First all-original chapter of the Re-Write. Hope you enjoy it.
It was the next morning after Neal had returned from retrieving the source of the undersea resonance with his own Biometal. That source had turned out to be none other than Pandora, "voice" of Model W, who at one point had been thought to be lost forever beneath the rolling waves. If Ashe's testimony and Neal's... "experience" had anything to say about it, it was that while Pandora's pulse was weak, that even though Model W had drained a great deal of energy from her, she was still alive. Vent and Aile asked just how he figured that out, but he skirted around the subject.
After returning from the mission, Lily practically tackled him to the ground, afraid he'd been drowned or eaten by a sea monster or something. He had assured her that everything was alright and returned her necklace as promised, although that didn't stop her from clinging to him for the entire day. Of course, he had no qualms with this, since after finding Pandora nearly half-dead at the bottom of the sea had left him a bit empty on the inside, and appreciated the close company.
"You're worried about her, aren't you?" Lily asked as she sat across Neal from the table in their room, sipping on a juicebox she took from the mini-fridge her brother was able to procure after his first sanctioned mission.
"Yeah... a little," he sighed. "How much do you know?" he asked.
"Only a little," Lily returned. "I heard that those two did some bad things, but that they were being forced, and that it wasn't their fault. The one you got yesterday was Pandora, right? They called her the Witch."
"I guess whether you're Human or Reploid, you'll simply always fear that which you do not fully understand," Neal thought. Given Prometheus and Pandora's situation, faced with death every three-day increment, it would only make sense that they'd do what they had back then. When I think back on it, humans are inevitably very complacent and very stupid creatures. We created reploids to be the perfect workers as well as companions for humanity, designed to think and act like humans would. However, that very same humanity is what allowed them to become Mavericks. In the end, while mankind pitted reploid against reploid, all we humans did was sit back, not even considering the seeds we were sowing, the wheels of peace between human and reploid slowly grinding to a halt. Sure, they've begun to move again nowadays, but looking back on it, while humans gained bodies like those of reploids through the advent of Machine Bodies, in return we only stripped them of their "immortality" by placing Artifical Life Counters on them.
"Neal... Neal... NEAL!" Lily cried, snapping him out of his thoughts. "You were staring into space for the past five minutes. What were you thinking?"
"Just how humans can be very complacent and very stupid creatures," Neal sighed to himself, thinking life would've been simpler for him had he come into this world as a mechaniloid. Then again, faced with an all too unfair mortality, would he himself become a Maverick? Would he himself had done what Serpent had in exchange for power? All things considered, being born as a human was the lesser of two evils.
"Funny, my mother used to tell me the same thing," Lily returned. "That's why she told me to get both sides of every story. Not listen to the one that was easiest to find."
"... That's a good way to look at life," Neal said with a smile as he mussed up the girl's hair, earning an adorable pout from her which slowly turned into a smile. "You know, I think after breakfast I'll head to the lab. See how Pandora's doing. You want to come with me?"
"Unfortunately I can't. Muguet's scheduled another lesson today," Lily stated. "But remember, tomorrow we're supposed to go out and get some clothes for the four of us, so don't do anything too strenuous," she added, reminding him of his obligation which was steadfast approaching.
"Heh, I'll try not to," he returned as he got up from his seat, taking the little blonde by the hand as the two walked to the cafeteria.
After dropping by the cafeteria and getting a small breakfast, the dark-haired teen headed off to the science lab. Opening it, he found that while Fleuve monitored the still girl's vitals, all of which were fairly low, Vent, Aile, and Prairie stood off to the side, keeping an eye on Pandora as she rested on a slightly angled lab table. The girl looked a wreck, and the only reason she'd survived as long under the sea as she did was purely because she was both a Mega Man and a reploid. However, even with all that in her favor, that wasn't going to hold for too much longer.
I know I should be questioning just why I found Pandora laid out like someone had dug her out to come get her later,'Neal thought to himself, thinking back to just how easy it had been to navigate around the underwater base. But with things at the present... That's just something I'll have to look into at a later date, he thought to herself, seeing how her core energy was close to shutting down completely. Whatever had really happened must've taken years off her life if she was in this bad a shape.
"How is she?" Neal asked the short scientist.
"Not good," Fleuve stated. "After that energy drain, her body must've responded negatively to the point of falling into a coma. While she has some traces of energy left inside of her, it isn't enough for her to remain conscious for long. I suppose her only saving grace was that the Artificial Life Counter was short-circuited, otherwise she would have... passed, weeks ago."
"Then can't you just... I don't know... give her a recharge or something?" he asked, still feeling guilty that he couldn't get the girl's brother out of there. Then again... could someone have gotten to him earlier? Was me getting to Pandora at all just a stroke of luck?
"Unfortunately, the new-gen reploids don't work that way," Prairie stated, though remembered she herself was far different than the reploids of the current day-and-age. "Before the advent of Artificial Life Counters in reploids, they were able to be recharged directly, or if the need came about and the resources were available, their consciousness was placed in a second body. That's what made reploids back then so amazing, yet terrifying."
"Maybe..." he said sadly. "I just wish there was something I could do for her," he thought, before he felt Model E vibrating in his pocket. "Model E, what is it?"
"It's the third Cyber Elf Egg. It's just about to hatch," Model E stated.
"Cyber Elves come from eggs?" Vent asked.
"Only the ones created by the ones created by humans," Neal said as he held his hands out, the pink heart-marked egg appearing in his hands. Naturally, Vent and Aile were looking over his shoulders as a crack formed across it, Prairie and Fleuve being more complacent about the ordeal before the crack circumvented the egg. The next moment it burst into a flash of light, the particles parting and revealing... a male Nurse-Type?
Said cyber elf was shaped similarly to Kyudoka, but was male, and instead of oriental japanese clothing, wore a black skintight suit, a white labcoat, and wire-rimmed glasses, his blond hair slicked back and his eyes calculative as he adjusted his glasses with his... hand. He carried a 9V battery on his back with leather straps crossing his chest, the ends connected to a tiny pair of anode and cathodes with silver points and bronze wiring. The wire-wings on his back had yellow gems inside, and formed points.
