CHAPTER 2

"COLD AND DARK"

The gravity of what was just told to him hit Megaman like a truck…

Water…

It was unbelievable… inconceivable… Everything that he thought he knew about the world was slowly drifting away from him…The oceans, the sea… were created artificially? And worse yet, were apparently an endless grave for countless beings?

"…Water…" Megaman whispered, "And the Elders?"

Sera picked up where Yuna left off.

"The Quantum Refractors were activated in unison, and spun at their maximum output capacity. No one was entirely sure what would happen, as it was a theoretical science at that point. However, mankind had decided that they were willing to take the risk. Thus, the Quantum Refractors performed a fusion reaction which resulted in the binding of Hydrogen and Oxygen, which formed water. But not water in a slow, systematic, pouring way…"

Sera gestured around her at the equipment and high above, at the ceiling.

"Imagine being in this room when suddenly, instead of air, everything turned, almost immediately, into water. Now imagine this happening, not in a few places, but everywhere on Terra. You may be able to grasp this concept better than most carbons on Terra, as a Digger… but imagine all the refractors you have ever known… that is nothing, nothing, with what lies underneath that water. You will be able to power your little machines for eons to come. There are refractor generating machines that were able to produce even more, as we understand it, but that isn't the point…"

"The air with which Terra was surrounded was quickly being fused into water. The Elders… They didn't really even know what had happened… Millions of lives were completely obliterated in the twinkling of an eye. These aren't the Reaverbots you know today, these were sentient beings that saw death coming to greet them, and in their final moments looked up into the sky… At Elysium… and screamed in terror."

Megaman stared blankly at the two girls.

"All this time…" Megaman began, "I've always thought of the Elder System as a bunch of Reaverbots causing trouble… I never thought about living things… about what had really happened… I just assumed that they ran out of power… or that the world had moved on and they had just…. I don't know… rusted away."

Sera stared back at him, "The truth is much more terrible…"

She blinked slowly, her shoulders sagging, and then looked up at the ceiling

"This is Mother Unit Sera, requesting permission to access Primary Archival Data." Sera spoke loudly into the room.

A booming voice answered her, seeming to echo into Megaman's mind.

"COMMAND ACKNOWLEDGED. ACCESS GRANTED TO MOTHER."

"ELYSIUM, state the Primary Reinitialization's timeframe."

"PROCESSING…"

Megaman jumped back in shock… seemingly from nothing, out of the very air, a holographic projection seemed to morph into a sphere which filled up a large portion of the room, and became recognizable as Terra… But it wasn't Terra at all… Megaman looked in horror.

It was a nightmare planet.

Craters and valleys stretched for miles. Huge craters marked what was, Megaman would have guessed, the impact point of the old space colony. But what was most intriguing were the large masses dotting the planet, which when zoomed in after the hologram was completely expanded, Megaman could guess were cities… but nothing like the cities now, they were massive things, with buildings reaching out and seemingly touching the sky. It was truly unbelievable.

Then the voice spoke

"PRIMARY REINITIALIZATION ORDER GIVEN AT MINUTE 1 IN YEAR 0 AS RECORDED SET DATE OF "NEW HISTORY" AS PER ORDINANCE 00001. "NEW HISTORY" BACK UP MEMORY CREATED MINUTE 2. QUANTUM REFRACTOR ROTATION COMMAND ORDERED, MINUTE 2. OPTIMAL REFRACTOR SPIN CONFIRMED AT MINUTE 3, 45 SECONDS."

On the hologram, Megaman watched as the planet began to completely glow… But he realized that wasn't quite right, as he looked closer, there were millions upon millions of individual lights, glowing in different colors and intensities.

"MINUTE 4: FUSION REACTION COMMENCES, BEGINNING PRIMARY REINITIALIZATION OF PLANET "CODENAME TERRA" (SO NAMED AS PER ORDINANCE 00005)."

