Sigma's arm crackled, little bolts of electricity jumping between his fingertips. He shifted his shoulder a bit, rotating it to see how it moved. Doctor Roth was crouched in front of the cyborg, examining his body. "That's quite a beating you took Sigma."

"Couldn't tell." Sigma stared past the doctor, gazing out over the ocean. Allyson was in the forest behind him, scavenging for wood and food for Roth. Neither android needed anything external to survive and merely tended to Roth's necessities. "It's tough to gauge how much damage you sustained when you can hardly feel anything."

Roth continued to work on Sigma in silence, recognizing the cyborg was not in any mood for a friendly chat or for a lecture on the state of his body. Much of it repaired itself over time, using what little biological blood was still flowing through the body, regenerating with the assistance of the machinery. It was a miracle what those scientists had built, yet also an abomination. It was unnatural to fuse a human with a machine, as proven prior with the Jahari. Why they had thought they could do it differently Roth did not know.

The doctor remembered when he had first been put in charge of the project, or for at least overseeing Allyson. That had been an exciting day for him, with a chance to bring his daughter back to life, to give her a second chance and save her from her death sentence. But each passing day his conscious had weighed upon him and his guilt had grown. What if she didn't want to be brought back? She had always hated the government and the military and now he was to build her into a tool for them to use at their disposal. How could they not have seen the rebellions coming?

"I love her too you know." Roth snapped a metallic component back into place as he spoke. "Not like you do, of course, but how a father loves a daughter."

"Then why did you make her like this?" Allyson stepped back into the clearing, staring at the two with curiosity. She could not understand what they were talking about, only comprehending forms of orders and commands and she otherwise watched the pair converse as though she were desperately trying to decipher a coded language.

Roth sighed. "I love her Leif, that's why." Roth shook his head and stood back up, admiring his daughter as best he could without choking up. He could never stare at her too long. "I saw a chance to keep her alive, at least partially. If I hadn't intervened, she would be a body in a prison cemetery right now."

"What if that's what she wanted." Sigma didn't phrase it as a question. It was a blank and blunt statement, driven into Roth's heart with malicious intent. The android wanted to make the man hurt for what he had done. "Fighting for your cause sometimes means dying for your cause. She was mine..." Sigma examined his hand, clenching it and twiddling his fingers slowly to make sure everything was properly functioning. "I chose to die for my cause when I went in after her. She chose to die for hers when she signed up to a life in the Red Scarf gang. Don't you think you've nullified everything she lived for by making her have to exist under their rule?"

"Yes," Roth whispered, tears in his eyes. "But by the time I figured that out it was too late. I chose to push forward with my cause and, if you see to it, I will die for that cause. Ishiyama knows I deserve it."

Sigma raised up his palm, the centre glowing purple as it charged to fire a beam. He levelled the weapon at the doctor's head, his mechanical brain calculating distance, speed, splatter radius, everything. "Letting you live with what you did is what Ishiyama chose for you. It seems a greater punishment." The weapon fizzled out, the hole closing.

"It seems you still have an affinity for your religion, even in your next life." Sigma's eyes narrowed at the doctor. The two had never met prior to the laboratory, and Sigma detested the idea of Roth talking to him like he knew him. "Or so I read in your file," Roth said, quickly backtracking out of the awkward situation.

"Who knows why. Does my faith help restore my body? Did it bring back my memories? Will it help fix me or end this pain in my head? Will it resurrect Allyson? No, faith can't do those things. Faith is meant to help us push forward to the next day, to make us feel like our lives aren't meaningless when things are bleak. In what form it comes and how it is told does not matter. I chose the pathway of Saint Ishiyama and, for some reason or another, its words still echo around in my head. All those words could be the greatest of truths or the cruelest of lies but it does not matter. Tomorrow I will still be like this, and the next day after that."

"Sorry Sigma."

"Apologies don't change who I am now. Only action can do that." Sigma glanced over at Allyson, his eyes studying her as he processed plans of action. Allyson, in turn, watched him carefully, trying to glean as much knowledge as she could, but her systematic brain could not create new information. She was stuck, only able to comprehend that which she was programmed to know. "And I think I know what I will have to do." Sigma stood up, stretching his arms into the sky.

"And what would that be?"

"Syn is still alive, I'm sure."

"I am too."

"Then I must put him out of existence."

Roth sighed at Sigma's contempt for the psychopath. "Wasn't that always the plan?"