"... Well? What? What're you staring at?" he asked with his arms crossed, Vent and Aile leaping back at the sight of the little, while Neal and the others were more or less uded to it.
"So. This is what a nurse-type elf looks like?" Neal asked as he looked him over, the digital being seemingly apalled by the treatment. "So what is it that you can do?"
"I have nothing to say to you," the cyber elf said crossing his arms and turning away, only to suddenly come face to face with an irate Prairie, the digital being's features growing paler under the blonde's glare while Vent and Aile hid behind Neal, having never seen her that angry before.
"WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA YOU LITTLE BRAT?" Prairie demanded, the little elf losing his composure for a second before he regained it, turning away from the irate Commander.
"Hmph. You humans and reploids used our own kind, doping yourselves up on us for a little power boost," the little elf huffed. "If you think we're all goody-goody two-shoes, then you're wrong. Just like how there are humans who still despise reploids, and vice versa, there are cyber elves that hate both humans and reploids."
"Well he's certainly chatty for being only two minutes old," Neal huffed with crossed arms, a green and blue ball of light flying out of his chest before Jet and Kyudoka suddenly rushed the unnamed cyber elf, Jet pecking at him while Kyudoka smacked him around with a harisen she pulled out of nowhere. After a few seconds, Kyudoka and Jet were sitting in the seiza position with Jet between them, the hacker-type forcing him to bow his head wile Jet smacked him across the back.
"I apologize Neal-dono. Nikola-baka spoke out of term," Kyudoka spoke formally bowing her head. "His upbringing wasn't as bright as some of the other elves."
"Upbringing? I found him in an egg in the middle of a battlefield," Neal deadpanned.
"The upbringing I refer to was from before you found Nikola-baka in his Egg Form," Kyudoka explained, earning a confused look from Neal while Vent and Aile continued to try and find out what was going on. "Before Elpizo-san came to this world and became Model E-san, the borders between this world and the Cyberworld had begun to thin. A few of the Cyber Elves found themselves closer to this world than our own, and as a natural defense mechanism became Cyber Elf Eggs, waiting in stasis until they were found."
"While all that's very fascinating, it still doesn't answer my question," Neal deadpanned. "You know what, I can get all the details later. Nikola," he said facing the nurse-type cyber elf. "Since Kyudoka and Jet woke up at the most oportune moments, I'm to assume you hatched because you can do something for her," he said pointing to the comatose Pandora.
Nikola's reaction was to huff and cross his arms, but after being smacked across the back of the head by Kyudoka with the harisen she pulled out of nowhere, the diminutive cyber elf grumbled to himself about 'irate Hackers' before floating over to Pandora, then to Fleuve's monitor. After grumbling to himself for a minute, he floated over to Neal before saying, "As far as I can tell, she only needs her energy to replenish itself. However, that thing she's wearing is preventing that from happening. I can wake her up for a minute, maybe two, but afterwards she's back in coma town. If she really has been manipulated, then just ask her if she wants that armor off. Afterwards she should be able to recover."
"How do I go about getting her armor off?" he asked, then turned to Vent and saw that his face was a bit red. "Not that way you perverted hippie!" he shrieked.
"Jeez, do I have to have the answer for everything?" he asked. "Look, I can wake her up a bit, but I have no idea how to remove that armor. You'll have to figure that out on your own," he said as he floated over to the comatose greenette and grabbed the anode and cathode from his sides, clicking the ends together and causing a spark before he tapped the girl's temples, her vitals spiking for a moment before he disappeared in a pink ball of light and flew into Neal's chest, right as he ran over to the roused Mega Man.
"Pandora... Pandora can you hear me?" he asked, seeing the girl's eyes move beneath her eyelids. A moment later they opened, revealing a pair of crimson-colored eyes which stared around the room before locking onto Neal's.
"Who... are you...?" she asked soft-spokenly.
"My name's Neal," he returned. "You were at the bottom of the sea when I found you."
"The sea... that's right... Model W..." she trailed off as her eyes began to close, her vitals beginning to drop towards "coma level" once again.
"Pandora, stay with me! Is there any way to remove the Model W from you!" he asked, trying to get some sort of answer out of her.
"Only wanted... to be... free..." she said as she fell back into her coma, not even awake for half a minute.
Mega Man Zero 2 Soundtrack - Spreading Darkness
At that moment the room grew deathly silent, Neal's head hanging in despaid as his arms fell to his sides. Pandora had been roused from her coma, if only for a little while, but with the way things were now, it was doubtful she'd ever wake up again unless they could somehow force a de-merge and remove her Biometal. However, with her once again in a coma, the group was nowhere closer to an answer, her 'parting' words fresh in their minds. A few minutes later, Neal spoke up.
"Model E... How did you clear out your Model W?" he asked, remembering the little prologue to him becoming a Biometal.
"I performed a... 'Digital Dive', and entered the Biometal's cyber space," Model E answered, having paused to find the right words to describe his actions. "After that, I was able to remove the... I guess you could call it Weil Remnant, before I took control of the Model W and turned it into Model E."
"... You think that would work for her?" he asked placing his hand on Pandora's. "If we could go in there, do you think we could force a de-merge? Is it possible to save her?"
"... I suppose it could in theory, but since I've physically rooted myself into Model E, I'm incapable of leaving it to attempt a Digital Dive. If we were to try and make it work, we'd need to do it together," Model E suggested. "I would guess phsyical contact to her would be a factor, as well as a close proximity to where the Model W was implanted," he said floating over to the girl, looking her over before he stopped at her stomach. "Here. This is where the pull is the strongest," he said as he seemed to fight some sort of magnetic pull, until wrenching himself away and back behind Neal's shoulder. "However, if we're going to act, we'll have to do it quickly. She's held out for this long, but I'd wager if we didn't remove the Model W within the next half hour... she may be beyond saving," he finished, Neal's expression growing sullen as he walked over to Prairie, then looked to the monitor, showing that her body's energy fluctuations were beginning to drop and slow.
