CHAPTER 8:
REUNION
The world was very cold, and very dark.
A torrent of water and screeching metal.
Then, a pair of hands that seemed to come from nowhere wrapped themselves around her, pulling her from the water…
Time seemed to pass very slowly, everything a vague blur of confusing sounds and colors.
After what seemed like an eternity, she could feel the world beginning to form back around her, feel warmth coming back into her extremities.
What happened?
Where am I?
Slowly, finally, she opened her eyes to a new, bright shining world.
A bronze metal ceiling fan revolved slowly over her head, twirling in an endless circle. She followed its movement, feeling as though she was being reborn.
Where was she?
Slowly, a door creaked open, and a man dressed in green scrubs backed into the room, carrying a small clipboard. A doctor.
"Oh, hello there! You gave us quite a scare! Weren't really sure what to do with you for a moment or two…" The doctor said in a soft voice.
She finally found her throat; "Wh…ere… am I?" her voice a raspy mess.
"You are in a hospital, you were in quite a spectacular aeronautical wreck… Never seen anything quite like it."
Slowly growing anxious at the doctor's lax attitude towards her situation, she became a little more irritated.
"What accident? What are you talking about… I don't remember being on a ship?"
"Oh, you weren't on the ship, my dear, you just happened to be out on a boat in the wrong place at the wrong time…"
The young girl sat up too quickly, causing a head rush, and the doctor tried to force her back down onto the bed.
"Calm down, Aero. Everything is going to be fine…"
"No, it's not! Oh man, I KNEW I shouldn't have gone out on the water today, I just KNEW this would happen! Red is going to KILL me! He wanted me to find the ruins that have been sprouting out underwater, and he…"
"…Will just have to wait until you are all better!" A large man said, entering into the room.
After clicking the door shut behind him, he waved an airy hand at the doctor, with a large, false smile on his face that seemed even to Aero to have a particularly nasty edge to it.
A crocodile smile.
She recognized him instantly as the leader of the Red Digger Syndicate on the island, and so, it seemed, did the doctor. He quickly backed away from the bed, and quietly sidled out of the room. Everyone knew about the local digger syndicate, unfortunately for this island, that wasn't a good thing.
As soon as the doctor disappeared behind the door, the smile fell off of his face.
Aero blanched visibly.
"…R…Red! I'm sorry! I…"
"Quiet down, Aero, I'd understand if you had failed me due to your usual incompetence, but NO ONE expects a meteor to fall on their head in the middle of the ocean!" Red laughed a raucous laugh, which made Aero wince.
She didn't like having to work for this scary guy, but she knew that it would be her only chance off of this stupid island. For years, she had been at the mercy of Red and his gang of miscreant diggers, masquerading as the local digger's guild. Teenage runaways had a habit of running afoul of the wrong sort, and Aero had been no different.
The man standing in front of her was Red himself, the leader of what she was essentially coming to understand was nothing more than a pirating group. Red was a wall of man, huge and intimidating, and liked to throw around his power frequently. He clearly came from the school of thought that fear was just as useful as respect. And for him, respect for pissants like Aero was a very rare gift.
Aero, being the small, petite and clumsy girl that she was, was no match to someone of his caliber, although the thought had crossed her mind numerous times…
Aero had come from a cycle of abuse, and had left home at an early age, feeling that any fate would be better than living in her house any longer then she needed to. She felt with a courageous heart, she would be able to fly off this island and seek a life of adventure! Unfortunately, after weeks of looking for work, days without food, and nothing but the stars blanketing her, she began losing focus on her fantasies, and began focusing more on her realities. She was desperate, and in her desperation she had begun to steal. Just small things at first, but eventually she moved into a point where she had been caught red handed attempting to steal food from the market.
Steal from a subsidiary of Red's. He hadn't gone to the police, and instead offered her a choice: piracy with his crew… or…
She decided on the former.
What was most unsettling to her was how little he seemed to care for her welfare, given the present situation. She always seemed to be… expendable… All her life to him, and the other diggers that worked with them, always grew frustrated at her attempts to make up for her lack of experience.
So unfortunately for Aero, she was stuck serving this jerk for the time being. She absolutely hated to appear weak to anyone, and was always trying to prove herself (and perhaps convince herself) that she was worth something in this world. When she had run away, she had vowed that she would never let anyone down again, but that she wasn't going to live under her father's domineering thumb anymore… Not that he would have accepted her back. Being told that he "had no daughter" before slamming the door in her face seemed to be just as conclusive as her dying.
Aero was by no means a bad person, what she wanted more than anything was an escape, to be outside, and free from the oppression she constantly seemed to find herself under. Her soul was almost totally shattered and bent to their will. It was a rotten way to live… but there was no going back now.
She flopped back down onto the soft pillow, having come back to the present. "So that's what happened? I must have the worst luck in the world…!"
"No, that isn't what happened, you twit. I do believe that's the dumbest thing I've ever heard. In fact, I don't think you could have been any luckier!"
There it was again! Aero bristled… This guy treated her like a piece of garbage, insulting her day in and day out. She was so tired of it... She had spent most of her nights crying over such things, but today was different. She had almost died, for crying out loud!
"Would you mind elaborating?" Aero said impatiently, holding up her arm to see an IV attached… going slightly green at the sight, she let it fall back down.
Red raised an eyebrow, and Aero hung her head like a whipped dog.
"I..I'm sorry…"
Red chose to ignore her completely.
"You got hit by the shuttle!"
"You mean, like… A digger ship?"
"No, you half-wit, I'm talking about THE space shuttle! The Zuhickywhatsit!" Red said, with a rather noticeable gleam in his eyes.
Aero's eyes opened as big as saucers.
"The… the rocket from Calbania, the Zuhilfekommen? The one with THE Roll Caskett and Tron Bonne?!"
