Author's Note: Well, I had to get X and Zero to show off some of their styles. Also, I'm in the mood for combat. Fortunately, it fits with the story and should give everyone an interesting technological background into the minds of our favorite heroes. Maybe you guys won't find this interesting, but I've gotta learn to write combat sooner or later.

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   "Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life." - Thomas Jefferson

X and Zero's Private Jet
Destination: Antarctic Region
November 5th, 2093
The Present

   "...3 years ago. How about it, X?" came the voice.

   'Wait a minute, where did the hospital bed go?' thought X. The various glimpses of the past began to fade from his head as his vision slowly came into focus...right on Zero hovering over him.

   "Hey, X, you feeling alright?" asked Zero.

   "Yeah...I, uh, just feel tired." replied X.

   The rest of the room flooded X's eyes with it's details. He was sitting in one of many black lounge chairs. The carpet was a plush blue velvet, with plants scattered across the room to intermix with the various chairs and tables. A bar was at the back of the room with many labeled bottles. In fact, X had a drink in his hand. X looked down at his drink, only to realize that it was full and he hadn't touched it yet. Turning his head back up toward the rest of the room, he noticed the windows showed clouds. A low rumble was beneath X's feet, and the sound of an engine betrayed this room to the fact that it was part of a jet.

   It was his private jet.

   "What's wrong?" asked Zero.

   "This is my jet...isn't it?" answered X with a question.

   "Uh...yes it is *our* jet. What's wrong with you?" asked Zero.

   "I can't seem to remember how I got here. Maybe I better get Anyi to check it out."

   "That's fine, but we'll have to wait until we land. We don't have that kind of equipment above deck," Zero pointed out.

   X took a sip of his drink. It was a heavily sweet red wine, and it was a good year. 'Perhaps classic Pinot Noir? That stuff is hard to come by these days,' thought X.

   "Maybe your regeneration unit is malfunctioning?" offered Zero helpfully.

   "No...I think it's something else," answered X.

   "I guess. So how about it?"

   "How about what?" X inquired.

   "...Were you paying attention? I asked if you wanted to train with me!" exclaimed Zero.

   X finished his drink and stood up from the couch.

   "Yeah, sure. Let me clear my head first," said X as he began to stretch.

   Zero just gave him a stunned look. Finally, X returned the Zero's blank stare.

   "What?" asked X.

   "What do you need to stretch for? It's not like you'll get muscle cramps!" said Zero.

   "I'm not doing it to relieve cramped muscles, I'm doing it to relieve my cramped mind."

   "O...kay." Zero said blankly.

   X began to move through slow movements and focused on his breathing which helped keep his system in check. Zero shrugged and walked over to the furthest wall near the bar. He reached down and pressed a button on the side of the counter. Immediately, the floor in the center of the room opened and a white pad came up. The floor was marked with the logo, "Gunner's Dream" in large red letters. Zero smiled at his own handiwork. He had the mat installed last year along with the purchase of the black jet. It would have cost him a hefty sum, however X and Zero both had connections in order to put the customized jet together for a few dollars less. Still, it put quite a dent in both of their bank accounts, even with government pension.

   'Who cares about stuff like money anyway?' thought Zero to himself as he turned on the stasis field surrounding the mat. It was only to keep anything within, so that neither X nor Zero could leave the arena. Even though the arena was only 10 x 15 feet, the addition of "walls" played a large part in strategy. At least Zero knew that. X had never tried out the mat before.

   "When was the last time you had a practice session X?" yelled Zero across the room. X was just finishing his exercises when he looked up in the direction of the mat.

   "What the heck is that thing?" asked X.

   Zero just smiled. He knew that X probably already scanned it.

   "Stasis fields...interesting. I haven't fought anyone in a few years now, though I try to practice once or twice a week," answered X.

   "Well I've been training for quite awhile now," Zero told X.

   X walked over to Zero. Zero motioned him onto the mat.

   "I take it you are a master of Aikido now?" asked X silently.

   "You'll see," replied Zero with a smile.

   Zero stood with his feet apart, arms raised in defense.

   X merely stared at him before he stood in his own Hung Gar form.

   "No weapons?" asked X.

   "No... Just hand to hand."

   ***

X and Zero's Private Jet
Destination: Antarctic Region
November 5th, 2093
The Present

   "So you pilot the jet?" asked Anyi to the man sitting right in front of her.

   The cockpit was fairly roomy and had a seat in the back, where Anyi was. Controls outlined all the walls, but she didn't understand any of them at all. Then again, she wasn't a pilot.

   "Yep, I sure do," the man responded in monotones.

