A/N: So here's a story idea that sort of came out of nowhere and seemed entirely too fun not to write. I debated putting it in as a crossover of FF and Mega Man, but as it's primarily a story about the FFVI characters, and only bears its setting from Mega Man, I felt it appropriate enough to put it with the other FF fanfics.

Be warned, I will be taking many, many creative liberties. Much of the lore will be accurate, but used in a different way. Characters will experience similar things they did in the original FFVI, but with different twists to fit the new setting. The story won't be copied straight from either game, but something that combines both into a new world. So, lore junkies - feel free to point out anything incorrect. I might've missed it, or it might be intentional. We'll see. And as always, anyone interested in being a Beta Reader is welcome to contact me about it!

Anyway, enjoy the new series! I'm still writing it, so it'll be slower then my Pokemon work, but I won't give up on it!

Disclaimer: I do no own Final Fantasy VI or any of its characters or rights. Nor do I own Mega Man or its setting.

Chapter 1

Mega City was a mess. Chunks of steel and concrete littered the streets. Holes dotted the buildings like a honeycomb. Never before had the cutting edge city of towers and technology seen such a disaster. Now robots roamed the otherwise empty streets, the same robots that attacked the citizens on sight before they evacuated. With no more people to target, the robots wandered, seemingly without purpose, occasionally tearing away at their surroundings.

One such worker robot ambled along, its squat legs holding up a round head. Every few steps it slumped to the ground, disappearing beneath the construction helmet it wore, staying only a moment before popping back up and wandering away.

A blast of energy caught it just as it stood up, destroying the robot's black body and sending the helmet skittering across the concrete. Celes lowered her arm cannon, hopped over the cover she'd hidden behind, and continued on, kicking the helmet aside as she went. Tapping the side of her own blue helmet, she scanned the area nearby. Blips of robot energy flashed across her visor, transposed over the world around her. They showed up on the other side of walls, underground – wherever she looked.

"Things are everywhere," she muttered. They clustered more in the buildings, so avoiding those made things a bit easier but a lot longer. Should she conserve time or energy?

"Celes! Above you!"

Her eyes snapped up. A robot hovered in air high above, its fan blades spinning far enough away that she missed it. A shot of energy burst from the turret and its base and Celes threw herself to the side as it pelted the ground where she'd stood. Chips of rock flew from the new hole in the street even as the turret swiveled and took aim again.

Not that she was about to wait for it. Celes whipped her arm cannon up, lined the target up in her visor reticle, and squeezed the hand grip. The first shot knocked the robot off balance, the next blasted it from the sky. It crashed to the ground in pieces.

Celes blew out a breath. "Good catch, Edgar. I see why you put the communicator in."

"It was really just so I could hear your lovely voice," Edgar's chipper voice came through her earpiece, "but yes, this is helpful too."

She rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips. Edgar would be Edgar. "So what happened out here? Any word?"

"Not yet. We know the worker robots out here went berserk, started attacking anyone in sight, but no idea why."

"Not helpful." She picked through the wrecked robot, pocketing a few circuits that weren't destroyed. "How about a direction, or general clue?"

"Still the way you're going. There's a higher energy concentration further in. That's about the best you're gonna get."

"Oh, good," Celes deadpanned, "I love surprises."

Edgar laughed. "Lighten up, Celes! That mega-suit you're wearing is more then capable of handling a few surprises. I could use more readings in fact, so feel free to rush into whatever's there."

He seemed right about that - not that she'd tell him. The suit was a marvel. She was faster and stronger than any soldier – and a lot of robots – and it shrugged aside hits that would kill her without it. It was a soldier's dream armor. Wasn't much to look at though. Smooth, somehow flexible plates of metal formed the suit and molded close to her natural figure. It felt more like a bulky leotard then an armored suit really. Then came the coloring, nothing more then a blend of different shades of blue. Edgar had strange taste.

"Sounds like you're trying to get me killed."

"I'm hurt you think I'd do that to you," Edgar moaned. "It'd be impossible for me to replace such a beautiful partner."

Now Celes groaned. "Oh come on, Edgar. Laying it on a bit thick there, aren't you?"

"I don't see how. Mere words couldn't possibly do you justice."

