[AUTHOR'S NOTE]

Hi there! I'm back with a brand new Megaman X fanfic! It's a mini-sequel to An Axl Story Rewritten, but not so much focused on Axl and the others from that fanfic. What's that? You don't know what An Axl Story Rewritten is? Then I highly suggest at least experiencing the Megaman X series of video games (X1 to 8, Xtreme 1 and 2, including X Command Mission) and then read that fanfic (Rewritten) in turn first before endeavouring this fanfic. This story starts of 3 months after the epilogue of that fanfic.

It's a totally different story on some characters you've likely not known so well, so I ask you to read and enjoy this tale with an open mind. Sit back, relax, and read!

Chapter 1: The Two

"Ah. Operations in Big City and in the rest on the mainland are proceeding as normal. No sudden human conspiracy or colluding detected or suspected at the moment." A pink-haired Reploid navigator of the Maverick Hunters spoke through her microphone.

"Roger that. Thanks for the information." A Hunter spoke through her headset. BLEEP. End of communication.

The year is 2182. The Earth is under the control of Prez Corp and its 'menacing' (according to the humans anyway) head, the Reploid Lumine. Days and resources are spent for the past 3 years for the de-Maverick-ization of the human race, since the newer-generation Reploid race are absolutely Maverick-proof, and will continue till the day he achieves this goal.

This pink-haired Reploid is a surprising relic from the days of X's discovery and the production of the first batch of Reploids ever. Her pink hair was a status of her superior computing to the regular blue-haired Reploid designed for navigation, and from day one she was sent from activation to be a navigator for the Maverick Hunters when the Maverick rebellion started.

"Sigh … I might as well take a rest." Kana flicked off her switch on her computer and walked up and out around the HQ. She was good; other navigators could fill in her spot.

She watched as navigators like Layer and Palette (who have overshadowed her own role due to diligence at work – not that she was of fault) directing other navigators to direct various teams of Hunters to clamp down on the naughty 'Maverick' humans of various severity.

Kana easily imagined Zero or X firing Buster shots or close-range saber attacks in tougher human scenarios to equipments like tanks, barriers or even bases in these human neutralization efforts.

By sheer luck, she ended up in the Energon canteen. She waited her turn in the queue to obtain her next cup of energy supply. Who pays for all these supplies and their manufacturing and delivery chains? She pondered. Likely the Corp boss himself.

"We meet again, Kana." A soft voice spoke to her amid the light crowd of Maverick Hunters. A female Hunter in black jumpsuit (similar to Kana – or even the former navigator Alia's design for that matter) – except this Hunter had a blue hue to her armour design to Kana's orange overall – came to meet her. "Resting?"

"Yeah … more human ruckus I'm sure the others can handle. You got your own cup of Energon?" Kana gestured to Mehri.

"Sure do. Let me sit with you." Mehri raised her glass and leaned against the window fence at the edge of the canteen. "Ah … man, duties are tiring for me too."

"Running around in the 5th Unit like always?" Kana asked, while she slurped.

"Yeah, but I'm good for the next 3 days. The missions are a bit more … risqué this time. They felt that I should be easing for a while. That just means they are not confident in me." Mehri said.

The two Reploids – again, the original type manufactured before the subsequent batches of new or newer-gens started popping up after Axl's appearance in the Reploid world – were still leaning on the fence. They were in silence and thought.

Kana recalled her days of non-stop direction of Hunter teams on the side during the first Maverick rebellion, the X-Hunters, the menace of Dr Doppler, the Repliforce incident, the Eurasia crisis and the Gate incident. After the Gate incident, it was temporarily quiet until new Maverick crime waves surfaced again.

It was quelled when new gens filled in the vacancy left behind by old gens gone Maverick, but the Jakob incident happened. And then suddenly, she was quarantined underground while the world was repaired back to normal.

Lumine took over; caused a huge uproar it did until he had a friendly battle with X Zero and Axl. Sure, the human nasty politics happened, but Lumine gained back supremacy on behalf of his human creator, and the world has been in his iron grip ever since.

She was never really comfortable with this history. She felt the humans' being naughtier was a natural consequence to the sudden new order imposed by the human who created him, and then died. Everyone went with the Corp narrative too quickly. Boy, she wished she could get the proper answers one day.

As for Mehri, she was created activated and put on Maverick busting duty after the Repliforce was suppressed for good. She has had personal direction from X in Maverick busting after the Eurasia incident, but that was only briefly as she was soon shuffled to the 5th Unit.

Her experiences from thereon until Corp domination of the world were similar to Kana's, if not similar to a majority of the old batch of Reploids that survived. The newer gens toed to Corp line a bit too quickly, she felt. She did that just as well to save her own skin as well just in case the higher ups wanted to purge anyone for insubordination.

