------- Part 3 -------
General Sting continued to stand in one spot as the communicator screen in front of him rebooted into it's standby mode. Just moments before, he had lied directly to the face of a superior. Throughout his entire military career, he had never even considered it. Getting caught doing that was not pretty, especially for a Reploid. It was the one of the first signs of being a Maverick, after all.
He could only hope Alia detected something wrong. He tried his best.
"Excellent," Said a voice from behind him. He clenched his fists as he turned around to face Ares, who was holding a massive sword in his hands.
"Step away from the console, General," He ordered, sneering at Sting passively, "You've done your part,"
Sting moved away to the group of others in the back of the room. Acolytes pointed their weapons at the bunch, making sure none of them tried anything suspicious. Had there been more of Sting's men on duty, they could easily overtake the guards in one daring maneuver. Unfortunately for them, they were outnumbered this time.
"So what happens next, Ares?" The General asked, anger in his voice.
"Now we wait for our guest of honor to arrive," He replied, almost with a hint of satisfaction in his voice, "With you and Alia out of the picture, the rest of your miserable resistance will crumble under the weight of it's hopelessness. Then, as the Holy Creator rises up from his slumber, we will bring him to your hero, the one you call X."
Ares smiled his devilish grin again, enjoying the expression of disdain on the General's face.
"And when he does, he will strike him down with a divine wind, and X will be no more. And it will be then that you have truly lost, for the Ghazarkhan will use the Holy Creator's power to ascend from flesh and establish themselves as Gods."
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The room beneath Arturo's temple was completely dark. One small beam of light shone from a hole in the roof, leading to the surface. Piles of rubble littered the floating island, mostly still intact.
One pile of rubble suddenly began to shake. Small bits of rock rolled and fell off the edge, into the abyss below. In an instant, the mound exploded as Arturo rose from the ground.
As the dust settled Arturo began to survey the area. He saw the Altar was in ruins, pieces of it littered the ground surrounding him. He looked to the place where the capsule was sitting and saw no trace of it. Instead, only a figure lay in the center of a perfectly formed circle, engraved into the ground.
The figure looked oddly familiar. No dust covered his body, and wings sprouted from his shoulders. He remembered himself forcing X into the capsule, then as light flooded his eyes, he could not remember anything until he awoke.
One thing ticked at the back of Arturo's mind as he approached the figure. X had been a reploid, as he began to think more clearly. He knelt beside the mystery figure and rolled him over. The armor he was wearing was quite similar to the one X was wearing, though much different, though now he had no helmet on.
Arturo picked the man up, his dark brown hair flowing towards the ground. He was human, or so it seemed. Red crystals formed what seemed to be a runic symbol was embedded in the center of his forehead, and all of a sudden they began to glow, giving off a small light that illuminated Arturo's face. The medallion X had been carrying was embedded into his chest plate, a ring of light surrounding it.
Suddenly he began to rise from Arturo's arms, and Arturo backed up instantly. Not sure of what to make of this, he could only stare as the figure set himself in an upright position. As his feet just barely hovered off the ground, the figures eyes slowly fluttered open, and stared directly at Arturo. He smiled as he did so, and Arturo looked at him with a quizzical look on his face.
"Your name is Arturo, correct?" He asked, with a serene voice. Arturo nodded, and the figure continued, "You brought me here, but aside from that I do not remember much more..."
"I did," Arturo replied, a sad face coming over him, "But I don't remember much from being in this room,"
"You were infiltrated by a dark power," The figure explained, "It forced you to try and harm me, but something happened when you did. Another power came from the capsule and made you put me inside. It was, in your mind, an illusion in that it was a way to kill me,"
The figure smiled, no hate present in his eyes, "When you did, the one called X was transformed into me. His creator, Dr. Light, implanted technology he gained through a device sent from the heavens into a hidden circuit that lay dormant for years and years."
"Until now," Arturo finished for him. It was becoming clear to him that this had all been set up generations ago, and he was a puppet in the grand plan. This didn't bother him all that much, it was not in his programming to hate something.
Or at least, not anymore.
"Correct," The figure said, "When you put him into the capsule, which Dr. Thomas Light himself put here years ago, it activated the circuit and he became what you see before you."
Arturo stood silent for a few moments. This was incredible. It was almost impossible to comprehend completely, but he was confused about the reason behind it all.
"So what is the reason for your existence?" Arturo asked, "Dr. Light must have had a reason to prevent me from truly killing you--Err, I mean X."