"Enough!" What an exasperating man, ridiculously direct and impossible to ignore. She took a breath to calm the blood before it flooded her cheeks. "Just figure out where I'm going. I don't want to be wandering around all day."

"Yes, Ma'am."

The mess of winding roads and dead ends worsened as Celes moved further into the city district. Landslides and crumbling buildings turned the place into a maze, and while she could go over some of it, other sections were too unstable. She'd survive the collapse thanks to Edgar's 'mega-suit' – as he liked to call it – but she didn't fancy spending hours buried in rubble. All of it was a recipe for a long day.

It wasn't boring at least. The renegade robots popped up everywhere she went, giving her plenty of practice in using her suit. Still, a question nagged at her. "Hey Edgar, these are all just worker bots, right?"

"Right. They all serve their own special purpose. Some can easily reach higher levels, some excel at digging up the ground, and others were built for the heavy lifting. It's a whole ecosystem, and designing it all was a fantastic challenge. I remember one time I got stuck-"

"Yeah, alright," Celes cut in, "I just have a simple question then: why do they all have blasters or weapons of some sort? You didn't mention that before I got here."

"I didn't design them that way – well, not all of them. So either they modified themselves or-"

"Or someone else did it to them." She frowned as she finished his thought. "Which would be worse?"

"Well, if the robots built weapons into themselves, it goes along with what we already know of the situation. Something caused them to go haywire. Making adjustments to their bodies would show a level of intelligence they shouldn't have – which is quite interesting – but that's about it."

Celes considered that when Edgar paused. True artificial intelligence in simple worker robots could cause all sorts of trouble. "And if someone did it to them then this whole situation was intentional, with a mastermind behind it all."

"That's about the gist of it. So you tell me which is worse – an evolution or an attack?"

"Give me someone to blast any day," Celes smirked. "The tech stuff is your department."

"Somehow I figured you'd pick that one."

More robots wandered across her path, and Celes ducked behind cover. "So, any ideas who might be behind this?"

"Assuming there is someone – driller on your left."

She blasted the robot apart just as it came above ground. "Got it."

"I'm not going to jump to any conclusions. Let's just stop these robots before we go looking for more trouble."

Celes dashed from cover, jumping over another hardhat robot and blasting some sort of two legged hopper bot as it charged her. "Fine by me. Am I close to wherever I'm going yet?" Spinning, she kicked the hardhat bot over and blasted away its underside.

Faint tapping carried over her earpiece. "You should just about be able to see it. Ah, there. That construction site off to your right."

After double checking the area for robots, Celes followed his direction. She had to tilt her head back to see all the way to the top. "That giant, half-built tower?"

"That's the one."

Her head swam a little as she tracked the steel beams up to dizzying heights. "So, how durable is this suit against falling?"

"It would take quite a bit of impact force to damage the mega-suit. Of course, considering its own weight, hitting terminal velocity could be pretty dangerous."

"Don't fall then?"

"Try to limit it to a few stories."

Celes grimaced, "Right..."

More robots crossed her path on the way to the buildings base, their numbers increasing as she got ever closer. None of the little ones much worried her, not with their small blasters, but she still took it slow. Their sheer numbers could be a problem, and it reached the point where she couldn't take ten steps without shooting something. Worker bots swarmed around the base of the tower.

As an added precaution, Celes tapped her visor to scan for robots beyond what she could see. The building went red, she couldn't even see it through all the indicators.

Celes blew a sharp whistle. "You see this, Edgar?"

"That's not possible though," he muttered. "There's no way the city owns that many worker bots. Not considering how many are in the area outside the building."

"Other types of robots maybe? Have any from other parts of the city joined up?"

He didn't answer, so she looked over the building again. Running the scan again didn't help, she couldn't pick anything out among the mass. Was there even anything special there to find? "You sure there's anything here? Beyond all the little guys?"

"Almost certainly. The sensors can differentiate individual power sources, regardless of proximal density."

"Shouldn't you be able to pinpoint the larger one then?"

"I did. It's in there."

Celes rolled her head back and groaned. "Can't you be a little more precise?"

He hummed in thought. "Maybe. Let me see if I can triangulate the source of the signal a bit. Go around the building."