If what Model E says is true, then Pandora is almost out of time, he said before turning to Prairie. "Commander... I need you to clear me for one more mission."
"... You're going to try and save her, aren't you?" Prairie asked. After knowing Neal for as long as she did, even if it was only for a short while, she knew what kind of person Neal was. Eerily similar to someone she once knew. Someone who didn't care for justice or anything like that, but only fought for those who he believed in.
"But Neal, we have no idea what will happen to you if you attempt to remove Pandora's Biometal in the way you theorize may work," Fleuve stated. "You don't even know if it's even possible to do so."
"Every man is guilty of all the good he did not to,"* Neal said facing Fleuve before turning to Prairie. "Pandora said so herself. She only wanted to be free. To spur Mega Men onwards and fight one another; that was Albert's will, not her own," he said as his words grew quiet. "Please... let me save her," he said turning to both Prairie and Fleuve, knowing with rank alone either one could stop him.
"... There isn't any way of stopping you, is there?" Fleuve asked the dark-haired teen, clearly worried as to what would happen to him. Earning a nod in return, he could only sigh before pressing a few buttons on his console, the rack lowering to the ground while it reclined, bringing the greenette to rest at an angle. "If what Model E theorizes is true, then you should try to Megamerge while in both physical contact with her body and physical proximity to her Biometal. It's beyond my range of experience to predict what will happen, but I suppose what if's will be enough to save her this day. It's certainly done so in the past."
"Thank you," he said as he walked over to Pandora as the rack finished reclinding, placing his left hand on her stomach, feeling something... pulsing within her. Something dark, though it felt weakened, like an injured beast forced into a corner. "Oh, and Prairie," he said turning to her. "Looks like I may have to postpone that shopping trip a little bit," he said with a bit of a smile on his face before turning to Pandora, his hand on her stomach as he held his Biometal in his right hand. "Megamerge Dive!" he shouted as he pressed the Biometal to her chest, a bright flash of light blinding everyone in the lab as the connection between the Model W and ex-Model W was established.
The first thing Neal felt was weightlessness, the image of a spiralling tunnel forming in front of his eyes before the sensation suddenly stopped, finding himself landing face down on a solid surface that in all likeliness should've killed him, but somehow didn't. Looking up, he knew for a fact that he wasn't in 'Kansas' anymore. Wherever the hell that was.
The area was clearly not the Grand Nuage's science lab, meaning the impromptu "Megamerge Dive" had actually worked. The ground was made up of violet purple-trimmed panels, though randomly shaped to resemble a mosaic rather than some sort of organized pattern. The sky as well as the horizon were pitch black with the occasional streak of grey crossing it, making it resemble a pit of tar. What confused him however was that without any visible light source, how it was still bright as day there, even if it didin't look like that. However, he was soon cut out of those thoughts as a set of footsteps came from behind him, the dark-haired teen assuming a rough fighting stance before he realized who he was looking at.
"Model E? No... Elpizo?" he asked in shock having seen the reploid spirit's face for the first time. His features were pretty plain, almost certainly mass-produced, the mask-like crest covering the right side of his face just enough to the side that his nose poked forward unobstructed. His visible eye was cobalt blue, and he gave off the aura of a practiced leader.
"Neal? You're in here too?" Elpizo asked. "Well I guess it would make more sense if you were then it being just me. How was the trip?"
"I feel like I was hit... by a... truck..." he trailed off as his eyes drifted to the side, seeing something he really wished he could've gone his whole life without seeing. Then again, things didn't always work out, and he had a feeling that every time shit hit the fan, that he'd be caught with his pants down.
Like... right now.
The thing could only be described as a sinful abomination against everything God had made, an amalgamation of purple-scaled reptilian flesh, various mechanical components, jagged pieces of white metal with black inlaid circuitry, occasionaly pulsing red, with those pieces looking like they came from a Model W. The flesh itself showed signs of decay, with either bone, organic, or synthetic component exposed to the open air, and the inorganic components sticking out of its body at random intervals appeared heavily cracked, pieces breaking off even as he looked at it. Its body structure was low to the ground with large reptilian legs at the sides of a massive chest cavity, a long tail stretching out the back, but the most gut-wrenching thing of all was that atop the beast's body were six long snake-like necks, all in various states of decay or deterioration. At the top of each neck was a humanoid head with twisted features, bloodshot, synthetic, or missing eyes at each eye socket, long grey hair stained with blood, and teeth in various states of either yellowing, or missing entirely. One of them even had its bottom jaw missing.
However, in the middle of its chest cavity, which looked like it was torn out by an outside force, a nude Pandora hung within the carapace, suspended by stringy tendons of flesh that seemed to constrict her being. By some odd grace however, they hid her modesty. She looked as though she was sleeping, but appeared to be a bit pale and a little thin, her green hair flowing down her face and back messily.
Mega Man Zero 2 Soundtrack - Combustion {Remastered Version}
"What the fuuuuck?" Neal deadpanned as the thing's eyes, or at least those that were left, suddenly locked onto the two of them, finally registering their presence.
"That must be the Weil Remnant within Pandora's Biometal," Elpizo said as he and Neal began to back away, the hydra-like monstrosity raising itself up on lizard-like legs as it began to slowly head towards them, its heads swaying back and forth with each slight movement. "However, by the look of decay and deterioration on it, I'd say it represents the current state of the Model W."
"And just how do you validate that hypothesis?" Neal said backing away, thinking that whatever this... thing, was in front of him, would be far more terrifying than anything in those monster movies he'd ever seen.
"When I came across the Weil Remnant in the Model W fragment before I turned it into Model E, the thing looked old, and I mean really old," Elpizo returned. "This thing may be in the condition it is now because not only has its host been in a weakened state for around a month, but after having Pandora's energy drained to feed the other Model Ws, this one may be severely weakened as well."
