Disclaimer: Mega Man and all other characters and events are property of Capcom.

Ciel and Axl walk through the entrance of Central HQ. Axl looks around in awe at the spacious interior and the busy employees hustling to work faster. The whole thing reminds him of the old days with the Maverick Hunters.

"So this is where you work, huh?" he asks as the walk through the main lobby. "What do you do here?"

"I am director of the Department of Energy Management and Control," she states simply.

"Hmmm… sounds dull," Axl muses.

"Maybe, but if it weren't for us, Neo Arcadia would be ancient ruins by now. The DEMC keeps everything in order," Ciel explains. They round a corner and approach a long corridor.

"Yeah, but, where's the action?" Axl complains. "Energy management isn't a very exciting field."

"You'd be surprised," she replies. Ciel stops in front of a large door. It is heavily armored and blast proof. Axl wonders why an energy manager would need so much security. Ciel takes a key card out from her bag and swipes it across the card reader. A computerized voice says, "Identification confirmed. Welcome, Dr. Ciel." The blast door opens, revealing two Neo Arcadian soldiers standing guard on the other side.

"Good morning, Dr. Ciel. We heard about your accident; nothing serious has occurred since the incident in the Quick-Tram," one of the guards says. "Are you all right, ma'am?"

"Fine, thank you. This here is Axl, he will be accompanying me today."

"Ma'am!" the guard salutes. Both soldiers step aside to allow Ciel and Axl through into the department quarters.

As they continue down the corridor, Axl asks Ciel why energy management would need blast doors and military protection.

"The DEMC is the heart of Neo Arcadia," Ciel explains. "We make military decisions, address political and social issues; anything the city needs. This city survives because of energy. You can't imagine how many want to take it away. Without us, Neo Arcadia would fall apart."

"So… you guys run Neo Arcadia?" he asks.

"Not so much run, but for lack of a better term… yes."

"And you run the DEMC?"

"Yes?"

"So you're the leader of Neo Arcadia, aren't you?"

Ciel stops, turns, and looks Axl dead in the eye. "I am no ruler. This city is a perfect model of democracy and equality. I fought like Hell to make X's dream come true. I would never betray his ideas like that!"

"Okay, okay, sorry," Axl apologizes. "It's just, well, kinda hard to imagine. In my time, this world was just a dream."

Ciel sighs. "I know, I know. It must be hard for you to accept, but this is real. We did it, Axl. We saved the world."

Axl says nothing.

"Ah, Ciel, what kept you?"

Ciel smiles and looks at the source of the voice that just greeted her. "Cerveau, hi. Sorry I took so long, got caught up in something."

"I heard," says Cerveau. Axl looks at the engineer. Cerveau, a reploid, is wearing a green lab coat and has a white visor over his eyes. The visor glows red as Cerveau looks back at Axl. "Who is this, Doctor?"

"Oh, this is Axl. The Axl."

Cerveau sputters and coughs. "W-w-what?! Another legendary reploid!! Oh, my, this is grand!" The reploid rushes over to Axl and immediately begins inspecting him.

"Hey, hey, HEY!!! Quit treating me like a fuckin' artifact!" Axl yells.

Cerveau backs off. "My apologies, it's just so incredible I can hardly contain myself!"

Ciel chuckles. "Cerveau is our engineer, Axl, and one of my best friends. He's made many contributions to the city."

"Ah, but Ciel gives me too much credit. The original design for the system of energy that saved Neo Arcadia several years ago was hers," Cerveau says. "We'd be lost without our little genius here."

"I'm not so little any more, Cerveau. Anyways, Axl's had it rough, so clean him up for me, okay. Axl, when he's done just come meet me in the conference room. You'll find it." With that, Ciel walks away.

"Alright, then, sir Axl," the over-excited Cerveau offers. "Let's get you down to my lab so we can fix you up. That armor of yours looks so old, let's see if we can't find you something more… today."

"Okay, whatever, just don't start taking me apart or anything."

"Of course, of course, now come."

