The path through the inside of the palace proved to be a bit of a maze, looping around numerous hazards and filled with New-Gen Reploids mimicking Sigma. It was quickly discovered that these copies weren't anywhere near as strong as any of Sigma's true incarnations, and soon became little more than annoyances and signs they were on the right path. As such, it was only a matter of time before the group reached the final chamber, which was an obvious throne room. Sigma sat upon the throne at the opposite end, but his shape was like none they'd ever seen.
His armor was black with the consistency of rock, as though it had slowly encrusted itself onto his body. His eyes glowed red, and large horns came out from either side of his black helmet. Green light shone from between the sections of his armor, as though his entire body were nothing but energy. Spikes lined the armor plates, giving him a very devilish appearance enhanced by the glowing red crystal in the center of his torso that his entire body seemed to emanate from. "Well, well, well..." Sigma murmured softly as he lay back carelessly on the throne, as if he couldn't care less they were there. "So the self-appointed protectors of the world have come." He looked at Zero. "Judge." He turned to Axl. "Jury." He turned to X. "Executioner." He turned to Octavia. "And of course, the one who pulls the wool over the eyes of the ignorant, turning the bloodthirsty destruction into some sort of holy crusade, as though that made it all better." He sneered disdainfully. "How low the world has fallen."
"I was going to say the same of you, Sigma," X spoke up. "I thought you claimed to be the god of Reploids. You look more like a demon from where I'm standing."
Sigma grinned widely. "As Lucifer said, better to reign in hell than serve in heaven. And I shall rain hell down upon your Eden until Heaven is no more, and then reign over the desolation that is left. Those strong enough to survive the apocalypse and wise enough to embrace it shall be saved in my rapture, and be reborn with the world as we take the very stars themselves."
"And just who qualifies?" Zero asked carefully.
"Who else but my children?" Sigma asked softly, his voice raspy.
"Your...children?" Axl asked, stunned.
"That's right," Sigma growled, getting to his feet. "My children, the New-Gen Reploids, born of and for the Jakob Project. Their copy chips contain a complete copy of my personal data. It's what gives them their strength, their purity, their bond to me. My children..." He clenched his fists and brought them down upon the throne. "And you have slaughtered them mercilessly because they follow their father, and you call us the monsters!" As the Hunters staggered back from the intensity of the emotions, Sigma faded into shadows, warping to the same level as them as he drew a glowing green energy sword longer than his entire body. "But their deaths will not be in vain! You will all die here!"
"That's what you think," Octavia growled, though her voice showed her unease. She started to race forward, only for Axl to grab her and pull her back.
"Mom, don't!" he barked out, staring at his scythe. "It's...it's not working!"
Sigma chuckled darkly. "Indeed," he confirmed. "All your 'insta-kill' moves - the Hadouken, the Shoryuken, the Bass Cannon, the Death Slash, and the Tatsumaki Senpukyaku...they all use a common energy wavelength that allows them to completely eradicate a Reploid or Mechanaloid on contact...and I've built this, my final body, specifically to counteract that energy wavelength. You can't use those techniques on me!"
Sigma immediately began to warp around the chamber, unleashing waves of various forms of energy at the group, who did their best to evade and fire back. Unfortunately, Sigma proved to be far more competent as a combatant than before, warping out of range of the group's shots as they tried to focus fire on him, deflecting the lesser shots with his blade as he continued his barrage.
As they fought, Sigma warped again...only to appear in the midst of the group, clutching Axl's head in one hand as though about to crush it. Axl screamed in pain from the force being inflicted. "What now, X?" Sigma roared out, warping them both back so he held Axl between himself and the group. "Shoot through Axl, and you can kill me...and your daughter will hate you forever for killing her son! But do nothing, he dies anyway! Isn't this familiar?"
