Author's Note: Your poor author is writing this at a very late time at night and may pass out before it is done. My schedule is fairly hectic, so the quality of X is gonna drop for the next two episodes. I'm planning to take a two-week break after Episode #10, so be ready for it.

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   "Be a life long or short, its completeness depends on what it was lived for." - David Starr Jordan.

Aldayr Excavation Site - Anyi's Cabin
Antarctic Circle
November 8th, 2093
The Present

   The icy wind blew, causing the creases to smooth and crinkle in the walls of the tent. The temperature of the cabin was elevated above normal in order to treat the small woman who lied on the bed wrapped in many blankets both pink and white. X was sitting in a small wooden chair adjacent to the bed. Anyi slowly stirred in her sleep, the cold sweat from her condition clinging to her wet brown hair which strayed across her closed eyes. X sat with his head down and his ponytail undone. Long blue strands of his hair hung over his shoulders and covering his face. X knew she was going to be okay with a few days of bedrest, but still remained by her side in order to keep her company. It was the least he could do for all of her help in discovering his past. Suddenly, Anyi stirred with a moan, bringing X's head up in attention.

   "Hey Anyi," X said softly in response to her opening eyes, "I hope you're feeling a bit better today."

   Anyi brought a hand from out of the blankets and brushed her hair back from her face. She looked up at X and smiled.

   "Mmm...What time is it, X?" asked Anyi.

   "16:33:47" replied X calmly.

   "Oh no! I slept in for so long! I gotta go work on the capsule!"

   X held her right shoulder with his hand to stop her from getting up. She sat up on the bed, holding her blankets up over her chest.

   "You aren't going anywhere today, too much shock to your system from yesterday," said X.

   "But--"

   "Doctor's orders," interrupted X.

   Anyi sighed and went back to lying down on the bed.

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   "So now what?" she asked impatiently.

   "Well I thought I would keep you company when you couldn't sleep," said X.

   Anyi lied there for a few more minutes. She listened to the howling wind outside and found comfort in the toasty warm temperature of the inside. She noticed that when X brought his head up, his hair fell forward to hide most of his face. She giggled at the memory of the rockband star Jeff Martin she had a crush on when she was a kid. She loved old rock & roll much more than the new metallic industry stuff they had these days.

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   "Okay then," said Anyi finally, "What was your first day on Earth like?"

   "You mean when I woke up from the capsule ten years ago?"

   Anyi nodded and smiled.

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   "...Well, I woke up in a laboratory with Dr. Caine peering over me. I couldn't move, but he seemed to be ecstatic about finding me at the crash site. He figured I had been circling the Earth in a degrading orbit. I guess we confirmed that two days ago."

   "Yeah, but what was the day like? What did you feel?" asked Anyi.

   "I felt like I had woken up not born, but never really could figure out why. The question from that first day has been bothering me ever since," replied X slowly.

   "...Wow. That's pretty deep," said Anyi with a surprised look on her face.

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   "I guess. Dr. Caine managed to reconstruct what had degraded from the technical diagrams available and I was fully operational within the week. It's funny that he never did give me a name. Always went by my model number...Dr. Caine was really helpful during the war-- It wasn't his fault, he couldn't have known that duplicating my design would cause so much trouble. Even without the Maverick virus, duplicating free will is so unstable...I dunno, I don't blame him though."

   "You sound like you blame yourself," whispered Anyi.

   X looked up at the wall, remembering all of the pain from the first five years of his life. He knew it was his design which caused the problems of the near past, now he was starting to wonder about the far past as well, considering Dr. Light's destroyed laboratory at this site.

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   "...Sometimes I do."

   Anyi sat up and hugged X to comfort him, letting her blankets slip and hang to the middle of her back.

   Suddenly, the sound of a large explosion rocked through the walls of the tent. Anyi fell back on the bed in surprise. X stood up quickly and turned to see Zero enter the tent, primary systems charged and electricity running from his eyes down to his fingertips.

   "We've got a problem," said Zero blankly.