HISSSSSSS!
"It doesn't sound weakened!" Neal cried as he began running in the opposite direction from the Weil Remnant: Hydra, Elpizo following him as they both looked over their shoulders.
"That must be Pandora's mental representation of herself," Elpizo said as his eyes traced the tendons holding her in place, even as the thing began to chase them with thundering steps, its tail slithering behind it, Pandora's form shifting around and from side to side with each movement. "This must be why she can't de-merge. Both outside and in, she's literally trapped by the soul of Model W."
"Maybe. I guess our primary objective is to free her first, then kill that thing second. Megamerge!" Neal cried out as he tried to do so, only to come up with nothing. "Elpizo! How am I supposed to fight if I can't megamerge? GYAH!" he cried as he leapt away from the jawless head, which slammed itself into the ground as the dark-haired teen leapt back.
"Neal, in this world, perception is power," Elpizo said as he leapt over one head and used his sword to deflect the lunge of another. "That's how I was able to defeat an enemy I would not have been able to by my own power otherwise."
"You mean like The Matrix?" Neal asked before three of the heads suddenly lunged at him. Leaping back, the moment his feet touched the ground, golden circuit-like lines formed across the ground as he kicked forward, the circuit-like lines flying forward and stopping as his foot left the ground. The moment it did so, a number of spires rose up in front of him and formed a wall. The head in the middle crashed into the spires, but the other two rushed around him. However before they could reach him, he jumped back into an elbow drop, two large slabs of the ground flying up like he'd chopped a board in half as golden circuit-like lines stretched out from the point of contact, the two halves slamming into the two heads that loomed above him before he took off again.**
"Okay... not really what I meant but... it works," Elpizo spoke in surprise before leaping back, never being able to exert that degree of control over this kind of space. Then again Neal was human, and imagination was something they'd had thousands of years to evolve into wheras Reploids could only simulate it, with templates for their minds being based around that of the first original Reploid, X, whose mind in turn was based off of a human's.
Placing his palm on the ground, he then ran it towards the Hydra as golden streaks followed his touch, a large slab of the ground being flung from the ground and impacting the thing's left leg, snapping its knee back into an awkward angle and causing it to tip over. "Yeah! Take that lizard breath!" he whooped before the Hydra head with its hair covering its eyes rushed at him, taking a bite into his leg and swinging him around before slamming him into the ground. Finding himself in a foot deep crater, his eyes widened as he found a chunk of his left leg missing, the head that had attacked him swallowing the chunk he took out. "GYAHAHAA!" he cried as he clutched at his leg, a synthetic eye forming as the thing digested the chunk of Neal's leg.
"Neal! Calm down!" Elpizo said as he batted one with synthetic eyes away. "This is only a mental representation of yourself. Your real body is still intact."
"Then what happens if I disappear completely?" Neal cried out as the missing chunk in his leg began to reform himself, instead of flesh and bone lines of binary code ran across his opening before it closed. Elpizo refused to answer, but instead struck the snaggletoothed head with the then-formed Pile Bunker, sending it flying back as it became evident what would happen to Neal if either he or Elpizo disappeared completely.
Neal... I won't let you disappear, Elpizo thought to himself as he ran at one of the heads and stabbed it through the eye. Or at least what he thought was an eye instead of an empty eye socket, finding himself up to his elbow in pus, one of the other heads biting into his side and taking a chunk out of him before it swallowed what it took, some of the skin on its neck regenerating. Backpedalling to gain some distance, he saw that while the chunk out of his side had binary running along it, it wasn't regenerating as quickly as Neal's, who was literally throwing up walls to keep the Hydra's heads at bay. The only reason it hadn't advanced on them already was because with one leg broken, it could only drag itself along with one leg, and rather poorly at that.
Planting his feet on the ground, Neal held one of the Hydra's heads back, trying to make himself stronger to hold it back, only to find himself only slightly stronger than normal. However, as much as he fought, it wasn't enough as one head caught him from the side and bit into his forearm and started pulling him to the side, three more heads coming at him intent on ripping the rest of his limbs off before digging into him.
"NEAL!" Elpizo cried out as he saw his Biomatch's mental representation about to be devoured. A moment later however, Neal raised his free hand above his head, a stream of golden lines shooting out into the air before-
"GYAAAAH!" Neal cried as he slashed his arm off at the bicep with a plain katana that had suddenly materialized in his hand, letting the captured limb go as he leapt as far away as he could, a pained look on his face as his foot slipped, the remainder of his arm dragging painfully across the ground even as it began to regenerate.
"Neal!" Elpizo cried as he leapt away from his partner as the heads herded him away. "Damn it! Is failure all I can do!" he cursed as he punched the ground, cracks forming as all of his life's failures flashed in front of his eyes. Operation Righteous Strike. Giving into temptation and trying to kill all humans. Being unable to protect Neal when he fought against Atlas.
Mega Man Zero 2 - Mark of Justice - Resistance Anthem {Remastered Soundtrack}
"Even if you failed back then, doesn't mean that's all you'll ever be capable of," a voice said out of nowhere, a hail of bullets striking the Weil Remnant: Hydra and sending it reeling back, Elpizo looking over his shoulder, his eyes widening as fourteen figures began to walk towards him from a shining gateway, a sense of pride filling the commander as he saw who was marching towards them, only to fall as he remembered that he'd led them to their deaths in the first place.
"Commander, our deaths were not your fault. If anything, it was simply because we weren't strong enough to make your plan work," a blond-haired figure spoke, six figures forming on his left side.
"He's right. We all knew that there were risks. What mattered was that we died fighting, so don't beat yourself up over it," a dark-haired figure spoke, six figures forming on his right side.
