Disclaimer (I know you hate it, but I kinda have to): I do not own Megaman Zero, or any characters originally depicted in the game. I will use terms of my own creation in this story, or terms that may be difficult to understand have you not played the game. a footnote number will be beside the word, and a corresponding footnote is enclosed at the bottom of the chapter. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my story, now, let us begin.
"Milan, did you get anything?"
"Nope, all we can collect is a signal so crappy we can only get an approximation of around ten miles."
Ciel swore as her florescent pink tech boot slapped the muddy ground extra hard. She held up her white gloved hand under a green poncho sleeve, and input the code into the GP tracker for the umpteenth time, and saw a thin wavering circle trying to materialize around a ten mile radius. Ciel pulled her boot out of the extra soft mud that it had found with a loud squelching noise. She brushed the soaked blonde hair out of her eyes, and turned to face her scouting party.
"Alright, we've got ten miles to cover, now split up into groups of no more than five; Milan and Passy are coming with me. If you find anything that might be it, investigate, and if it is, radio everyone, and relay coordinates. Other than that, I want no radio waves sent, they're too easy to track, so use PointCast(1) only."
The small scouting team split uneasily, and did not divide up into anything less than five, wary of wandering the swampy forests alone with the Arcadians out there.
Ciel felt a familiar warm tingling sensation(2)over her shoulder a she heard a voice address her, "Ciel, are you sure it's a good idea to split up the troops like this? If we're found, we won't survive." Asked Passy, Ciel's best friend from childhood and the only unused cyber-elf(3) in the resistance. Passy was also an incredibly talented tactician and hacker, and it was almost never a bad idea to follow her counsel
"If we find him, none of that will matter." replied Ciel as professionally as possible.
"What was that?" The young scientist immediately felt the warmth of the cyber-elf's presence leave her shoulder, and before the girl could look for her, a small head with oversized eyes, and shoulder length golden hair tied in a bun behind her head.
"AIIEE!" screamed Ciel as she stumbled backwards from the cyber-elf's sudden appearance in front of her face. Ciel felt herself trip, and begin to fall. Before the ground had time to catch up with her, a pair of strong arms caught her, and slowly lifted her back to a standing position. Ciel looked up at her rescuer, and saw the face of her boyfriend, and coworker, Milan, smiling back down at her.
"Ciel!" Screamed a shrill voice in front of her, snapping her back to reality. "What is wrong with you?" The small, fairy like creature beat wings that resembled curved neon tubes to bring herself a few inches from Ciel's face, "You are not yourself! Why would you, of all people, sacrifice that many troops just on a whim of a legend? If we're caught, and he isn't here, then we lose, game over! No one, and especially not you, would take a risk as stupid as that!"
Ciel's smooth complexion started to fall apart as her lip trembled, and tears welled in her eyes, she finally gave up the façade of a straight face, and broke down crying. "I-I'm sorry, c-commander E-elpizo pressured m-m-me to; I did-didn't want t-to b-be out here in-n th-the first place…"
The snap of a twig snapped the three out of their varying states of sorrow, surprise, and guilt. The team's heads collectively shot their gazes to the place where they heard the noise. They were immediately terrified by what they next saw; a small red light, bobbing closer through the trees. Another one faded into view behind him, and another, two more, five, ten. A whole army of red lights bobbed back and forth, swaying mindlessly as they slowly grew brighter.
"Oh, crap!" Milan said under his breath as he lifted Ciel, and pulled her along until she was running along with him. Milan pulled out his radio, and screamed into it as loudly as he could while still running, "RUN! Arcadians!"
Ciel glanced behind her while she ran, and saw the holders of the red lights, clearly visible now that they were out of the forest overgrowth. The red lights resided right in the middle of a circular blue and white head that rested over a slumped neck and back that were covered by pale blue body suits. Small pieces of either blue or white tech suit(4) armor covered the arms, legs, and chest. These monstrosities stepped with a mindless pace that chilled the bones merely to see. Each bore on their arm a large plasma rifle that was held straight out in front of them, and aimed directly towards the three resistance members. They were the Pantheons.