"Urgh …" Mehri finished her cup. "Too much thinking of stuff makes my brain hurt."

"Haha … it's fine … so … I guess I will see you around as well?" Kana gestured after she finished her cup. "You know how to reach me. If you want me to fancy you a walk around in the streets, I'm fine too."

The girls waved goodbye and resumed their separate ways.

It was summer. The sun was glaring hot over Big City. Mehri found huge zeppelins droning in the skies, with their latest project (Corp-sponsored, no doubt) of the thickening of the ozone layer. How do they do that? She shrugged. I guess the big guys do have everything.

Her train of thought was lost. She walked and walked until she ended up being in the entrance chamber of the HQ. Few humans about, more of casually-walking Reploids around.

"Hey there!" A chirpy voice greeted her. It was the prototype Axl, the former Hunter in his Reploid form now … who knows what he is doing. No one has heard of him since he quit years ago. "Are X and Zero by any chance around in HQ?"

Mehri was surprised. "Uh … I have no idea. Last I heard was that he was sent out to a mission in the European frost zones. Maybe … you can check with the receptionist?"

"Haha. Good idea. Sorry, I've been gone all these years, I forgot how this place works already." He laughed good-naturedly and walked to the closest receptionist.

She watched as the receptionists were shocked, then greeted him happily, and told him that X and Zero were due to be back in a few minutes, assuming no sudden human traps sprung on them. She raised her eyebrows – how does this Reploid so easily go around, and has so much good luck with him?

"Oh hey, Mehri. Fancy seeing you here." Kana said. Kana too had been walking aimlessly around – these two have a nag for walking around together and aimlessly as well – so Mehri nearly jumped from her friend's sudden appearance.

Kana looked on Mehri looking at Axl as he paced easily into the HQ and headed towards X's chambers (in that direction). They glanced upon the navigators Layer and Palette rushing to greet him, and they talked chirpily with him.

"What are they talking about?" Kana blinked her eyes several times. "I'm only hearing stuff like … human food, something named Sue, free living, arguing with … the Corp boss?!"

"Yeah … they are squealing a lot. Kinda hard to hear their conversation." Mehri frowned and felt her own feelings of curiosity well up, and all sorts of unanswered topics rising as well. Everything since the Jakob incident started with Axl, so it's likely that Axl can provide clearer answers than the vague non-specific narratives going around the Reploid race.

"Hey, Kana." Mehri said firmly suddenly. "This is sudden, but you're free now right?"

"Uh, yeah. I am. W – what do you want me to do with you? Walk around here and there?" Kana blinked in confusion.

"Come follow me!" Mehri said. "Let's go and snoop around for some juicy details!"

"Huh? Whoa!" Kana yelped as Mehri yanked her. The blue-coloured Reploid pulled the pink-haired orange-coloured Reploid past other confused Hunters, discreetly going on other paths in such a way that Axl didn't know he was being followed.

Indeed, soon after Axl arrived at X's office, X and Zero surfaced from another corner of the corridor and were pleased to see Axl. They greeted each other cheerily and Axl bumped first into X's door. X pouted but nonetheless took no issue of it.

Mehri yanked Kana over to a balcony. The balcony had a narrow path that led up to the windows of X's office but was terribly narrow and could only allow one Reploid to move across at a time.

"Are you serious!? You can't do this! What if something bad happens to you? Me as well!?" Kana hissed in protest.

"Just be quiet and follow me! I want to spy on them, see what they're talking about!" Mehri hissed back. "Don't you think it's odd that Axl is for the most part the only ex-Hunter who seems to get away with everything? Don't you think that everything that happened after the Jakob Project seemed to move too well with what the Corp wants?"

"Uh … yeah … that is an issue I have as well …" Kana answered weakly.

"Then follow me! I know that captain X has one of those windows that open inward. We can sneak around and then hear whatever he Axl and Zero are talking about." Mehri hushed them forth.

And that was exactly what they did, albeit a bit nervously. Even the brave Mehri was a little afraid of screwing up on her moves. In no time at all, they squatted on the narrow path beneath X's windows outside of the HQ. Mehri sneakily pushed the window inward, just as she knew, and then both Reploids sought to listen.

"I'm glad to hear you're fine, Axl. You must really love doing your … human work, don't you? Your human friend sure is very supportive." Zero remarked.

"Eh, she means a lot to me, and in honour of my dad. What can I say? I feel alive." Axl said. "Sue's back in her college or whatever … her 3-month break ended a week ago."