"You guys..." Elpizo said, almost on the verge of tears, his fist tightening around his blade as he stood to full height, his hair and coat billowing in an unknown breeze as he gained a determined look. "Men! That boy over there is fighting for his life! We must ensure he has enough time to recover!" he said pointing to the recovering Neal with his sword, who had yet to register the Resistance trooper soul's presence in that dark and empty space. "TO ARMS!" he shouted as he raised his fist into the air, the fourteen men raising their weapons into the air with loud yells, each one flanking the monster from every side and pelted it with plasma bullets, causing it to lash out at them, only for them to dodge out of the way, Neal off to the side trying to recover.
"Shit... shit... shit..." Neal cursed as he held the remains of his left arm, chips of binary forming as he began to reconstruct his arm, imagining the shape of it in an attempt to get it to regenerate faster. His eyes then landed on the Weil Remnant in front of him, its faces seemingly mocking him as the head that ripped off his left arm swallowed the limb. "Everything I've done... everything I've fought for up until now... is this where it all ends?" Neal asked as he felt himself growing weak as his arm slowed in regenerating, a portion of his leg still missing. I'm sorry Prairie... I'm sorry Lily... I guess in the end my best just wasn't good enough, he sighed as he resigned himself to his fate, falling to his knees as his hair hid his eyes from view.
"Only wanted... to be... free..."
Mega Man Zero 3 Soundtrack - Hell's Gate Open {Remastered Version}
The next moment his eyes snapped open, and he immediately remembered why he was here.
"She never asked for that life... She was forced to fight for so long, only to be tossed aside like a piece of garbage..." Neal growled as he forced himself back up. "Lily's mother died because I wasn't strong enough to save her... but right here and now... I can really make a difference," he said as his eyes began to burn, rays of light shining from both his leg and his arm as his body regenerated. "I REFUSE TO LET THIS MONSTER BEAT ME!" he shouted as he raised his fist into the air, snapping his hand open and sending dozens of golden rays out of his palm. The next moment a massive broadsword, thirty feet long from blade to pommel and eight wide, formed in the air before it fell, landing on his raised hands. The next moment he tossed it forward before grabbing the pommel, launching it forward with all his strength, spiderweb cracks forming at his feet as the massive blade was sent flying through the air. Not a moment later, he shot forward at unbelievable speeds, the ground exploding behind him as he planted his feet onto the blade.***
As the giant sword flew through the air, Neal suddenly held his hands at his sides and clenched his fists, a set of glowing green shuriken appearing between each finger before he threw them towards Pandora, the shuriken suddenly shooting forward like lasers and slicing through the tendons of flesh like a rainstorm of laserbeams. Before Pandora could begin falling however, the sword-riding teen suddenly flew through the gap, snatching Pandora out of the thing's carapace. At the moment the tendons of flesh became isolated from their origin, they began to evaporate until the nude greenette was now in his arms, Neal quickly throwing his trench coat over his shoulder and wrapping it around the girl in his arms, while hopping off his sword and allowing himself to fall, catching the end of the giant sword and stopping its momentum as his feet dug massive trenches into the ground, the sword never leaving his hand. After the dust settled, he turned to the monstrous hydra, its heads flailing as they suddenly started vomiting fluids, its organic components beginning to dry up from the loss of their sustenance.
"I've had enough of your ugly mugs, so I think I'll take care of that right NOW!" he shouted as he cradled the petite girl against his body with his left arm arm, rushing forward and swinging the giant sword around in a wide arc, the blade moving like greased lightning and cutting through the six heads so quickly, that the only evidence of the attack was the rings of liquid dripping from their necks as their faces suddenly grew slack. The next moment he raised his right foot into the air before shouting, "DECAPITATIOOOOOOOON!" he shouted as he stomped the ground, the power of his voice sending the six heads flying off their collective shoulders in fountains of pus and gore as they were sent sailing into the air.****
"Men! Open fire!" Elpizo shouted rising his rapier into the air, the fourteen soldiers raising their weapons before firing on the heads as they fell, taking dozens of chunks out of them as they fell, slowly disintegrating as the main body convulsed, the legs stomping around as it swayed from side to side, even as one was broken.
"Nnn... mnnn..." Pandora moaned before looking up, her crimson eyes coming into focus before she realized she was naked, though wrapped in a trench coat. Looking up, she saw a pair of cerulean blue eyes, like a beacon of hope in the darkness, looking down at her warmly before the rest of him came into focus. "N... Neal...?" she asked in surprise.
"Mornin' sleeping beauty. You okay?" he asked, glad that at least now she was awake.
"I...? How...? Here...?" she asked soft-spokenly, trying to regain her bearings.
"It's... complicated..." Neal admitted. "Um, think you could button up?" he asked seeing the trench coat come down around her shoulders, unfortunately -or fortunately depending on who you're asking- giving him a view of her budding chest. Looking down, she remembered that she was stark naked, and quickly pulled on the lapels of the coat before garbing herself. The next moment there was a thunderous crash, and the greenette looked over to see that a large pseudo-reptilian body had just collapsed to the ground.
"Is... Is that...?"
"Yeah. The tainted soul of a madman, contained within the Model W fragment," Neal said looking at the thing with disgust evident on his face. "But it's alright now, that thing won't torment you any longer," he said as he lowered her feet to the ground, only for the girl to go to her knees. "Looks like you're still very weak," he sighed, then noticed the sound of fifteen sets of footsteps heading his way. "Uh... Elpizo... These guys with you?" Neal asked as he helped Pandora up once more, seeing the fourteen men in what were probably Resistance uniforms. Twelve of them had helmets with W-shaped visors and beret-like crests on their heads, while the other two with dark and blond hair stayed to the sides while wearing metal beret-like hats. With Elpizo at the front in his commander's jacket, he felt like he was looking at a real army, and not those over-glorified human/reploid security forces that were so poorly armed in a time of "peace" they couldn't take down a single galleon. Really, did they think not carrying weapons would promote peace?
"That they are," he said, though a hint of sadness in his voice. "Men, sound off!" he ordered raising his sword.
"Isos!" the dark-haired reploid stated with a salute.
"Pasos!" the blond-haired reploid stated with a salute.