"Why?"

"I need to bounce the signal off your suit in order to get a proper directional reading, and getting a precise location within a three dimensional object requires at least three points of origin, otherwise I can't decipher all three axes."

"... I'm going to pretend I understood that and just walk around the building." Edgar chuckled as she started picking out her route. She kept a sharp eye on the robots visible in the building, if she could see them they could see her, but none ventured out her way. They seemed caught up in whatever they were doing.

Celes frowned. None of the other robots she came across were involved in much of anything. What made the ones here so different? She angled her route in closer to the building, but it was still difficult to see anything.

"I know you're trying to help, Celes, but if you go any closer you may as well go inside."

She stopped – he had a point. "Hey you can see all of this, right? Can you use any of your fancy machines to get a closer look?"

"I've kinda got my hands full with everything else- Ah, Relm! Give me a hand, would you?" Background noise filtered in through her earpiece, none of it clear enough to make out. "No, Interceptor can't do it. He's not a robot." More noise, then Edgar sighing. "Fine, I'll look at your digi-easel as soon as we're done here, now hop in that chair over there and zoom the picture in."

Celes' visor blinked a moment later and the whole world enlarged before her eyes. It was still her view, just much closer, which meant if she moved, everything moved. She snapped her eyes shut after her stomach threatened to rebel. "Oh, that's going to take some getting used to."

"Relm! Stop playing with that. Go back out." A pause. "There, right there. Alright, Celes, you should be good. Sorry about that." A peek between her eyelids was all she dared until she saw the world was normal again. "Look at whatever you want to zoom in on and let us know. Also, there's an override switch for your visor just above your left ear. Hit that if anything ever goes wrong, or if you have a rambunctious ten year old at the controls."

That made her feel a little better. "And why can't I do this myself?"

"Well, I didn't program that functionality into the suit," Edgar admitted. "But I will!"

Celes shook her head and went back to it, focusing in on one of the robots moving around. "Alright, let me see this thing." Her vision jumped forward, bringing the bold, yellow construction helmet into full view. It looked just like the others she'd run across, though this one was swinging a mallet at the steel beams. They didn't have arms, but they apparently had built in tools. Still, there was nothing special about it as it went about its work.

Then it clicked, what was out of place. "Edgar, it's not destroying the building. It's putting it together."

"Really?" He paused. "That's unusual. None of the robots we've seen elsewhere have shown any tendencies toward their programmed functions."

"Zoom out." Celes' view returned to normal. Now that she knew what robots were doing, even from a distance she could make out their movements. "The rest are the same, they're all working on the site, not tearing it apart." This didn't feel right. All the robots were acting differently, in the same way, around the site with the large energy source Edgar found? There was no way it wasn't intentional.

"Celes, watch your right!"

She spun, blaster arm swinging up to take aim. When she saw it though, she paused. It was one of the yellow hardhat bots, but it just stood there, looking at her. "Edgar, why isn't it attacking?"

"Maybe the robots around this site lack the violent tendencies of the others. See if you can get closer. There should be a shutoff switch in the cross on its helmet."

Celes grimaced. "This doesn't sound like one of your better ideas."

"Relax. Worse case, it shoots at you and you shoot back. Your suit can more then handle a shot from these guys." With a sigh, she stepped toward it, not lowering her arm cannon.

She made it one step before a hatch snapped open at the top of the robot's helmet and a spinning red light slid out of the hole. An ear splitting siren rang out from the robot, making her wince even as it turned to run.

"Celes, stop it! It'll alert everything for half a mile!"

"Thanks for pointing out the obvious!" She fired off a shot, blasting away a pile of rubble as the robot hooked around it. An annoyed growl built in her chest and she took off after it, leaping the debris to catch up. Another blast clipped its hardhat and bounced off – it was halfway to the construction site already. "Damn thing's fast! Did they modify your design?"

Edgar cleared his throat. "I may have forgotten about the alarm bot model."

Shots came from the building as she chased the alarm bot, and she returned fire but fell further behind. "Well help me out here! I can't watch everything at once!"

"I'm trying to track the energy source, but with so much going on-"

"Finding it won't help if they turn me into swiss cheese!"