Megaman watched as the entire planet began to look like it was being immersed in a thick fog of blue smoke, but quickly realized what it was. He was watching the elements being pulled together… quickly… so quickly…

"MINUTE 6: PRIMARY REINITIALIZATION COMPLETE. ESTIMATED LOSSES: 342,546,993 "ELDER" UNITS (SO NAMED AS PER ORDINANCE 00003), DESTRUCTION OF ELDER SYSTEM : 92%. FUNCTIONALITY: MINIMAL"

And as quickly as it had come, the now almost entirely blue sphere melted back into nothing, leaving Megaman staring blankly after it, as Yuna bit her lip and Sera clenched her fists together at her sides.

"The truth, Megaman… was that life on Terra was destroyed in 6 minutes."

Megaman just stared at the two of them, hoping for them not to speak anymore, but compelled to let them continue till the end.

Yuna started, "Well… That was really it for the Elder System then… there wasn't really much they could have done, even if they had known. But perhaps it was for the best, anyway. It seems to me that they were pretty violent as it was. But I'll move on."

"The purpose of the Primary Reinitialization was actually two-fold, and was the real reason for its creation in the first place. Mankind knew that the planet, in its condition, was not going to sustain human life, and thus they attempted what I guess you could call a "reboot". By covering the planet in water, and resetting the atmosphere from the pollution and degradation that mankind and Elder System created, they had basically created a brand new planet. Plants could grow again, the atmosphere would return."

Sera picked up her thread. "Of course, in its current state, a water-covered Terra wouldn't really be that much better than the old one. Instead, they developed a new plan, one in which they knew would be their ultimate salvation, or their ultimate doom if it failed."

Megaman had begun to grasp what the final parts of this story, and started to fill in the blanks themselves.

"They created us… I mean… They created people… Carbons…"

"Exactly. The lives of "Mankind", as you know it to exist, began as a scientific experiment of environmental hospitality of Terra, and a type of social experiment to conclude on the negative nature of human kind, to prevent the catastrophe from ever reoccurring. Each island was selected for individual resources and other materials necessary for life, and carbons were created."

"How?"

"Through the same technology we were created by, to a point. Genetic samples of true humans were used to create Carbons, and thus the creation of the population of Terra on Earth. However, the current population as you know it is actually the 3rd generation of Carbons, the other 2 being completely reinitialized after certain population parameters were met."

"…It's like what Megaman Juno said to me… On Kattlelox… He said that they had overpopulated and must be reinitialized…"

"He was a newer version of a bureaucratic model… 3rd class I believe… That meant that he was created in the beginning of the 3rd generation of carbons, in addition to his actual rank, and was dealing with the current issue Elysium was attempting to control. Generation 1 was created to see if life was sustainable, if the ultimate gamble had all been worth it. Luckily, Generation 1 survived, but was destroyed immediately after, and Generation 2 replaced them, in order to determine if carbons would be able to sustain their OWN lives… also known as procreation."

Megaman cut her short, "Wouldn't it have just been easier to just leave them alive and see if it worked later?"

Yuna and Sera looked at each other. "That was the original idea, but in the end the Units convinced mankind that it was necessary to begin the life experiment again, so as not to include any extraneous factors that may have existed from the first generation. You need to think more like a machine Megaman, they thought of them like cells in a petri dish, not as people."

Megaman gave a look of disgust, which Sera took as an opportunity to continue

"Generation 2 was, obviously, a success, and thus was promptly reinitialized."

"WHY?" Megaman shouted. "What possible reason could they have killing an entire group of people AGAIN!"

"Overpopulation. Which brings us back to Megaman Juno and the 3rd generation, YOUR generation. Mankind obviously felt as you did, Megaman, and figured that a more strategic plan should be required, and thus the reinitialization program was expanded upon, giving each island a specific Program, bureaucratic model for the district, and EDEN system."

Megaman was forcefully reminded of Kattlelox Island, and his momentary terror in thinking they were all going to die.