   Why the heck would X want a pilot instead of a simple module? It wasn't like they were expensive. Heck, if anything, they were cheaper than actually renting a pilot. Then again, X was strange that way. 'I don't see what's so bad about having a module run this thing' thought Anyi to herself.

   Unfortunately her thoughts didn't get much farther before a deafening electric blast filled her ears. She instinctively covered her ears from the loud noise.

   "What the heck was that!?" asked Anyi to the pilot.

   "I dunno, they just rented me to fly this thing. Nothing abnormal on the instruments, so I wouldn't worry about it," the pilot replied blankly.

   "Not worry about an explosion!? Are you nuts!?" yelled Anyi at the pilot.

   He shrugged.

   'Well, forget him then!' thought Anyi to herself. She stood right up from her chair and quickly opened the door back into the lounge from the cockpit. The sight she was greeted with was rather stunning. A mat was in the center of the room with a rather strange symbol on it, and it was lit up by a pale pink light...like a statis field. X was against the side of the stasis field, which was causing the large crackling energy sound. When he hit it, it must have made a large explosion. But what kind of force is strong enough to cause an explosive force against a stasis field? That's when she saw Zero who had him in some sort of elbow lock. She was worried, yet amazed by the prowess which each android showed in their abilities.

   X twisted out of the hold with a quick dropping maneuver, which ended up flipping Zero into a vertical stand against the field. The energy shot from the stasis field, out near Anyi's head. She was scared enough to forget to scream and fell down against the wall in surprise. She decided that staying away from the field would be a good idea.

   X rolled up and swung his fist around, but it missed and went in between Zero's legs. Zero clenched his legs and twisted quickly, bringing X into the ground. Zero immediately took advantage of X's fall with an elbow strike, which was blocked quickly with a strange twisting kick which Anyi could not identify. Sure, she had some basic training...but nothing like this.

   The kick knocked Zero into a sprawl across the mat. Anyi was surprised by the strength in this maneuver, until she remembered that she wasn't watching humans battle it out. These were two experienced ex-Maverick hunters with incredible strength. The parlays and parries were exchanged with such fluidity and grace, Anyi had difficulty remembering that her two new friends were really machines, even if they didn't look like it at all. Out of armor, the two androids really did look human; their creators must have been proud.

   X was thrown to the ground by Zero's hipthrow, but he quickly maneuvered to kick Zero's head, knocking him into the ceiling. X then did a handspring into a backflip and quickly did numerous chest attacks on the falling Zero, knocking him into the side with extreme force. The energy shot from the stasis field far enough to burn the wall over Anyi's head. Good thing she decided to stay sitting down.

   Zero caught X's last punch with both of his hands and did a dragonscrew from a standing position. Truly, only an android could twist and spin that much weight with a mere flick of the wrist. X spun quickly, and Zero roundhouse kicked him straight into the stasis field, causing X to flinch as his systems were affected by the excess stasis energy. Zero quickly followed up on his attack with a punch to the chest, which ended in a high block from X. X used this time to follow up and dislocate Zero's left arm. The twisting screech of metal could be heard as Zero grabbed his arm to try and put it back in place, allowing an opening for X to punch him in the head.

   Anyi watched as Zero fell back into a shoulder roll. Anyi was impressed that even with the malfunctioning systems in both of them, they managed to remember to tuck and roll. X came down with an axhandle, but Zero managed to parry it...with a handspring roundhouse kick.

   His kick straight up into X's jaw knocked him against the stasis field with a large amount of force. The ripping torrents of energy filled the mat and shorted out the stasis field from the extraordinary blow by Zero which ended up ripping the synthetic flesh along X's neckline. The electricity from X's exposed systems jumped across the gaping wound. That kick was hard enough to shortcircuit a stasis field, and X's head wasn't knocked off? Now Anyi was truly impressed. She began to wonder if X was built as a combat-only unit...which didn't sound like Dr. Light at all. As for Zero, she didn't know much about him except what was in the newspapers during her college years.

   X came back up with surprising grace, but Zero nodded him off.

   "Okay, okay, that's enough," said Zero as he tried to put his arm back in place.

   "Good match," said X.

   Anyi was confused. Who had just won that match?

   X looked over to see Anyi and he cocked an eyebrow. Zero saw her as well and returned a smirk to her surprised face.

   "How long have you been watching?" asked X.

   "...Enough to see why Sigma never stood a chance," replied Anyi.

   "Well, hand to hand wasn't really used that much when we were out there against Mavericks," corrected Zero, still with his mischievous grin.

   X slowly smiled as he noted the destruction of the stasis generator.

   "Oops," said X with a smirk.