"Alex! Bennet! Dael! Edward! Harper! Ian! Lamont! Mark! Paul! Quincy! Tad! Ulrich!" the rest chorused, each giving a respectful salute.
"Um... at ease," Neal returned giving a salute with his free hand, while he held Pandora to his side with the other. "Elpizo, are these the guys that... you know..." he trailed off, trying to be sensitive about the whole thing.
"It is... and I have accepted what has happened," Elpizo stated. "If they can forgive me... then maybe now I can finally forgive myself," he said before Pandora suddenly shrieked. Looking over his shoulder, nearly everyone lost their lunch at the transformation taking place just across from them.
Mega Man Zero 3 Soundtrack - Apocalypse Now {Remastered Version}
As the last of the Hydra's heads began to disintegrate on the ground, its body began to convulse madly, its body jiggling causing some of the bone-like structures jutting out of it to fall out, the ends stained wtih blood. Moments later its main body's flesh began to writhe as it began to fill into itself, the inky tar-like substance from the "sky" overhead seeming to drip down onto the body, the empty hole being filled in, what looked like serpents slithering just below the skin causing everyone to shudder in disgust. The next moment the leg that Neal had broken reset itself with a sickening crack, the limbs reforming into gnarled-looking hands with long claws. The next moment the former chest cavity exploded in a shower of gore as the body suddenly reared itself up on its reptilian tail, a face all too familiar to the reploid's souls revealed behind a dripping curtain of pus and fluid.
"What... the... fuck..." Neal shuddered, trying his best not to lose his lunch where he stood, Pandora fisting his shirt as she began to shiver in fear, her eyes growing wide as she shook madly.
"No... I can't... I don't want... I CAN'T GO BACK!" she screamed as she buried her face into Neal's shoulder, the teen's eyes widening as he stared the thing down, seeing that it somewhat resembled the mythical Greek naga. A moment however, something clicked in his mind, and his eyes narrowed dangerously, his cerulean pools turning neon pink before he turned to Elpizo, the troops visibly shuddering under the unnaturally-colored gaze. The kind of gaze that only those with an infinite expanse of darkness in their hearts could possess.
"Elpizo... Take care of Pandora for me... I have some frustrations to vent out," Neal said holding Pandora out to he blond-haired reploid soul, only for her to cling to him as she kept her gaze set away from the Weil Remnant: Naga. "Pandora... let go... there's something I have to do... and I can't do it with you clinging to me," he said lowly, the crimson-eyed girl looking up at him, recognizing the look in his eyes. The same look her brother held many times before during their many years of suffering, and how he had plotted to kill Albert.
Letting go, the girl let herself be passed into Elpizo's arms, Neal walking towards the Weil Remnant as Elpizo's troops formed a protective barrier between their commander, the greenette, and the fragment of Weil's soul.
Mega Man Zero Soundtrack - Cannonball {Mythos Version}
GRAAAAAAH! the thing hissed as Neal approached, staring him down from its bloodshot eyes.
"You..." Neal growled as he looked at the creater with nothing short of disgust and apall. "Because of you... Ciel lost Zero... Prairie lost her sister... and countless in Cinq Ville were made to suffer because of you," he said as he felt years of pent-up anger and hatred well up. "My parents... they were turned into food for your damn resurrection... I don't even know if they made it to the afterlife or not..." he said as he clenched his fists, which gained an obsidian-colored ceratanium like coating as though it were a part of his skin.*** "But I know one thing for sure..." he finished as his eyes returned to their normal color. "I am going to MAKE. YOU. SUFFER!" he roared as he smashed his right fist into the ground, a pillar of black material shooting into the air before it began to come back down. However, it never settled back into the ground below as his fists suddenly lashed out at it as it fell, chunks of material being sent towards the thing as golden circuit-lines formed over it, turning the chunks of rock into spearhead-like projectiles, all of which jammed themselves into the Remnant's flesh and caused it to move back with each hit. As the thing shrieked, Neal suddenly ran at it, his left fist dragging it across the ground before he dug into it, then swung his fist into an uppercut and sent a spire of the ground at him, the spike stabbing into its opened mouth and through the back of its head mid-shriek.**
"Because of you! Because of you so many lives were lost! You shouldn't even exist anymore!" Neal shouted as he circled around the thing, sending more spikes out and impaling the creature from multiple angles, keeping it from removing itself as blood dripped from its body. "I don't know what the HELL those humans were thinking when they placed you in a Regenerative Armor, thinking they'd give you an eternity to 'suffer', and to be quite frank, I don't really care!" he said as he dug his fingers into the ground, a circular crack forming across it as he began to pull up, suddenly heaving an island-sized hunk of black material over his head. "However..." he said as he held the island-sized piece of rock above his head with one hand, rearing the other back. "You will NOT escape death THIS DAY!" he shouted as he struck the gigantic rock and sent it flying into the sky in a parabolic arc, its shape conforming to a massive broadsword the size of a warship before it came down on the Weil Remnant, the massive weapon crushing it and causing a cloud of dust to rize. When the dust cleared, by some grace of God, or whomever, the Weil Remnant's eyes still shone with life. "Your existance... I shall see to that it disappears," he growled as his eyes flashed pink before he turned to the soldiers guarding Elpizo, their jaws agape at the sight. "There... I've worked out about five years worth of teen angst. Mind if you guys clean up?" he asked as his eyes returned to normal, the troops only nodding in return-
GROOOOOAAAAAHHHH!