   ***

Aldayr Excavation Site - West Trailer
Antarctic Circle
November 8th, 2093
The Present

   X and Zero were running to the bar in order to find cover and possibly set up a sniper set for cover fire. X knew that he and Zero were the only ones in the area trained to deal with such a situation. And with all the innocent civilians and surprising ambush, X knew this was going to be a nigh impossible event to handle without many casualties by the end. Still, why the heck were they being attacked? It just didn't make any sense.

   'Well, we are being attacked, so I better think of something fast," thought X to himself.

   They ran through the snow to get to the bar. They were grateful that there was a piercing wind and a lot of mist in order to provide a lot of cover. X hoped that the attackers were human, which would mean that he and Zero would have an extremely large advantage in the fight to come. Ducking behind the bar, X jumped up on to the roof of the trailer which was the bar. Looking down, he saw a large electrical blade formed between Zero's hands. X began to charge his primary systems once they came online.

   "Zero, how many are there?" asked X.

   "I dunno, I'm assuming about two dozen troops armed with heavy rail-gun artillery and incendiary handhelds. I didn't get a good look when the main site was attacked, but I think they were wearing Class-6 Armor, which means we are gonna need to deplete a large amount of power just to dent these guys!" yelled Zero up to his partner.

   "Great...and us without proper battle systems installed. Okay, you go and run into the site and flush them out. I have a feeling they came for us and just started with the underground site. There may be scientists still working in there, so watch it. If you run into the workers, tell them to stand their ground and get everyone into this bar. I can easily take them out before they get this close! Do *not* break the sound barrier near the tents!"

   Zero nodded and X saw a plasma discharge run through Zero's boots as he ran at an incredible speed towards the site, making sure to stay beneath Mach 1. X's eyes began to glow a bright red as he turned on his infrared and thermo-imaging scans to locate enemy troops. If he remembered correctly, Class-6 Armor diluted human readings by 13.7 degrees thereby making them dimmer than the civilians. Electricity began to dance across X's fingertips as his primary systems came to full power. He switched to auxiliary weapon reserves and tapped them into the main system in order to use his Buster at Grade 3, maximum power.

   'I should be able to get off at least a dozen shots, but I haven't used these systems in a long time and they aren't in the best of condition,' thought X, 'After that, I'll have to take them in hand to hand while waiting for my backup system to come online.'

   X went over his plan and realized that Anyi was all alone in the third tent. He knew that the two tents closest to the site entrance would be the most dangerous for civilians and realized that the three far tents were probably the most populated by workers. He could barely make out the red lights in the mist, but could tell that some of them were knocked out by the attack. He saw Zero running and seemed to be spreading the word to the workers. The workers began to empty the two forward tents and direct everyone towards the bar. He only hoped that Anyi would be safely in the bar before Zero attracted the attention of the troops' guns.

   'Wait a minute, if there were at least 24 soldiers, why wouldn't the split up?' thought X as the horrid realization flooded his mind. Turning quickly around, he noticed six soldiers walking behind trailer. Ducking down quickly, X charged both of his hands in order to have enough destructive plasma to take out all six.

   'I hope this excess energy doesn't damage my systems,' thought X as he crept slowly towards the edge. He fired the blast into the far area of the troops' formation in order to avoid damaging the trailer he was on. The electricity ran across all of the bodies, causing them to smoke. The dim smell of burnt flesh was caught in the updraft behind the trailer. The shockwave of the blast also managed to hit the trailer. X quickly backflipped off the slowly tipping trailer, landing on the ground where it was about to fall over. X put up his arms to catch the large trailer and began to push against it, the steel groaning and curving around his fingertips. X heard a lot of crashing glass bottles within the trailer as he straightened it out, causing the ice below the trailer to crack slightly.

   X's deep blue hair began to blow across his face, so he tied it back while thinking of another plan.

   'Well, they know where I am now because of that escapade. I better go to that peak that Zero mentioned yesterday. I may find out if there are more troops circling the perimeter.'

   X noticed a group of workers helping some scientists towards the trailer. They were all carrying standard security detail firearms, but there was no way they could even hope of penetrating Class-6 armor.

   "Everyone, in the trailer!" yelled the lead worker coming towards X.

