DISCLAIMER: I do not own Megaman X or its characters.

"Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself."-George Bernard Shaw

Awareness was the first thing that hit him. The feeling of being alive. Or as far as being alive for him went. His systems told him that he wasn't human.

The awareness was followed by the sound of an elderly voice but a status report that blared to life in his field of vision momentarily distracted him from responding to the sound. The report told him that he hadn't been completed yet, but somehow he didn't seem to mind. He was alive right? That's all that mattered at the moment.

"X?"

The voice repeated itself and he opened his eyes, his optics adjusting to the lighting in the room. He turned his head slightly to see an elderly white haired man with a large beard. He wore a white lab coat that bulged in the middle to cover his large belly. The man smiled down at him.

"Who are you?" he asked, for the first time using his voice.

"I am Thomas Light. I created you, X," the old man said. A wave of understanding passed over him, but it was soon followed by curiosity.

"X? You called me X. . . Is that my name?" he asked, unsure.

"That's right," Light assured him. "It's a variable. It represents limitless potential. You see, you are a new type of robot that can think for himself. An android."

"New type? You mean other robots can't?" X asked.

"No, in this time they are restricted. You however are not, and are free to be yourself. It is my dream that mankind can learn to accept robots as equals and you, X, can achieve that. You are designed to think, act, and feel exactly like a human. You have free will," Light explained. "There were, however, a few that came close to having free will despite their programing. I am sorry to say though that you will not be seeing them any time soon."

"Are they okay?" X asked, worried. Light smiled.

"Yes, yes. They are fine. It's just that they are sleeping now and will not awaken while you are being built. Perhaps for even much longer after that as well."

"Oh," X said, a bit disappointed.

The next few hours, X talked with Light as the old scientist explained the world X was brought into, tolerating X's near constant questions as he worked on finishing X's body. Soon though, X had to shut down as Light now needed to work on more technical and electrical parts and keeping X awake would risk damaging him severely.

X had been activated several times after that. During which, he learned more about the world, which only strengthened a burning desire to see the world for himself.

The next time his systems blared to life, the status reports told him that he was nearly complete. He opened his eyes and turned once more to see . However, there was something off about the old scientist.

"What's the matter, Doctor? You look tired," X asked, concerned. Light smiled.

"You truly are just like us humans, X," Light commented. He paused and coughed. "That's why I'm afraid that mankind is not quite ready to accept you." X looked at him in shock. "You are not yet mature. They might very well view your limitless evolutionary potential as something to be feared. The name X also carries connotations of danger."

The world may not want him? That greatly saddened X and he shut himself down so he could spend some time to think it over.

Later, though, when he reactivated, he came to an agreement of sorts with the fact that mankind may not accept him. He would give mankind no reason to fear him. He would be gentle. He would not fight unless it was necessary. It was at that moment that he determined that fighting was wrong.

It was a while before X was completed. slowed down greatly as he built X. His old age had caught up to him and he found it difficult to keep moving.

X awoke happily when he saw that he had been completed. But when he opened his eyes to see he instantly grew serious when he saw the scientist's expression.

"I'm sorry X," Light apologized. "I didn't have enough time to see you enter the world."

Light paused as he coughed.

" !" X exclaimed in worry. Light's condition was obviously worsening. To hear him speak as he did worried X.

"I've given you the power to think, to worry, and to grow and evolve as you fight, but it is too soon for that power to be unleashed."

"Doctor. I'll use this power to fight for justice. To fight for hope!" X exclaimed as he looked at his right arm which was currently morphed into a buster. "But only if I have no other choice," he added in his head.

"Of course you will. I believe it to be so. X, I want you to use that conscience of yours to fight for the people of the future." Light reached down to press a few buttons on the control panel of the pod X was currently in and the pod slowly began sealing. "They will need someone like you to guide them."

"Doctor," X said, unable to say more as his emotions threatened to reveal themselves as he realized what was happening.

"Farewell X, you are the world's one true hope."

X stared into Light's smiling face as his systems slowly shut down and his eyes closed.

They would not reopen for nearly a century.

A century later . . .