He cursed, then his voice faded out and noises came over the earpiece, like the mic bouncing around. The sounds stopped. "Hi, Celes!"

Celes dodged behind a half-built wall and let the alarm bot go as shots pelted the ground around her. "Relm? Where's Edgar?"

"He said he's busy. I'm your navigator now, so let's do this!"

Celes didn't have the words – she was going to kill him, if the robots didn't get her first. "This isn't a game, Relm!"

"I know that," Relm sassed. "I can do this just as good as Edgar can. Oh! There's one on your left!" Celes spun and blew a hole in the bot just as it hopped around the corner. "See? We can totally do this!"

One of the biggest downsides to having a helmet, she couldn't rub away the headache coming on. "Alright, just try not to get me shot."

"Oh please. Now get a move on! Those robots won't shoot themselves!"

Not quite the sentiment Celes was after, but the girl had a point – she couldn't stay there. By now, that alarm would've alerted the entire complex. Whatever was inside would be waiting for her.

"Okay," Celes blew out a long breath, "time to put this suit through its paces."

Turned out Relm wasn't the worst spotter in the world, though the constant stream of taunts and cheers made the whole situation feel like a game, no matter what Celes told the girl. Relm pointed out another bot, and Celes blasted it from the path.

"Yeah!" Relm laughed. "Robot dust!"

Celes smirked. "More like robot parts."

"Dust sounds cooler. Don't be a party pooper."

"This isn't-"

Relm sighed. "I know, I know. Sheesh. Come on though, admit we've been having fun."

Celes rolled her eyes. "Is Edgar done yet?"

"Lemme check - Edgar! Celes is getting impatient!" Relm picked up on that apparently. "Aww, you're done? Alright, here."

More shifting noises came through the earpiece and Celes breathed in relief. She liked the younger girl well enough, but it was hard to handle her for any extended time. "Doing alright there, Celes?"

"Took you long enough."

"It's surprisingly difficult to find one signal in a building filled with hundreds. Go figure."

"So?" Celes hugged the wall, keeping watch for more robots. "Where am I going?"

"Up."

Celes waited for him to elaborate as she glanced up and down the hall. No robots had showed up for awhile, she must've cleared the area well enough with Relm. Nothing else came through her earpiece either. She clenched her jaw. "If you try to tell me that your only answer – after I've been running around with Relm for the past twenty minutes – is 'up', I'm going to come back there and lock you in a room with her. Just you and a bored little girl."

"Whoa," Edgar laughed, "calm down there, girl. You should take Relm's advice. Loosen up a little!"

Celes closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she let it out, nice and slow. "Edgar, I will shoot you."

Silence, then he cleared his throat. "The signal is three floors above you, and as far as I can tell, it hasn't moved off that floor."

"Got it." Celes moved down the hall and took the first set of stairs leading up she found. Robots wasted no time in attacking as she moved into the new area, and she blasted some sort of monkey bot swinging from the ceiling beams. Hardhat bots hid at every turn, their helmets strong enough to repel her blaster, yet as often as some attacked her others ignored her, continuing their work even after the alarm.

"What is this place anyway?" she asked.

"Well," Edgar trailed off, going quiet a few moment. "Ah, here we go. It was going to be an office building, that's all."

Celes blasted another bot that wasn't paying attention. "You think some of these robots just didn't go crazy then? Should I leave them alone?"

"I don't think that's it. Even robots that were working have attacked you, they just didn't go looking for you. It's like their programming is prioritized toward finishing their work."

"But if I threaten their work-"

"-then they turn on you, yes, which implies our second theory may be the right one. An outside influence is far more likely to have altered their programming this way than any kind of system error."

Celes lowered her blaster arm and peered down the next corridor. More robots littered the area, each going about their task. There was a pattern – the higher up she went the fewer robots attacked her first. Because there was more work to be done up higher? Or was it that the alarm didn't reach more then a few floors? On a hunch, she went around the next corner into the hallway, her arms down at her sides.

"Celes, what're you doing?" Concern tinted Edgar's voice.

"Just testing a theory," Celes said. "Your suit can take the shots from these guys, right?"