   "I would suggest making molatov cocktails with whatever bottles survived and a First Aid kit," said X to the worker. The worker nodded and followed the rest of the group into the trailer. X ran off towards the peak on the left side of the site, hoping to find better ground for targeting enemies. His systems confirmed that he was already down half-power from taking out the soldiers behind the trailer. He was surprised that his hopes were true and they were fighting humans and not reploids sent to do their work. Of course, after the scare from the Reploid Wars, many human organizations outside of the Military were antsy about having Reploid troops.

   'Okay, so these guys aren't professional Military, but something else I guess,' thought X as he jumped towards the peak. Engaging his Dash-B7/c system, his boots extended a gravimetric wave, allowing X to jump from mid-air and land on the tip of the peak. Quickly switching to infrared, he noticed Zero running into the entrance of the site, leaving a trail of dead enemy soldiers in his wake. X noticed that the trail Zero took was stained red from the open wounds in the Class-6 armor of the enemies. Judging from the damage done, Zero was probably already down too much to continue with his electrical attacks. He may be able to handle one or two more enemies at the most outside of hand-to-hand combat. X was brought back to full attention when he noticed five soldiers coming over the ridge on the other side of the camp. He hadn't heard any explosions which meant that they probably missed his Jet in all of the mist. Charging up his weapon system for another double shot, he noticed them heading towards Anyi's tent. He didn't see her in the first rescue group which meant she was about to be in trouble.

   Quickly firing his shot, the blast travelled in a focused blue beam directly from his hands into the ice below the soldiers' feet. Many of them flew through the air, arms flailing, as they came to hit the ground in a burning death. One of the soldiers managed to get up from the blast and X noticed that his armor was heavily damaged and his left leg was bent the wrong way. The soldier took out a Magnet Mine and threw it in X's direction. X focused for another shot, but realized that his weapon systems were completely drained from trying to damage such heavily armored troops. He saw the Magnet Mine come under it's own propulsion and jet in a lob over Anyi's tent.

   'I'm gonna regret this,' thought X as he tapped his life support system into his power, managing enough for a small crackling bolt of energy. His blue bolt hit the Magnet Mine, knocking out it's propulsion system and sending it back towards the soldier. The soldier seemed panicked as he tried to crawl away with his broken leg from the impending explosion. Sadly, he was quickly envelopped in the fiery hell which was unleashed, sending chunks of ice and flesh flying through the air. One of the ice hunks came down to knock over Anyi's tent, causing the air-tight seal to break and let out a whoosh of air. X heard a scream from inside the tent and knew that Anyi wouldn't last long in the cold. But before he could take off towards the tent, he saw some of the remaining troops gather in on Zero's position inside the laboratory to take him down with heavy artillery. He knew that with only minimal power left, Zero wouldn't stand a chance.

   'Just when you really need it, you leave it behind,' thought X to himself. He hadn't used his Armor for five years and indeed left it with Dr. Caine so long ago, thinking he would never need it again.

   'Well what choice do I have?' thought X.

   ***

Aldayr Excavation Site - Dr. Light's Laboratory
Antarctic Circle
November 8th, 2093
The Present

   "Gee, that looks dangerous, better give it to me," said Zero with a smirk, knocking the gun out of the soldier's hand and pulling him forward. The soldier stumbled into Zero's oncoming fist, knocking him into the wall. Zero had found three soldiers inside the site. They were split up searching the area, making it much easier to take them out. Unfortunately, he no longer had any energy to sustain his blade. Zero was beginning to wish he was outfitted with his Battle Armor, which would have made this fight pathetically easy with a lot of energy to spare.

   'Well, work with what you got,' thought Zero, reloading the the soldier's Seamus-7 with a Tipped Ballistics round. The rounds invented during the wars, meant to accomodate any weapon with some sort of general plastique enhancement. Zero didn't really understand it, but he did know that a Seamus-7 could only fire once before reload. 'But man, what a once,' thought Zero.

   Zero heard scuttling near the entrance. He quickly ducked into the late Dr. Light's office, leaning against the wall below the broken window. Analyzing the decibel intake, he determined that there were exactly ten soldiers, probably all carrying Seamus-7 rifles.

   'Ah shit, there's no way I can take out that many.'

   As Zero began thinking of a plan, he thought he heard a whisper of a sound far away.