   "Yeah, I don't think these things are built to handle more than ten thousand Newtons of force," said Zero.

   "Man, no wonder we shorted it out so quickly," said X.

   Anyi quickly turned her look of surprise from that into a smile. At least X was finally loosening up a bit. He had been rather depressed about Dr. Caine's death it seemed. Anyi hadn't seen him after she told him about Dr. Light's lab location since yesterday. He said he had a bird to feed and a pilot to rent. 'When did he get his own jet, anyway?' thought Anyi, but her thoughts were again interrupted when she noticed the leak in X's systems.

   "Oh no, X are you okay!?" asked Anyi.

   "Yeah, I think I'm bleeding though," replied X.

   "That doesn't look like blood to me," said a voice from behind Anyi.

   Anyi jumped in surprise at the pilot's voice. The pilot stepped into the lounge, looking around at the charred damage done by the stasis energy. Anyi quickly recovered and turned around.

   "Yeah, well most people don't bleed liquid metallic hydrogen," said Zero.

   "What, he some kinda robot or somethin'?" asked the pilot.

   "Of course! Who do you know that has that stuff running through his systems!?" asked Anyi incredulously.

   "Great, I'm hired out by a machine. That does wonders for my resumé," replied the pilot.

   Zero's face turned into a rather horrible contortion at which Anyi shuddered, reminding her of the main character off the Clockwork Orange remake movie from a few years ago.

   "Do you want to get paid, or should I demonstrate exactly what ten thousand newtons of force actually feels like on human tissue?" said Zero slowly.

   "Zero!" exclaimed Anyi. 'He said that with an emotion I never thought he had' she thought. He must be kidding, because there is no way they can hurt human beings. They weren't capable of breaking that part of their programming.

   The pilot snorted and went back into the cockpit, muttering something she couldn't make out, but it didn't sound pleasant. She ran over to X to see his wound. It was simple enough to fix, she just needed her briefcase from the back of the plane.

   "Hold on, I got something to fix that!" she yelled as she ran off to the back.

   "What about me?" asked Zero to no one in particular. X just answered that with a smile, which Zero quickly returned.

   Anyi grabbed her steel briefcase from near the coathanger and came running back to see X and Zero sitting down in the largy comfy chairs against the wall.

   "Are you sure you know what you're doing?" asked X nervously.

   "You don't get a degree in Quantum Mechanics without learning a few things about fixing compressed boson fields to contain liquid metallic hydrogen cores," replied Anyi with a wink.

   Zero just raised an eyebrow and got out of his chair.

   "Sounds good enough for me," said Zero, walking over to the bar to get a drink.

   Anyi quickly began to repair the superficial damage to X before doing the big job. X just sat there, pressing his hand into his neck to prevent any further leaks.

   ***

X and Zero's Private Jet
Antarctic Circle
November 5th, 2093
The Present

   Zero reached for a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc by the bar, listening to Anyi and X talking.

   "I'm sorry about the rudeness of that pilot," said Anyi.

   "That's a silly thing to be sorry for. Most humans don't think too highly of us anyway, and you are one of the few that do. You shouldn't have to apologize for that man," said X.

   "Yes, but still...I don't know, it wasn't fair the way he treated you," replied Anyi.

   "Well...then in that case, I'm sorry for Zero's sociopathic comment," said X with a smile.

   Anyi just laughed.

   "It's okay, he wouldn't have done anything," said Anyi.

   "Oh I don't know about that, I don't know Zero's code, since he wasn't built with the same code as me, or the reploids for that matter," said X.

   Zero laughed as he thought about his own moral codes. Not even he was sure of what was stored up in his head. Zero poured himself a glass. He handled the glass with his left arm, just to make certain that the arm was still functioning properly after handling X. Even with the damage dealt to X, X still managed to continue fighting...which was strange. Zero was certain that he had damaged and temporarily disabled X's motion guidance system, and yet X managed to continue parrying as though no damage was done at all. Perhaps X had a trick which would be useful to Zero. Zero had to admit that with the endurance that X showed, the match would have been over in X's favor instead of his own. 'I guess I'm not done training after all.' mused Zero.

   He stared at his glass of white wine before realizing that he should probably fix the stasis generator. 'It probably needs to be replaced, and that means money.'

   "Hey X," yelled Zero across the room, grabbing X's attention, "How the heck did you do that anyway?"

   "Do what?" said X, still holding his neck with a hand above Anyi's current repair job.

   "I'm pretty sure I damaged your Motion Guidance system, unless you had it moved. Even so, how did you manage to be so good without much practice?" asked Zero.