Tron and Roll had been her heroes ever since she had heard of them. Two independent women, who made it through the world on their own intelligence and strength… She had been following the story of their ascent to the moon endlessly on the TV… She was unable to actually SEE them off, as Red had told her that he wouldn't let her leave this island for such a "stupid reason".
"The very same." Red said jauntily, setting his bulk down into a chair that sat next to the bed. The chair groaned under the pressure. "They appeared to have made it back… in more or less one piece… All of them, in fact…"
"So… They actually made it to the moon? And brought THE Megaman Volnutt, the greatest digger EVER, back down? That's amazing! I wonder what it was like, what HE is like?"
Aero was most intrigued by this Blue Bomber everyone was talking about… Pictures of him were all over the news, it was all very intriguing…
"Aero, shut up. I'm not here to discuss with you any thoughts about the crazy adventures you want to take, or any of that nonsense. You work for me, and I'm here on business, alright? As the leader of the Red Digger Syndicate, I believe we have found a golden opportunity here! I wish it wasn't you I had to trust with this, but obviously I don't have a choice but to deal with you yet again…"
Aero's heart broke again, but she put on a tough face… Red seemed to have a knack for making her feel like less than nothing… Of course, being raised by the Red Digger basically made her his slave, so she really was less than nothing…
Aero frowned. "I'm sorry that you don't have anyone else… But whatever it is, I'll do it. I won't let you down!"
It was Red's turn to frown. "We will see. I'll fill you in on the plan, and I'll see how you do. I know these types of people. Sincere saps, easy to make a buck off of if you know how. With the exception of the Bonnes, these goody two-shoes are ripe for the picking!" Red smiled his crocodile smile again.
"But… But why would you want to do that to them… They are… diggers, good people?"
"Aero, you don't get ahead in this world by being nice, you get ahead by surviving and preying, and if we can get them to dance for us, then we will have it made."
"With that in mind, I'm sure that they will come visit you here. You better make friends with them, stick to them like glue. I want you to know what color Miss Blonde Spotter's underwear is every day, you got that?"
Aero was confused… "But… But why?"
"Did I say you had choice? Or an opinion? My word, you are dense! Just do what you are told, and maybe I'll forget a little portion of the debt you owe me for keeping you off of the streets."
Aero sighed and closed her eyes. Yes. Her debt… It always seemed to grow with him, what could she do?
"Alright… I'll see what I can do…"
"Excellent!"
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In another room not too far down the corridor, another woman was stirring out of her nightmares. Her blue eyes shot open, facing another familiar bronze fan circling overhead. She turned her head to the left, into the center of the room.
She considered that briefly. She had turned her head… Her own head.
Matilda Caskett sat up of her own free will for the first time in almost 17 years.
She grasped her face in her hands… Her own two hands… and she cried.
She couldn't believe it. No more Yuna, no more Elysium. After 17 years, after that life changing decision to fly to Forbidden Island in search of that STUPID Mother Lode, she was finally able to move of her own accord. She couldn't believe, after all she had been through, that finally she was herself again. She had always dreamt about what her life would be like if she ever made it away from space.
But with Banner dead… and Roll lost to her, she never would have thought that it would have been possible. But when Roll had found her, looking for the Mother Lode…
Mother Lode… She thought viciously. What a laugh…
It seemed so ironic to her now that the wild goose chase the entire population was so keen to find was nothing more than a simple play on words. In actuality it would have destroyed them all.
She raised her head from her hands, her tears already drying on her face. She appeared to be in some sort of medical facility. Of course, knowing that carbons were not exactly the most advanced species when it came to medical practices, she assumed that she was alright, but how had she gotten here? The last thing that she remembered was her last internal conversation with Yuna…
She had never really gotten used to how they had been able to communicate with each other, as though she were only a ghost floating around inside of her own head, while Yuna moved her eyes and spoke with her mouth.
Suddenly, she noticed a mirror across the room, and saw a reflection of herself. It had been so long, and she had been so young then…
A beautiful woman looked back at her… It was so strange… She hadn't seen a reflection of herself in over a decade, but she seemed to be very similar to what she had been so long ago… Almost as if her aging had somehow slowed.
That's entirely possible She thought to herself, thinking that the sterile lifestyle that Yuna had lived during their time together had most likely altered her own lifespan.
It wasn't that she wasn't grateful. After finding out how much Yuna had sacrificed, and being unable to return to her OWN body, it was a very interesting predicament. Yuna had always been very respectful of her, and was constantly trying to accommodate to her wishes.
Matilda thought again about her last conversation with Yuna.
"So what happens now?" Matilda asked, thinking more to herself then to Yuna directly, but of course, anything Matilda thought, Yuna heard…
"Well, now that Megaman has destroyed Elysium, and we are basically waiting for rescue, your body will have to be stored somewhere so that you will still be alive by the time Roll comes to save us all…"
Yuna felt the pride and happiness swell from the corner of her mind that Matilda always occupied. She had really grown fond of Matilda, as she had truly changed her own outlook on life and the importance of love. It had really been that, more than anything, that had made understanding Megaman Trigger's actions a simple task. She knew Sera would see the truth, in the end… But as for the present, she was becoming truly saddened by the prospect of what was about to happen…
"The time has finally come, Matilda… You and I are finally going to… part ways…"
Matilda could tell how depressed Yuna was in saying it, but she herself felt only a catharsis. She knew it was going to happen, and while she was happy, she would miss the bond they had shared…
"Well it's about time!" Matilda said, joking with the Mother Unit.
As soon as the stasis pod became dark, the last thing Matilda heard before drifting into sleep was…
"I'll miss you, Matilda…"
Matilda looked down at her feet. The only good thing about being separated from Yuna was the use of her body, but Matilda had actually learned a great deal. Even the technological aspects of stasis had become known to her. By carbon standards, she was now a complete genius, probably only rivaled by her daughter.
