Sigma was screaming. Up within the sky he was floating atop a cloud in a serene sleep just moments before, and now the terror of memory had struck his mind. And it was unbearable. He was remembering things, of metal being grafted onto his body, when they would take out organs on a surgical table and cut holes to insert tubes along his skin.

He remembered when they took his chest off, when his ribs had been opened up and removed, and the chest plate had been entered. Or when they went into his brain. When his existence had been transferred to a computer. All of it was flooding back through his system and he could hardly stand it. And so he screamed. He screamed until he thought he felt pain his mouth and his throat but it must have been just a lingering phantom feeling from his time as a human.

Time as a human. Was he human still? Or something else? He wanted to be human, wanted to think he was, but one look down at the purple metal across his body told him otherwise. He didn't want to be this way anymore. Sometimes he rather enjoyed it, the power, the stability, while other times he wanted to be normal again, and to not be flying thousands of feet above Earth or viewing the world through the telescopic eyes of an android.

There was a new memory bubbling up in his mind, of Sigma sitting in a vat, a large tube, suspended in liquids and fed through extraneous tubes. A memory of people outside the glass looking in, fuzzy and faded through the waters but visible, and of him using his own human lungs and having a natural heartbeat and he thought he could hear things around outside from the people out there. Mumbling words out that slurred and sounded so odd inside the liquids.

Sounded like Sigma. That was easy, that was his name. That was what he was called. That's what he had always been called. But then other words floated in and one stood out among others: Leif. It was so familiar sounding, so...right. It belonged to Sigma.

Was that my name? he thought. It must be my name. From before I became a machine. Sigma trembled in the air, shudders passing through his android's body. He had a name before all of this, before he became this weapon called Sigma.

Another name came in through the memory, sifting through the liquid and the glass to reach Sigma's ears. This one seemed familiar too but it did not belong to Sigma. This one belonged to someone else, but who it was he could not tell. He could only just make it out through the fogs of his mind before it slipped away again: Porter.

Who was Porter? The scientist who worked on him? An administrator who oversaw it all? He didn't know, but he knew the name somehow. And he also knew where to go now to find out more. It was time to learn a little about Sigma, about Leif. It was time to go back to the womb.

* * * * *

Grimsley trembled in the cockpit of the tank as he watched the field of battle unfold. He didn't know what he should do right now. His commanding team had been knocked out as soldiers crawled from the wreckage of the ship. All he was left to do was to push forward in his vehicle, slowly approaching the main battlefield.

Goliaths were zipping around in continuous combat and his targeting systems were starting to pick up different enemies. He couldn't get a lock on anything yet but he could feel his heartbeat getting faster as he drew ever closer to the moment of war.

This was what he had signed up for. What he had dreamed of. To fight the good fight for the women of the world, to protect and save them, regardless of the fact that many females piloted Goliaths these days. He was doing it for Raven and Aunt Shauna and Gretta and parts of him were doing it for his father, for the one he had lost. Or for his mother, whom he had never known.

Grimsley felt the reverberations of the shot throughout his body as it rattled the metal hull. The bullet he had launched pierced through the cockpit of a Goliath that had strayed nearby and detonated in a flowery explosion of shrapnel and oils. The enormous battlesuit tumbled backwards and exploded once more, this time throughout its frame.

He had taken a life. Killed his first man as a soldier. And he couldn't feel anything inside. The crash, the event, it had stolen that from him. He felt empty inside and cold, a robot sitting within this deadly machine. And part of him just wanted to kill them all for this, for everything. For killing so many in the ship. Or for his dad. The thought struck him like an arrow. Was he doing it for the memory of his father, for revenge?

He didn't have time to think though. The barrel swiveled to aim at a new target, to take another life. This time he missed though, the enemy shifting too fast to be hit. He needed the battlesuits to be stable for a moment in order to connect with them, something that was much harder than he had originally thought. His first kill had been a tad lucky. Now he would need skill, so long as nobody noticed where the shots were coming from in their enormous Goliaths.

"Sol...yo...have...the right....return..to..." The radio in the tank crackled and faded out. It was a strong voice, commanding in its nature, probably coming from a sergeant of some sort. Grimsley hadn't realized the radio might have gotten damaged in the crash. He had simply been thankful he was alive at all.

With a couple hard kicks and some banging, Grimsley reset the device and the signal started coming through strong. "Soldier, do you hear me? We need you to return to the city immediately! Repeat, return to the city immediately!"

