Sigma/Star

Chapter 103: Reunion

Sigma and Marian stood together for a moment on the battlefield, the war fading away around them. Recovery ships were already arriving to begin shuttling away fallen Goliaths, while the remaining operational battlesuits either returned to the base in the mountains or began to scavenge through the area for lost comrades. Raul waited nearby, watching Sigma with curiosity. The ninja was well-aware of who Sigma was, as well as his power, but he also knew Sigma was currently an enemy of the Enian Federation for going rogue, and he wondered how long the temporary peace between Marian and Sigma would hold up.

"So you'll get going then?" The head of the Archangel swivelled to stare at Sigma, camera lenses whirling as they focused on the tiny body. "This fight here is over; the ones you were interested in are dead or gone. Why hang around?"

"I have my own reasons Marian," Sigma replied, folding his arms across his chest. "Not going to try and reprimand me for what I did before? Not going to lecture me or try to smite me and crush me?"

"We both know that wouldn't work Sigma, I'm not that stupid. I just wish you could be a little clearer in your intentions in the future."

"Would it be better if you just never had to see me again in the future."

"Yes," Marian snapped without pause. Sigma had been a persistent thorn in his side since the day they had turned him on, and even before then the Brigadier General had been quite vocal in opposing the creation of any Enigma Soldiers. Beyond his own belief that creating something that powerful out of people who were not necessarily loyal was a terrible idea, he also believed that what they were doing with machine was not different from what the Jahari had done in the past and been exiled for. The mutations and biological experimentation of the Jahari far exceeded anything that had been attempted during the Enigma project, but the concept was still the same to Marian, and if they had exiled the Jahari for it before, why would it be acceptable now?

"I may not be able to grant that request, but I'll try my best not to kill anyone in the future. Except for him." Sigma pointed up into the sky where Syn had disappeared to. "And them." He then pointed downwards to symbolize the Jahari. "But right now, I have some cleaning up to do before I clear up some other matters." Sigma rose up into the air, fully regaining his control over himself.

The purple android's chest began to reconfigure slightly, opening up in the middle to reveal the core within, a glowing orb of energy that could power the entire world. There were still Jahari and Bahari nearby, and they had had their link to the hive mind severed. With the machine controlling them also destroyed, they stood around, staring into empty space, shells without brains to command them. A barrage of purple energy balls began to fire out of Sigma's chest, winding through the air in all directions, careening into the different monsters and detonating, instantly vaporizing the smaller Jahari, while multiple orbs took down the larger Bahari.

In mere moments, the immobile Jahari were destroyed, leaving nothing but stains of blood and remnants of flesh and metal. Sigma's chest closed once more, sealing away the immense power he held inside himself. He winked at Marian before taking off towards The Warlord. Marian nearly collapsed in his seat.

* * * * *

Porter clung close to Riya, feeling her warmth in his hands. She had been so cold before, so terrifyingly cold, that he was unable to let her go now that she was conscious. For a very long time now, the two had just sat there, close to one another, doing nothing, saying nothing, with eyes closed. They didn't move a muscle. For a moment between them, it was as if the war did not exist. They hadn't even realized it was over, could barely hear Ardwen talking to the them through the communication network.

It wasn't until the chest of The Warlord slid open that they even realized the rest of the world existed. Neither of them had given the command though, and as the final layers of the chest separated, Sigma was revealed, floating in the air in front of the Goliath. He drifted into the cockpit with grace, his computer mind having hacked into The Warlord and taken control of its systems. He stepped down next to them, pausing for a moment when he noticed their embrace.

"I'm...sorry for intruding like this-" Before Sigma could finish Porter had stood up to face his older brother, unable to look him directly in the eye, and punched him across the face. It barely affected Sigma, and he tilted his head slightly in reaction before his eyes softened.

"How could you leave me?" Porter gasped between tears, emotions bottled throughout the last day spilling out from within. "How can you just show up like nothing is wrong, like nothing happened? How can you just appear and think everything is alright?" Porter beat his fists against Sigma's metal chest, the sound echoing around the cockpit.

Slowly, Sigma's hand moved onto Porter's back, holding on to the young man gently. "I'm sorry Porter, I'm truly sorry." Porter sniffled a bit, choking back on tears as he tried to stop looking so pitiful in front of his sibling.

"He's gone...he's gone Sigma."

"I know." The android could see pain in Porter's eyes, a different pain from ever before. Whereas earlier, Porter had held longing in his eyes, a suffering that came from loneliness and desire, now he had a crippling scar on his heart. It was a real loss, a true loss, that Porter had endured this time, and had been nothing like anything he had experienced before. Sigma already knew which one of them had died and he had scolded himself on the way down to Earth, furious with himself for not being there sooner. If he wanted to feel human, to be human once again, he would have to start acting like one and begin to acknowledge his brother as family, and he was already failing. Perhaps, even when Sigma had been a real person, he just hadn't been a very good one. He hadn't even known he had had a brother to begin with, and he had always just wanted to live alone, to be separate from everything else before.

Porter didn't respond only crying more. Only then did Sigma did sit him back down and let Ardwen explain what had happened after the black chi, through the communication network. It took time for them to cover everything, and the rest of the army cleaned up around them. Eventually, Nami and Raul joined up with them, and they all shared a moment of silence as Chase's Goliath, the South Star, was finally moved and recovered.

"I guess we will have to get you all back to the academy then correct?" Sigma had opened up the cockpit of The Warlord again and he stood at the exit, trying to feel the breeze on his face, disappointed in his robotic body.

"And where will you go?" Porter mumbled, half under his breath and half at the robot. Sigma sighed, understanding his brother's anger only a bit, but it was enough. He had not had all of his memories back long enough to completely recover his old personality, his human form, and he doubted he would ever get it entirely back.

"I will have to go away again, but I will be watching closing. Obviously the Jahari are still a threat, as is Syn, and with everything learned here-"

"What I learned here," Porter interjected, his voice projected to all the other members of the CRU, "was that we were lied to and manipulated, that we were all part of some plan to make the Jahari come out, that our own Kaiser plotted with Christian, some madman, and was responsible for the Jahari and the entire Enian Federation is...is the reason Chase is..." Porter took in a deep breath trying to control himself. His eyes contained a fierce fire, lit by the culmination of loss and emotion that was travelling through his body. "We aren't going back."

 A/N: Bold words from Porter. Is this the end of the Academy and the end of the Crisis Rescue Unit? Or is anger talking instead of reason?