Suddenly, she remembered where she was, and finally realized what must have happened!
"Roll! Oh my sweet baby… Oh God…" Matilda sat up, yanking cords out in every which way. Unfortunately, a nurse saw her apparent attempts to escape through the open door, and immediately called for back up to restrain the blonde woman.
"It's OK! Everything is fine, you are in Teomo City Hospital, on Klickelan Island!"
But this was completely lost on Matilda. "Roll! I need to see her! Where is she?"
"She… She's stable… If you'll just…"
"STABLE? What has happened? Where… What…"
"Calm down, Mrs. Caskett, please! We don't want to have to sedate you!"
Matilda calmed down just enough to look at the doctors with a slightly panicked expression on her face.
"What has happened?"
"Well…" The doctor looked around for help from his peers, and when it became obvious that no one was going to speak for him, he began to explain.
"Mrs. Caskett, you were on board a shuttle that was… well… that was coming from outer space… do you remember any of this?"
"Well, I know I was in space… Just… Tell me how I got here! I was on a shuttle?"
"Yes, you were on the Zuhilfekommen along with a few other passengers, including your daughter. They were on a mission to reach the second moon… I'm assuming you went with them, is that correct?"
Matilda just stared. Her mind working quickly to piece what had happened together, as the doctor had a somewhat limited scope of reality…
Roll… She must have come to rescue them… Matilda assumed the "other passengers" to be Yuna, Sera, and Megaman… But who knows?
"How is everyone? Did everyone make it back down safely?"
"Well… More or less…" To this, Matilda began to squirm again, and the doctor hurried to explain. "No! Its fine! Everyone is stable and recovering! Everyone will be fine! It's alright!"
Matilda stopped struggling, and looked at them. "So we made it back to Terra?"
The doctors looked confused, and she remembered that they wouldn't call it that…
"Err… I mean…"
"Mrs. Caskett, can you explain to us what you were doing in that large diamond shaped thing in the shuttle?" The doctor looked at her pointedly. "It saved you from the crash, you don't have a scratch on you, was it something your daughter built?"
"Umm… Yes… She did…"
"We thought as much" The doctor nodded sanctimoniously. "It seemed as though Prof. Caskett knew exactly what to do when he saw it. It was actually him who released you when he had arrived on the island after the crash. We were all at a loss…"
Matilda was completely stunned…
….Daddy….
"Hold her down!"
Matilda had attempted to once again free herself from their restraint.
"She won't…Stop…Struggling!"
"Stand aside!"
A man in a large overcoat appeared in the doorway, with his face shrouded in shadow. The nurses stopped struggling at the sound of the commanding voice, and Matilda stopped squirming, frozen in complete and utter shock…
The staff glanced over at the man. He had been waiting in the hospital since the arrival of the shuttle, staring off into the distance without acknowledging anyone past his first initial words "I'm a friend of the crash victims. I'll wait here"
They hadn't asked too many questions, he was quiet and had stayed out of the way, and had almost completely been forgotten.
Until now, at least.
"If you please, I would like to speak to her alone, she will be fine, trust me."
"Sir, we can't just…"
"Please. She won't be a bother anymore, I promise." The shrouded man said with a note of finality in his voice, as though the matter was so beyond their control that they really just needed to leave.
"Uh…. Yes sir…." A nurse said, ushering the others out into the hallway, after seeing that Matilda had given up her struggle, passing him with scandalized looks upon their faces.
With a click, the door shut behind them, and Matilda stared at the man in the doorframe. He seemed to be rather large, at least partly so, she couldn't tell because of his long coat, but she did not recognize this man.
"Who… Are you?"
"…."
The man didn't say anything… He wordlessly moved, slowly, towards the nearest chair, and sat down, all the while staring at the woman in the bed, his face covered to obscure most of his features.
They remained like that for a spell, until the tension cut into Matilda too far…
"Look, I'm not sure I recognize you, and I need to leave, so if you'll…"
"No." The man said, not even moving a single inch in his chair. A stoic, unyielding statue.
Matilda waited, sitting at a complete loss. Who was this Man?
"I didn't believe it. I'm not sure I do even now. How can this be happening?" The man said, seemingly rhetorically, and Matilda didn't say anything.
The man seemed to just be talking to himself, but Matilda had a very uneasy feeling deep down. She didn't know what to expect from this man… Was he going to attack her? Or sit there in the shadows?
"I had decided to watch her go again, even though she never knew who I truly was even now…" The man said cryptically, confusing Matilda even more. "I never thought I would see the day… When she would come back to me, that somehow, she would find her way… But she did… After so much pain and torment that I'm sure she suffered through…. But you… I…I…"
The man grasped his head between his hands, and for the first time Matilda become aware that his right arm was almost completely mechanical. It looked as though it was fashioned from Reaverbots…
"I never thought I would see you ever again…" The man said slowly…
Matilda was completely stunned at this comment. She hadn't seen anyone for 17 years; not anyone that would recognize her as Matilda anyway… She was so confused! Perhaps he was suffering from some sort of dementia, as he had rambled on about some girl that she didn't know. She didn't know if he was crazy, and was a bit irritated that the hospital staff had left her with him.
"…. You… Know who I am?" Matilda asked slowly, trying to remember proper speaking etiquette for the first time in what felt like a lifetime…
"Not anymore… But once upon a time… Yes… Yes I did…" The veiled man said in a reminiscent whisper. He seemed to be…. Crying?
"Please… Tell me… Who are you? What are you doing here?"
"My name…. Is Joe… Just Joe… Well, it has been now for 17 years…"
17 years…? But isn't that…? Something was scratching in the back of her mind, something tremendous… and horrifying… Just beyond the brink of her conscious mind…
"I'm really sorry, you must have me confused with someone else, I don't know anyone named Joe, and I'll be honest, you are the first person that I've seen or talked to in… A very long time…"
"No." Joe said, softly. "I'm not wrong. I thought I was wrong, had to be wrong, but there is no other way it could have been, could it? I mean, you came back with her, back from the stars… and your eyes… I'd never forget them…"
Matilda's mind nudged her again. She had a feeling that this man was about to shatter her world, just as soon as she had reclaimed it… "Are you talking about… Roll?"