"Copy that. Understood." Grimsley let out a tremendous sigh as the stress of the war was temporarily lifted. He was being taken back, being reassigned to a new squad. Of course, it made total sense. This tank was valuable to the war effort and they would want to use it over watching him go on a berserk rage through the battlefield. He would get to return to a safe place, to be put back into an organized system.

The tank turned slowly and began to roll backwards towards the city and away from combat. There was a release in Grimsley, a little return to himself there, some emotion shooting through his empty core. He wasn't quite as dead anymore.

* * * * *

Kaiser Namio sat with head in hands on a small chair in his room. General Christian was sitting across with a data-slate in front of him, containing all the files from the war. Namio rose up and turned to look out the window. He lived up on the top floors of the central building in the capital, hundreds of feet high. The enormous building overlooked the whole city from the centre, and Namio had windows running all around so that he could see the place he loved so much anytime.

Beneath his feet was the infrastructure that ruled the entire country, where bureaucrats and politicians came in and out daily to make the nation run like clockwork. And Namio controlled them all. Some days though, like today, it was a tougher job than normal.

"Where is he now?"

"Nobody knows Namio. He took off from the war and shot into the sky. He's faster and smaller than most things we can track and you and I both know he can jam any signals attempting to reach him at any time and so-"

"Find him Christian!" Namio roared. He turned violently and knocked the chair over. It clattered and Christian cringed a bit at the sound. "We need Sigma! We cannot have our greatest weapon running around the countryside freely."

"We'll do what we can. I'm doing the best with what we have but you must understand-"

"I understand it all Christian. I put you in charge of the Sigma initiative because I trust you to keep the country's top priorities in mind. Sigma is our top priority. Sigma alone can win the war. But more importantly, we need Sigma to talk with the Jahari, to compete with them and barter. In order to negotiate with a monster, you need a monster of your own and Sigma is that monster. What would you have me do now instead Christian? Tell me!"

"The Jahari are not ready to meet for another week and even then, we get to set the time and date and parameters. We're still safe for now and even without Sigma I'm sure we can reach some form of deal with them..."

"Not at all! I don't need him to overpower them or fight them. He need merely to intimidate or even to be traded. We must impose our power on them. If we arrive with just our pitiful weapons they will laugh in our faces and make us pay deeply for anything we take from them. But if they see Sigma standing beside me they will bow down like the cowards they are, hiding from the world for a century. Hah! Find him Christian. Put all the resources you can together into getting him back for me. You have the week."

"Yes Namio, it will be done." Christen stood and walked away, tucking the data-slate under his arm and withdrawing a small communicator from his pocket. The door slid closed behind him and locked and Christian stepped into the elevator downwards alone.

The small screen on the communicator flashed and lit up with the face of a scientist and Christian knew his would be showing up in front of the man. "Christophe, tell me what the status is."

"We're searching. We have a few different signals. It won't be long before we lock in on him."

"What of Syn?"

"The Artisans have informed us they plan on activating him before the end of the week. The money was transferred to the main account, as per your request."

"What were his test levels at? At Sigma's level?"

"Not quite sir. But it was a little premature when he was tested as everything became rushed with Sigma's activation and so it is highly possible that his levels will reach that of Sigma quite soon."

"Can he exceed him?"

There was a long pause from Christophe and Christian listened to the floors being named as he passed by them in the elevator. "Possibly sir but not on the same levels. I mean Sigma is just of such a certain build that-"

"That's fine," Christian interrupted. "He'll do. Is there any other progress?"

"We are still looking for Dr. Roth. He has proven quite elusive."

"Well find him. What he took from us is extremely valuable. If the plans are to succeed and the New World to be established, we will need all of the Enigma Soldiers together. I will contact you again later when things are more private."

"Yes Emperor Christian. The emperor guides my hand," the scientist swore and nodded to Christian before the screen went blank. The elevator slowed to a halt and Christian took his leave, smiling at those he passed before smiling to himself.

* * * * *

Ochenkov pressed the button to listen to the third and final recording. This one was shorter than all the others, according to the little time in the corner, and Ochenkov thanked his gods that he wouldn't have to suffer listening to any more. But there had to be so much more to all of it than this.

