Interlude 5, part 3

Seeing the psychologist did help. Butler didn't feel quite as shaken as he had earlier. However, he was still contemplating the incident. Destroying another person's life was a sin on principle. But looking at the specifics, things seemed murkier. Was it truly all right to destroy a person who was corrupted and evil? After all, he had no qualms about killing Silver Horn and that had been the first death he was responsible for.

But Silver Horn had shown nothing but cruelty in his actions, as well as a glee in causing pain. He acted proud of torturing other reploids to the point of suicidal despair, as well as death. When he had fallen, he had shown no fear or remorse. Butler felt strongly that he should have died, or else he would continue hurting and destroying others.

Mach Jentra? He had been detached and materialistic. Angered at their intrusion, he had gathered his Preons to fight back. Perhaps he had been in the right to do that. Both X and the psychologist said that Jentra no longer cared about anyone but himself. That would lead him to use and manipulate others without fear of the consequences they would face. He had no empathy for their suffering, but did not feel perverted joy in suffering. When he had fallen, Jentra had been clearly afraid and shocked. Perhaps even regretful.

It was hard to see Jentra's death as preventing more suffering.

"Hey mister?" a girl's voice came to him.

Distracted from his thoughts, Butler looked down to see a reploid girl with red pigtails and a green dress armor. Oh right, that would be Annette. "What is it?"

"Are you the other Steel Massimo?" she asked, looking up at him curiously. She held onto a sketchbook in her arms. "Cause you have his voice, and his eyes."

He had said that this girl would likely figure the ruse out. Besides, there was no point in continuing it. "Yes, that's me. What do you mean by the other one?"

Smiling at being right, Annette replied, "Because you are the other one. I know the first guy; he had the same kinda voice but he was colder about it, and he had different eyes. What happened to him? I haven't seen him in a while, I noticed."

"He's gone," Butler said. As there were other people in the hall, he added, "If you want to talk more about it, we should go somewhere with less people."

She looked disappointed. "Oh, okay. I was going to show him some of my pictures. But you're Massimo too, so it's okay if you're a hero. So where'd he go?" She reached for his hand and tugged him to a different room.

Once they were in the room and the door was shut, Butler took a deep breath and said, "Annette, he died. He had gone to Tianna Camp before the rest of us and was killed by Silver Horn."

"Oh." For a moment, he thought she would cry. But then, she seemed strangely okay. "Oh, well that's nothing to worry about." She sat down on the couch and put her sketchbook on the table.

Butler sat down in a chair near her. "It's not?"

She nodded while flipping through the book. "Yeah, cause he's a hero, and not even death can defeat reploid heroes. Like Zero, you know? They said he was dead lots of times, but he's still around. So the first Massimo will be back sometime. But you're doing a good job, everybody says, although I don't think all of them know about you yet."

Yes, Zero had come back from apparent total destruction. But that was because he wasn't a reploid. Butler could recall Dr. Lagrano ranting a few times about how Zero wasn't, and that reploids were the robots based off of the basic structure of X's design. In that way, Zero was like no one else on Earth. X technically wasn't a reploid either. It had infuriated Hiram that they still hadn't caught up on those technologies, especially Zero's inexplicable resurrections. So yes, there was always a chance that if Zero was lost, he might come back. But the real Steel Massimo was gone for good and nobody could bring him back.

But how to explain that to this child? Butler wasn't even sure how far developed her mind was. "Pardon my curiosity, but how old are you, Annette?"

"I'm…." she paused, counting on her fingers, "I'm seven months old. How old are you?"

"I'm seven years old."

She giggled. "That's funny! Oh, here, this is what I was gonna show him. It's a picture of when I first met him." She turned her sketchbook around.

It was a childish drawing, done in crayons. And yet, it was disturbing to Butler. It was nothing like the things Cindy would have drawn. "Why are there people on fire?" he asked, trying not to sound creeped out.