"Of course," he responded, then lowered his voice, "for awhile." She didn't respond - it shouldn't matter anyway. She walked down the hall, her strides soft and even as she passed between the robots. The robots never faltered as they went on hammering, welding, and otherwise continuing construction.

"If I'm not a threat, they're not a threat."

"They must really want this building up," Edgar said.

"Okay, so who owns the place?"

"Well, like I said, it's an office building, owned by," Edgar paused, "Empire Robotics."

"Anyone you know?"

Edgar hummed, "Maybe."

"Well find out, it may not make a difference, but-" Celes cut off as a new robot came into the hall. More humanoid then the others, it carried a large shield at its side and a gun in its other hand. With a quick step, Celes slipped between the partially built walls and pressed in out of sight. A clatter at her feet made her jump, her eyes following the noise. Celes cursed – she'd kicked over a bucket of tools and now the hardhat bot stared up at her. It'd set off the whole floor.

Waving her hands, she took a step back, not sure how to apologize to a robot. The little bot's eyes swiveled to her right arm and Celes cursed again as the bot beeped, its blaster opening and aiming her way. She stomped on the thing, flattening it under its own helmet. "Edgar, we-" Celes cringed as the little robot rattled against the floor, its' helmet clacking against the concrete as the sound bounced off the scattered walls, magnifying and echoing as it went. In a matter of seconds bots were peering at here from all over the level.

She kicked over the one she had trapped and blasted it away with a growl. "We have a problem!" No point waiting around now, and Celes bolted, blasting what bots she could and dodging the rest. When the shield bot came into view she snapped off a shot, only to watch it deflect off as the thing raised the shield. It covered the robot from head to toe, she could only see the blaster it leveled toward her. She skid and hooked a turn. "Help me out here! Where can I go?"

"I can't see the building layout, only the energy signals."

"You have to be able to do something- Ah!" Celes grit her teeth as a blast of energy hit her side.

"Celes!"

"I'm fine!" She blasted away another robot. "Your suit held up, but it stings like mad." Another shot clipped her shoulder. eliciting a hiss of pain from Celes before she spun and blasted the shooter. "Come on, Edgar!"

A frustrated groan came through the earpiece. "Alright! Head for the east wall!"

"East," she gauged the direction and took off at a run, "got it!" All her focus was on dodging the robots, she didn't even try to shoot back anymore, she just ran. Whatever she could, she cut across, glad the hallway walls weren't finished. Open sky caught her eye from an open section of the outer wall, and it raised her spirits – right before it dropped them.

"Edgar," she growled, "there is no east wall!"

"Exactly. We're going to test the jump jets."

Celes missed a step, almost slowing before another shot flashed by too close. "You want me to do what?"

"The control switch is inside your arm cannon, there's a button near the end of the handle. You should be able to press it with your thumb." Following his instructions, she stretched her thumb over. Sure enough, there it was. "You're going to jump out of the building and use the jets in your boots to boost you up to the next floor."

"You're nuts!" There wasn't any time left though as she closed on the opening. Celes slid the rest of the way to the edge, reducing her forward momentum, then jumped up and out. She twisted in the air, flung her legs out, and hit the button. Boosters flared to life on her feet, lasting only a second and forcing her up.

Celes worried she wouldn't make it, that she'd crash into the floor of the next level and tumble back out into open air. It surprised her when she bounced off the ceiling of the next floor up before tumbling onto the ground in a heap.

"Oh, wow," Edgar said as she pushed off the cold floor. "I'll need to look into the regulator for your propulsion system apparently. I wouldn't recommend hitting the button quite so hard next time."

Despite the rough landing, she grinned. "Can I do that again to skip more floors?"

"Careful, Celes," Edgar chuckled, "you almost sound like you're enjoying yourself."

She rolled her eyes. "You make me sound like some sort of ice queen."

"Well you are sort of a regal beauty."

Celes blew out a breath as she backed away from the edge, giving herself some room. "This is why I can't talk to you."

"Because you're helpless before my obvious charms?"

Her lips twitched up, "You keep telling yourself that." Then she took off, racing for the edge and a repeat of the previous jump. Tapping the button this time, instead of jamming her thumb down on it, sent her up just over the next floor. Her armor ground against the stone as she slid to a stop.

