DISCLAIMER: I do not own the Megaman franchise or anything else that is Capcom. This is purely a fan work with no hope of profit.

Title: Old Glory

Rating: M: Just in case.

Warnings: Since this will be AU, there may be what you deem as OOC because there will be situations that X, Zero, or any other original MMX characters will not have been exposed to. There will be BL and Straight pairings. It will have OCs relevant to plot since this is a setting that takes a long time after the canon universe. It also has been many years since this authoress has written fanfictions or played an MMX game. I plead for your patience. (So yeah this is kind of random for me too) Beta offerings are welcome.

Summary: AU with a combination of RMX + RMZ verses. Please read with an open mind. Much time has passed since the last reploid war and many things seemed to have worked out for the artificial side of society. Humans no longer place the Reploids below them and have accepted their right of existence at a place level to their own. Life seems dandy but is it really peaceful.

Chapter 01: Rogue

Year 24XX – Waiting has brought nothing. I will take action into my own hands and make my desire a reality.

-archive item Unknownr9c25x

It was a strange feeling to reviving after a long while, or maybe it wasn't quite something you'd call a feeling. There was beeping, and there was smell, touch, and heat. Soon enough he found he could see. It was very jostling to find three faces he couldn't recognize staring down at him like that. He could almost punch them.

"Well. Then the hunt wasn't a total bust as you predicted." The one with gray shadows under his eyes spoke. As a matter of fact…he was very gray and pale. It made him seem twice as old since while his face showed maturity, it was hardly that old. He still felt like punching someone's face for some reason. Thankfully, his arms felt a little too heavy for that.

"But Rum…he's kind of staring at us stupidly. Maybe his mind functions have corrupted?" The brightfully bright one with…whoever decided on their color scheme probably needed to get socked in the face. He felt his hand twitch. The blinding orange was accented with touches of blue that made him seem to almost glow against the sepia tones on the walls behind them. He had a very boyish face and for some reason, it seemed very nostalgic.

"He's been asleep for a long, long time…it is within reason." A rusty and heavy voice spoke and it belonged to the last of the three faces he found in his vision upon reactivation. There was a glint he could not place a name to in the dark eyes on that brownish face. He wore dark brownish red with a head of light green. That red color, he found himself approving.

"You know him?" The gray one asks.

"Do you know yourself?"Red-brown asks him directly. He found it a strange question that he found himself willing to answer.

"Zero."

The answer seemed to put the red-brown bot in a happier mood. "You've awaken…I was in despair that we might need the miracle of a cyber elf for you to revive. How do you feel?"

Zero, sits up and frowns. He wasn't very happy that it was difficult to do so. "I feel…terrible." Well, that was one way to sum this up. To explain fully would probably require the output of higher levels of his functions and he wasn't quite up to dispensing ram space for trivial questions.

"Not surprising, you kind of looked like shit when we picked you up." The orange boy chimes in helpfully. There is physical contact between the hand of the tall gray one and the back of the boy's head, it'd have been amusing if Zero could have located his sense of humor in time.

"Ahh…shit. I feel like that too." Zero mumbles as he looks around his location before he settles his gaze on himself. He had bright crimson armor, which explained his affinity to that color, with black under armor over the rest that was not covered by red. He felt there was a distinct lack of yellow and found some placed unevenly around his shoulders. He wasn't sure what to think about that actually. There was a spike in emotion and Zero felt his fist tighten slightly.

"Oh…that--" Gray starts. "We had no choice, it was like you didn't want to leave that grave or something--" The bright creature jumps in quickly. "We can help you grow it back with some upgrades..." The last of the three adds in all at once.

It felt like a cycle: recognition, excuses, and possible solutions. Zero shoves the blond mess of a hair away. He was angry about it, but it was also a distant anger. "Whatever. Where is this?"

"Outer Limit."

Zero turns to the reploid that answered him. "And you'd be…?"

"I am Siege. I own this house and watched over the creation of these two with me. Unfortunately, they've yet to live up to some expectations…." He got a different look from both reploids. Zero didn't really care enough to differentiate between the emotions at the moment.

"That…explains nothing. Where am I?" Zero narrows his eyes on Siege since by his explanation; he seemed to function better than the other two.

"Outer Limit is the city on the edge of Metropolis. You could say we're a bunch of rejected folk but this place is nice in its own way." The tallest gray one explained. Zero was a little more than frustrated. None of this still made any sense.