   "...I don't know. I turned off my Motion Guidance system during the fight," replied X.

   To Zero, that didn't make a lot of sense. How could he have done that and still manage to parry without making many mistakes? Zero knew he himself had an MGS top of the line. He had better Motion Guidance than a self-powered patrol submarine. Still, he had to admit that X kept up with him rather well, without practice either.

   "I don't get it. How could you have possibly knew when to parry?" asked Zero.

   "I just feel it coming and I react the only way that feels natural."

   Now that didn't make sense at all.

   "I still don't get it," said Zero, this time with a rather confused voice.

   "Neither do I, but I find that it's easier for me to pick it up again if I train that way," replied X with a sudden grimace as a response to an electrical surge.

   "There, all done! Good as new!" said Anyi ecstatically.

   "Thanks Anyi, sure it's all fixed?" asked X worriedly.

   "Yeah, yeah," replied Anyi with a smile, "don't worry about it!"

   Zero smiled and went back over to stand next to X. That's when Zero noticed a rip in his best shirt. X just looked up with an apologetic face.

   "Ah, don't worry. Besides, that wound, this shirt...we're even," said Zero.

   "So, I don't get it...X fought without an MGS?" asked Anyi with a puzzled look.

   "Yeah, I usually need it just to keep track of my own proximity to my opponent, but X here claims he just knows and reacts," answered Zero.

   "Weird..." said Anyi.

   X just sat back and sank back into his own thoughts. He looked out the window on the opposite side of the jet, seeing the flurries of snow. They were definitely close to their destination. Zero sat down on the arm of the chair which X was sitting in. Zero finished his drink and looked down at X, trying to get X to stare back up. Finally, X looked up at him after gazing at the flurries of snow outside the window.

   "So...how long has it been since you've trained?" asked Zero.

   "A little while, why?"

   "How did you pick it up again so fast?" asked Zero.

   "I don't know...feeling it instead of monitoring it seems to ingrain itself further into my memory bank," replied X.

   "...Yeah, that does make sense. I don't suppose you can teach me?" asked Zero.

   "Huh!? What are you guys talking about?" yelled Anyi from the arena area. They both looked up to see her cleaning up the debris scattered by the overload. It looked like she was going to try and fix it.

   "Well, we have a Naneural net pathway system, which means that they degrade over time," replied X back at Anyi.

   "So...you guys can forget things?" asked Anyi.

   "Yeah, sort of. We have the degradation process to free up more ST-iRAM for improvised situations...so we do get rusty at things," replied X.

   "Oh...why aren't you built using a Microprocessor cluster, like servers?" asked Anyi.

   "I don't know. I suspect it has something to do with our freedom of will though," replied X.

   "Yeah, I heard that scientists never did manage to duplicate the Naneural net pathway system without it falling apart at the seams," mused Anyi.

   Zero hit X in the arm lightly to get his attention back after Anyi went back to her cleaning job.

   "Hey, you gonna show me how to do that or what?" asked Zero.

   "I don't know, I recall someone promising me some weapon training a long time ago," replied X.

   "What? You don't even like using weapons though!" exclaimed Zero.

   "I've had time to appreciate Martial Arts for it's artistic quality. To me, it's not just a way to fight, but also style of thought," replied X with a rather coy tone.

   "...Fine, we'll start tomorrow morning right after regeneration," said Zero after a long pause.

   "See you there. Who knows, I may end up teaching you--" but X was interrupted by the intercom.

   "*crackle* Now approaching destination: Middle of Nowhere," said the pilot's voice, flooding the speakers with his wraught sarcasm.

   "Well, I'm gonna go put on a jacket...or four," said Anyi with a smile.

   X suddenly grew quiet, attracting the attention of Zero. 'Am I ready to finally face this?' thought X to himself. He had always dreamed of finding the old lab, but would now be a good time? Zero seemed to understand and he put an arm around X's shoulder as soon as X stood up.

   "This is something we both have to face, old friend."

   "Yeah...it is...No time like the present I guess," replied X to the statement.

   Zero opened up his mouth to speak again, but he merely kept walking in silence with X, out the exit door and into the cold hell that held their past in it's freezing maw.

   ***

   Author's Comment: Gee, did this episode take long enough to write, or what? It's not even that long either. Oh well, I'm glad I finally got this off my chest. If anyone is paying attention, I think they'll see that X is starting to lighten up as a character. I guess first impressions after a funeral is kind of hard to analyze a character. Zero's little outburst should make people reminiscent of the game a little more. Ah well, I hope the fight scene was at least decent enough for people to like it.

Michael Raymond Vendittelli (LimousineDriver)