   "Surrender, we know that you are in here. Come quietly," came the voice from the main lab area.

   'What the hell? Why don't they just kill me? What the hell is going on?' thought Zero in a rush. He heard another whisper of a faint sound and amplified the decibel intake to a ratio of 147:1. It was another set of footsteps coming from the entrance, very faintly at that. If it was who Zero thought it was, he was going to have to set up a diversion fast.

   Zero slowly stood up, dropping the rifle after putting up his hands. He faced ten red lasers all aimed at his chest. The lead man motioned for his men to move in.

   "Hello, my name is Zero and I will be your diversion for today."

   The men looked on in a confused look and that's when Zero saw the blue and white blur move across the room. Zero knew that such speed would break the sound barrier, but it was too late and Zero could only hope that it wouldn't cause anything to collapse. Zero felt the shockwave pass through his body and he saw that some of the rifles went off, but most of them were knocked to point towards the entrance to the office. Zero quickly jumped through the window, propelled forward by the enormous blue explosion pooled by all of the blasts which rocked into his back and knocked him to the floor. Doing a quick check of the systems, he noticed that his systems were down by 63%. Looking up, he saw that some of the men were caught in the jetting explosion and saw a charred trail travelling from the entrance of the office all the way to the entrance to the lab. Some of the ceiling in the back caved in and everything inside the room was either buried or destroyed. X looked at Zero and Zero could tell that the explosion probably caused his primary system to go offline.

   "Zero, a little help with the last six please!" exclaimed X as he quickly snapped the neck of his opponent with such force that the helmet came around three times. X then used his dead opponent as a shield for the stream of teflon DUCs coming at him from the other five soldiers.

   Using the distraction that X provided, Zero got out the belt of Tipped Ballistic Rounds and reached into his charred back. His shirt fell off, barely holding together by a thread anyway, leaving only his burnt pants on. Pulling apart the charred synthetic flesh, he began to fiddle for wires to juryrig the belt of rounds. Hooking them all up, he opened up the panel on his left arm and attached the rounds to his auxiliary systems.

   'I'll be lucky if this doesn't blow my arm off,' thought Zero as he began to absorb the energy from the rounds, electricity running across his fingertips.

   "X, this is gonna hurt!" yelled Zero as he brought his arms in sweeping arcs, controlling the bolts of electricity to create a shockwave which would run through everything in the room. Sparks began to fly from the charged circuits in the walls as the lights began to flicker on. The shockwave passed through everyone in front of Zero, including X. X screamed in pain as he fell over on top of the other soldiers which were now completely fried from the inside like an egg. Zero even heard the eyes of the soldiers explode from the shockwave with his enhanced decibel system. Running over to X, Zero noticed that X was now on auxiliary power only.

   "X, you still with me?" asked Zero.

   "...Couldn't you do something else?" asked X weakly, trying to get his system power above 2.7% with auxiliary systems.

   "What? Those DUCs would have ripped you apart without armor!" said Zero.

   "Good point....I'll be okay in a few minutes. I've gotta make sure Mr. Lee got Anyi out of the tent okay..." said X before he fell over again.

   "What? You mean there's more guys outside? Great," said Zero sarcastically.

   "Mr. Lee came rushing out of the trailer when he saw Anyi's tent go over, but I don't think he can handle it," said X before his systems shut down.

   "...I guess I'll handle it then," said Zero, picking X up and slinging him over his shoulder.

   ***

Aldayr Excavation Site - Anyi's Cabin
Antarctic Circle
November 8th, 2093
The Present

   The lights went out and Anyi could tell that the heat generator was probably shut down in the attack. Scared to move, she nearly stopped breathing from all of the fright. She was underneath the warm blankets, but with the airtight seal broken on the tent, she knew she wouldn't have much longer before she would have to face the searing cold. Adrenaline coursed through her body and her cold sweat drenched the underside of her blankets. She felt that if she were to move, she would die.

   The explosions from outside caused her heart to skip a beat, but she was too scared to scream again. In the harsh cold wind outside, she thought she heard her name carry through what was left of her tent. She could feel the icy air beginning to nip at feet as it slowly ate it's way through what was left of her shelter.