"Metropolis…." Zero had no recollection of this city. His eyes widened minutely. As a matter of fact, he wasn't sure he knew of any cities. He kept his gaze concentrated on a spot past the bots as he shuffled through his memory banks. That lasted awfully short. There was almost nothing past his personality drive.

"Zero…" He heard Siege call out. "Is something the matter?"

He continued to burn a hole in his spot before he turned to the gray one. "Don't think you included your name in that spiel just now."

"It would have to be Rum. This little one is Crawler." Rum motions to the bright and cheery one. Zero was trying to avoid that one; it kind of hurt a little to see him.

He stores this extra useless information in his data bank anyway, its emptiness becoming quickly appalling and he looks around the room, scanning for something that might help in this perplexed state he found himself in.

"Metropolis is what was Neo Arcadia back in the days. That name should be a little more familiar." Siege tried to explain.

Zero answered with silence and the other bots seemed to catch on.

"Aww…don't blame this on us. We carried him all the way here with the care you'd give a princess." Zero didn't appreciate the way Crawler seemed to emphasize 'princess.'

"He was extensively damaged…." Rum starts to ponder, Zero tried harder to recall why this would be while the urge to hurt something was growing exponentially. For a moment, he wasn't sure why he was holding back, but then he did know to a certain extent. He just couldn't put a clear name to it…it was a color and a feeling, but even the details on that was fuzzy at best. He puts his hand up to silence the room and thankfully it didn't fly out to hurt someone.

"I don't really care at this moment." Zero bites out a little harshly. The little one shrinks back a bit, and the gray one considers him dolefully. Siege however, was very unaffected by his mood.

"It is no wonder. The final battle…it was suspected that you wouldn't have survived that and by god you did. ..with minor setbacks."

Minor meaning his memories of his entire life before this spot of time? …actually, it didn't really seem that important now that he thought about it though the uneasy feeling that he was forgetting something he shouldn't continued to linger deep in his mind. "I see." As Zero's irritation with them defused, the younger ones seemed to function easier.

"You could stay here…" Siege continued, snagging Zero's attention. "There is little chance that Metropolis would accept an old model such as yourself. Despite that the reason for their prosperity was your efforts and losses…but they barely remember themselves." Zero thought that sounded like some mass mental brain damage.

"How bout…a new name?" Crawler's sudden suggestion was so out the left field that it had Zero pause noticeably.

"I don't see a point in that." Zero answered truthfully. 'Zero' was new enough to him already at this point and ironically, it felt like there couldn't be a name that suited the situation even more than it already has.

"Noooo. A new name for a new start! Old man Siege recognized you…and you're sure to meet others who do too. If you go around as Zero, everyone will call you that…but if you go around in a different name…"

"Crawler has a point." Rum seemed more stunned than Zero did.

"By Arcadia, he does have a smart reason in there somewhere doesn't he; underneath the terrible slew of incomplete thoughts." Siege seemed to be more pleased than amazed.

"Am highly offended. See if I offer my brilliance to you lot ever again." Crossing his arms, the smaller one sulks a little to himself, staring directly at Zero as if waiting for his response.

"…I'm not too concerned about rediscovering myself."

"I come up with awesome names. I bet I can top Zero." Crawler seemed to bounce at the chance to show off another line of his expertise but Zero was wary.

"We could use a hand in what we do." Crawler noticeably brightens up at Rum having already forgotten his resolve to stay angry. "Crawler is better focused at spotting than the actual physical acts of scavenging." That happiness on Crawler's face fades at Rum's addition towards the end.

"Kind of makes me sound weak…" Rum gives Crawler a good look before he readjusts his gaze onto Zero. The bright orange kid seemed ready to throw a fit so Zero quickly felt the need to jump in to prevent anymore squealing out of the kid. He might seriously get violent if he was constantly exposed to high frequency waves at his current confused state right now.

"Scavenging doesn't sound very glorious."

"Well—we go through old battlefields that probably was the stage for many of your battles, so if anything, we could probably gather some data on your old self while we assemble old parts for energy." Rum seemed grateful for Zero's timing when Crawler's mouth snapped shut.

"Sounds fair enough." Zero regarded the silence that filled the room in small increments. There was a quality to it that he, even through this haze of not knowing, knew for certain was different from what he had been used to. The small ghost memories that were stored in his personality drives found this silence a little unsettling and unfamiliar. It took forever to put a name to it. "It's peaceful here."