Ciel screamed as her foot snagged under a protruding root, and fell over Milan, knocking them to the ground. Milan stood as quickly as possible, and lifted Ciel up with him, but before they could begin their flight again, a noise far worse than the Pantheons reached their ears. The roar of turbines and the crack of trees being flattened in their wake.
"Crap! They brought the Golems with them?" Milan yelled as he began running again. Just as Milan had spoken, monstrous, golden transports pulled up along side them, bearing many more Pantheons crouched on the top and hanging off of the sides. Milan reached over his back, and pulled a long blaster out of a holster, and began to pick them off of the sides. While the transports were still moving, the hatches on the back slowly lowered themselves, and thirty-foot tall, gold and silver bodies began to pour out, gliding along side the transports on similar turbines. He and Ciel weren't moving fast enough, and Milan knew it, he knew they would close them off, he knew he would be retired. He immediately pulled a second blaster from his back, stopped, and began firing wildly all around him to destroy any and all enemies he could.
"Milan! What are you doing?" Yelled Ciel as she stopped and tried to pull him away.
Milan lowered his gun and slid to the ground, "It's over… we've lost." He said disparagingly, smashing the ground as hard as he could with his fist. "They won't kill you; you're a human, all they can do is put you in a detention cell for thirty years, but me? Me they'll retire without a second thought. I'm just trying to go out with a bang."
"Don't say things like that," Said Ciel, kneeling down beside him, "We'll get out of this, I know we will, we just can't give up!" She stood, and pulled Milan up with her. A gasp escaped the girl's lips as she saw what lay before her, and she grasped Milan's shoulder tightly. The Golems had surrounded them, and the Pantheons were circled around the golems.
One of the Golems had raised its miniscule head out of the chrome shield that it was typically hidden under, and was staring at the three with tiny golden eyes, as it analyzed its objectives. The tiny head seemed to finish its calculations, and raised itself up even farther, revealing a cannon barrel.
"Commander! Look out!" called a voice behind her. Ciel watched in horror as the barrel began to glow green, and one of her own solders flew out of a tree, landing between his leader and the Golem. The Golem's weapon had finished its preparations; Ciel screamed as she saw her soldier engulfed by a green diffusion laser; dissolved into thin air. The Golem's "objective" had been reached as far as it was concerned, so it immediately turned, and trampled nearly twenty pantheons as it returned to the transport to wait for its next objective.
Milan seized the opportunity, and ran straight through the path that the stupidity of the Golem had just revealed, pulling Ciel with him. The Pantheons reinstated their pursuit, but could not catch Milan and Ciel for the confused state they were in. Milan, Ciel and Passy, who had shut herself down to prevent herself from being stolen, broke past the forest edge, and into a large clearing.
"Ciel, look!" Milan said in awe at what he saw on the edge of the clearing. A small, tarnished, golden inlayed, chrome colored door lay rusting on its hinges against a small sandstone building that had nearly fallen into ruins.
"Oh my god!" Ciel gasped, "Milan, is that…?"
"Yes, Ciel, I think it is…"
Ciel squealed shrilly, and immediately ran over to the door, and pulled on it as hard as she could, but to no avail. "I suppose I should let you handle this?" She said, stepping back and scratched the back of her head sheepishly.
"Haha, I guess so, now move back." Her boyfriend chuckled as he pulled one of the blasters off of his back, and pointed it towards the door.
The door didn't move for the bullet that erupted from the blaster any more than it moved for Ciel's bare hands. Milan lowered his gun dejectedly, "Then what in Sheol are we supposed to do?" He said, running forward and kicking the metal shield that separated the three from their objective.
"Milan!" Called a voice from Ciel's shoulder, "I thought yesterday you said I could hack through anything! I feel unloved" Passy said sarcastically as she glided off her post, and over to the control panel on the doorframe. The small, Fairy-like creature simply flew towards the small port on the lower corner of the panel, and disappeared into it. In mere few moments later, she reappeared, and, without a word, snapped her fingers towards the door, and watched with satisfaction as it slowly lit up and began to slide away with a jerk.