From the journal of , archeologist

April 8th

Still nothing. For the last month, I have been sifting through the dirt trying to find a fossil record which would verify my findings on Mesozoic plant life, but so far I have come up empty. Tomorrow, I'll move my archaeological dig to a new site. Maybe I'll have better luck.

April 9th

Set up camp at the new site and laid out a preliminary gridwork for the dig. I got some odd readings at location E-46. It looks like something metallic is buried several meters below the surface. I think I'll begin there tomorrow

Small pebbles and dust clattered onto the dusty stone floor as part of the rocky ceiling above began to give away to an unseen force. There was the sound of metal striking rock as a small part of the ceiling finally collapsed. A rope dropped down from the hole and curled onto the floor with a light thud.

A man far too old to be doing any sort of strenuous work emerged from the hole and slid down the rope with a grunt. He was mostly bald with a thick matted beard hanging from his chin. He was currently wearing a brown leather jacket that was covered in pockets. Brown pants and thick, waterproof hiking boots protected his lower half from mud, thorns, sticks, and in this case, rock. Over all his appearance made him look like an explorer as a brown hat typically associated with people going through the jungle, was hanging from a rope around his neck.

The hole in the ceiling lit up some of the opening he had dropped into, but not very much. He could not see much more than five feet in front of him. Not wanting to risk tripping on something or falling to his death in a deep hole, the old man took out a flashlight that was hooked onto his belt, fumbling with the latch a bit, for his old age had taken away some of his hand coordination skills.

A rocky hallway was revealed before him as he turned the flashlight on. He pulled a small device from one of his many pockets and stared down at it for a second before looking ahead. The device seemed to be some sort of GPS or tracking device as he began walking forward, not really having to be careful where he stepped as the stone floor was worn smooth by an unknown force years before. He kept on checking the small device in his hands, making sure he was going towards the intended destination.

As he walked farther along, the opening proved to be a sort of hallway, but it soon came to an end and he gasped. There was a metal door built into the stone before him.

"Is this the metallic reading I've been getting?" the old man mumbled to himself. He reached out to turn the metal handle. "I wonder what's inside. Not another dead end I hope."

He opened the metal door with a grunt for the hinges had grown slightly rusty over the years. He gasped as his flashlight revealed a room inside.

It was the remains of an old lab, that had been damaged far before he had opened the rusty old door. Sifting through the remains of the lab, he found a few old papers. Based on the information the papers contained and the technology that was around him, he came to the conclusion that the lab he was currently standing in belonged to none other than the famous robot designer, Dr. Thomas Light. . . .

April 10th

I can't believe what I found! Several meters below the surface was the remains of a lab. Although most of the lab was damaged, I did manage to find papers that indicate that it belonged to the famous robot designer, Dr. Thomas Light. I've begun to review what is left of Dr. Light's notes and it looks like he was onto a major breakthrough. The notes keep referring to "the capsule"...

April 13th

I found it. Standing 14 meters high and 8 meters wide, the capsule was hidden underneath a collapsed ceiling. Even underneath all the rubble, the capsule has remained intact and was still running some sort of diagnostic when I found it. There is a warning on the capsule, but all the indicators on the capsule show green. It should be safe to open it. I'll know tomorrow.

April 14th

Today I met "X." Not simply a robot, X is something totally different. Light has given him the ability to think and make his own decisions. At times, X seems more like a man than like a machine.

This was the second time that awareness filled his systems in such a drawn out way. He felt as though he had been asleep for a long time. Something told him that he had. He woke slowly, not sure how ready he was for the new world. was dead and he knew so. The pod had been testing him for quite some time now. It schooled him on the ways of the world around him and tested his abilities in various fields. It tested his fighting abilities, but he refused to do many of them. He wasn't planning on fighting anyways. The tests that he enjoyed were the communications tests. The ones that showed him how truly human he was.