"Cause they were," Annette said, then started pointing. "My mom and me were gonna leave Giga City with the humans, but the Preon guards didn't like that. They called in these guys," which included one that seemed to be Mach Jentra, "and they attacked with fire, and wind, and water. But then Steel Massimo came in and killed the fish guy, and scared the other two away. My mom was all burnt up," she paused to rub her eyes, "but he told me to get out of there, and then he helped me back to a safe place."

"That's a terrible thing to happen," Butler said, putting his hand on her shoulder.

She clutched it. "Yeah. I cried some, but I'm gonna be a strong girl, cause I wanna be a hero like him and save people. I wanted to draw a picture of him being heroic and brave, winning the battle. But he only got one of those guys."

"We got rid of the fire guy there," Butler told her. He thought one moment that it might have been worth it to kill Jentra if he had fired on a crowd of innocent people, but then felt unsettled that any explanation would make killing better.

"Oh, okay. What about the green bird?"

He'd heard something about a hummingbird reploid recently… oh right. "I heard that Zero and Axl defeated him too, so they're all gone now."

Annette smiled. "That's good, cause then the cyber angels can punish them for what they did. I'll be okay. Do you want to see more of my pictures?"

"Sure." Hopefully they wouldn't be as creepy as that fire one.

Peace had been there. A time when he didn't have to fight and he didn't get restless or bored, it had been there and he had truly enjoyed it. When he didn't have to care about obligations, or manipulations, or rules, or anything really… when he could just be and be happy about it. He never thought that could be possible, but he had it all to himself.

And it was gone now.

Zero did not want to wake up. He kept trying to figure out how he had felt that strange serenity and how to find a way back to it. However, his memories of the past several hours were murky, clouded by that peace. Once his consciousness came above a certain level, he was also able to consider that there was something wrong about that peace. It had felt good, but it had not been normal. Plus, his awareness had been greatly reduced. Anybody could have snuck up on him in that state.

Realizing that, Zero did his best to ignore what was gone and figure out what was going on. It was quiet around: there were sounds of an environmental control system, so he was indoors. There was a small computer around, but not enough for an office, so this was likely a domestic area. And there was another reploid in the room, one who was comfortable enough with his presence to sit on the couch he was lying on.

"We're alone right now, so there's nothing to be concerned with," X said. He would know when Zero was actually stirring rather than sleeping. "How are you feeling, Zero?"

It was X, so he could be honest. "Miserable," he said, opening his eyes and sitting up. They were in a furnished but abandoned apartment. "I'm having some trouble remembering what happened. I know I was here with you, and I was content with whatever, and..." something troubling occurred to him as he turned to X, who looked back curiously. "Wait, what were we just doing? You're here, and," no one else seemed to be, "wait, X, were we…? No, why am I rambling? I shouldn't be rambling. I should just stop talking, right?"

Partway through that, X smiled, then cracked up. "Yes, Zero, that might help. Want to start over?" He started up his scanner unit to check on him, as usual.

"Yes, thank you." He started up his own self-checks to see if anything was wrong, as well as checked on what his internal virus was doing. Strangely enough, it was extremely passive, taking only a fraction of its usual power. "What happened?"

"You got stoned," he said, with a bit of playfulness. "Or something like that. The force metals don't act as mind-altering substances to most, but they seem to do that in your system."

"Is that it?" His results came back in, noting that a number of his systems were still running at low or slow levels. It would take some time to fully shake off the sluggishness. "Power is a drug too, you know that, and that affects all the others. Maybe I'm just more sensitive to the effects. Still, it doesn't seem safe to mix my systems and 'mind-altering substances', at all. Even if it did feel really good and I felt like everything was fine and peaceful for once." He could see the Minus 30 sitting on a nearby table; it was tempting to take it again. But, no, he shouldn't. "I didn't think it'd do that. Somebody could have attacked me and I wouldn't have done a thing about it. I shouldn't be that way; I should be able to take care of myself. Am I rambling again? I should stop doing that." He put his hand on his face. What was with him?