Joe sat back again. "I didn't think it would have been possible for someone to be more beautiful than you, but she somehow managed it. I couldn't believe it when I heard the stories… She is so smart… Must have gotten her looks from you…. And her brains from… Her father…"
Matilda's heart stopped… She stared at him, while her heart monitor flickered beside her… For the first time, she looked into his eyes. His beautiful green eyes, and finally knew where she had seen them before.
On her daughter.
"…Banner?" Matilda said, saying the word as though if it had been spoken any louder, it would have shattered upon leaving her lips. "…Banner… Is it you?"
The man appeared to take the name as a physical blow, but then, slowly, nodded his head.
Matilda's eyes streamed torrents of tears, but she didn't blink them out of her eyes, she kept them open, staring at her true love as though if she blinked, he would disappear.
"Banner!" She flung herself onto him, while he himself wept unashamedly.
"I thought you had died on Forbidden Island, and that I was alone…"
"Yuna and I thought you had died!"
"…Yuna..?"
Matilda laughed, she laughed and cried at the same time, choking on her sobs and clutching to him as though she was likely to never let go…
"So much time… Lost…" Banner said.
"It doesn't matter, I don't care, I don't care what happened, my life has started all over again, and I can't believe that I can share it with you…" Matilda almost yelled into his chest.
"Well…" Banner started, as Matilda looked up at him as he held her. "Not quite… You see… after you disappeared, I almost did die, but I was saved… by a woman named Maria. She took me in from the cold, and over the years, has helped me to… heal… From losing you…"
Matilda's heart shattered… "But… But…"
"No, Mattie, no don't worry. She and I love each other, but not how I love you… You see, I never actually told her who I was. From the moment I lost you, I had become Joe… A man with no past, and to be honest… No future… But to her, she thought I had lost my memory of who I was before, but I never did… For years, I tried to hide it, and it didn't help that she ran the local bar. But she understood me, and accepted me anyway. In fact, this all came about when our daughter came to the Island where we were living, in search of parts to build a dropship…"
Both Matilda and Banner eyed daggers at each other, thinking about that horrible machine and what it had done to them. "I had been working on another working dropship for years, slowly, never really intending on finishing it, thinking, with some sort of long forgotten hope, that I could go back there one day… and find you."
Matilda sat back, covering her mouth with her hand… How horrible… How much he must have suffered, tortured every day, thinking he had killed her. It was a nightmare that she had shared with him entirely.
"I know it sounds stupid, but I know that I was saved by a little girl… with pigtails… and I knew that if there was someone there, someone who could help me… Maybe… Just maybe, they could have helped you too…"
"That doesn't sound stupid at all Banner. In fact, you were exactly right…"
Banner looked up, with tears still in his eyes… "You mean… She was real?"
"Real? Haha, yes, my love, she was real… In fact… Her name was Yuna…And so was mine…"
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"…Well really, all I can say was that it was a good thing he was wearing that armor. He really could have been in serious danger if he hadn't been. In fact, all three of them would have probably died if he hadn't taken the brunt of the impact away. Of course, all of his armor was completely destroyed, but I'm sure when he's back in fighting condition, he can just go buy more Kevlar Armor, but for now, it's back to standard!"
Tron's eyes opened, the conversation having brought her out of her dreams, filled with glowing red eyes and, not surprisingly, being swallowed whole by Thomas the Tank Engine. She sat up, but immediately regretted the decision, having discovered her arm being held in a splint; apparently broken. She cursed out loud, causing the nurse that was speaking to look over at her in surprise.
"Ah! Miss Bonne! How are you feeling, my dear?"
"Peachy." Tron said facetiously, obviously not in the mood to be coddled, and instead started grilling the hapless nurse, who was completely taken by surprise.
"What the heck happened? We obviously made it, did anybody else get hurt? Where is Megaman, is he going to be all right?"
"Calm down, sugar, please, or you will rip your stitches. Things are alright for now. All of you crash landed in the middle of the ocean, right on top of a poor girl out in a little boat. She's ok. As for the people in the rocket, both you and… What's her name… Ira? Yes, Ira, will be just fine. Other than a broken arm and a few moderate lacerations from armor impact, you will be fine. Ira had sprained both her wrists during the collision, holding out her arms during the impact… A few minor cuts and scrapes on her face, but she's fine too. The… um… The other two girls in the rocket with you were totally unharmed…" She paused as she thought about the absurdity of such an event occurring, and then continued. "Megaman and Roll, however, got the worst of it. She got caught between the bulkhead and Megaman and was crushed. She has two broken ribs, a broken leg and is currently having a hard time breathing… She seems to be recovering rather quickly, however, and those two girls haven't left their room…"
"THEIR room?" Tron said, fearing the worst.
"Of course! Megaman and Roll are sharing a room. He was the worst in the crash, taking the blow for both of you two in the front with his body…
Tron couldn't believe it. Even unconscious he had protected her. Tron felt a faint glow in her heart, almost laughing at how perfect this turn of events was with respect to his personality. Then she came back to reality… "Wait… The worst?"
"Oh, don't worry. It was really the armor that did the trick. He would have certainly been totally crushed if he hadn't have been wearing it, but because he was, it looks like he is going to be ok. He was however, in deep shock and in an advanced state of hypothermia, among a whole slew of other problems, including a multitude of broken bones upon admittance… But…"
Tron sensed the hesitation. "But what?"
"But he seems to be, well, much better off now… And nobody is quite sure why."
Tron sniffed. She was fairly certain a pair of green haired creepy twins probably held the answer to THAT question.