A human male in an expensive business suit crosses a street near central Neo Arcadia. He is headed for the Square, one of the main market areas of the city. His ear-piece buzzes to alert him of an incoming call.

"Hello? Yo Reece, I've been waiting for you, man. Listen, about that ship—" His conversation is cut short, due to a hole that suddenly appears in his chest. He falls, and a woman near him screams in fear. She backs up in shock from the dead man in front of her, but her retreat is obstructed by another body. She turns and stares up into gleaming red eyes.

"Pitiful wretch. Shall I give you a similar fate?" the black robot asks mockingly.

The woman screams again and bolts away. The person she bumped into grins and chuckles. He looks around at the crows of people staring in fear at him. He swings back his tattered cloak and brandishes his buster cannon.

"Look at all of you pathetic creatures," he shouts to them all, feeling satisfaction as they tremble at the sound of his voice. "You have no value. You all lead meaningless lives, cause unnecessary conflict and contribute to the destruction of this world." The robot begins pacing back and forth. "You are parasites, sucking everything from an area until there is nothing left. You do not have a symbiotic relationship with the world. You take, but do not give, and no one expects anything else." He points his buster at a particularly fat man. "You there! What have you done for your world, your people? What makes you different from any other human?!"

The fat man manages to say, "I-I'm not a h-h-human, I'm a-a reploid."

"Keh, even more despicable that a robot like you can mingle with these mongrels," said the robot. He strides up to the fat reploid. "And why would you make yourself look like this? It's disgusting! You act like you want to be human!"

"But… I do…"

"SILENCE!!! Your very existence is an insult to all robots. We are the superior race, and you demean us all by acting in such a manner." The black robot grabs the reploid by his neck and lifts him into the air while simultaneously choking him. "Give me one good reason why I should not snap your neck right now?"

"FREEZE!!!"

The black robot turns. "Oh, this should be interesting."

Cerveau examines Axl's schematics on his screen while Axl rests on an operating bed. Cerveau smiles, thinking, 'I've really outdone myself.' He walks over to Axl. "Alright, you're all done. You were pretty banged up, but I managed to fix you up nicely."

Axl gets off the bed and flexes his arms. "Huh, new armor?"

"Yes, I'm glad you noticed!" Cerveau exclaimed. "It's much more streamlined than your last armor system."

Axl moves towards a large mirror in the room to look at his new armor. He notices that all the bulky leg and arm pieces are gone, replaced with skinnier armor pieces. His pointed shoulder guards are also gone. His helmet remains pretty much the same, except the blue jewel at its center is smaller. The jewel on his chest is also slightly smaller. The rest of the armor is also more streamlined; the gray-black color remains, but the whole thing is sleeker and more connected. The wing-like attachments on his back are now retractable. Axl continues looking himself over and notices the jet boosters on the side of his legs are gone. "Hey," he says, "how am I supposed to hover now?"

Cerveau laughs. "I replaced those old boosters with anti-gravity pads on the soles of your boots. Also, the wing attachments also help initiate and stabilize your hover ability."

Axl removes his helmet and stares at his face, scowling as he sees the cross-shaped scar. "You could have done something about this."

Cerveau frowns. "I figured it was something personal. I didn't want to do anything without your permission; besides, I'm no cosmetic surgeon."

"It's alright. Sometimes the past comes back to haunt me." Axl puts his helmet back on. "I'm gonna go on ahead and see Ciel."

"Yes, she called while you were rebooting. She wants you to go directly to her office. I'll show you the way."

Cerveau takes Axl to Ciel's office and bids him farewell. Axl opens the door to her office. It is a large room. Ciel sits at her desk on the far side of the office. She looks up from her computer as Axl enters the room. "Axl, come in. Oh, go ahead and get rid of that armor; there's no need for it here."

Axl walks in and as he does so his armor flashes white, then disappears. Underneath is a grey, skintight suit. Axl flashes once again, and is instantly dressed in normal clothing: a pair of jeans, sneakers, and a white long-sleeved T-shirt. "So what's up, you gonna tell me everything I wanna know?"