"It was decided that here, at last… after more than 1000 years after the Primary Reinitialization, mankind would once again return to Terra; True mankind."

Sera looked at Yuna again "I still remember, to this day, the fact that the Master cried every time he talked about what happened next…"

Megaman looked from one to the other, and then asked… "What?"

Yuna answered. "Well, upon arriving on Terra, Mankind was elated and began to develop their own places to live… However, after a period of only a couple of weeks, they had all begun to die.

Megaman frowned at this, thinking of his memory of the Master and his death on Terra himself.

"The reason for this was because they had been living on Elysium for so long, their bodies were incapable of returning back to Terra, and died from simple things such as bacteria and plant life… But more than that, they began to disassociate, like molecules coming apart. The environment had become too much for them to bear, and they in fact dissolved into energy being released back into the atmosphere. It was devastation. 90% of true mankind was destroyed because of it… and in the end, the irony of it all was that mankind couldn't return to the world they had remade, because of what they had done to rebuild it. The Quantum Refractors had changed the world, and only the genetically enhanced carbons, and their rugged lifestyle, were able to live there. It was at this point in time when the Master became the Master, and lived with the fellow remaining true humans on Elysium while they watched their creations below them begin to develop into what they are today. In the end, when many of the humans had passed on, and after our creation, the Master began having second thoughts about the perfect world in which they had created. After all, on Elysium, he hadn't aged, and had been there since the beginning… Although he was one of the few who could claim that…"

"In the end, he decided that these "carbons" weren't carbons at all… and that they were more human than 'true' humanity had ever achieved. Though they may die, they had learned to truly live, as the people on Elysium had forgotten, long before Elysium was even created. It was actually you, Megaman, as Megaman Trigger, who had given us this insight into the last man's final years. When he gave you his genetic sample, he erased our reason for being, and that was what caused all the turmoil that brought us to this point today."

Sera came over and took Megaman's hand in hers, "I know this isn't easy to take in all at once, but we needed for you to understand, to comprehend the past so that we can change the future…"

Megaman squeezed her hand back, and hugged Yuna as she came over to comfort him as well. "I understand… But what do you mean, change the future?"

Yuna let him go.

"Well I guess there really isn't any point in NOT telling you everything now, but you would come to realize it sooner or later anyway. You came here to destroy the System, and you did. Elysium is no longer what it was… Unfortunately for us all, that may not have been what was best for the world in the long run, assuming Sera didn't kill everyone had we left it alone…"

Sera looked at her feet and shuffled around a bit, clearly embarrassed. "I'm sorry."

"It's all old news now, Sera, don't worry… I'll explain everything… well nearly everything… when we get back to Terra, alright?" Megaman said bracingly.

"Well, Megaman, that's actually the true reason why we wanted to talk to you…"

Megaman was slightly taken aback… All that he learned, the giant steps that he had taken in just the few hours spent in this room, and that wasn't what he needed to hear?

"I don't know if I can handle too many more revelations at this point, ladies, truly…" Megaman said with a slight tremor in his voice.

"Unfortunately, this one is much more pressing to the matters at hand, so we are going to tell you anyway…"

Yuna sighed deeply. "In short, Megaman, Elysium is dying."

Megaman had a hard time grasping this one for a second… "Dying? You mean, it was aliv…"

"No, not alive." Sera interrupted, clearly trying to explain this quickly. "After our battle, the System has been deactivated, but so has Elysium itself. We are slowly losing power, and eventually, we will go offline permanently. On a larger scale, this is going to have huge ramifications… In fact, it's already started to happen. On Terra, below, the water levels have already begun to recede. In effect, the resetting of the planet has begun its final stage.

Sera brought the Hologram back up into the center of the room

"The world as it is today is almost entirely water, but soon, it will go from this… A blue planet, to this."