"Well then…" Tron said, making sure to get up carefully, while taking the sling off of the bed and putting it around her neck, "I'm going to visit them now."
"Um… No, you really should be resting, please get back in…"
"Look lady, if you don't get out of my way, I'll use this cast to beat you to submission, and then I'll go anyway, understand?" Tron said, unflinchingly.
The nurse was suddenly reminded of why it was that the Bonne family was so well known. They WERE pirates after all… She merely nodded her head and pointed towards the door. "Down the hall, room 103…"
Tron stood up, swaying slightly on her feet. She then tromped over to the door, flinging it open, and was greeted with a most hilarious sight. Her two brothers and her entire army of Servbots lay or sat lounging around in a large waiting room, all snoring most uproariously, causing passerbys to stare unabashedly at the curious sight.
Tron smiled so wide that her face almost split, walked over to Teisel's sleeping form, kneeling gently at his side, putting a gentle hand on his shoulder, and said,
"WAKE UP TEISEL!" at the top of her voice, and laughed most uproariously as the entire party jumped up as though a bomb had gone off, with Teisel being almost completely pummeled from random Servbots and a rather surprised Bon Bonne.
After the chaos, contorted and knotted together, the group stared at the beautiful girl leering down at them, with a definite gleam in her eye at her little joke.
Teisel, even upside down, was beside himself with joy. "TRON! Oh Tron I didn't think… I didn't know… I was so… I can't believe…. How are…!"
"Slow down big brother, you're gonna have a heart attack! I'm fine, don't worry! It looks like you guys haven't slept or bathed in a week!"
"2 days, to be exact, Miss Tron!" a random Servbot voice said amidst the pile.
"I couldn't go a single second thinking that MY baby sister was in a HOSPITAL and may have been in SERIOUS MORTAL PERIL!" Teisel yelled, standing up and striking a noble pose in his green armor. "We've been here on guard, making sure you get your rest so you will be as RIGHT as RAIN!"
"Yes, fantastic job keeping watch, big brother, I'm sure your snores were MORE than enough to keep me safe…" Tron said sarcastically, feeling her heart swell for her family.
"Well, we, uh… Kinda forgot our money on the way over, so we couldn't buy any coffee…" Teisel said, causing Tron to laugh.
After this, she became serious. "Where is everyone, what's been happening?"
Teisel smiled, "Ahh, now THAT has been a real riot. Come on, let's go! But... uh… Tron… actually… before we do anything, you should know you are in a hospital gown…"
"So?" Tron said, oblivious.
"Well, uh, you know, MOST are kind of, you know… um… backless…"
"Backless? What do you mean bac…." Tron stopped… Slowly, she turned around in horror, to face a gaggle of boys with cameras at the ready, when she looked down and realized just EXACTLY what backless meant.
"TEISEL!"
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Ever since she had woken up on the previous day from the pain in her ribcage, Roll had not once left Megaman's bedside. As he lay, slumbering and recovering from his ordeal up on Elysium, she had kept a silent vigil beside him, watching him. She was, of course, relieved to know that everyone that was on the shuttle made it safely home, if a little worse for wear… She had even heard that her mother had been recovered from the crash as well, according to Gramps. He had been regularly visiting both of them after hearing on the news that the rocket had crash landed next to Klickelan Island. Bleucher, Jim, Osh, Bensley, in addition to almost everyone on Calbania Island, had migrated to Klickelan Island, and according to Bleucher, "are in a state of constant celebration since your return!"
Roll however, was completely oblivious to all of this. She knew, after 17 years of searching, that finally her mother was right down the hall from her, and upon waking, she would be back in her life again. She almost couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe how happy she was, but to her great surprise, the thing that made her most happy was not finding her mother, after an entire life of searching, but rather the young man lying in the bed next to her.
After finally saying those three words out loud, in the rocket, even thinking it was because they were all heading for impending doom, something deep inside of her clicked into place, and suddenly, her entire life had completely changed. She knew it because she knew that when she had said "I love you" to him, even if he didn't know it, she had completely given over all reservation of her heart to him. Of course, he was completely ignorant of this, as well as her strong devotion to him, but she had made up her mind to tell him everything the moment he was ready to hear it… Namely… When he was awake… For now, as she was unable to visit her mother in the room down the hall, she was content lying here, next to him.
Unfortunately… She wasn't the only one.
She wasn't quite sure exactly what Ira had meant when she had said those words in the rocket with her at the time, and she knew EXACTLY what Tron had meant when she had said it, to her unending aggravation, but it seemed that Ira was possibly a bit more of an issue than just "friendly love". She had sat up with Roll all night, talking with her about what had happened, about the current state of Megaman, and Roll found that, despite the fact that Ira was barely concealing her OWN feelings for Megaman, Roll and Ira had become fast friends. It was Ira, of course, who had told her about the other girl, named Aero, that they had managed to crash onto in their plummet to the ground, and both had been recently talking about visiting her as soon as Roll was able to get out of bed.
As to that, Sera and Yuna had also been a great deal of help, nursing her back to health while she slept, through some sort of unknown process, and were, in fact, present in the room as Teisel and Bon came down the hallway, while the rest of the group sat in Megaman and Roll's room, talking in low voices.
"HELLO everyone!" Teisel announced his entrance, and came into the already crowded room. "Tron will be coming along shortly, after she changes into something a little less comfortable and a little less revealing" he declared, while rubbing his eye in what was fast developing into a black eye. "It's not like I noticed and didn't tell her, I was just so happy to see her!" Teisel said, as Bleucher, Barrel, and everyone laughed at his comical face, with Roll grabbing her side from the pain, but being unable to keep the mental image of Tron smacking him across the room in a backless hospital gown. Despite feeling a tad more animosity towards Tron as a love rival, she, as well as Tron herself, felt a new bond had formed between the two of them that wasn't so easily severed.