The figure seemed to sadden at this. Arturo suddenly regretted asking for it, but listened as he continued to explain.
"There was another man, someone very close to Dr. Light, who had been working together with him for years. His name was Dr. Albert Wily, and was a friend to Dr. Light for years before they began their careers as scientists. When they came across the device that I spoke of earlier, which they found completely by accident in a dig far away from this temple, it gave them a technology which would enable whatever it was implanted into to possess the qualities of good or evil, sealed away into two small oval shaped capsules."
"The balance..." Arturo said, apparently to himself.
"The components which X was installed with was the good nature by which he lived by like a code that you could not tamper with," The figure continued, "It gave him conscience, and it was supposed to enable him to command great moral strength. He had the ability to influence that strength upon others, which is the true purpose of his red crystal on his forehead."
As he said that, the crystal designs on his forehead fluttered with energy. Arturo watched in fascination, never seeing such a being before.
"The main function of that technology, however, was to eventually transform it's bearer into me," He said, "The energy contained within that circuit is like no other technology ever seen by eyes of this generation. It has a mind of it's own, and the person you see before you is the way it chose to represent itself in physical form."
"I am, in essence, the living energy which I speak of," He said, that serene look upon his face again.
"That is...Incredible..." Arturo said, barely able to speak. He had never witnessed such an advanced being, "So you are a harmony between machine and a living organism then?"
"Yes," Said the figure, "But for the sake of having a name to be called by, you can still call me X. What I am has no name, for it commands great power. so what I have come from will have to do, if it must."
"You spoke of 2 powers within that device," He said, "What happened to the other side?"
"When they discovered the power that both sides could command, Dr. Light insisted that the evil power remain locked away for good," X said, "Dr. Wily agreed, but as prototypes for X continued to fail, Dr. Wily grew frustrated with the constant failure. He was convinced that the evil side, which enabled it's bearer to possess strength at the cost of it's integrity, was much more efficient and that it could be controlled much easier."
"He stole it, knowing that Dr. Light would never use it's potential," Arturo said, piecing the puzzle together in his head.
"Yes," Said X, with some disdain, "Deep within Wily's heart, the good in him struggled to break free. But the evil within that capsule knew no bounds and used his desire to create an unstoppable force against him, corrupting him. So when Dr. Light created Proto Man, the first prototype of X that could not sustain the power requirements of the technology the good capsule contained, he tampered with his programming to help him take the evil capsule and defend it at all costs."
"Did Wily succeed in implementing the evil technology into a robot form?" Arturo asked.
"At first, Dr. Wily's attempts were unsuccessful," X continued, "As his frustrations grew even larger, the evil capsule continued to fuel his rage, consuming his mind against Dr. Light. Eventually, much to his dismay, Dr. Light converted one of his robot servants, at his discretion, into Mega Man."
X continued to stand in one spot, hovering gently in the air, "This particular android was determined to fight for Dr. Light, and made it his mission to stop Dr. Wily. Eventually, with the help of a man named Dr. Mikhail Cossack, his weaponry was upgraded to unleash a wave of energy upon it's adversaries."
"Then Dr. Wily came across an energy called Bassnium while he worked on his version of Dr. Lights Proto Man," X continued to explain, not seeming to be tired of speaking at all, "It could give the drive needed to somewhat activate the technology the capsule contained, but not completely. So he implemented it into a new android, and called him Bass after the energy's name."
"As Bass and Megaman dueled and confronted each other for years, Dr. Light and Dr. Wily both began to work furiously on their separate inventions. When Dr. Light finally completed X's final form, after those long years of work, he became aware of the implications X's programming might give people in the future. The ability to think on his own was dangerous, even to Light."
X smiled, "Thus, he put X through a test of faith, one that would last for 30 years. However, after Dr. Light put him to sleep, Bass and Proto Man both stormed his laboratory and razed it to the ground. Dr. Light was killed during the attack, but they never discovered the section where X was being developed."
Arturo had been listening patiently the whole time, taking in what X was saying.
Monsters...
"Mega Man continued to fight, but eventually he began to question his existence now that his creator was dead. He decided to stop fighting, challenging Proto Man to strike him down while he stood in front of him, refusing to defend himself."
"But it was then that a robot from space, known only as Duo, crash landed in the center of the city where they stood. When he arose, he said that he had come from the stars to wipe out evil energies that existed on Earth. Bass and Proto Man immediately realized he was talking about the capsule Dr. Wily stole from Dr. Light, and fought Duo to the death, with Bass and Proto Man being victorious."
