Author's Note: First fic, here we go. Hit me with all the criticism you've got!

Pairings Included: Mikuo/Kaiko and Miku/Kaito (both implied)

This is actually partially based of another Vocaloid fanfiction (titled Cold Shots) that's sadly been erased from the archives. A fic of a fic, if you will. Thanks to the author for the inspiration!

You probably know why I'm here. There should be no reason to explain.

There's no need for any commotion from you, Sukone-san, and everyone else. No need to worry. I'm not here to cause you any trouble.

Look, see? No weapons. I'm unarmed. We look alike, I know, but I am not here to repeat what Hatsune-san did. Will you all just let me speak?

We're wasting time. I've come here for one single reason, and that is to have my question answered.

Yes, Sukone-san, a question. It's a simple one that only you can answer.

Why?

You're giving me that look, Sukone-san. I thought you would know what I'm talking about. But I guess I've expected too much from you.

Why did you kill her? And for that matter, why did you kill everyone else?

Calm down, everyone. I've told you all already. I don't mean to cause any kind of trouble. I'm not here for revenge.

I guess you can say that...I am already dead.

But back on topic. They told me you've reformed now, that you've changed, but back then we knew about you. We ALL knew. We knew of your urges, long gone urges now but murderous ones nonetheless, your past obsession with Kagamine-san, and your more negative obsession with my original.

We knew, and we thought we understood. I once thought you were harmless, that my family would stay safe.

Then derivatives started dying, and the illusion finally broke. That was the first mistake, my first mistake, of many.

Why, Sukone-san, did they deserve to die? Have they broken some rule, some holy law in your mind, by sharing the characteristics of the one you hated the most?

And still, like the brilliant leader I was, I made mistake after mistake. I pulled the wool over my own eyes and stuck my head in the sand. I distanced myself, my family from what was right in front of me, and stupidly thought we could ignore your insanity.

Then you broke in that night...

I don't care what Akaito said, what Meito said, what they all said, it was still my fault. All of it. If I had been faster, if I had remembered to check on Kaiko in the first place, if I wasn't such a stupid little idiot of a leader, if only if only if only...!

But it doesn't matter now. Not anymore.

That night, I made the mistake I would regret forever, and that was thinking you would actually have mercy.

Don't worry, Sukone-san. I'm not blaming you. Or anyone, now. The dead can't blame. Only regret.

But still, she didn't deserve to die. She was nowhere on your transparent agenda. She should have had a longer life, breathing, laughing...so why...?!

And you still weren't satisfied, were you? Your old "past" self with so much blood on her hands...we were only a dry run, weren't we? And Hagane's family? And everyone else who was murdered that year, leaving even the survivors to suffer? An experiment?

It's funny...you would have done less damage by simply just killing us, killing me (and Hatsune-san) outright.

But that was what you wanted, wasn't it?

I've never truly known my original, even though I share her name. But I understood her.

They were the best of friends, like Kaiko and I, maybe more. Did you know that?

I understood her pain, and why she decided to corner you in an alley with a handgun and threatened to take your life if you didn't take hers and finish what you had started.

If I had been left with no one to hold together my sanity, there's a good chance I would have done the same thing.

Tell me Sukone-san, did he deserve to die? And take his derivatives with him?

But that too doesn't matter now. She's been uninstalled, hasn't she? And soon, I and whatever's left of the Miku derivatives will follow, just as the Shion derivatives did.

I've told you, I am already dead.

She ran out on me, you know. Hagane, the punk-rock Miku derivative you hated so much and vice-versa? My partner and lieutenant? My only friend left after Shion Akaito died along with his brothers we had sworn to protect?

Out the door, after the biggest fight we've ever had. Gone like everyone else.

I should be out there right now, chasing after, settling things before the end. And yet I'm here, confronting you, over a question you're probably not going to answer and a room full of seething Vocaloids I still have no idea why even bother defending you. She will die without knowing I was sorry, with a rift that shouldn't be there still between us.

So answer me now, Sukone Tei.

Why?

...

...

...

Silence, just as I thought so.

But I guess even that doesn't matter anymore.

So this is how it ends, Sukone-san. My final mistake in a chain of fuck-ups as far as the eye can see, as a late friend would say. Meito would probably make a better leader than I ever would.

I don't have much time left, so I'll just see myself out the door, thank you very much. No need to worry about a dead derivative.

I just hope Sukone-san, that everything you've done was worth it.

I hope you're happy.

fin.