*****

The battle is endless but the need to protect and persevere was the driving force despite his pacifistic nature. Deep down, he knew that he was getting tired with it, despite what everyone else had said. Slowly, it occurred to him that it is not his place in the world to fight, and knew that the day would come that he will end this war with the Mavericks once and for all.

So on that day that he had defeated Sigma's most powerful form, that cybernetic "city" that almost destroyed the newly created utopia the Reploids worked so hard to allow life on the scarred planet. In a war that produces the highest death tolls on his own 17th Unit as well as colleagues from the Hunters in a desolate area that has a high radiation contamination. He knew he cannot allow another battle like this to continue anymore. Battered and damaged himself, he decided to take the risk now, while Sigma was still weak and helpless.

Who would have thought of such a tactic? It was merely a speculation in his part, an instinct that was buried along with his own missing memories. Did his creator know all along? Was this ability to make the right decision the key of everything? Even Cain had told him of this possibility on the day he visited the old man to tell his theory, but it was something he did not agree with.

He never knew, but the blue Hunter was certain what he must do. Gingerly he approached the smouldering remains of the metal behemoth, finding he was having a difficulty breathing. Dimly he could hear Alia calling his name through his broken helmet, asking for his location. He mentally severed his communication, trusting Cain will give his friends his last instructions. 

"As…long…as…you…ex…ist…I…will…return…and return…and return…" Sigma babbled, sensing his enemy's presence, goading him, forgetting that he was in a much more terrible shape.

"A battle with me is what you are solely created for, is it not?" The Hunter said, looking at his arch-enemy with a strange sense of dread and pity. But pity was the more powerful emotion. His enemy had suffered too much in this virus' power. What would he feel, if it was Zero in Sigma's place?  "So be it. We will battle. But in a way that will never harm others ever again." He remembered Zero, Iris, Double, Middy. Friends he had lost because of an undying grudge. Simply because he had exist, where others had not. He extended his arm on the wreckage…

Then Sigma's "face" turned into a demonic sneer as he sensed his enemy lowering his guard. "You are a fool, X!" Immediately the cursed familiar purple colored light engulfed the weakened Hunter, leaving the old body behind and bent on re-programming the new one. "Even Zero will not save you from this!"

To Sigma's shock,  instead of fear X gave a very grim smile. "I don't want him to," was his short reply as the virus sensed that the Reploid was doing something to their system…X was formatting his own program! In horror, the virus realized too late what the Hunter was planning to do. In desperation, it looked for a way to escape its host, any other Reploid in the area. But X had claim the virus fully as his own, and he deny to access their freedom.

"What are you doing? You will destroy yourself!" The virus screamed in X's mind as the pain throbbed in his mind and body, as X's system was beginning to crash.

"Only my body, Sigma. Not my soul." Was X's quiet reply as the virus was forced to conform in his system, making his primary program crash. In pain, X collapsed on the ground, feeling his memory beginning to fade, corrupted upon the virus's contact. Is this what the other Reploids felt when they were first infected? X wondered, and his sadness increased. Then it is a painful experience for all of them, then.