Of course, that wasn't what really was on her mind right now. Sera and Yuna had both stated that Megaman was likely to wake up soon, as they had been helping him to "heal" through some special process of their own, which reminded her of the time after the attack on the Sulphur Bottom…
She pushed that mental image from her mind… She thought she was truly going to go crazy, seeing Megaman hurt that badly… She never wanted to see that ever again… yet here they were.
"Don't worry, Roll, everything will be fine, he will be waking up any time now!" Yuna had told her cheerfully, and that had been enough to convince Roll to keep a constant watch on him.
Barrel and Bleucher, in the present, however, were not so easily convinced. It had been a tense moment, seeing Sera and Yuna present in the room when they had arrived to see if they were alright. It had taken a considerable amount of time to convince Bleucher not to have his guards shoot the two beautiful alien girls right there on the spot. As it was, an uneasy truce had been formed between them, through Roll and Ira's constant protests against violence towards the two girls.
"If you will just wait until Megaman comes back to us, we will explain everything…" Sera told the group as a whole. While Teisel had been compliant, Bleucher required more of an explanation. Roll, Barrel, and everyone had listened in on the full description of the events that happened starting with the stealing of the keys to the Mother Lode by Sera. Yuna and Sera had been a little vague as to the actual purpose of what the keys were actually used FOR, but Roll was able to understand that it certainly wasn't to open up a treasure trove, and most likely would have been something horrible, had it not been for Megaman once again saving the day.
After Bleucher and Barrel had left that day, Roll had asked Yuna why it was that she seemed so on edge, even though everything was back to normal, and all of the craziness had finally ended.
"Well as for it ever being NORMAL around here, I'd have to say no, but there is something that has been bothering us, but now isn't the time. We'll wait for Megaman to recover, because it concerns us all…" Yuna had said, as if it was a riddle that needed solving.
Well, Roll had been content to wait. Knowing that everyone was ok, and that she was finally finally with Megaman again, she couldn't even REMEMBER the last time she had been so content with the world… Or maybe it was the drugs they were giving her, who knows?
Presently, however, she was waiting on pins and needles. For some reason, she had had a good feeling about today, and it seemed almost serendipitous that everyone who was in on everything was meeting together in their room, it seemed as though this would be the moment where everything was brought into focus.
Ira, who had been sitting at the foot of her bed, got up and walked over to Megaman's side, and brushed some hair away from his face that had fallen while he was sleeping. A horrible monster swelled up within Roll, but it subsided with the entrance of Tron Bonne, who stormed into the room, hearing one last wolf whistle echoing down the hallway, slamming the door, causing a pot of flowers that had been sitting on a small dresser by the door wobble and begin to fall, but was caught deftly by Sera, who seemed to be on edge as well…
Tron, who was somewhat irked by the fact that the flower pot didn't come down as planned, was slightly indifferent to the greetings and welcoming hugs of the large group of people. She turned on the spot, and saw Megaman lying in the bed, and her face softened rapidly. She went and sat by him, looking up at Yuna.
"How is he?"
Yuna smiled brightly, "Oh he'll be just fine, don't you worry… In fact, I was thinking we should try waking him soon."
Bleucher coughed. "The sooner the better. I'd like to be filled in on the details of what EXACTLY has been going on these past few months."
Barrel glanced between him and Sera, who had apparently not felt any inclination to feel any sort of remorse for her actions, and her stoic demeanor was causing the rich man to bristle in anger. "Calm down, Bleucher, we don't need a fuss, I'm sure this is all quite a good story, and I don't believe that they would all even be here if it wasn't for these two lovely young ladies, isn't that right, girls?"
Sera huffed. "Don't be fooled, we are much older than we appear…"
Yuna smiled, crushing Sera's foot beneath her own in a sign that clearly indicated to stop being so caustic, and picked up what Sera had been saying. "That's true! I remember you two when you were both young men yourselves, totally lost and stranded on Forbidden Island! It seems I was right to save you both! Isn't it funny how things work themselves out?"
Sera couldn't help but nod at this. She chanced a glance at the prone form in the bed next to her, and couldn't help but feel something… unrecognizable…. Well up in her upon seeing Tron's rapt attention to his face, completely oblivious of the conversation.
Tron was focused exclusively on Megaman. It wasn't like Tron to let her emotions show like this, but honestly, she had been waiting too long for this moment to have it just snatched away by these old fogeys, Teisel included!
"So tell us… Yuna… What was happening in space during all this time, and what happened to Megaman?" Barrel inquired, obviously excited in his own way.
"Honestly, the majority of our time was spent waiting for rescue. Once Megaman and I had arrived on Elysium…"
"You were with Matilda as well?" Barrel said, clearly not fully understanding the situation.
"Ah… well… no… Let me explain further back then…" Yuna giggled, and Sera rolled her eyes.
"17 years ago, a young couple had crash landed upon what you call Forbidden Island, in search of the Legendary Mother Lode, as I'm sure all of you are aware…"
"We aren't AWARE!" Teisel said loudly, and Yuna was slightly taken off guard.
Roll chose to respond, and Tron actually turned and started to listen to the story, but still holding Megaman's hand, to which Roll chanced angry glances every now and then, to Tron's amusement. "I'm sorry Teisel, they are referring to my Mother and Father…"
"Your PARENTS! Oh, and here I was thinking you two just sprouted out of the ground to stop all of our schemes! Ho ho ho" Teisel laughed, apparently pleased with his own joke. Roll smiled a crooked, cute smile, then continued.
"Um… Well… Anyway, my parents had decided to go to Forbidden Island against the wishes of Gramps (The person in question nodding furiously across the room). They were looking for the Mother Lode, and were certain that they could find it there. They were sure that it was its final resting place… I never really understood the reasoning behind that, going off to a place that they knew killed any who went there… It just… Well… It doesn't matter anymore! I'm finally going to meet her! My mother!" Roll said, smiling, and yet feeling nervous all the same…
Would she be proud of her?
