying optics urged her to continue. Sentimentality had no place here, this was all business. "But after that, communications were cut off."

"Yet, instead of either you or Launch Octopus being there, we find you just a short distance away from the city here," Ai remarked. "Yet, throughout all that time, you didn't try to contact your sister or anyone else?" Despite her wording, her tone wasn't accusatory. Rather, it was more akin to laying out all the known available facts in the open to reach a potential conclusion. "Even for someone as reckless and foolhardy as you, I'd say that's incredibly out of character."

Well, it was a somewhat lighter critique than that of her green boyfriend, X thought. "I engaged Octopus in the palace he refurbished on the top floor," he informed the three other Reploids present. "In the midst of combat," he paused, debating on whether or not to even reveal such details. "There was a…slight occurrence that set things back a little."

Roll was about to try and ease things, but, once again, it appeared Ai just had to make her stance known, whether anyone asked for it or not. "She betrayed you, didn't she?"

Still,

dark.

Floating in an endless void.

Just as it had been before—

before the flicker of his source of life had finally been snuffed out.

Yet, unlike those previous moments, when he would visualize his surroundings and find comfort in the myriad of shimmering, radiant stars, now there was only a suffocating absence of light. Their once-soothing glow had vanished, leaving him adrift in a deep, unsettling darkness. A chilling cold crept in, wrapping around him like a heavy shroud, paralyzing every aspect of his being, and threatening to pull him deeper into the abyss.

Deeper into absolute silence.

Deeper into the embrace of Death.

"...I meant to give this to you earlier," she said, her voice soft yet resolute.

Even as the sensation of his ties to the world unraveled, the fabric of his reality fraying like an old tapestry, her words lingered in his mind, echoing through the haze of uncertainty.

"I'm sorry for the wait. It wasn't…exactly easy to craft it, both the interior and everything else."

He could vividly recall the delicate outline of her ivory hand, slender fingers marred by the trials she had endured, reaching out to him. In her palm rested a peculiar object, its surface glinting faintly under the dim light, drawing his gaze with an almost magnetic pull.

"But…this…is for you," she concluded, her voice imbued with a blend of hope and trepidation.

At first, he had thought it was merely a gemstone or an intriguing fragment of mineral she had unearthed during one of her arduous digs, a talisman of sorts—a parting gesture, a charm for good fortune amidst the looming shadow of despair. And yet, upon closer inspection, he found that, while perhaps that was its purpose, there was more to it than just the ability to catch and reflect light off of its semi-smoothed, somewhat circular surface.

Yes, upon further inspection, he could see it.

Inside.

He could see it: a small yet still present device of sorts nestled beneath the protection of the hardened, shimmering rock, a device that clearly echoed that of the day's present technology.

"...I know…it's too late to do anything…but…" her trembling hand reached out, dropping in exhaustion and letting the object plummet from her grasp. "Maybe…I can provide some service…one last time."

He was supposed to be dying, metaphorically bleeding out so to speak as the vastness of space served as his expansive yet ever-isolating and claustrophobic tomb, even if he quite literally had the entire universe at his fingertips. His core was on its last legs, the fires of life almost snuffed out completely, and yet, he found his arm rising, reaching out, crimson fingers grasping as something, someone he knew wasn't there, that was forever out of his reach.

And yet…he didn't want to go. He knew and had accepted that his demise was inevitable, yet now, after so much time of that fact being embedded in his consciousness, he found that, at that moment, he didn't want it to be this way.

"...he made a brother and sister for you…so when you came home…you would never be lonely again."

He didn't want to leave.

He didn't want to leave his father, his brothers, or his sister.

"...you're the only one I've ever talked to about anything…"

He didn't want to leave her.

"Tempo…I'm sorry…"

This is why, upon feeling another hand clasp his own, his dying core suddenly felt as if it was springing to life, confusion, and bafflement overtaking his dulled senses, yet also a spark of potential hope. Was it true? Was he really back? Back home?

Had all of this, the last years, the seemingly ever-lasting decades, had they all just been a terrible, horrible nightmare?

"Oh, wow, that was fast!"

The voice was female, familiar, and yet, it wasn't hers.

Yet it did belong to one he didn't expect, let alone intended to meet.

"I'll admit, I'm not exactly sure how simply slipping that gemstone in your chest cavity worked, but I suppose the results are all that matter, right?"

The ancient robot rose up, his hand clasping that of another, the golden-haired machine having quite literally wrenched him from the abyss he was aimlessly traversing with no sense of self, let alone a sense of time, allowing the sliver of doubt that things hadn't occurred as he remembered them. Yet the sight of his open chest, the cracked topaz nestled in the center of the empty chamber his core once rested in, and the figure standing by the examination table cemented that it was nothing but a distant, fanciful dream.

"You're Ray B., right? The one that helped out Chiyo and Kenichi?" She asked, teal optics inquisitively studying him. "More than once, seeing as how I heard you got here in the first place."

He didn't answer. He couldn't. His voice, seldom used unless he deemed it necessary, had been ripped from his throat as those teal gradients nestled in the Reploid's head continued to watch him. She had no idea, yet those eyes tore through the dense barrier his darkened spectacles provided, breaking down any means of defense he had conjured up when it became clear that the last of his father's creations had to be encountered.

"…um, sorry to intrude, but are you alright?"

But he didn't think that he would be in a situation such as this.

He didn't think that he would meet "her."

Not now.

Not so soon.