"Yes," Ciel says. She types a few more keys on her computer then stands and walks around her desk. "Axl, as I said before, X and Zero are… gone. Officially, they both died fairly recently. Six years ago Zero died, and a few months before that X was killed."

"What happened? Start from the beginning."

Ciel took a breath. "X created Neo Arcadia. He did that a long, long time ago. At the end of the Maverick Wars, several things happened. You disappeared – according to history – and Zero sealed himself away for repairs. At least, that's what he said. He told me he actually did it because he was afraid he would restart the Maverick Wars, since he was the first Maverick and the source of the Maverick Virus. That left X, who began building Neo Arcadia. About that time, Cyber Elves were created to help the advancement of the human/reploid population. Mother Elf was the first; she was created as antibody program to counter the Sigma Virus. However, an evil man named Dr. Weil corrupted Mother Elf, turning her into the Dark Elf. Using the Dark Elf and a powerful reploid named Omega, he wreaked havoc on the city and began what we call the Elf Wars. Because Zero was gone, X fought alone for a hundred years, until he finally beat Weil. However, the Dark Elf was too powerful to be left alone. So X sacrificed his body by using it to power a prison cell able to contain the Dark Elf. After that, there was peace. I created a copy of X to lead Neo Arcadia. He was supposed to be perfect. But when the energy crisis hit, he began exiling reploids to make sure there was enough energy for the humans. The reploids who resisted were labeled Mavericks and killed. I formed a Resistance to stop Copy X and the Neo Arcadian army from slaughtering countless reploids. We were losing, but I managed to find Zero and awaken him. He had amnesia, but helped us stop Copy X. He even managed to destroy him. Zero continued to help the Resistance fight Neo Arcadia. I found a reploid named Elpizo and he helped me lead the Resistance. He ended up destroying the real X's body and freeing the Dark Elf. Luckily, Zero stopped him too."

Ciel paused, looking towards a glass case on the wall of her office. In the case was a red object.

"Then Dr. Weil came back, seeking the Dark Elf. He revived Copy X and helped him lead Neo Arcadia, until Zero killed him again. Then it was just Weil in charge. And Weil used Omega and the Dark Elf to try and destroy the Resistance. Zero beat Omega, too, even though he had to destroy his own original body. But Weil was still around. He created a space station equipped with a massive cannon. It was called Ragnarok." Ciel began to feel tears well up in the corners of her eyes. "He was going to use it on a human refugee camp. Zero went to stop him, and… and…"

"He died," Axl finishes. Ciel bursts into violent sobs, falling to her knees and holding herself to keep from shaking. Before her is the glass case. In it is Zero's broken helmet.

"I found it in among the remains of Ragnarok after it exploded," she chokes. "It was all that was left."

Axl walks over to her, kneels down and holds her tightly. "I know it hurts. He was my friend to."

"But I loved him!!!"

"Shhh, shh, it's okay." He pats her back to try and comfort her, but cannot think of anything else to say. 'God, she's really messed up over this. Dammit, Zero, X, why did you guys have to die?'

They remain hugging on the floor for several moments. Then, Ciel's office phone rings. Ciel sniffles as she releases Axl and stands. "I'm okay; I've got to answer the phone."

"Sure." Axl lets her get up and rises after her. Ciel rushes over to the phone and picks up the receiver.

"Hello?" she asks. "Yes, what's wrong? …… What?! What's going on? …….. Get some more guards down there now!!!" Ciel slams the phone down and runs out of the office.

"HEY!!" Axl shouts. "What's going on?"

"The Square!" Ciel responds. "Some reploid is rampaging in the Square!"

The body of a soldier goes flying several hundred feet before crashing into the side of a building. The black robot from the underground lab pants as he exerts more strength to hold of the guards rushing into the Square.