Celes surveyed the front of the suit as she got up. "Think it's going to need a new paint job. Maybe something other then blue."

Edgar scoffed. "Are you mocking my stylistic integrity?"

"Yes."

He harrumphed and she could just imagine him sulking. "I'm not painting it pink you know."

"What? No," she wrinkled her nose. "Just add some white, or black, or silver. I'd even settle for a darker blue." Scuffling drew her attention as robots scurried into the room. "Maybe we'll talk about this later." Celes headed for the next floor, more then happy to make of the jump jets again. She tried for somewhere in the middle with the switch this time, and almost landed on her feet after the jump, stumbling over a hard at work robot. She glared and kicked it over the edge.

There was less activity on this floor then the others, and less actual building. More steel beams and fewer complete walls obscured her view, though it wasn't open enough to see clear from one side to the other. Sound echoed up from the floors below – she wasn't alone – but the robots shouldn't be smart enough to follow her so far.

She breathed deep and stretched her stiff muscles. "So, where-"

SLAM!

The building vibrated with force and Celes dashed behind a steel beam, her armor shrieking against it. Flinching at the noise, she held her arm cannon up and ready, her breathing shallow.

"Celes? What was that?"

She didn't respond as she scanned for threats – or whatever shook a ten story building – but nothing moved into view. Did it come from below? It didn't sound like it, but she wasn't in a hurry to meet whatever caused it.

"Celes?"

"I'm here," she replied, her voice low. "Whatever caused that noise shook the whole place. I don't see it though."

"Alright, let me just... There. Looks like the source of the impact came from the same floor you're on. That's where the shock waves started." Celes didn't like where this was going. "In fact, overlaying that scan with the location of the energy source you're looking for puts them in the same place."

Of course. "How convenient," Celes groaned.

"Troublesome is more like it. I'm not crazy about you going after something with that much power."

"And you think I'm jumping for joy?" Celes shook her head as she moved from the pillar. "This is what I'm here for though. No point standing around."

"Yes well, just be careful, alright?"

"I thought you had complete faith in your mega-suit. Or do you think I'm not up for this?"

"You're basically field testing that suit right now," Edgar reminded her. "If anything were to fail, the suit's more likely then you. I didn't choose you just for your pretty face after all."

Celes smiled. "That's both flattering and disconcerting."

He laughed. "I'm just warning you, don't be reckless. Relax."

"Because I'm the reckless one here."

Edgar cleared his throat. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Sure you don't," she said, smirking as she peered around a corner. "Oh, hold on, there's a door here."

"What? There's barely walls there."

Celes crept forward, "It's definitely a door." It wasn't like any office door she'd ever seen though. "Looks industrial. There's no hinges on the sides and no handle." There wasn't any security or guard, just the single, very out of place door. "Maybe it rolls up?" A thought struck her. "Is the energy source on the other side?"

"It looks that way. It's definitely in front of you at least. Good guess."

"Wasn't much of a guess," Celes said. "This is the first door I've seen in this place, and it happens to be on the same floor as whatever I'm here for. A rookie could make the connection."

"So what now?"

"Now-" Celes moved closer to the door, startled when it slid open. She stared through, her muscles tensed. "The door's open."

"What?" came Edgar's alarmed voice. "I didn't even know you were trying yet. What happened to being careful?"

"It opened by itself, I hadn't touched it yet."

Edgar sighed. "Alright, well they're inviting us in. It'd be rude to leave now."

"Always the gentleman," Celes muttered.

"Thank you for noticing."

The whole exchange was ridiculous – wandering into possible danger and commenting on manners – but it gave her something lighter to focus on and calmed her as she walked through the door. The room inside was more of the same at first look – unfinished floors with exposed beams – but walls enclosed the area into a complete room. Piles of materials and tools littered the floor, with blocks of stone and chunks of metal stacked up to towering heights. No ceiling hung overhead for at least a couple floors, and it gave the area a cavernous feeling. A wall split the room in half, blocking her sight of the far portion, but what she could see was empty of life – human or robot.

Edgar's voice broke into her thoughts, "You're right on top of the energy signal."