"…and she confided in me that Octopus had promised her his unwavering support for the urgent efforts aimed at both protecting and preserving the fragile ecosystems of the world's oceans," a sense of earnestness laced her voice.

"And, in doing so, she led you directly into a meticulously crafted trap," came the cutting response.

X remained silent, not a whisper of denial escaping his lips. What could he possibly articulate? Any words would simply dissolve into the charged air, rendered meaningless and futile. Even if the perceptions of those around him strayed far from the truth he clung to, the overwhelming weight of the evidence stacked against the one he sought to defend felt insurmountable, a heavy burden pressing down on his chest.

"Well, I wouldn't exactly call it 'meticulously crafted,'" Ai interjected, her arms crossed snugly over her chest, a stance that radiated defiance. "If anything, the whole situation was rather obvious, and you just chose not to see it," she noted, her icy blue eyes locking onto X's, scrutinizing him with an unwavering intensity. "Or perhaps it would be more accurate to say, you refused to acknowledge it."

Zero shifted his gaze to the other blonde Reploid, his optics narrowing with a sternness that signaled a quiet warning. "Ai," he began, her name laced with caution, imploring her to maintain a level of decorum, especially in the presence of her superior.

To the red Hunter's surprise, he witnessed X's features contort not with dismay or sadness, but with a blaze of furious indignation. "And you would have preferred that I had dealt with her the moment she raised any suspicion?" he shot back at the red and ivory-armored Navigator, his voice barely containing a simmering frustration. "You would've wanted me to ensure that she was silenced, to eliminate the potential threat right away?"

"If that could have potentially saved you a trip here and some of our precious resources, then maybe that would have been the appropriate course of action," Ai responded, voice steely and cold, yet with a slight sting resembling the gentle yet piercing kiss of winter. "And here I thought Firefly gave you enough of a reality check after what happened with Armadillo."

"Armadillo saved my life!" X protested, getting up from his reclined position and standing on his feet, even if his limbs were adjusting somewhat to coming back online. "And the same applies to Marty! Without her, it's possible Launch Octopus would've succeeded in his ambitions!"

"And without your damned insistent hesitance, he would've probably been stopped long before he reached Abel City in the first place," Ai countered, optics narrowing, the contrasting inner temperatures between her and X evident, despite their opposing colorations. "And, mind you, delaying in what is supposed to be your duty very well could've put Zero, your Commander, in potential danger, along with the rest of the city!"

"I was trying to protect the city!" X retorted, yet this far from served as a suitable response for Ai.

"By letting another Maverick get the jump on you?!" the blonde Navigator barked back. "And I don't mean Octopus, mind you."

X's green eyes widened. "How dare you…" he snarled, gripping the edge of the recovery capsule he had previously occupied. "You practically owe her your life."

"X," Zero stepped closer, the fury that had seemingly taken over the other Reploid just as foreign as it was concerning. This wasn't like him; this wasn't the X he knew. "Wait a moment-"

"And she also nearly took yours," Ai replied. "Multiple times, I might add," she continued. "And she was willing to do it for lower-intelligent animals that can't even survive without the proper conditions in the water, let alone breathe oxygen." X was about to retort, but Ai pressed on. "Even more, she was willing to put them above the humans."

Silence fell between them, stretching on for what felt like an eternity, yet the tension in the air was electric as both blue Hunter and red Navigator stared each other down. Zero was about to step in when a distant noise caught his attention, the source drawing nearer by the moment. By the sound of it, their pace was quickening, seemingly eager to reach their destination in a hurry.

"X?! Zero?!"

The concerned feminine voice immediately captured both the blue Hunter's and Ai's attention, causing them to turn and see a frazzled and visibly on-edge Roll in the doorway.

"What is it?" X asked, putting aside the current conflict with Ai and moving towards his sister. "What's wrong?"

"R-Ray…" the ponytailed blonde wheezed, her somewhat out-of-date vents having grown winded from the speed she used to get here. "He…he's gone!"

Gone…

Gone…

"Gone to…fourty-six percent…."

The female Reploid mused aloud, not that there was anyone around to hear, let alone anywhere she could go.

She was unaware of just how much time had passed since she had initially believed herself to be little more than a drained piece of scrap courtesy of that egotistical cephalopod, all sensation and ties to the physical world all but fading away into nothing.

Then, her audio receptors momentarily ceased to function, overtaken by a sudden, booming, all-encompassing din.

Marty wasn't aware of much, yet the force of whatever had created such a tremendous commotion plucked up her already weakened body with little effort and flung her damaged mechanical self a good distance away. It was unclear at first, yet as she began to, miraculously, come back online, she noticed that where she had been was not where she was before.

Of course, the realization did her little good, seeing as she wasn't exactly in the best condition, to put it mildly.

Upon regaining consciousness, the mermaid realized that maneuverability would be considerably more difficult, considering that she had quite literally been torn in half, her tail all but destroyed from the hips down. And while she still possessed her arms, the lack of fins and a steer to pivot herself through the water meant that she would be little to no good down here.

She had to rise toward the surface.

However, where she could go from there was anyone's guess, as her previous actions hadn't exactly put her in a comfortable position with any of those who would potentially be available to provide aid. On one hand, if the humans found out what she had been a part of, then they see fit to either dump her back in the water or send her to the authorities for imprisonment.

Thus, there was no way for her to go but up.

And forward.

Note: The next chapter will be inspired by a beautiful piece on Tumblr.

I'm thinking of titling it "A Heart of Glass and A Heart of Stone".

And even if she won't have as big a role for the rest of this story, this isn't the end for Marty.

Thank you for reading!