"Passy, if you couldn't hack like that, I would have killed you by now, you know that, right?" Said Milan as he started in.
Milan, Ciel, and Passy found themselves in a dimly lit, miniscule circular room with barely enough room to stand. A dim light emitted from half-powered lights on the walls, and a small control panel glowed ominously on the wall.
"Aaagghh!" Milan said, punching the control panel, almost breaking it, "It's not it!" Before Milan could let out a long string of words far too obscene to mention, a rumble sounded through the tiny room, and the floor started to fall.
Milan opened his eyes to see a dim fluorescent light shining down through the half open, malfunctioning door that lay on the opposite wall. They must have fallen into an old maverick lab from the old reploid wars, either that, or he was still knocked out, and was in a relapse malfunction. Milan saw Ciel slumped against a wall, and a small computer chip that was Passy's mainframe. Milan sat up, and sent a sharp pain shooting through his head. The lutenant rubbed his head to lower the pain, and stood slowly. He walked over to the door, and began to pry it open until it was wide enough for him to fit through, and stepped into the room beyond. The outside room was dimly lit, and computers flickered and hummed ominously along the walls. Milan turned around to awaken Ciel, but froze in his tracks when he saw, through the half open door, a glowing reddish circle hovering around in the shadows. A scream erupted from the usually calm captain's lips, and the gun on his back flew out of it's holster and immediately fired enough times to take out a golem. Milan sighed when he saw the empty blackness again from the door, but cringed when he heard what happened next.
"What is wrong with you?" The irate squeal reached his ears from the doorway. The reddish light came again, but this time emerged from the doorway, and a small, very irritated fairy-like animal floated up to Milan, "You idiot!" Screamed the still fuming Passy,
"Do you realized that you were less than a foot away from blowing off Ciel's head? I can't believe you!" she continued to fume, "If you weren't so freakin' trigger happy, we'd be a lot better off! You're a hindrance to this entire resistance-" She would have continued, but a hand wrapped itself around her mouth, and most of the rest of her head. Milan stepped past her wordlessly, and slipped through the door back to where Ciel lay, half sitting against the wall.
"Hey," he said softly, grabbing her shoulder and shaking it lightly, "Ciel, we found it!" His girlfriend slowly lifted her eyes, and looked around the room, and, moaning uncomfortably, leaned forward to better take in her surroundings. Within minutes, the pair was walking back out to where Passy waited, and continued through the next door.
The third room revealed a hundred yard long bio-mechanic disaster. The ruinous paneling on the walls was falling apart, and was only held up by the mossy vines that had wrapped themselves around it in so many places. The ground was covered in a layer of thick mud, on which rested almost a foot of slimy, greenish swamp water. Milan stood at the door, ready to alert the other two if the Arcadians followed them.
Ciel stood near the middle of the room, and hardly contained her excitement as she stepped on to the podium-like stand in the center of the room. She fell to her knees in the elation of the sight she saw, praying a prayer of thanksgivings to whatever force had caused this turn of events. Her eyes watered, and she sobbed out of pure happiness, for There, tethered to a console forty feet above them by many power and transfer cords, was the wonderful thing she had been hunting down for almost a year.
A limp head hung with closed eyes from the torso that was held by the transfer cords above. Long locks of shining, golden hair fell, matted and dry, from the back of the red and black helmet that covered most of his face. One of his arms was nonexistent, having fallen apart, leaving cords, oil tubes, and frame beams hanging just as dead as the rest of his body. His black body suit was old and faded, and the red and white tech suit over it was ripped in many places and obviously not in a working condition.
Ciel Stood, still crying, and ran to the computer that supported the dead half-man which sent her into such fits of joy. Ciel's fingers clacked across the keyboard with record speed as she attempted to bring the computer online. Her eyes sparkled as the statistical readout of the robot came onscreen. She pushed another set of keys, and gave the order to re-route all energy in the facility into the transfer cables. Her spirits fell from the dreaming state they had gone into at seeing the large red "error" banner flashing across the screen at her.