Sigma turned to the man, his eyes hard. "I must end my own existence as well." The android paused, reflecting on his decision. "And Allyson." He studied Roth closely after he said it, checking for resistance to the idea. But Roth did not react as plan. His body shifted a bit, deflating as he sunk down. There was a recognition in the doctor of what he had done and what now needed to be done.

"The two of you can overpower Syn I'm sure."

"Then I destroy her, and then myself. All of this is wiped clean, and I end this threat to the world that is the Enigma Soldier."

"And what of the Jahari?" Allyson spoke, shocking the two others. "The Jahari are the primary threat to the world at this moment. Calculated as larger problem than combined world armies." The pair sighed. Allyson was simply repeating stray commands she was picking up within the networks of the world. This had been fairly common as her mechanical mind couldn't help but calculate at all times, drawing in information. Even though Roth had disconnected Allyson's ability to receive orders from any outside source, she still absorbed them, sometimes spitting them out as if they mattered.

"The Jahari are not my problem," Sigma sighed. "They are an earthly creation brought out by humans who sought power, and humans who will pay a price. I want nothing to do with this world and never did, and if I am given a chance to not be made its weapon I must take it. I had thought that I had possibly been given a liberation but instead I only see more limitations than I ever had before."

"So it's coming to an end then?" Roth stepped past Sigma, placing his hand on Allyson's shoulder. His eyes were starting to fill in with tears.

"I will leave you and Allyson to share your last moments. I...I have someone I need to speak to." And with that, Sigma blasted off into the air, shooting straight upwards towards space, surpassing the limits of the atmosphere on his way to the Saint Maurius Academy.

* * * * *

Porter shivered in his cockpit, his body's system trying to cope with the shift in temperature while his Goliath attempted to acclimate. The cockpit was already forming little icicles off of Porter's steamy breath before the heat finally kick in, turning the interior into a bit of a wet sauna. "Why is it so cold?" Porter grumbled. He had liked the first trip to Easley for the same reason he hated this trip to Remminstad in the north.

"Not cold," Ochenkov laughed. "Cold freeze blood. This is bit of chill. Not anything."

"Not anything?" Chase spoke through chattering teeth. "I hated it the last time we had to run around the mountains and I hate it this time too. Do we really need to be here? Aren't there warm building back at the base?"

Ochenkov chuckled again and spun his Goliath around to face the group. He was using just a standard battlesuit, no different than a hundred other soldiers. The Enian army still had the Siberian Rhino in its possession and with Ochenkov being a bit of a fugitive from the military for his defection, his current Goliath worked better for the situation. The barbarian had taken the CRU out through the mountains, away from Remminstad, a military base converted into a town over time. "We watch with nature. Nature strong, we strong."

"He does not make sense like ninety percent of the time," Chase muttered, leaving his communication network only open to the other students. Ochenkov wanted to do observations on the surroundings, some general reconnaissance but everyone knew what it was really about: Ochenkov felt at home here. This was a man who had dredged through the snow in nothing but a thin blanket. This was his life and this was also the last place he had been in combat before defecting from military service.

"Mister Ochenkov," Nami started, grabbing the man's attention. The team had noticed he had an affection soft spot for the little girl, fawning over her in the shuttle down to Earth. "Why do you fight with us if you fled the army?"

Ochenkov smirked in his cockpit, placing a hand on his chin as he delved into his own mind for a way to answer the question appropriately. "I join army for country, not for Kaiser. When Kaiser wants different from country, I follow country." Nami simply stared at the screen after hearing the answer, trying to figure out the broken ramblings of Ochenkov.

"Ok then..."

"I don't care why we do it; I just don't want to do it." Chase continued his complaining, teeth chattering over the intercom.

"Relax Chase," Ardwen interjected, trying to settle everything. "General Ochenkov knows what he is doing and I trust he wouldn't just parade us through the mountains for nothing."

"Is for nothing," Ochenkov bluntly stated. "I like air." There was a shocked silence between the students before they all turned away, grumbling back down through the mountains towards the base. Ochenkov smiled as he watched them leave, turning back to the land he loved so much.

The barbarian looked down at his palm, studying the little object Shotuku had given him. It was dwarfed by the massive size of his hand. Strange that it held such importance for something so tiny. Ochenkov was lifted from his thoughts by a flash on his console, a screen popping up as his Goliath detected life forms moving around in front of him, roaming in a valley between two mountains.

A cold wind swirled around the general and he embraced the biting chill that seeped through the metal of the battlesuit. He took in a deep breath, holding onto the air as long as he could. He truly did love this land, and he would do anything to protect it. If the Jahari wanted to cover it in blood, it would be Ochenkov's honour to make sure it was only Jahari blood on the ground.