By the time he opened his eyes, he had already been activated for a few minutes. His green eyes adjusted to the lighting in the dusty and dark room and soon an old man, who looked quite different than came into view before him. The man stared at him in wonder and awe, taking in X's mostly blue armor. X sensed a bit of fear in the old man when he awakened, but the fear immediately disappeared when the old man stared at X's eyes. X clenched his hands briefly, letting his systems scan his body for any possible errors, as his eyes wandered around what appeared to be the remains of a lab and many fallen rocks. The pieces of the puzzle fell into place and X knew he had been asleep for far more than the thirty year minimum the pod had required. He sat up in the pod and shook his head, trying to clear his systems of the persistent grogginess that flowed through him.

"Hello?" X said unsure as the man before him had been staring for a while; the only movement the old man had performed was blinking. The man shook his head as if relieving himself from shock and smiled at X as the android got out of the pod and stood, stretching.

"Hello!" he said cheerfully and then paused for a bit before continuing. "Are you really an android?"

"Yeah."

"Amazing. That's just amazing. I've never seen anything like it," the old man shook his head. "I read the few notes that were still intact in the lab. was far beyond his time."

"Well, was a bit of a genius," X said sheepishly while scratching the back of his head.

The old man laughed. "That he was!" He then held a hand out to X. "My name is . I'm an archeologist. I was just searching the area for a fossil record on Mesozoic plant life when I found your pod."

X shook his hand. "X. I've been sleeping here for . . ." He glanced at the date in the bottom right hand of his vision. That was one of the few things that separated him from humans, his systems kept record of the date and time even while asleep. "A hundred years," X muttered.

stared at him in confusion as he did not quite catch what X had muttered.

"I have been asleep for a hundred years," X repeated more clearly. nodded. He already knew that X would have been built around that time as had been dead for nearly a hundred years. The famous robot designer must have given in to old age soon after completing X.

"I never got to say goodbye," X said softly. blinked at him. The tone in X's voice. It almost sounded . . . regretful. But no robot had shown that kind of emotion before. X must really be a leap above anything the world has ever seen. "I knew he was fading, but I was shut down for a good portion of the building process, I didn't think he would have . . ."

cut him off. "Death catches many of us off guard. You were young, and still are. There was no way you could have known that he would have left you so quickly. You cannot blame him for it though." In that moment, almost felt as though he was consoling a child, a human child.

"I know. He was protecting me from the outside world by sealing me away," X said. stared at him in shock.

"The pod explained to me that the world had blamed my older siblings for the deaths that had occurred because of Wily's actions," X explained.

He already knows about his sibling's fates, thought alarmed. He knows what the world did to them in their anger? Not only is he the first of his kind, but he is the last as well. That is a lonely path to travel on. He is the first android and the last of 's creations.

"I noticed that you seemed fearful of me when I first woke up but then you relaxed, why was that?" X asked, curious and wanting to change the subject from his siblings' disappearances.

"My apologies. I did not mean to concern you, but sentient robots such as yourself have not had the best history. With green eyes and blue armor, there really couldn't have been a better remedy to my concerns and fears. Those in the past who had turned against mankind had red eyes and hated the color blue."

X nodded. 's words caused X's mind to wander and fret about similar topics in a way, but he refused to think of them for much longer than a few minutes. Perhaps even a hundred years later, the world was still not ready to accept him.

smiled at him and made his way to the front of the room where the door was. He looked around and patted the walls.

" was a good man. A smart one too. It must have torn him apart to seal you up like that. And yet, the world has forgotten him and his legacy. Perhaps it is for the best. Perhaps not. In time I suppose we shall see." Cain's serious tone suddenly turned joyful and he grinned. "But in the meantime, let's go crack open some soda's and celebrate your awakening, shall we?"

exited the room and X smiled before doing the same. He paused though at the doorway.

"Don't worry . I will guide this world. I will be their hope, but I do not wish to fight. I know I never got to say good bye before and I know it's a bit late, but for what it's worth . . . Goodbye . . . . . . Dad."

Author's Note: I had forgotten how short this chapter was. . . For the most part, I do believe that chapters from now on will be anywhere from 4 to 6 thousand words long. 5 thousand is my goal.

THIS WEBSITE IS DELETING 'S AND 'S NAME. IS THERE SOMETHING I'M DOING WRONG?