"That would help," X said. "I think what's happened is that the Minus 30 turned down some of your mental filters and inhibitions. You're speaking whatever's on your mind without recognizing when you are. Although your filters didn't seem to be on as well when you snapped at everyone and insulted the Resistance in front of their leader, and all my friends from the group. That was incredibly rude."

"Did I?" He reviewed those memories again. He acted that way around other Maverick Hunters, but then again, they got to expect it out of him. Except for Axl and X, those had all been outsiders and strangers in the room. He stopped glaring. "I was having a really bad day. I'm sorry."

"They deserve an apology more than me, but I know you won't do that directly." He checked his scanner unit. "You've recovered, but not fully. I'd say that you shouldn't be using this Minus 30, but I do want to see how you react with a lesser model in greater detail. It could give us some insight into how to shut down your virus."

"I'll consider it." He watched as X took the Minus 30 away, feeling that temptation to take it back. "Though I'm afraid that I could get addicted to those things. So what are you doing here? What happened?"

"I came down when Nana informed me that you were still here," he said. "And you asked me to stay with you, but then you fell asleep after I said I would."

On reviewing his memories again, that seemed to be right. "I see. I'm just curious, but do you still have that love metal with you?" When he nodded, Zero glanced at that hidden panel and asked, "What does it do for you?"

"Currently, it's boosting my energy and defenses, helping me cope with the load of work I've got now. But when I fell off Lagrano Tower, it was the main thing that saved me. It put all its energy into making a barrier around my core programming to make sure none of that got damaged. And then it boosted my self-repair programs to help me back onto my feet sooner. I'd still be recovering from that fall and the limited medical they have here otherwise."

"And those things have no erosion factor?" Zero asked. That seemed so strange that these potentially more potent metals had no cost.

"None," X said. "They're definitely the oddballs out, but more promising than most. I don't know if that Minus 30 would have killed you outright; I'll have to look into this closer. But it definitely would have obstructed any effort to defend yourself if you had gotten in trouble."

"I see." He shrugged. "I do want your thoughts on why you're helping this ragtag militia."

"Because they're mostly innocents who would get slaughtered otherwise," X said, completely honest now that he didn't have to use social niceties. "There's a handful around who could have put up a fight and done a decent job. But the Rebellion reploid members I've fought so far are really good. Top notch military grade reploids who have had a decent amount of training, and the one who leads them, Epsilon… I only know what I've read and observed about his strategies, but he's likely a genius. Maybe not the best leader, although he does inspire strong loyalty in the saner members of the Rebellion. But there are significantly insane reploids in there too."

Zero nodded. He had known that the situation wasn't good. His problem had been that X was still letting the Resistance members head into danger. "And what about that little squad you've got together? I heard that that Marino chick is a thief."

"And a technology thief at that, yet I let her go off with Axl and Cinnamon not that long ago," X said. "I have faith in Axl, though, that if they get into trouble, he can get himself and Cinnamon out of it. Consider it a test, both of how serious Marino is about being loyal to the Resistance and how well Axl is doing."

"Ah. And the others?"

X considered that, mentally noting on them while tapping against his fingers. "Well, Cinnamon is a novice, but she has strong potential. One of her biggest obstacles is that her father Professor Gaudile is more than a little protective of her. She's coming out on the better end of sheltered novices, though. And Steel Massimo, I think he's the most promising and best of the Giga City novices on the team, maybe even in the whole group. He's been shaken up by the realities of warfare, but he has a very kind heart and a good command over the battle armor that he's inherited."

"Sounds just like your sort of fighter."

"Right. And then there's Spider." He frowned. "I'm still on the fence about him. He's a mercenary, so already, his loyalties are shaky. He's more experienced and skilled than the rest, so I don't have to give him exact orders like the rest. But… he's just sending so many conflicting signals right now that I don't know whether to trust him fully or throw him out of the Resistance entirely. I'm leaning towards keeping him away, though."

"Someone you don't trust?" Zero asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, and that kind of says something about him right there," X agreed. "I originally put him on my squad because I mistrusted him and wanted to be able to handle the fallout should he turn on us."