"Why do you try to stop me? It's futile!! I'm am the ultimate robot master!!!" he screams as he looses a volley of purple shots from his buster. Several guards drop instantly. "None can stop me! Now, Mega Man, come to me so that I may crush you!!!"

A military grade all-terrain vehicle pulls up near the Square. Axl jumps out, pistols in hand. "Stay here, Ciel, I'll see what's up." He then dashes towards the area of the ruckus.

"BE CAREFUL, AXL!!!" she shouts after him.

Axl speeds to the scene of battle. He sees the black robot shooting wildly and rushes over, landing a powerful jump kick into the robot's back.

The black robot is sent flying some feet away before hitting the ground with a hard thud and rolling a few more feet. He picks himself up to face his attacker. "Who are you?" he growls.

Axl points both guns at the robot's head, slowly walking towards him. "I should be asking you that. What the hell are you thinking?"

The robot bares his teeth as more soldiers surround him, rifles ready to fire. He remains still, his hands at his side.

"Well, who are you?" Axl demands.

"… Bass."

"Bass, huh? Well, Bass, I suggest you calmly surrender so that there is no more damage today." Axl keeps his guns ready, stopping as he nears Bass's vicinity. "There's no need for anyone else to die. Let's talk, negotiate, something. Just surrender."

"Surrender?" The idea infuriates Bass. He growls again, his gaze darting from Axl to the other guards and back to Axl again. "Surrender?!?!"

"That, or we leave your bullet-strewn carcass here to rot."

Bass's features take on a thoughtful look. "… Alright." He raises his hands slowly, allowing two guards to come and cuff him from behind.

"Enemy secure, sir," the guards say.

"Thanks," Axl says. He walks right up to Bass and puts his face close to his. "What's your game, Bass?"

"Mega Man. I want Mega Man."

"Don't know him."

"Don't play dumb, you've got a statue of him right over there!!" Bass looks at X's stature.

"Uh, that's X, man, you got the wrong guy."

"I know my arch-nemesis when I see him!" Bass retaliates.

"Axl!"

Axl turns to see Ciel walk up to him. "Axl, what's going on?"

"This," he points to the captive robot, "is Bass. And apparently, he wants X… or Mega Man, or something."

"Mega Man?" Ciel wonders aloud. "Who's that?"

"WHY ARE YOU ALL ACTING LIKE SUCH IMBECILES?! MEGA MAN!!! THE BLUE BOMBER, THE HERO OF THE HUMAN RACE!!! WHAT, IS IT THE DAY, THE YEAR, OR JUST HUMAN STUPIDITY THAT PREVENTS YOU FROM UNDERSTANDING WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!!!!!!!!!"

"Okay, he's crazy," Axl concludes. "Let's just put him down and be done with it."

"Wait," Ciel says. "Bass, what year is it?"

"Are you trying to make me kill you?" Bass sneers. "It's 20XX!!!"

"No, it's not. You're almost a hundred-and-ten years behind."

Bass blinks several times. "What?"

"It's 110 years after 20XX!"

"… What?"

'This is hopeless,' Ciel thinks. "Alright, let's get ready to take him in for questioning."

Bass looks down, thinking hard. 'Not 20XX? How? That would mean…'

"Wait."

Ciel looks back at Bass.

"So, then, Mega Man is dead?"

"If you really are from the year 20XX, and if he was too, then probably." Ciel says curtly.

Bass immediately changes. His entire thought process stops. He stares blankly at the ground. 'If he's gone, then… what am I doing? What is my purpose?' Bass closes his eyes and mutters, "Kill me."

Ciel walks briskly back to him and roughly grabs his chin, forcing him to look at her. "I would, but the whole fair trial system prevents it. So get up and let's go."

Axl looks on in quiet awe as the soldiers haul Bass up and drag him to a police vehicle.

A/N: I tried to get all the events from the Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero series correct. So is it getting any more interesting? What was up with Gutsman? Why is the past suddenly turning up in the future? Review, offer ideas, flame, anything to get feedback. I'll update soon; the next chapter will introduce more characters!