"Aaaaagghh!" She screamed as she kicked the computer. She stood, fuming, over the console, and tried the input code again. The "error" did not leave. She kicked the computer again, but her tirade was cut short by a scream from the doorway.
Milan was running farther into the room, shooting his weapon over his shoulder at the pantheons that had begun to flood into the room. Ciel screamed and ducked to avoid crossfire, and watched a hole appear in the now blank, smoking computer screen.
Ciel's head fell dejectedly, knowing that without that, there was no way to recover the man who was so treasured for such unapparent reasons. The Pantheons poured through the door, and Milan was shooting frantically, trying to clear a path out of the room, but every one he felled was replaced by two more.
Milan had become fed up with the fruitless effort to clear a path, so he decided to risk everything on a frantic rush through the growing ocean of pantheons. He rushed through them head on, screaming uncontrolledly, trying to make it to the door.
"Milan! Noooo!" His sobbing lover screamed as she watched him disappear into the shifting mob of blue and white bodies. She waited in horror as the Pantheons began to stay still in a circle around her. She sobbed periodically, and wanted with all her might to stand up and run, her face buried in her hands, but the mindless drones would shoot her down before she could take a step.
"I do believe that this is yours." Snapped a sharp voice as a large green object flew through the crowd of Pantheons, and landed on Ciel. Upon seeing what the object was, she embraced it immediately, and began to cry uncontrollably. Milan's hand raised itself softly to caress her cheek, and slowly, he began to rise from his position in Ciel's lap, but stumbled, and fell to his knees in front of her, unable to move any further.
"Pitiful." Said the same voice that had addressed Ciel before Milan was thrown at her. The Pantheons stepped aside to create a corridor large enough for one man to walk through. A splash in the green water heralded the man that was supposed to walk through that corridor. The dark blue boot that first came into view sent chills down the three resistance members, followed by another boot that carried the rest of the figure that sent that fear so deep into the pitiful looking group on the other shore of the sea of Pantheons. A black body suit ran along the burly thighs that supported the torso that was covered by a thick, blue tech suit. The forearms were covered in the same blue tech armor, and a helmet of the same hue rested upon his head. But his eyes, oh the dark, red piercing eyes that glowed dimly from under the rim of his helmet. Those eyes were what struck such fear into all that gazed upon them. Those eyes that resembled deep, endless voids; all light that fell on them was sucked in to a silent death, never to come out again. No light resonated from them, but a dim glow, neither shadows nor light, fell slowly out like a dead, bloody mist.
It was these eyes that stared down on Ciel, Passy, and Milan. These were the eyes of Megaman X. "So, this is all that your 'wonderful' resistance can muster to recover such a legend as this?" He said in a sharp, accusing tone. "As I said before; Pitiful."
"You little…" Milan said, standing with a grunt to face X.
"Now, now, there's no need for harsh words, let's do try to make peace here." Said X in a calm, refined voice.
"Shut UP!" Screamed Milan as he reached for the weapon on his back, whipping it out in a flash, and pointing it at X's head, "You know full well that only one of us can leave here alive today, and I intend to be the one who does."
"On the contrary, I planned on both of us leaving this place today, and, in fact, I intended for us to be comrades." Replied the Leader of Neo Arcadia.
"Shut up, I have the upper hand here, so don't try to negotiate."
"Oh, the upper hand? You call being wounded with a woman and a cyber elf in the middle of an army of ruthless killing machines the upper hand? If that is what you call the upper hand, then by all means, yes you do have it." Chuckled X.
"But I have my weapon against the leader of the Neo Arcadian army's head. And that, I do call the upper hand." Milan smiled smugly as he said these words smoothly.
"Is that not the leader of the resistance army behind you?"
"Perhaps, but our soldiers are not mindless, and will wipe you out without a fight."
"It does not matter anyway." Said X quickly, raising his hand to Milan's forehead, knocking the officer's arm out of the way, and instantly transformed his arm into a long, deadly looking cannon. "Because I have the upper hand anyway you look at it."
