To any new incoming reader: the author has 2 follow ups of this story over in Archive of Our Own.

...Almost broke my heart before I found them over there. Damn ye, mister! :(

It occurred to me in hindsight to wonder whose chair was the sixth, the one that couldn’t be. Leviathan explicitly names it as Zero’s. Yet if I remove the timeline of the story—that is, if I abstract—I can see something different. An X so diminished, so reduced, could not belong at a table with his erstwhile friend. Zero’s role was to be X’s praetor. It is this broken X that doesn’t belong at the table with his friend and his children. Zero means to see to it.

That, after all, is why X kept Zero’s saber, and why he returns it in the denouement. It’s why he keeps the story of Zero alive, to ensure that someone might hear it and, someday, act on it. Nothing outside X can stop him, and he’s lost the ability to stop himself. His only chance to escape, his only chance to save himself, is suicide-by-Zero.

I’ve seen this vision of X before, of X as the Giving Tree, a well of selflessness that seems bottomless but, ultimately, can’t be. You’ve gone a step further here and made it more than metaphorical. X’s decay gains a literal, physical element. Applause.

I like that you take care to mention Iris without letting that storyline impact the outcome. It’s baffling that Capcom decided pretending it never happened was the right play.

You do make an interesting divergence, I think. At first blush, the idea of the Resistance getting its new energy source and then leaving seems to reflect poorly on Ciel. On the other hand... what's going on in Neo Arcadia isn't about the energy shortage, not really. You've made it clear throughout that the problem isn't really the energy crisis; the true problem is corrupt!X. That the system is coping poorly with the energy crisis is a symptom of its underlying rot, and alleviating the crisis would do nothing to redress the more basic problem. That sort of redress, as you point out, is far beyond the Resistance's capabilities. Only Zero can do it... and even then, only because X wants him to.

Very good nice to see more interest in the original MMZ plot.

This is the best take I've seen of exploring MMZ's plot if the original X was the villain, and that says a lot.

Ooh this one hurt to read. Even in canon, you can tell X is tired of the fighting and ruling. It’s no wonder his Copy lost it. Another really well done one-shot. You’ve covered Classic (sort of), X, and now Zero. Will ZX and ZX Advent be next? I’m excited to see your portrayal of those characters and how the Biometals act (also Aile is best girl, prove me wrong).