   "...Anyi..." came the voice, this time much closer. She thought it sounded like Mr. Lee, but she couldn't be sure. The explosions had stopped. 'I must be safe now,' thought Anyi to herself...so why couldn't she move?

   "ANYI! Where are you!!?" came Mr. Lee's voice again.

   She felt the tent being pushed off. Immediately the cold began to bite through to her bones and she knew if she didn't find shelter soon, she'd really be in trouble. Somehow, having Mr. Lee there gave her great comfort.

   "Anyi, are you okay?" asked Mr. Lee, dressed up in his hides. Anyi brought the blankets down from her face and saw the Chinese man looking down at her with eyes of concern.

   "*cough* ...Yeah, I..." started Anyi, but the cold began to sink into her cheeks, causing her to take short breaths.

   "Quick, we have to get you out of here," said Mr. Lee, supporting her weight against his chest. She was wrapped up in two blankets, clutching them around her body. Her feet felt like they were walking on needles as she went across the ice with Mr. Lee holding her up. She just held on and wished that the day would end.

   Suddenly, a piercing shrill cut through the air and Anyi felt her support give out, causing her to fall to the ground in surprise. Looking up, she saw a soldier with some sort of sleek rifle, smoke coming from the barrel. The guard then pointed the rifle directly at her, but she could barely focus on what was going on, much less dodge out of the way. That's when she saw Zero come in from the side and snap the gun in half, wires and metal shards protruding from his naked back. She could see his systems from the charred remains which was his endo- skeletal spinal system. The guard fell over in surprise and she heard a horrible snap and blood began to spray across the ice, staining her own blankets red. Anyi turned to see where Mr. Lee had gone, finding him behind her. He was lying there, clutching his side. The bullet from the rifle had caught across his entire left side, leaving only half of his upper- body intact. His insides were slowly spilling out and Anyi didn't know what to feel.

   "...I almost had the courage to ask you out," whispered Mr. Lee with his dying breath.

   Anyi began to cry over his body, feeling her tears freeze before they left her face. She felt like she wanted to die with him. The mist was clearing overhead, allowing the night stars to shine through upon the horrible scene.

   "...I guess...we would have never got-- far if *cough*you didn't know my name," Mr. Lee got out before he began coughing up blood. His eyes slowly closed. Anyi fell over next to his right side, her frozen body no longer able to support her weight. Mr. Lee bent his head towards her and began to whisper.

   "...My name...is Jhuah Lan."

   Anyi began to sob and kissed him on the lips quietly before she felt the glimmer of life leave him completely. She felt so tired, like she could sleep right next to him.

   ***

Aldayr Excavation Site - West Trailer
Antarctic Circle
November 8th, 2093
The Present

   "Everyone accounted for?" asked X to the men inside the bar.

   He managed to switch to his auxiliary when Zero let him down in the trailer. He then went back outside to look for Anyi, leaving him to figure out the casualty list. The fight was handled well, so he was hoping for the list to be very small.

   "Nearly everyone accounted, but one of the men reported that Mr. Lee was shot before he came back," answered the lead worker. X looked around for Eugene Parker, but couldn't find him. Zero said that Eugene Parker was going to leave for home this morning, but X never saw Mr. Parker off.

   "Shit, we're gonna get in a lot of trouble with even just one casualty!" said one of the workers.

   "I have a feeling our budget is going to be retracted, no matter how well I write that report," said Dr. Aldayr weakly. The frail old man seemed like he wasn't taking the shock well and had already swallowed the last half of his medication which he brought with him on the trip.

   The trailer door swung open, with Zero carrying a blanket covered Anyi over his shoulder.

   "Well if we don't get her medical attention soon, we're gonna have another casualty on that list," said Zero in a panic.

   ***

   Author's Comment: Although this one is lacking in adrenaline, it is the best I can do on such short notice. Hopefully everyone did enjoy this episode, cause the next one may be as rushed as this one. Not much to say about this one except that *finally* some battle, eh? :D

   I'd also like to thank Ryan Hill for his fine example of writing which may be able to improve my own emotional content.

  

Michael Raymond Vendittelli (LimousineDriver)