"I swear to God, if that thing's still moviiing..." Neal cursed as he looked over his shoulder, his eye twitching as what was left of the Weil Remnant trying to crawl towards them. "Son... of a... fucKING BITCH!" he cried on the verge of ripping out his hair as his eyes changed to neon pink once more. "No matter what... no matter what I do... this thing just won't DIE!" he shouted as his fists clenched, lightning sparking from them before he raised them to the sides. "This will be your end!" he shouted as the energy from his hands began to runoff, condensing upon itself infinitely as it formed a pair of shining white spheres. Within moments, whisps of crimson energy began to flow off one, whisps of blue energy flowing off the other as they began to spin, resembling two spiralling galaxies. "INFINITY..." he roared as he grabbed the two and pulled them out of their orbits, whisps of energy trailing behind them as he brought them over his head. "BIG BANG..." he continued as he began to knead the two together, forming a glowing purple sphere above his head that shone like a miniature sun. "STOOORRRM!" he shouted as he threw his arms forward, the sphere held above his head suddenly releasing a massive, condensed ray of white-hot flames, striking the Weil Remnant as the attack connected. "Burn in the everlasting hellfire of creation! Be completely obliterated, down to the very last scrap... OF DNA!"* he roared as the runoff from the attack began to spawn its own universes, the Weil Remnant acting only as kindling as it was slowly whittled away. Moments later the attack had seemingly dimmed, the entire wasteland in front of Neal completely obliterated. Almost as though the attack itself had completely destroyed the mass in the storm's eye.
"Woah..." one of the troopers awed at the sight.
"There... It has ended..." Neal sighed as he fell to his knees before falling back, Pandora jumping out of Elpizo's arms and catching him in her arms before he fell.
"... Okay I don't even know how you did that," Elpizo spoke before he turned to his soldiers. "Everyone, thank you... for everything. Until next we meet, farewell," he said as he, Neal, and Pandora began to fade from that space as everything began to turn white.
"Who said this was goodbye?" Isos asked.
"This is just a... see you until next time," Pasos returned, Elpizo's expression relaying his confusion right as the world flashed to white.
At the same time outside, the moment Neal performed the "Megamerge Dive", a blinding flash of light illuminated the lab, causing everyone to look back. In the time it took their eyes to readjust, there was there were three screams. One belonged to Neal, the other possibly to Pandora, but the other one sounded twisted and inhuman. Like some kind of rabid animal, though comparing it to that sound would be insulting. A moment later, the sound of a body hitting the floor could be heard, and right around that time was when hr eyes were able to readjust. Rubbing her eyes as they came into focus, she was surprised to see that on the rack, that Pandora was no longer in her Megamerge stated.
Her hair was no longer polymorphic, but styled so that while two locks framed her cheeks, it pointed slightly upwards and to the side while the rest went down her back. Her outfit consisted of a black skintight bodysuit, and while her shoes remained the same from her megamerge form along with the bands on her ankles, the rest of her outfit was similarly colored, though appeared a bit worn out from the constant, and once permanent, megamerge. She wore a white dress with blue sections on the sides, and a white sleeveless jacket with blue on her shoulders and yellow trim with a golden zipper on the front. She wore black white-fingered gloves, and had golden bands around her wrists.**
Most surprising however though was that the stomach of her dress had a gaping hole in it revealing, almost like something had been burst through it. However upon examining her body she found there was no visible exit point. Looking over her shoulder however, she stifled back a gasp when she found Neal on his back, his body slightly smoking as he held the steaming Model E in one hand, her breath hitching in her throat when she saw the remains of a Model W, similar to the fragments from before, in his left hand.
However, a cracking sound was suddenly heard as a large fissure formed down the middle of Model W, then began to drain of color until it became a sickly white before it broke in two, the halves clattering to the floor, leaving nothing more than two portions of Livemetal, the precursor to Biometal, which had yet to be programmed with any personality data, powers, or abilities.***
Opening his eyes slightly, Neal turned his head to the side to see the broken remains of Model W. Looking to his right, he let the steaming Model E slide off his hand and onto the floor, his hand slightly red from the apparent heat. Looking up, he saw a concerned Prairie kneeling down beside him, the others gaining their bearings
Mega Man ZX Soundtrack - Freebirds {Gigamix}
At that moment, a soft groaning came from the side of the room, everyone turning to see Pandora's eyes slowly open. A hand going to her head, she seemed slightly disoriented as she shielded her eyes from the bright lights. She then outstretched her hand and looked at it, her eyes widening as she saw that they were no longer armored. Looking down at herself, and then running her fingers through her hair, she found that not only was all the armor on her legs and body had disappeared as well, but that the egg-shaped helmet on her head had gone too, and that her hair was no longer polymorphic. Her eyes then landed on Neal, who at the moment was resting in Prairie's lap. For a moment a strange, nagging sensation filled her at the sight, and she did not understand what it was, since her emotions for the longest time had been muted by Model W's influence, having inherited the solitude and loneliness of Weil's soul which was once contained in the Model W fragment.
Speaking of which, she looked to Neal's left and saw two pieces of pale-colored metal with raised sections. Looking down at it, she suddenly realized that the two broken pieces of metal which lay on the floor, were the remains of that Model W fragment.
"I'm... free...?" she said softspokenly, having thought she would never feel this experience again. At that moment a short man in blue with a beard and moustache walked over to the computer at the end of the lab, typing a few keys before a scanning grid went up, then down her body. After a few seconds the scanner retreated into the rack, and the man examined the data.
"My word, look at this," Fleuve said motioning for everyone to look at the screen. "Whatever it was that Neal did, it had completely reset the time limit on Pandora's artificial life counter that Albert had placed on her," he said in surprise, the greenette's eyes widening in shock.
"I'm... not dreaming?" she asked herself then, her face heating up when she remembered that Neal had probably seen her mostly naked. Or at least her mostly-naked representation of herself anyway. A few seconds later she felt her face heating up, and realized at that point that she was blushing.
"Well... heheh... looks like you're a freebird," Neal chuckled before taking a whiff of the air. "What smells like hotdogs?"
"That's you... you big dummy," Prairie said with a smile as she playfully punched him in the arm, chuckling a bit but happy he was okay, Rose stepping over and looking him over a minute later.
"The damage is minimal, and his vitals haven't changed," the purplette said after looking him over. "He may have a few first degree burns beneath his clothing, but for the most part he should be okay with a little sleep. The burn on his hand is second degree and will require some treatment, but I won't know the rest until he's thoroughly diagnosed."