Tron was a little interested in this story… "Well, what happened?"
Roll came back down, "Right… So they designed a ship, called a dropship, that could deal with the winds, which is what I built later to do the same thing… Though I'm sure most here were actually PRESENT for that…" Roll finished lamely…
Yuna continued… "Yep! That's what happened! Unfortunately, I believe they must have gotten something wrong, because they landed quite heavily, and I don't think they managed to do any exploring at all… By the time I had found them, Banner was freezing to death, and Matilda was… Well… She was past the point where normal medicine would have saved her. It was the first time that I had ever seen anyone actually about to die… Plenty of people made it to the Island, and I'm sure they would have eventually succumbed, but I had always been able to put them into some form of stasis, or heal them. She had maybe minutes, and there was nothing that I could do…"
" It was a very strange experience. I had never really faced mortality before that point, and I was so offended by it! How could carbo… I mean… People… How was it fair that they needed to die, so horribly and so alone? It was then that I decided that THIS time, I wouldn't allow it to happen."
Yuna gestured to herself and to Sera. "Sera and I are what you call Ancients, but really, we are a form of… life-mirroring organism… All machine… But part living none the less. Apparently, the people who had created us were very intelligent… Your predecessors created us in their image, but we've lost all records, so we aren't sure what happened to them either. I'm sorry to disappoint." Yuna darted a glance to Sera.
Sera didn't flinch at this blatant lie, and continued the story. "As such, Yuna was able to combine her own recombinant DNA with that of the human female, thus transferring her primary programming and functions, while leaving her original shell of a body, in order to save Matilda's life… Something that our overseeing System did not approve of…"
Sera was free of the System's control, but through habit her voice still carried an edge against Yuna's actions.
"So… What you are saying is… you… possessed her?" Bleucher said, while Barrel stared at her in awe, as well as in accusation.
"Oh no! You make it sound so scary! No, it wasn't possession, but we did, in the end, share one form… Matilda's own body… She and I have lived together, sharing each other's thoughts for such a long time… She and I are so much alike now, and it will be so wonderful to have her be with her family once again!" Yuna said, looking at them all warmly. "I've come to love you all so much! And that's why it's all so amazing to me!"
"What is?" Barrel said, clearly listening to every word with rapt attention.
"Megaman! How could it be, purely through chance, that you, the father of my new body, that I had ALREADY saved, would later go on to find a boy in a ruin that would bring us ALL together… It seems that the Caskett family is tied quite strongly with Elysium… It certainly does seem to be a rather odd coincidence!" Yuna laughed.
Roll hadn't really thought about that… That really was strange… It did seem like there was a lot more to that particular story, but really, how did Megaman fit into all of this? It did seem so strange that Gramps just HAPPENED to find Megaman and Yuna had HAPPENED to find Gramps… almost as though there was something much deeper going on…
She assumed some things just didn't have easy answers
Yuna was obviously thinking along the same lines, "Megaman was such an integral figure in all of this, that it isn't surprising that we are all still standing here today because of him… What a hero, hunh? Well, for us, his antics have been around since long before any of you were born!"
Roll began to listen very closely… FINALLY she was about to learn about the Megaman that came before her Megaman… what he was…
"Megaman, as you know him now, is actually a form that could be equated to what I had done with Matilda. You could say that Megaman was… reset… a long long time ago, and that he had become a human baby because of it. In a long forgotten battle, Megaman, who was known as 'Trigger' back in our time, fought against our controlling system because he believed that the humans who had built the perfect Elysium world had, in a sense, lost their way. It is a rather long story, and most of it is really not something you need to understand. The most important part is that the last of the Human Race that came BEFORE you, the ones who made the ruins, had created Elysium to escape the…um… hardships… on the planet…"
Yuna was finding it more and more difficult to skate around with half-truths, and she didn't really want to give them anything they didn't need to hear. And there was plenty that they DIDN'T need to hear…
"So, Trigger, as we will call him, actually had a very similar personality to the Megaman we know today! He was compassionate and cared about people. He was the direct guardian to the last of the old humans, who we called the Master, who was in charge of the whole operation! In the end, however, the Master decided that people here on Terra were the only ones who really, truly, understood what it was to live; certainly more than the people inside of our cold and calculating world. Thus he entrusted one final mission for Trigger before he died. He told Trigger to destroy the perfect world, Elysium. He believed they had, in fact, been wrong to do what they had done, and that it was the people remaining on the planet that were truly the future hope of mankind… Of course, Trigger wasn't alone, but he was certainly the only one who presented a challenge. Not to go into a whole lot of depth into this, but Trigger was what we called a 1st Class Purifier, the most elite fighting unit we had. He was designed to be able to combat and destroy any adversary… I guess you can imagine that he would have been the strongest Reaverbot of the bunch, if you catch my meaning…"
Roll and Tron looked at Megaman's form in a bit of shock, then looked at each other…
How could it be… their Megaman was some sort of… Reaverbot?
"But… he's… he's a person, right? He breathes and eats… is he just…" Roll's heart began to break… She hadn't been expecting this… He was a machine…
It made sense to her and the other two girls now… He was just too perfect… too….
"Of course not Roll! He's as human as you and me! Well, wait… no… Just you… Sorry, something I picked up from Matilda…" Yuna blushed and looked at Barrel.
"So he's not a machine?" Barrel pressed.
"Think about it this way… If your mind could be put onto a… memory card let's say: Everything that makes you you, and then put that into a different body, saying you could actually 'create' a human body, then wouldn't you still be human? Still a person?"
Tron nodded. That made sense. "So then… its sort of like his soul was…. downloaded, I guess you could say…" She was much more comfortable with the thought of such things. She had tried to create the same sort of machines herself.