It seemed to give everyone pause in the room as they considered the warm light that poured into the room through its small openings and the washed out browns of the room. There was little noise or hurry in the atmosphere and for once, even they appreciated the peace that they had taken for granted. Siege smiled slightly. He knew Zero was finding it strange and perhaps unsettling at first, but with time he hoped that the ancient fighter would also take its joys for granted.

"How bout Rogue?"

"What?"

"As Zero's new name."

"Well, it's not terrible…"

"You can never just compliment me can you?" Rum and Crawler bickered in the background, as Zero continued to bask in the ringing quiet in the air. He remembered something distant. There had been times like this…it was that color again that seemed to have settled into the back of his mind. Always shifting and encompassing him. It was hardly a warm color yet he could swear that he felt heat from it; a pleasing sort of presence that seemed to give him peace within himself.

"Rogue…" Zero repeated quietly to himself. Would he find what he was looking for while he stayed here?

It's been months after Zero had been discovered and the old ex-hunter found himself quickly readjusting to a new life under a new name. Siege had been the only one to recognize him for who he was, but it was expected. After a few upgrades here and there, Zero found himself almost physically similar to the new age reploids (which he found out that they rather be called cyborgs for some reason) but he continued the junkyard tradition of O.T. in wearing armor over their cybernetic skins and tight body armor. It felt right to him honestly. The weight was familiar and a comfort.

Time moved relatively fast in that short amount of time. Zero had helped ransack a few fields without major difficulties. They claimed that there was a raise in their energy gathering ever since Zero had joined in and a part of him took this as an expectant result of his skills. Another could only wonder if they were trying too hard to be friendly. He's been briefed about Metropolis's little bullies called the PeaceCorps but had yet to run into any. They also attributed this luck to having been something Zero brought when he had joined. Apparently most of their times had been spent skirting these groups of new age warriors because neither side could stand being in the presence of the other.

"Roguuueeee. There's nothing here, HONEST." Crawler continued to whine as he navigated them through battlefield Hevana on their new hover. It was more like a moving platform to be accurate, but somehow it moved fast enough while it gave them space to load their goods and maintained balance. He knew platforms weren't really new technology but he's not quite sure if he's ever seen one driven before.

"From what I hear, that's what you told Rum when he wanted to go to Yemna." Rogue states as a matter of fact. Effectively, it puts Crawler into a silent and tentative mode and Rum smirks as he watches over the ground maps they cover.

"Well…that…was luck." The kid mutters while he continuously feeds the frequencies juice to keep them unnoticeable while detecting even the slightness readings of energy and movement. Rogue, if he were to be truthful, wasn't really sure what had brought him out here. The trio has been listing battlefields that haven't been checked in a long while and Hevana was one of them. The name clicked in his mind and wouldn't let go of him for days. He's not sure if he'd come to find anything versus him acting on one of the few instincts left from a previous life. Whatever it was, Hevana seemed to hide itself from him.

"Well, that's our second round." Rum says as he finishes up his log. "Ready for a third?" He glances at Rogue's impassive face as if he knew something. Rum was highly perceptive and sometimes Rogue was grateful for it while other times, he wished the gray one would keep himself to his own such as that little orange child that needed much more guidance.

"…nah, we can pull out of here for today." There wasn't much point in staying for night fall. If anything, Rogue may have to come out here on his own…

"There is no huge rush. We can do another round, isn't that right Crawler?" Rogue didn't miss that look Rum passed onto Crawler.

"Um yeah man. We came out here anyway. Might as well stay till we find something." Light and quick tapping quickly followed Crawler's new resolve in not leaving the area empty handed and Rogue returned to watching the scarred land pass by them in high speeds. Of course this did not disturb his ability to notice individual items scattered here and there.

He doesn't say anything when Rum slides up next to him. Wasn't very surprised with what the bot had to ask either. "Do you know what it is that you are looking for here?"

"No. I'm not sure if it's still here."

"Ahh." Rum returns to the log for a few moments before continuing. "A memory perhaps?"

"Could be." Rogue agreed as he fingered the short strands of blond that framed his face. It was shorter now, the length just to his shoulder. He didn't mind it as much as he did before after getting used to it but he wondered if they would recognize him. Rogue still couldn't quite picture this mysterious figure, but he had a feeling that he was chasing threads that were now loosely tied to them. He had the color now, a bright, endless blue.

---From now on Zero will be referred to as 'Rogue' because it's a name he'll be using until he's reconnected with his old sense of self.