Milan stood defiant, and attempted to reposition his arm so that at least a standoff could be found. X's cannon fired a single, flaming, sharp blast with no hesitation, ripping a smoking hole through the officer's head. Milan fell with a slowness that Ciel could not bear to watch. She screamed and reached her hand out in a vain attempt to stop her lover's death. She instantly stood and ran to him, and embraced his dead body, and cried of over it, tears streaming uncontrolledly down her face.
Passy hovered over by Ciel's side, and tried to comfort her. "Well, well, well, what have we here?" Said X as he bent over towards Passy. "An unused Cyber-elf? What a waste of such a true power…" His hand shot out towards the small cyber-elf, and seized her mainframe immediately, producing a squeal of surprise from the tiny fairy.
"PASSY! No!" Ciel screamed disparagingly.
"Are you joking?" Chuckled X, "You mean that you are actually attached to this bit of data, this tool?" X began to chuckle even harder, and then burst out laughing, "Ahahahaha, hahahaaaa, oh my god! You humans are so weak! Growing an attachment to a mere computer chip and a hologram? This thing in my hand was designed to be used, and if you are too pathetic to do so, then I will!" With that, the dark blue tyrant threw the tiny elf towards the dead man's life support with deadly accuracy. The hologram of Passy's small body dissolved as the tiny mainframe inside her body connected perfectly with the tiny slot on the transfer cables. Tiny energy streams traveled along the nodes on the outside if the chip, and were sent into the tiny computer on the side of the cables, lighting up the screen. Millions of messages were sent across the screen within the span of a few seconds, as the ever-present vitality readings of the dead man slowly increased.
"You monster!" Screamed Ciel as she stood, and tried to charge towards X, but a snap of his fingers brought two Pantheons forward from the mob to restrain her.
"Now, now, you'll get over them when you come with me to live in the paradise of Neo Arcadia." He said softly as his finger lifted her chin. Ciel's mouth opened with incredible speed, and closed down as hard as she could force it to. "Agh! Why you little…" X growled, and grabbed her by the neck. "I was going to pardon you for your actions and let you live with us in paradise, but obviously, you won't comply, so you'll have to stay in confinement until you learn to see things our way."
Darkness. It was all he had known for a hundred years. Yet, why was he only now realizing it? What had happened to rouse him to a state where he knew things? Beyond the realization of the darkness, there was also feeling. He felt his body, he felt that his legs extended from underneath that body, he felt a floor underneath these legs and body that had suddenly attached to his consciousness. Finally, he felt a face. He didn't know if it was relieving, pleasant, disconcerting, or uncomfortable, because it was all of these things at once. He noticed that there was noise as well. He heard a high, whimpering voice, a deep, arrogant voice, and many beeping, clicking, or otherwise small and repetitive noises. He also felt that there was something past the shadows that he saw. He tried to feel eyes on the face he had noticed earlier, and finally did. He gained control over them, and slowly opened them. H seemed to be looking at a bronze colored floor, and a pool of greenish water all around it. He slowly found control over his neck, and tried to lift it to see the voices that were around him. But when his neck tried to move, pain shot all the way up and down his neck and back. He screamed from the pain, and apparently attracted the attention of the two voices he had heard earlier.
"Secure him and bring them both back to base. Take the girl to an empty detention block in Arcadia." He heard the deeper voice saying while the high pitched one continued to whimper. He felt many hands grabbing hold of him, and unimaginable pain going to all parts of his body. His vision was obscured from the pain, and his vision began to go white. The last thing he saw was a young girl in pink being dragged away by two blue figures.
PointCast is a form of communication using only lasers to transfer sound. Used mainly for relaying top-secret messages because they are much harder to track than typical radio waves.
2 A Cyber-elf is only a computer chip suspended in a hologram, so it is difficult to "touch" a Cyber-elf. Instead, the heat given of by the hologram creates a warm, tingling feeling in the skin.
3 A cyber-elf is a program with specific abilities, designed to help humans and reploids alike. A cyber elf is designed with a mind and conscience of its own, but are designed to be used in a computer system, and die immediately afterwards.
4 Tech suits are worn by most warriors in the modern day. They are pieces of bullet proof armor that analyze battle information and allow enhanced flexibility and agility.