Title: Savior

Comments: It has been far too long since I wrote anything rockman-based. Far too long. And since the idea has been in my head for a few days, I figured I might as well write it down and post it up.

Warnings: Use the Japanese terms for irregular. It is R rated for giant innuendos. Giant ones. You can't miss them, and if you do, you aren't reading closely enough.

……………

I cannot honestly say that I ever thought that the father of the reploids would ever amount to anything. Sure, I was aware of his existence, but he had nothing to do with our battles in the Irregular Hunters. He stayed by Cain, he stayed in the archives studying about his creator, he was new and afraid of everything. How strange he seemed to me then, but he was not against me, so I tolerated him.

He was nothing as fun as the Irregulars could be. The fights I would win then, when I was for the humans.

Heh. They don't even matter anymore, really. It's not been about what I've wanted all this time; it's been about what he's wanted, in the back of my mind. He gives the commands and I am reduced to nothing but a robot- less than what I ever should have been. I craved freedom the way humans could never give it- not second-class citizens, not a co-species, but a freedom to be in a world where we were untainted and allowed to be at peace, to learn and perfect our mechanisms. This is what I wanted, what haunted my thoughts when they were not focused.

Then I punched an irregular in the head.

It was indeed a bad choice, but the other was death. At the time, it was an obvious decision. Now, I would have rather just died.

The virus program embedded within the red irregular managed to infect my systems. It wasn't during the fight. It was when I was trying to understand what this broken chip was, doing it in a manner so completely out of procedure that they have destroyed reploids for it- hooking it up to my own systems.

I was an idiot.

That's when he began speaking to me. I had defeated his greatest creation, he told me. I would inherit his mind, his vision- his commands. Thus my free will became slowly robbed of me, because the man is in fact, a genius. I inherited everything. His insanity and his failure were not exempt. Nor was his ability to stay live.

How strange when X first came to confront me. This quiet, well-mannered robot who would allow strange doctors to examine and reverse-engineer him had suddenly decided to decide.

But that was a lie.

Light had already built the arm-cannon into him. Light knew that his creation would have no choice but to fight. Those damn capsules are even sent through a time-bending device so that I can never detect them until too late. What choice was that?

Just like I found I had no choice. Not dead, I quickly began to form new allies- anyone who studied me suddenly found a visual virus- by reading and accepting the codes to be processed, they risked contamination. The doctor spoke to me again, telling me of where I could find his notes, his records, since he had no body. And I had no desire to give him one, damn human. I learned secrets that the two heroic "brothers" would never know about each other, I learned what Light and Wiley had done to each other, I learned things that no one in this world would ever learn and it only isolated me further.

I would say I was insane, but that is a moot point. I was removed from my mind, so to speak. The next time X and I faced, I vowed to have his body as my own- to see if the secrets were real, to see if I could not end the cycle that would be coming as I knew it would be coming as it had come. My thoughts were just as long and hopeless as the previous statement. Long, unending, and hopeless.

I. I've long lost any connection to I. Am I a body? Am I a program? Humans are so lucky in this way, I must admit. They have an idea of "souls" but once they die they can't be brought back to life. The rest of us have back-ups, even X and Zero, and we can be brought back to life. Look at me. Brought back all the time. Trying to end this damned cycle but never strong enough to.

If it is more for me being free or more for me wanting to cross the man who is my master, or if it is finally wanting to rest, I do not know. I try to end each time, and yet I come back broken instead.

Am I those who copy me? They begin to seek me out, my program starting their insanity. But the original virus is mine alone, the one with the man who speaks in bullshit and anger and hatred. This is why humans have ruined everything. There's a man who speaks angry thoughts in my very programming, and there's not a damned thing I can do about it.

Those who copy me will only fail as well.

I tried to copy X. I tried to get into his system almost every time we fought, and each time was strangely exhilarating. I've felt flashes of my program inside his, I've accessed his sub-routines and yet he's never noticed. He's never noticed how easily my programs and codes can slip inside his, and how his anti-virus program will keep me safe from the damn origin for only moments. When I am inside him-

What strange thoughts. I sound like a human romance novel. But it is there, none the less. When I am inside him, I can feel the end of the cycle. When he automatically fights me off, I feel pieces of myself dying and I cannot help but laugh.

I have always wanted to die. Zero cannot give it; he is as he ever was, only able to attack you and destroy the body. X has the origin, X is the origin, and he contains the cure. He is my cure, but I cannot reach out to him anymore. The virus wants more and more of me to be gone, but it allows me to remain. I'm stuck, wondering if I'm still myself, or if I'm just a shadow of who I ever was.

I mentioned humans were lucky.

There is a newer face with him as he comes forth, two even. I don't really care. The female-looking one seems nervous, and I lash out at her.

The virus sticks but is eventually repelled. I can't enter her program at all- it merges to join with mind.

A sacrificial lamb. I suppose we do need one of those.

The other is afraid and holds twin guns, but he says nothing. I don't even bother- he's one of those idiot copying droids. If he even copied me once, his mind will go to dark places when he's resting.

Then there is X. He doesn't hold his blaster like usual. He just stands there. His eyes are filled with sad- I doubt he's even figured out that he's my savior.

Suddenly I can feel him inside me, and I smirk. "Finally you learn this trick" I whisper to him, and the old man grows angry. The original virus attempts to attack him- but this must be where the lamb comes in.

I don't really remember what happens. I am aware that I am inside X's body- the female is raving mad and is being sealed with the help of the other man. I can feel the programs inside starting to patch me up, but I reject them. I will die, finally, trapped in the body of my savior.

I smirk as I remember the project title Cain came up with.

I'm quite sure X will never understand, but it was him or Zero who would end this cycle and I want no more part in it. It has been too long, it has been far from my ideals, and I grow weary.

Humans are lucky that they can die and never be brought back.

I can feel X powering down, his program leaving his body and becoming some damnable "elf" or somesort. It pretty much is a physical manifestation of his inner workings.

My mind scoffs as I'm sure I'm just dying. There's no way a program could ever physically manifest itself, no way it could talk, and no way- is that a beam saber?

X's program presses into me once before he pulls back. "Rest in peace" he tells me, and I'm sure he does know.

"This will be the last time, X," I tell him. "While I've enjoyed it, I'll never want to see your face again."

And in the flash that comes after the programs, I can see that my existence has kept him focused, kept him from wandering, and kept him from thinking that even though he had "free will", he never really had a choice at all. I made him not think.

How useful I was. We were like saviors to each other, then. The demon and the angel. Here we will ascend, myself into nonexistence and him into an impossible reality and somehow we feel at peace.

I would think more, but I'm dying, as I well should b