X didn't have a heart, but he certainly felt something fall like a cold stone inside him.

"I'm sorry. I...I didn't mean to bring it up."

Losing friends was one of the hardest things to do, he found.

Not that he had any real experience with it other than...well, this. One moment, he was fighting for the sake of those he cared about, and perhaps in the back of his mind, he never thought he was going to lose Zero. He was invincible, after all, his mentor who taught him so much, still had so many more things to teach him, and was the most powerful Maverick Hunter he'd ever seen.

And yet...

Zero had not only entrusted his Control Chip to him, but...he gave his arm cannon systems to him. He allowed X to absorb a part of his programming into his body, essentially replacing X's buster arm with Zero's own.

He was always with him, a mark of his own failure to protect him, and Zero's own sacrifice.

And yet...he'd inadvertently brought up the death of this girl's friend, even if she was a figment of his own imagination, conjured through a dream. He hadn't wanted to bring her unnecessary pain; she was probably getting over her death, too.

Though there was something about her words...that comforted him, somehow.