Ira spoke up for the first time. "But then, wouldn't that mean he would remember everything about what he was? If you could just… pop in his old mind, why didn't he remember any of this before? What good would have come from erasing his memory?"
Yuna smiled "How very astute of you, Ira!"
Roll and Tron looked at Ira, who seemed to, once again, be leagues ahead of them in common sense.
"Well, Trigger's story eventually came down to a final battle here, on the planet. You see, Sera and I were overseers of the System that ran Elysium, we are what were called 'mother' units, and we were actually in charge of everything. Sera was in charge of Elysium, while I myself was in charge of the planet. We called it Terra. In the end, Trigger and Sera battled for supremacy upon what you now call Forbidden Island!"
"Whoa!" Ira said, then instantly put a hand over her mouth. "Sorry, this is just so cool!"
And once again, Tron thought with a smirk, Ira moves to the back of the crowd…
Sera smiled at her, a rare feat. "It wasn't cool at the time, let me assure you. This was a matter of life and death for us. I was completely controlled by the System; to protect it from the sort of threat Trigger was presenting to all of us. He was basically a free agent running amok, terrorizing everyone and everything, cutting a line right through us. I know it may be hard to believe, but in many respects, Trigger was actually the bad guy… well… from our point of view… Even if his motivations were correct, in the end, he caused an enormous toll of death…"
"A death toll, Sera?" Yuna giggled again.
Sera stared back at her deadpan, and then continued. "He and I fought on that Island, expending all of our energy. In the end, we fought to a draw. Yuna took the opportunity to separate us, sealing me into a stasis, and evacuating and doing the same to Trigger. She officially hadn't chosen a side, but clearly leaned closer to Trigger's point of view, and was thus unwilling to help either side too much in the struggle. After my release, and her refusal to relinquish the Keys to me, I believed she felt this way still. However, during my stasis she used technology created on Elysium to create a powerful storm that would keep anyone from accidentally coming across me and releasing me, causing a calamity of problems for Terra…"
"Problems? If this had to do with Elysium, what did this have to do with us?" Bleucher said, apparently so enraptured in the story that he had forgotten who he was speaking to.
"If I awoke, I had planned on activating the Carbon Reinitialization Program…"
Yuna nudged her in the ribs, and then picked up the thread.
"Uh… Yes… Well… You all know what happened then… It turned out, ironically, that Megaman himself actually released Sera and Geetz from the stasis, and that was in fact what she did, she used all of you to obtain the Keys to the "Mother Lode". But what you think is a treasure is actually the keys to unlocking a weapon on Elysium that would wipe out all of mankind!"
They all stood around, shocked, and stared at Sera, who stared unblinkingly back.
Yuna continued hastily. "But it all turned out alright! You see, Sera still had to act for the system, she was controlled by it! Once Megaman had obtained the Keys, she hadn't meant to go through with it… Even IF the systems was ordering her to do so. She was jealous of how close Trigger had been to the Master, as it seemed to her that the farther from serving the Master, and the more he worked towards destroying the System, the happier he was, and the more she did what she was supposed to do for him, loving him and serving the System, the more he despised her. Thus they had fought in the Library of Elysium, only a few short months ago, to determine the fate of humanity."
"Clearly, Megaman won the battle, and he had finally accomplished what he was tasked with all those years ago. He destroyed the Elysium System! Sera was no longer bound to it, and thus the three of us have been waiting up there ever since!"
With the story partially finished, everyone seemed to ponder their thoughts in silence.
"This… Carbon Reinitialization Program… What exactly did that entail?" Barrell asked pointedly, obviously not so keen with the two green haired girls as he was before.
"Well…" Yuna began to explain, wishing Sera hadn't accidentally let that one slip. "All that really needs to be understood about it is that Elysium is gone for good, and it will never happen again. Originally… It was designed for a sort of… defensive mechanism from… uh… older, more powerful Reaverbots, basically…" Yuna was completely at a loss, she had reached the end of her creativity when it came to lying to these people. She had learned to love a great deal of them in a very short amount of time, and not telling them the full truth on the subject wasn't really something she relished. However, she really needed them, and she wasn't sure if telling them the full history of their planet, of their very lives, was something that would endear them to her. At least not at that particular moment, with Bleucher's slightly aggressive manner.
Sera, however, took a more practical approach. "I know that this may be very frustrating to you all, not knowing everything about the past. But I say this quite truthfully: Some things are better left alone. Our own history is something even we don't fully comprehend, and it would be foolish of us to explain anything to you, as we don't really know ourselves. I am certain, however, that by the time this is all over, we will all know much more than we should."
Sera's words seemed to send a chill down everyone's spines.
Ira pondered what Yuna had said. It seemed to explain so much. Ira herself couldn't help but think about the Old City on Kattlelox, and how no one seemed to know what had happened to the reaverbots, or even the people, who lived there…
Well I think there may be a little bit more to that Program then she is letting on she thought to herself darkly.
Teisel suddenly blurted out from the corner, "Wait a second… What do you mean 'before this is all over'? I'm pretty sure laughing in a hospital over crazy adventures is how EVERY good story ends?"
"Not this time, Mr. Bonne…" Yuna said, not quite smiling, although Teisel wore a huge grin at being addressed as such… "But we will discuss that once Megaman wakes up…
They all lapsed back into silence, trying to comprehend what had been discussed…
"How old is he then?" Ira said, completely out of the blue, curious to know.
Yuna laughed.
"Well, actually, we aren't entirely sure about that either! The unit known as Trigger was actually an extremely old unit, even by our standards. He was around before either of us, we were created relatively recently. So who knows? One thousand years? Two? What's important is what he is now, right?" Yuna asked wisely.
"…. And what is that, exactly, Yuna?" came a voice they hadn't heard speak yet. They all turned to look, and there he was:
Megaman, awake at last!