To Sigma's surprise, X...smirked. "Yes," he murmured softly as his armor turned orange and gold. "Very familiar. But unlike that day all those years ago, I'm no newbie hunter just trying to live up to everyone's expectations, struggling between realization and lost idol worship. Now, Axl's not the only one who found new ways to use old tricks."
Sigma frowned. "And what's that supposed to-EEYAUUGH!" Sigma dropped Axl as X struck him from behind with a beam saber, cutting through his back armor plate.
X grinned as his Soul Body dashed over, pulling Axl to safety. "We overlook the old tricks...but they can be surprisingly useful. And one thing I nearly overlooked before we came here...the modifications Maka made to the Ultimate Armor V3 drastically increased the number of subweapon programs it can hold. Care to guess how many old tricks I've brought back?"
"You think you can fell me so easily?" Sigma roared out angrily. "I will destroy-"
"Link systems available," Varia suddenly spoke up.
"Wait, what?" Sigma demanded in confusion.
Grinning, Octavia leapt between X, Zero, and Axl. A magical aura surrounded her, linking to the three of them as it combined their energies in Varia's horn before unleashing a devastating blast of four colored energy that ripped through Sigma's body, driving him back against the opposite wall as said wall crumbled from the blast.
As Sigma crumpled, his body falling to pieces as the energy faded, Lumine stepped out.
"Are you alright, Lumine?" X asked curiously.
"I suppose you could say that-"
"Wait!" Octavia interrupted quickly. "Sigma said that all New-Gen Reploids had his data, and were the ones who were meant to be part of his plan!"
A brief derisive expression crossed Lumine's face. "Father always did talk too much," he grumbled. He chuckled softly when he saw all weapons trained on him. "You realize the Jakob Project can't be completed without me, don't you?" he asked softly. "You've already devastated the infrastructure that supported it hunting my Maverick brethren."
"Then you're just going to keep going with Sigma's plan?" Zero snarled angrily.
"His plan?" Lumine 'tsk'ed derisively as his body glowed blue as he floated into the air. "I was just using him. After all, he's already inside all of us. His actual existence had become superfluous." Spheres of energy surrounded him. "All other existence becomes superfluous. The new world that comes...is me. All my brethren are a part of me, and will destroy you."
He began to float around, every so often absorbing one of the spheres of light and unleashing supercharged variants of the special weapons the eight Mavericks had used, devastating the landscape as the group of hunters evaded the attacks, focusing their attacks on Lumine in an attempt to damage him enough to force him down. Thankfully, he wasn't as sturdy as he seemed to think, and once they were able to figure out the pattern of his energy shields he fell to the ground quickly. Much to everyone's surprise, however, he quickly returned to the air.
"Divergent evolution," he murmured softly. "There have always been cases where life evolves along multiple paths, and those paths then battle to determine which inherits the world. I represent the Pure Reploid life, the dreams of so many. But you? You're just tools of the so-called Terrans, the Reploid/Human hybrids. They can't even fight their own battles...though they have armored you for this battle, made you their champions.
"Let's see how well you do."
Lumine's body changed. A halo-like helmet graced his head, and six wing-like projections spread from his back, each a combination of flight manipulator and weapon platform. Where Sigma had been a devil, Lumine now gave the impression of a golden angel.
"So after battling Satan, we now face Lucifer Morningstar?" Octavia asked calmly. "This should be...interesting."
Lumine attacked with diving charges and an array of laser attacks, but the sheer amount of firepower the group was able to put out - along with the Giga Crash and Nova Strike from X and Octavia - rapidly tore through his shields and energy reserves. As his energy started to get low, he triggered a shift in the very shape of space around them with the cry, "Paradise Lost!"
"Alert!" Varia called out as the world went dark. "Energy reactions are syncing towards Lumine's signature. If this continues, his energy reserves and shields will be completely replenished." As she spoke, Lumine shifted his wings to shield his body from harm as he began to warp around the area.