"This will be my last recording, with good reason. I have discovered the true goal behind the Enigma Soldier project, and I have lost faith in the Emperor. His will guides us, but not towards Heaven's light, as I once thought. It seems as though we are heading towards the gates of Hell. He who dares to challenge the gods will find he brings their wrath upon us all. The Jahari are not something to go to war against, not after all I have learned, and I fear that he will doom us all. And so I have crafted a plan for myself and for Allyson. My guilt has eaten me up inside and I cannot stand looking at her any longer. She is going to die soon, and there is only one alternative. Was, I should say, for I have already activated her sleep operation. Her mind is turned off now and her body shut down. The only thing keeping her alive is the life-support machine I put her within. I had to. I cannot stay in this place any longer and neither can she. She is already being transported away. Where, I cannot say, for I must work on her in solace until I can get her to a functioning capacity and I must keep her out of the reach of the Emperor and any of the other countries on this planet. These weapons are too great and the plans to use them are far too dangerous. They will be the end of the world for all of us, so Allyson and I shall live out the rest of our lives in hiding, and I may have my daughter back again, if she can ever forgive me. Let this recording be for my assistant, Jerry, who has always been such a strong emotional support for me. Please understand why I had to place the fake in the tube and take her away and I trust you will delete this after you find it to keep us safe. This is Dr. Randall Roth, former researcher for the Emperor's Enigma Soldier project, signing off."

There was the crackle of static as the recording continued to play, with nothing being said by the doctor and instead it was just air being spewed out of the speakers. So the person in the tube was a fake, a doll maybe, designed to fool those who saw her. It had certainly fooled Ochenkov and he felt a little easier in the room.

But this story of the Jahari and the Emperor. Who could be the Emperor leading some sort of nation? There was no emperor in any of the four alliances, nothing reported at least. Maybe somebody was called that to hide themselves from the enemy. Or maybe it was someone else entirely. Who could be stupid enough to want to wage war on the Jahari though? Who would dare to risk the safety of the entire world in order to fight a myth that had put itself to sleep for so many years?

The ground shook and the whole building rumbled as dust started raining down on Ochenkov. Alarm klaxons started going off in the base and Ochenkov heard boots rushing by the door. He was reminded of where he was and what was happening. He needed to get out of here, but this information was so valuable. Ochenkov searched around the computer for any storage discs that may have been left out and was rewarded when he pulled out a locked box marked "Discs."

With his brute strength he smashed it on the floor and withdrew a couple of the little crystal discs, some of which had been broken with the box while others still maintained their shape and function. He inserted one into the machine and tried to figure out how to download the files. Eventually he gave up trying to grab just the three files and chose to download the entire collection of everything available on the computer. The CD was spit back out when it was finished and Ochenkov tucked it away into one of his pockets.

It was time to make his exit from this strange base, and what better time to leave than in the confusion of some sort of attack. Ochenkov secretly hoped that whoever the attacker was, they would burn the whole place to the ground, to destroy this bastion of evil.

But for now, it was time to leave. He pressed up against the wall beside the door, motioning in front of it so it opened but not revealing himself. He saw another group of men go by and listened for any more boots. He withdrew one of his needles and gripped it tightly. He had to get out of here as fast as possible...

* * * * *

Sigma floated above the snowy ground below, looking down at where he could see a little hatch in the surface, a small metallic door that led into an underground base. He killed his jets and plummeted to the earth below, sending up plumes of snow. He grabbed the locked door and ripped it off its hinges, hardly exerting a fraction of his immense strength in doing so.

He dropped down the ladder and thudded on the floor, his own metal echoing off the construction of the floors. Calculations started flying through his eyes, scanning the base, downloading maps, information, cameras, security systems. But he did not care for any of it. He didn't need to sneak around this place. He was home.

The hand of Sigma rested against the cool surface of the wall beside him. He ran his fingers over its smoothness and wondered how he could really feel anything with his body. But the time for thinking was over. Now was the time for anger. The hole in his palm opened and light began to build in the dark shaft of his hidden weapon.

The explosion tore through the wall and sent an enormous shock wave through the entire building. Sigma looked in on a room filled with debris and dead bodies, some of them immolated by the heat of the purple blast. He smiled like a little child. This would be fun. He would play in his home once again. But this time when he left, there would be nothing remaining...

A/N: Sigma has returned with a vengeance! Can Ochenkov escape the base without being destroyed or will he and Sigma have the ultimate face-off?!

Thanks for reading! Comments are appreciated as Sigma/Star is always looking to improve!