Cautious, Celes slipped up to the center wall and peered around. More evidence of a building under construction filled the other half of the room. "There's nothing here," she said, frowning.

"That was the last known location. Hold on, let me run the scan again."
"You better not tell me to go jog around the building."

"Not this time. I'm just going to measure the distance between you, since we can assume the general area hasn't changed."

"And if there's a lot of distance between us?"

He paused. "Then I might need you to take a walk."

Celes groaned. "I feel like you're working out of your parents basement."

"I wish," Edgar scoffed. "You know the kind of equipment I could get my hands on there? This lab is a shoe box comparatively."

She blinked. That wasn't the answer she'd expected. "What?"

"What?" he repeated. "Don't you know who my parents are?"

There wasn't much she did know about him. Celes wasn't interested in people unless it was part of her job. What did she know about him then? His name, of course – Dr. Edgar Light – and his work as a robotics engineer. What about his parents though? His last name was Light, so...

Nope, nothing.

She pushed it aside, she'd find out later. "Where's that signal?"

"Scanning now." Sighing, she resigned herself to waiting. The room provided some security at least, and she hopped onto a pile of steel beams for a seat. Even if the suit did most of the work, all the running around was tiring. Celes stretched her legs and leaned back to stare up into the open ceiling. It wasn't much to look at, it didn't open into the sky, but the wind blew through the open walls above, whistling through the tight spaces.

Something flew out into view, breaking the peaceful image. It was too far away to make out, probably just another robot going about its work. Being airborne made many tasks so much easier.

"Scan complete," Edgar spoke up, dragging Celes' gaze down as her attention shifted. "The signal's around seventy feet away, give or take."

Celes frowned. "Is that even in the building?"

"Wait, now it's fourty feet – it's fast! Twenty-five feet!" Celes jumped to her feet, her arm cannon swinging up and ready to fire. Surely it'd make noise moving that fast?

"Ten feet!"

That was in the room, yet she saw nothing. "I think your scanner-"

Movement flashed and she spun in time to see something fall onto the floor. The crash echoed off the walls and the floor shook as Celes grabbed onto her former seat to keep from falling over. The thing stood to its full height – easily twice Celes' own – with an ease that belied its past action. It just jumped who knew how many floors and it wasn't even phased.

And it stared right at her.

Celes leveled her blasted at it with trepidation. "Edgar, what is that?"

"That's the foreman," Edgar said, and Celes didn't like the hesitation to his words. "Gutsman."

The room was enclosed except for the ceiling and the door she came through. More then that, objects she saw as cover before were now weapons – she had no doubt this robot could swing them with little effort. She tensed, but didn't move. "How much trouble am I in?"

"Don't let him get a hold of you," Edgar advised. "You're faster then him, but he's strong enough to-" He paused, took a breath. "Just don't let him catch you."

Celes grimaced. That didn't sound good. "You know its' specs?"

"I should. I built him."

Her time ran out when Gutsman leaped toward her. She dashed out of the way, causing the robot to miss by a wide margin, but the tremor from its landing still made her stumble. Keeping it in sight would keep her alive though, and she spun on it without delay. Gutsman turned toward her, its focus disturbing. "It's one of yours?"

"One of my best. I can't get into his system though, something's blocking me."

"Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" Celes snapped.

"I didn't want to worry you."

"Well that was a great idea," Celes snapped as she circled Gutsman, gauging its reaction. It turned in time with her.

"Calm down," Edgar soothed. "Gutsman may be one of my best works, but the mega-suit is my best work, and you're the one best suited to wear it." Celes set her jaw, but didn't respond. Was he being honest or just flattering? "Go on and shoot him."

Her brow twitched. "You're okay with me destroying your robot?"

"I'm okay with you disabling my robot," Edgar corrected. "He doesn't break that easy."

"It's not my fault if I break it." She aimed her blasted and fired. The energy shot soared across the room, caught Gutsman in the chest, and broke apart. There wasn't a mark on the robot's armor, and no trace the attack just happened, except Gutsman's brow drew down. Celes eyes widened – the robot looked almost angry.

"Well that was ineffective," Edgar mused.