"Then we'll just have to prevent that from happening!" Axl cried out. Frowning, he drew his scythe, focusing his energy into it. "Here goes nothing..." Dashing forward, he swung the scythe through the air, gathering energy into it before leaping into the air. Just as Lumine appeared from a warp, Axl spun and struck, the blade tearing through the base of Lumine's six wings, causing him to scream in pain. "Now!" Axl roared as he air dashed to the side.
X, Zero, and Octavia immediately unleashed their full barrage, tearing Lumine's body apart. The world shifted back to normal as the energy reactions stopped.
"So...every New-Gen Reploid is one of Sigma's..." X whispered worriedly. "That's...going to be a headache and a half..."
you dont buck with octavias family
Impressive Sigma, MOST impressive! You've done so much win, you've lost and to make it out alive you'll have to help destroy your own plans.
D-a-y-u-m Tats. Though my first question seems to be; are they all automatically evil?
I love that show so much. I've learned more about Warhammer 40k from that series more than any of my friends trying to get me into the series.
Oh no, this crusade is about to be upgraded to a genocide. It will not end well. I don't know how many games are left, but from the way things are going it looks like Tavi might be the first pony to flee her host planet, and run back to Equestria for political sanctuary.
The Zero games might be left. Command Mission is also possible.
Seems that Lumine winged his final encounter.
Good thing our heroes managed to warp their mind around these fights, I know I didn't.
Lumine really put himself in a dark situation now.
Oh ho! What a !
7791339 This is the last 'Mega man X' game. Then there's 'Mega man Zero 1-3' and then there's two more mega man games that I can't entirely remember...but it takes place after the mega man zero games...
7791125 that depends on who your talking about. Cause X and co. aren't evil, there both doing their job and have perfect reasons to actually murder mavericks this time without feeling depressed they had to. But all the mavericks and new gen reploids? Oh yes they are out and out evil.
Now this is an interesting development; making the quartet of hunters actually feel semblance of guilt for killing what was essentially Sigma and his family.
Was expecting an Azure Striker Gunvolt reference with that attack of his...
7791339
Jeez, I hope not...
7791535 Not quite.
MegaMan X Command Mission is last, chronologically.
7791594 I have barely heard of the game so sorry I skipped over it...but wouldn't it just be 'oh hey there's a war going on because the new gen reploids are a bunch of assholes and everyone else just want's a normal life'...
7791614 We're just going to have to see what Tats comes up with for it.
7791535 There's Command Mission left in the X line, then the three Zero games, the ZX games, then the two Legends games.
That said, I don't think the Zero timeline is going to be happening... at all, which in turn means that ZX probably won't happen. No idea what that means for Legends.
7791629 Yeah...you can never guess what Tats is going to do or say...but I doubt the next arc is going to be pretty.
7791638 I don't know about Legends, but the Zero and(thank you for reminding me) ZX games take place directly after the last Zero game. But the Zero games would work because of all the children that Zero and X have, because they all have the same names, looks, and abilities as the ones in the Zero games...but as children...
7791646 I would think the plot would be fairly different. Guess it depends on how the Elf Wars go in this continuity.
7791675 Well given the 'Sigma Virus' was destroyed long before the Elf Wars I highly doubt the elf wars is going to be what it originally was...but we can only wait and see.
7791709 Doctor Weil might still fuck things up, but I don't think he's going to get punished with immortality this time.
7791724 He might fuck things up, but here's the thing, he can't do the 'reploids need to be controlled' thing because the line between 'reploid' and 'human' is so fucking thin it's practically nonexistent at this point. He might complain 'X, Zero, Axl and Octavia are a danger to us all' yet Octavia isn't a Reploid, hell she's not even a machine, she's a full blooded pony that can instakill a ton of shit. X and Zero were built with special laws given to them so they can't be forced to obey shit(and if the bad guys try to use the 'we'll attack your children' card bad things will happen) and Axl is getting to that point where he's strong enough to be comparable to the crew...so he's just going to do this because of greed and hatred to the saviors of the planet.