"In the end, Proto Man could not bring himself to kill Mega Man," X said, a sad smile on his face, then added "but Bass was determined to finish the score once and for all."
"He killed him in cold blood?" Arturo asked, somewhat unsurprised at that fact.
"It was his purpose to do so. There was no question in his mind that it was the right thing to do."
"So what happened to them, then?"
"After Bass delivered that final shot of power, Proto Man turned on him, and a great battle ensued. Dr. Wily watched intently, deciding whoever won that fight would be the one he would base his final design on, him being the strongest. When Bass won, killing Proto Man without remorse, Dr. Wily congratulated him, and told him he would be de-activated and disassembled to create the prototype."
"Bass refused, and deserted his master. Dr. Wily sent hundreds of drones to capture Bass, but none of them were powerful enough to take him in. So instead of wasting time building a robot just for that purpose, he let Bass live and worked on his prototype."
Arturo nodded, grunting in acknowledgement. He began to wonder if this Bass may still be alive, but continued to listen to the story.
"As work on this prototype, which he codenamed Zero, continued he came across a completely alternative solution: Rather than build an android which would be based on that technology from the capsule, he decided to mimick the power inside the capsule with a virus that would purposely infect Zero, and give him that strength the technology was supposed to give him.
"When Zero was activated sometime after X had been rediscovered," X continued, finally making a gesture with his wings, "The circuits that the capsule contained had degraded over time, and as the virus randomly evolved it caused Zero to go berserk."
"But then something unexpected happened. When X was found, his discoverer, a man named Dr. Cain, decided to replicate X's advanced design, including the circuit which Dr. Light had hidden away. When the reploid Sigma fought Zero, the Virus found a new target."
"Because the virus was designed to activate the circuitry that Zero possessed, but could not, it had no choice but to transfer over. Because this circuit was still intact, it transformed Sigma into something much more, and became what is now known as the Nightmare virus. Sigma discovered the great potential with this virus, and convinced his followers to take on it's properties. Some refused, but they were eventually forced into submission."
"So what has become of Zero, then?" Arturo wondered aloud.
"Professor James Lazarus discovered the body of Sigma lying at the bottom of the ocean some 3 years ago. When he found that the virus had survived, he began replicating it. Then the Ghazarkhan sent spies to find the world the two capsules had been sent to, and when they lerned of what had happened, they immediately blackmailed him to make it for them, and they began their descent onto the planet Earth."
"And here we are now," Arturo said, smiling slightly, "But how did X wind up here, in my temple?"
"Dr. Light must have found out somehow what the Ghazarkhan was, and their intentions with the evil capsule," X said, shrugging his shoulders, "He must have implemented X with a special piece of hardware to identify that point in time, if he were still active to see it, and transport him here,"
Arturo thought for a moment. Why here, though?
"Dr. Light must have discovered this place some time after that, and used you to accomplish the task he set in motion for X," X said, spreading his arms and looking to the sky, "And now it is time for me to finish that task. The Ghazarkhan approach, and I think they are coming to greet us with death,"
"Should we fight them?" Arturo asked, curiously. He hadn't activated his weaponry yet, but he had run a diagnostic as he awoke and knew it was intact.
"No," X said, his face solid yet graceful as he spoke, "We shall greet this demise with open arms, and by doing so we will be spared. Come to me, and take my hands in your own."
Arturo moved towards X without hesitation. Inside his head, he could not understand why X would ask him to do this, but he knew he should just do it. He put his hands into X's, and felt a small surge of power flowing between them.
"If it is your wish, I can make you become like me," X said, staring into Arturo's eyes, "You will become, as you yourself said, a harmony between flesh and machine, like me. You will have all the abilities I possess, and the living energy that will overcome you will transform you into it's own image."
Arturo thought for a moment. It would be noble to fight beside X. But somewhere deep inside him, he cried out to be that warrior. He wanted to have the undying courage to fight for good. It was his original mission, ordained by the Xanaxis High Council itself. And perhaps it was them who sent the capsules to Earth for safe keeping, so long ago...
After a long pause, he said "I accept. Do what you
will with me."
X closed his eyes, and Arturo closed his. In unison, they both tilted their heads towards the sky, and began to rise into mid air.
"Then so be it."
And as the words were spoken, the both of them were engulfed in a great pillar of light. The ground beneath them fell apart, and Arturo's vision of the world changed. It was a defenseless child, and he and X were it's eternal vanguards.