"I know I asked this long ago, but …" X asked uncertainly. "You sure you're not going to come back to us and fight the human Maverickness?"

"No, I'm sorry." Axl said gently. "Besides … bro is too tightly tied into all this, and … if I were to come back, I think everyone will instead associate me as the poster boy for the Corp's positions on a lot of things that bro deals with the humans. That's a bit of bias there."

"Makes sense …" X sighed. "So … any word of Alia?"

"Huh?" Axl was then told by Zero what happened. "Huh!? I didn't know she left! Oh gosh, I just hope she's fine. I don't know much about what even Iris does within the Corp …"

"You don't even know what happened to Iris?" Zero's voice was a little raised.

"Whoa, hey, settle down, Zero! All I know is that bro relieved sis of her job as Vice Chair, and sent her off to do … whatever it is she wants to do. That's like 15 months ago! Plus, she seems happy. Every time she comes back for dinner and we eat together, she's always happy. The 3 of us are always happy." Axl replied with a gradually reducing tone. "Man, I bet dad is happy to see us."

"I'm sure …" Zero sounded assured. "Eat well and stay fine, okay?"

"I still can't believe that you 3 are able to drink Energon and eat human food all this while …" X said.

"It's a long story. Just keep it between yourselves and the navigators, okay? Palette is right, I don't want my human activities causing ruckus …" Axl almost sounded like he pleaded.

"Eh, no problem." Zero said calmly. "Next time, I might as well join X to visit your huge plantation and see for myself what it is you do. You know me, I'm more for punching and hitting stuff."

"Argh … I think my copy ability needs some kind of tuning. Bro said that lack of use is making me go rusty inwardly, he's afraid of my systems becoming … outdated or whatever. Ow. I need to go back to the Corp labs." Axl groaned. "Well … I think that's all the time I have for today."

"I hope the next time you visit won't be of this huge a gap." X retorted kindly. "Your last day of being with us was the last time … you visited us, I guess. And you never came, nor called us. You're lucky we're in a good enough mood to entertain your last minute request to talk with us."

"I'm really sorry." Axl sounded like he really was. "Thanks, though."

"No problem." Zero smirked. "Any time you're free, we can go tackle Level Ultimate in the VR training room again. I still think you can't beat my record of beating your bro."

"Man, don't bring up that old scar." Axl growled lightly, and the sound of his teleporting out was heard by Kana and Mehri.

The two girls were terribly filled with lots of curiosity. Clearly, even X and Zero and whoever navigators were in on the secret scoops they just heard. They tried to process all these, unaware that X then turned to closed his window (but he didn't find out about them).

"I … I can't believe I'm saying this … but let's go and sneak into the Corp and get answers from that Axl or anyone, perhaps even up to the boss Lumine!" Kana was pumped up. "I … I can't believe it! Axl and Lumine are brothers!? And … Iris … that's the name of a Reploid who perished in the Repliforce incident! She's alive!? But … that contradicts everything in the system!"

"See, see!? There are so many unanswered questions! We as knowing and civil Reploids should get the answers! It's just that the system is mainly shut off to the few Reploids running everything!" Mehri was pumped up as well. "Let's go to the Corp and find out!"

And this one thing changed their lifes.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE (again)]

Don't know who Kana and Mehri are? Easy! (Both characters do exist in the MMX lore; canon by the way - it's just that they are not named in canon, so I made my own names for them)

Kana is the pink-haired navigator you see guiding X/Zero whichever of these two in the X1 remake called Megaman Maverick Hunter X. Yeah, yeah, I know that game is a remake, but I prefer to think that she has always existed on the sidelines and has been quietly helping all the Hunters do their work. How do you think an old Reploid like her would've reacted to all the chaos that took place in Rewritten? That's my take on her.

Mehri is a bit more difficult to point out: essentially, if you have played X5, you didn't get Zero to be a Maverick, you defeated Sigma with X, you get the good ending - there's a cutscene where X is seen facing to three random Maverick Hunters: based on their designs, there are two male Reploids and one female Reploid. Mehri is the female Reploid Hunter in light blue hue armour, black jumpsuit (like Alia's design) and a belt hanging on her waist. Yeah. That obscure character. Or you can just Google Search "MMX Wiki Reploid", click on the link to the article named "Reploid" and you'd see an image on the top of the page the exact 3 Reploids from this X5 X 'good' ending cutscene. Still the female Hunter with light blue armour, jumpsuit and a belt on her hip.

I also prefer to think that Mehri has been around in the Hunters, and likely she has her own feelings on seeing the infamous Lumine take over management of the world from his human creator in Rewritten.

Yeah, these two characters are the focus of this fanfic. The others are all support.