3 - the railcar

From the moment he stepped out of the Transmission Staiton Complex, Kuro was impressed by Neo Arcadia. It remnded him of a city surrounded by the vast waters of the ocean, one where he'd experienced pain, love, hate, fear, and sorrow. He knew that much about his past, but none of the causes of those emotions was in his memories.

"You ok?" Siren asked as they entered a railcar marked 'to library'.

"I'm just trying to remember my past... I only remember a few things: like this sword isn't actually mine, I was the Captain of some civil defense unit, I also vaugely remember X, a young dark-armored reploid, and a red reploid who was usually with them."

The car began moving down the track when Leviathan answered, "That must be Zero and Axl. At least if I remember my history right, that is."

"Zero...Axl..." the names were those he knew he had strong memories of, but he couldn't come up with anything, no matter what parts of his memory circuits he searched.

"Yeah, the legendary S-Class Maverick Hunters."

"And Axl was destroyed by a friend?"

"As i recall, it was one of the strongest fighters of the GigaCity Defenders who went Maverick because of a Shadow Drive."

"A Shadow Drive..." he put a hand on his chest. When Kuro had first woke up a few years ago, he'd run a full diagnostic scan on himself. During the scan, he'd found a device hard-intergrated into his Primary Core Buffer. According to his scans, the device was completely inactive. With nothing in it on his equipment list, he'd been wary as to what it could be, and a Shadow Drive was something that fit the description.

"Hey! what's wrong?" She shook him lightly to bring him out of his thoughts.

"No," Kuro shook his head, "it's nothing..." he lied, "just pulling at the strings of a memory that won't come loose."

Siren walked over to the glass wall of the railcar. She put her hand against it and leaned her forehead to press on the glass as well. "You know, my soul was created from one of the five CyberElves that X's soul seperated into when he sealed the DarkElf. I... I feel like I know you, like I've known you for such a long time... I think that's why I feel so comfortable around you..." She cracked the glass when she punched it, "and why I feel so Goddamn guilty!"

"Guilty?" At this point, Kuro had seen so many different sides of the girl that he wasn't suprised by her behavior.

"You knew THE X. And like me, my brothers were created with one of the CyberElves from him. On rare occasions, we've experienced memories of X's life, as well as shown knowledge of things only he could have known." The warrior turned, almost in tears, "I feel like I should be able to tell you everything! I should know you as well as I know my brothers!"

"Calm down," Kuro tried to ease the turbulant emotions of the young woman, "it's not like you have concious access to his entire memory bank."

After taking a deep breath, Siren realized just how silly she was acting. "I know that... It's just really difficult because, like I said, you feel like a long-time friend."

Kuro smiled and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey," Leviathan seemed to pop back to her more playful self, "look out that side. My favorite part is coming up."

Turning to see nothing but a building rushing by, Kuro wondered what she meant. But then they passed the building and a dazzaling view of the sun rising against the ocean behind the city opened up before him. "Wow... This place really does look like a Utopia."

"Doesn't it though?" Leviathan seemed swooned by the view.

"I have a question."

"Of course."

"If Neo Arcadia is as perfect as you say, then what was with those humans you were trying to kill?"

"The Resistance?"

"Yeah."

"They are Mavericks, its pretty simple."

"Those were humans, they can't be classified as Mavericks."

"Political definition."

"So their activists?"

"I guess you could say that. We call them terrorists."

"How so? What is their platform and their crimes?"

"Firstly their platform is totally baseless!" Siren sounded insulted even just repeating the words of someone else, "saying that we are a military dictatorship, that we use the armies to control the people with fear! They also accuse us of having a completely arbitrary judical system, such as someone who can't follow orders issued for their own safety as well as that of those around them, that they shouldn't be branded as Maverick! And that the Neo Arcadian government is monopolizing the little remaining energy! We're rationing it until a solution can be found! Why the hell can't those retarded ass-fucks understand that we're only trying to keep everyone safe!"

"And their crimes?"

"Saboutaging supply lines, assaulting military and civilian personel, arson, bombings, raids on weapon and ammo and supply caches, assasinations... the list goes on."

"And it seemed like that blonde girl was their leader."

"Dr. Ciel? yes and no. She leads them in their ideals i suppose, but she isn't really their leader. That's TK-31, or I think he calls himself Elpizo now."

"So what do THEY say is their ideals?"

"Absolute democracy, a rewrite of the lawbook, government restructuring, etc... Its the same old whiny story of every unrealistic terrorist group."

"I see," Kuro stopped to think about it. It's true that many terroristic groups were greatly in the wrong, but every-so-often one of them was actually right.

"We're just about there," Leviathan pointed at a large building.

As the car slowed, they stepped over to the door. An orange haired young woman stood on the platform as the door slid open. Her phone rang as she stepped into the railcar. "This is Neige," she answered as Kuro and Leviathan stepped out. "Hey Craft...Yeah I'm free tonigh-" The rest of the conversation was cut off when the door closed again.

"Welcome to the Neo Arcadian Grand Library!" A pink reploid greeted them, "May I see your identification please?"

Kuro looked at Leviathan who pulled a wallet out of the pocket of the jeans which were once again showing off the dark blue cottons beneath a little bit. "He's with me. Entry allowed on my authority."

"Very well General Leviathan," the pink reploid bowed, "would you like a data assistant today?"

"No, thank you. No in-depth research for me today, just a history lesson or two."