She waved her hand, and the globe changed, with the water receding, moving down and down until landmasses began to appear, large masses of land that stretched forever could be seen. Then, the water stopped, leaving a world almost ¾ water, and ¼ land.

"Once the Quantum Refractors lost their input signal, they have ceased their relentless creation of water, and the world will equalize back into a truly ancient state of the planet… What it used to be before all of the chaos began, forming these large islands. Ancient records used to call them 'continents'; it must not have seemed important enough for the Primary Reinitialization Program to destroy that record. While this will be good for Carbons, it is also bad news as well. According to the final scans of the planet before Elysium shut down… The Elder System has begun to reactivate. It was Sera's original responsibility to monitor it…"

"Wait a minute, I thought you said that the Elder System was destroyed?"

"Almost entirely, but not quite enough, apparently. In the thousand or so years under the depths, the Elder System survived. Underground… ruins I guess you could call them… stretch for miles and miles now. This is a really big problem for the obvious reason that the Elder System will take back what was originally theirs, but also for another, more subtle reason."

"Someone, or something, has realized that Elysium has been destroyed. The Elder System did not reactivate of its own accord. Something is driving these relics back into existence, and it's obvious that whatever this thing wants, it's not good, and has its own agenda."

Megaman frowned at this, but accepted the truth of the words almost instantly. It made sense to him. "Well what can we do?"

"From here? Nothing… And unfortunately that is the true problem we are facing right now…" Yuna answered.

"What do you mean?"

"Well…"

Yuna paused, then shuffled her feet a little before asking: "um… Megaman, haven't you wondered why I have taken my original shell again?"

The question was so strange to him given the current conversation that it seemed almost absurd.

"…No, why would I? You are going to give Roll her mother back, when we get home…"

"Well, yes, that is the plan… But haven't you wondered why she isn't walking around with us? Talking to us?"

Megaman was once again slightly surprised. "I guess I never really thought about it… I just figured when we got back everything would be ok…"

"Megaman, I've put her body into a stasis pod, like the ones you saw on Forbidden Island back on Terra, because I believe that we may be in for a few…. Complications…"

Megaman stared at her. "What do you mean, 'complications'?" he asked darkly.

Sera decided to answer him when it was obvious from the look on Yuna's face that she wasn't ready to give an answer.

"Now that Elysium is dead, Megaman, there isn't anything generating power for the station to run on… and because of that… Life support functions are slowly disabling as well… It's why everything seems to be getting darker, as you've noticed… and also that problem you talked about earlier…"

Megaman felt fear clutch his heart slightly.

"What problem?"

"Feeling like you couldn't breathe… unfortunately; it means that air circulation has been halted. While that is bad enough, the heating of Elysium is also disabled. You said so yourself, you kept your armor on because it felt cold, and this is because this planet is… well… not so slowly freezing in the vacuum of space."

Megaman took this in, and responded slowly… "So you… you're saying that we are going to… freeze to death? Or suffocate?"

"Neither of those things will happen to us, but you… and Matilda…" Yuna muttered…

Megaman was instantly hopeful. "It will be alright! Roll is gonna come rescue us soon! She won't stop till she brings us back home!"

Yuna responded, "We know Megaman, and we are counting on that, but you have to understand… With Elysium dead, its stabilization has gone into emergency orbit, siphoning off most of its power to maintain its position in space."

Megaman was confused, "So… What does that mean? We will move? Where will we go? Drift into space?!" he blurted, panicking.

Sera and Yuna looked back at him.

"No."

Sera looked back up at the ceiling.

"Elysium? Estimated time till collision with Terra, or any given avoidance measures?"

"AT CURRENT POWER LEVELS, ESCAPE TRAJECTORY IMPOSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE DUE TO EFFECT OF GRAVITATIONAL FORCES. AT 78% CAPACITY, AS CURRENT, IMMINENT COLLISION WITH "CODENAME TERRA" WILL COMMENCE IN 5 MONTHS, 22 DAYS, 6 HOURS."