"Really, you think?" Gutsman reached over as Celes spoke, its hand gripping a ten foot steel beam and lifting it overhead like a javelin. Celes cursed, flinging herself to the side as Gutsman hurled the beam. She expected a crash, not the shrieking sound that followed. Picking herself up from the ground, she snapped a glance behind to check the damage.

Her jaw dropped – the beam pierced straight through the wall and lodged there.

She felt as much as heard Gutsman jump, and she was off running without hesitation. Mid step she spun, her wrist twisting in the blaster as she turned the handgrip. Energy gathered there, emitting light like a beacon as it grew brighter, and when Gutsman came down, she pulled the trigger before his shock wave could throw off her aim. She watched as the blast slammed into Gutsmans' chest in a burst of energy that exploded instead of dissipating. Before she could cheer, the light cleared - a slight black streak was all the marred its metal body.

Celes backed up a step. "I think you misjudged this suit, Edgar." Gutsman grabbed hold of the beam lodged in the wall, yanking it out in one tug.

"No," Edgar spoke, his voice soft, "I built Gutsman for hard, potentially dangerous work, but not combat. That shouldn't have happened."

"Well it did! So now what?" Again Gutsman hurled the beam, roaring at a deafening volume as it did. Celes rolled aside as the beam flew by. She jumped up without stopping her roll and swung her arm cannon back up - but Gutsman wasn't there. Panic flashed through her nerves. "Where-"

"Up, Celes!"

Celes snapped her gaze up, and there was Gutsman, bearing down on her mid-jump. Her eyes grew wide with realization – Gutsman used the steel beam to distract her and the noise of the roar to cover its leap. That wasn't the thinking of a worker bot. That was combat tactics.

However the robot pulled it off, it left Celes with no time to get out of the way. She threw her arms up to block as the giant fist came down on her, but she might as well try to stop an avalanche. Gutsman hit with both power and weight, and her knees buckled on contact. Fear flashed through her as the impact crushed her guard and pressed down on her, driving the breath from her before shattering the floor. Her stomach flipped as she fell, propelled straight down by the punch. The next impact made her gasp, forcing air back into her lungs as her body bounced before settling.

Everything hurt. Her visor flashed a warning - Armor Integrity Compromised. She needed to get up, to get away from the freight train that hit her. Groaning, she rolled onto her back – nothing felt broken – and stared up at the jagged hole in the ceiling above her. Her heart pounded at seeing Gutsman staring down at her, and she pushed up from the floor, jaw clenched against the ache shooting through her. She had to move.

"...es!" A voice filtered through to her, roaring through the earpiece. "Celes! Answer me!"

"I'm here," Celes groaned. She stumbled to her feet and moved away from the hole. "Stop shouting."

Edgar blew out a loud breath. "Gods, you scared me. You alright?"

Pain hitched her breath before she could answer, and she grunted, "Relatively speaking."

"Is Gutsman coming after you?"

No sound alerted her, but she spared a glance back anyway. "Doesn't look like it."

"Alright. Can you make it back down the building?"

Through waves of robots eager to finish the job on her? She grimaced. "Do I have another option?"

"Only if you want to jump out of the building."

She stopped walking to ask, "Are you nuts?" Her words ended in a shriek as a sheet of metal slammed down in front of her, inches from her face. Bits of concrete sprinkled over her helmet in the seconds before she bolted toward the open exterior wall. That metal beam nearly impaled her – Gutsman was out to finish the job. She wasn't about to stick around. "I hope you have a plan!" Then she jumped.

Edgar's voice mixed with the wind roaring past her ears. "Well I'd hoped to have more time to go over it-"

"Shut up and tell me what to do!"

"Charge your mega-buster and use both it and your jump jets to slow your impact."

"That's your plan?" Celes snapped, twisting her wrist to start the charge.

"Just do it! Now!"

She was going to die, and it would be his fault. A growl escaped as she slammed the jet button, trying to angle herself along the ground instead of straight into it. Spinning around, she aimed her blaster at the ground between her legs and fired. With any luck, she'd slide across the ground and roll to a stop.

When she hit, there was no sliding, and no rolling. She rebounded off the ground, crashed into the next building over, and slammed to a stop against an inside wall. Her eyelids flickered and closed, her head swimming.

Should've taken her chances with Gutsman.