"So..." Aile said turning to the greenette. "Now that you don't have Model W anymore, what're you going to do?" she asked, only to find that the girl had fallen asleep, and was lightly snoring. "She's sleeping."
"Can you... blame her?" Model E asked floating a bit off the floor, tipping side to side like he was drunk. "We just freed her from a burden she'd held for who knows how long. I think she's entitled to a bit of... exhaustion..." he trailed off before his optics dimmed, clattering to the floor a moment later like a paperweight.
"Fleuve, examine Model E and that Livemetal, but keep the latter isolated," Prairie ordered as Neal began lightly snoring in her lap. "If you start hearing voices, then vacate the lab and let me know immediately. We'll determine what to do with the Livemetal then, as it may still contain some of Model W's properties."
As Rose and Muguet got Neal onto a stretcher, two Guardians taking him to the infirmary, as well as Pandora, who didn't recognize her as The Witch, Vent leaned against the wall and let out a small laugh. "You know... I never would've thought we'd ever see Pandora again. And without her Biometal no less."
"Yes... although it's Prometheus I'm more concerned about," Aile said nervously. "I can't help but think he's still out there somewhere."
"Hey, if it comes down to it, I'm sure we can just have Neal fix him up too," the brunette said offhandedly.
"But what if he doesn't want to be free?" Aile asked, Vent having no real response to that other then to grow deathly silent.
Mega Man Zero 4 Soundtrack - Return to Zero
At the same time in an unknown location, a reploid with cyan polymorphic hair shaped like a cape lay out on a table, the laboratory lights shining down on him from overhead. The base of his armor was a grey sectioned bodysuit, segmented at his shoulders and hips. He wore purple shoes with white soles and red bands around his ankles, purple armor around his shins and thighs with white armor lining the top. He had a section of red armor around his groin, a sleeveless purple jacket with a red armored collar, and armor on his biceps with a white ring at the top, and matching armor on his forearm with a red ring around his wrist, stark white gloves on his hands. What was the oddest thing however was his helmet. On the sides were purple fins with grey tips jutting out by the reploid's cheeks, a skull-like formation on the front with a red obstruction jutting from the top.
He was Prometheus, the servent and voice of Model W, and elder brother to Pandora, now the ex-servent of Model W.
"Dr. Syracuse.**** How is the subject?" Thomas asked from the other side of a one-way mirror, isolating Prometheus on the lab table.
"Considering he's been underwater for a month and with no power, he is surprisingly in good condition," the shadowed doctor, balding and carrying a cane stated as he hobbled over to his computer, some of Prometheus' data on the screen. "What I find most odd however was that with the sudden energy drain I was able to find traces of in his systems, that the artificial life counter in his brain was just... removed."
"Leave it as it is. He's no use to me on a short leash or timer," Thomas stated clenching the pommel of his sword. "How has it come about to the project in which I've asked of you?"
"Well, theoretically, we could reactivate him with the data you provided, but it would take a very substantial, and very potent energy source to do so," Dr. Syracruse stated while running the diagnostics.
"I see. And what of the weapon?" he asked, the doctor motioning to a deactivated beam scythe in an isolated chamber within his own lab.
"Fixing it was simple enough," Dr. Syracruse stated. "But, do you truly wish to reactivate him. I have heard rumors of a Grim Reaper, and I can't help but think it's him."
"Once reactivated, he will have no real reason to go after you, provided he does not know you exist," Thomas said as he walked out the lab door. "As for the energy source which will be used in his resurrection. I will take care of that," he said as the door closed behind him. 'Atlas. Who knew your blunder would lead to a future success? And on this scale?' he mused to himself as he made his way down a dark tunnel before getting to the Transerver. "Now all I have to do is retrieve Pandora, and I will control more of the pieces on the board," he said to himself.
Little did he know though, he'd delivered her into the Guardian's hands.
If you haven't noticed yet, the approach for Pandora's character development is vastly different from Mega Man ZXA: Recurrence. That's because with the re-writing of the story, I'm able to re-do a few things in the story, and this is the first chapter I've added that hasn't simply been a Redux of a previous iteration's chapter.
Anyway, the Megamerge Dive is based off an idea in Megaman ZX: Return to Zero, written by RiceKrispie, so I just wanted to give credit where credit is due. I also wanted to give thanks to Kureselache for helping me come up with some of the ideas used in this chapter.
Anyway, now that the Model W fragment has been split in half, what will this mean for the rest of the story? Well, you'll have to continue reading to find out, so I hope to hear from you then.
Author's Notes:
* Is a quote left by Voltaire, a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion and free trade. I put this in because this is just the kind of thing that would be said in that situation.
** A combination of Van Hoenheim's hands-free alchemy and Emiya Shirou's Trace ability.
*** Cameo to Jack Rakan's Hidden Blade Surfing Rakan technique, which would be really awesome to see in real life.
**** Favorite. Scene. Ever. From Brutal Legends. Contains your daily recommended dose of heavy metal, flaming hotrods, burning hair, and other things that made the 70s great.
*** Greed's "Indestructible Shield" from FMA/FMA Brotherhood.
** Alexander Louise Armstrong's Strong Arm Alchemy, "Passed down the Armstrong line for GENERATIONS!"
* The Anti-Spiral's final attack from Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann.
** Pandora's appearance is based on a picture from the supposed Mega Man ZX game, Mega Man ZX Extremus, taking place before and after ZX, highlighting Prometheus and Pandora's lives before becoming Mega Men. Aside from that, no other details are available, and it may all be subject to conjecture.
*** Figured since I used the R.O.C.K. System as an alternate for the M.E.G.A. System, and that I'm using both the terms Maverick and Irregular, that I may as well give the alternate name for Biometal its own definition, since I always wondered what exactly Biometal were made of, and Livemetal seemed to be the perfect candidate.
**** Named after Archimedes of Syracruse, born in 287 BC and died in 212 BC, was a Greek mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor, and astronomer. Naming curve follows those associated in the ZX timeline who have names with Greek etymology.