7791734 Weil's motives were always just a flimsy excuse to justify his cruelty and lust for destruction. Since his usual motives been taken away from him then he'll probably just try to find new ones.
What I meant was he might still somehow brainwash Omega and if Mother Elf gets created, he still might somehow turn her into Dark Elf.
7791771 Yeah, if the terrible doctor corrupts Omega Zero is going to.....do very very bad things. The elves...I highly doubt could do anything against a Zero that is gone berserk against a guy that fucked with his son in a very cruel way. Even if the Mother Elf turned into a Dark Elf....things aren't going to go well for the Doctor.
7791791
I just hope things turn out OK. Seriously, if Tats ends this story jn a crappy way like he did with WWW, I'm gonna be pissed.
7792604 Well that's all up to Tats...but remember the X series has been building up to a better world that isn't full of shit...although I have a good feeling Vinyl will come back in some way and be glad to see a world that isn't destroyed...hopefully.
7792632
And if she's cynical about it all, given what happened at the end of WWW, hopefully Tavi can knock some sense into her.
7792806 well she left because of a very horrible thing occurred. But she'll come back and see if the world is what she and the rest of the old team worked so hard for came true. If she see's all the hard work they put in to make such a good, albeit weird, world then she'll be happy. And seeing Tavi would be a plus, not to mention seeing Sans, Prometheus, X and Zero all together would make her happy, and having seen three of them having full blown families(not sure if Sansbot has a family or is just a loner but eh) would just make her jump for joy.
So, genocide? Even justified (if they ALL are evil) it still seems like genocide. Looking forward to more.
Keep up the great work. Deus tecum.
I would honestly have loved to see X just pulling out subweapon after subweapon to pound away at Sigma. If I was in his position, I'd bring Rolling Shield since it's a pretty good defense, a homing weapon, a single, Fire, Ice, and Electricity weapon, and then situational weapons like Chameleon Sting, Strike Chain, Tornado Fang, and Gravity Well since all of those can be useful for exploration.
I do like Sigma nerfed all the instant kill moves, it was a smart move on his part and shows the Hunters can't rely on them all the time.
7793145
Actually, the correct answer to X's question is "All of them".
So it would have looked something like this, with Sigma as the Met but without the invinco-helmet.
7793150 I can accept that, but I can't really see X wanting a bunch of redundant things: ie multiple flame weapons, since one works just as well as the rest. Plus, it would be a little more interesting if he had SOME limits he had to work around and had to take the best tools for the job.
7791772 Unsure.... 70% feel that it was a standalone fic.
Funny how Heart of the Dragon General had holy crusaders in the comments section but you brought false gods to Mega Man X.
Ooo.
How thematic.
So Sigma is Sephiroth now and Lumine is one if his Advent Children....
Ah, the Emperor's Text-to-speech series. I'm actually trying to watch that.
Wait, you mean the robots that had child-like personalities were children? I never would have guessed.
Mixing FFII with MMZ... weird.
9020607
they wern't child like as much as COMPLETE GENOCIDAL MADMAN, your claiming they where like children,. but in truth each one was a man child that was dead set on destroying the world as they knew it, would you feel sorry for a person willing to murder and entire country because he was told he would never be stopped? i don't think so, your arguments to the suposed negatives of this and the other stories is on a level that i cannot understand, it's like your JUST trying to bring tat's down with these stuff and then insult him when he explains his side of things, he's not the one who is trying to claim the heroes are morally wrong, the only ones who are is YOU and sigma in story, after all their in a spot where the fate of the PLANET ITSELF is at stake, which is a FAR CRY from the other senarios, and even during the END OF THE WORLD during 5 they looked for the peaceful options and faced comrades taht turned to darkness, and yet these mavericks where madman hoping to bring about the end times ALL OVER AGAIN.