Zero thought about that. Due to what had happened in the early days of the Maverick conflicts, he hated traitors with a passion. They tricked their way into earning the trust to be cared about, and then abused that trust. But if that betrayal were to potentially fall on him, or on some novice, "In this group, that may have been the safest thing to do without invoking his retaliation. So what's up next for you?"

X straightened up, losing whatever relaxing he may have been doing to discuss business. "We're going into the Gimialla District, into the mines. It's an e-crystal facility that was transported here when Giga City first started up. Now that most reploids here are run with force metal systems, it's a bit archaic."

"But those could still be used to power vehicles and larger weapons," Zero pointed out.

X nodded. "Part of the reason we want to take it back. Also, we've learned from our scouts that two undeniably criminal members of the Rebellion have been stationed there. One of them is Shadow."

Shadow? A scowl escaped to Zero's face before he could restrain it. That traitor had very nearly gotten into his limited circle of fully trusted allies.

Continuing on, X said, "The other is Incentas, one of the military reploids built in Lagrano Tower. Incentas was sent to the human communities here when Giga City was taken over by the Rebellion. Massimo tells me that Incentas killed many of the humans trying to leave, including Dr. Lagrano and his family. He's capable of wide and long range elemental attacks. Incentas and Shadow seem to be guarding something important in the mines. However, we can't detect anything beyond the e-crystals that would really be usable. It might be a weapons stash, or some kind of storage for them."

Zero closed his eyes, evaluating the facts. "Hmph. Obvious trap is obvious."

When he looked, X had a knowing smile. "And what makes you say that?"

He humored him by saying, "Two battle experienced military grade reploids with multi-ranged attacks sent in to guard an archaic facility in an underground mine? Yeah, they're trying to take advantage of the mine design to trap you guys in there, or just kill you outright with mass attacks."

Chuckling, X answered, "I agree with that. But the obvious trap is obvious to us. Not so much the less experienced folks around here. Both of us have dealt with this kind of thing before, so I'm fairly certain that I can handle a trap situation like that. The rest of them might need the lesson to sharpen their battle intelligence and senses."

"Another one of your infamous test missions, huh?" He laughed back. Some novices in the Maverick Hunters were thrilled to learn that X had picked them out for the first week or so. Then they picked up on how seriously (and far) he took their training. "Man, you're turning into one manipulative teacher, X."

He shrugged. "Well how else do you spring these unexpected situations except to expect them and not inform your students?"

"I'll give you that." Zero smirked. "But mind if I assist you on this little lesson? I mean, you're dealing with Shadow, and this Incentas character. It wouldn't hurt to have the backup."

X smirked back. "I expected you to make that offer if I worded my explanation the right way."

"Hey!" Zero called in mock indignation, lightly punching his shoulder. "I'm your teacher, remember?"

"Of course." He blinked, then touched his helmet. "You might want to head to Gimialla, then. Nana knows you're here, but no one else should. Axl and the two girls are coming back."

"Sure." He got up, but paused before going. "How's he getting along with them?"

"Axl? Really well, as usual. Marino keeps teasing him about stealing his Copy Chip, one way or another, but Cinnamon looks up to him already, as does Massimo, I think." He got up. "I'll show you where the teleport station is."

"I just wanted to know about the girls." Zero put his finger to his lips. "Since you're the mission commander, permission to tease Axl about having a harem?"

X grinned. "If it turns out that way, permission granted."

Sitting on the sea dock, X took a moment to relax and just watch the waves. He always liked the ocean and had considered several times getting adaptations to do underwater research. The chances for that rarely turned up, though, and he usually had something else to consider or pursue. After some time, a black ship started coming towards him. It surprised him in that appeared to be one of the Maverick Hunter fleet vessels. But it showed no aggressive actions and his three friends were on board. So he waited.

It pulled up into the interior dock, so he got up to go in after it. As he did, he saw Cinnamon and Marino come out. They were followed by a third woman, and then Axl. X thought briefly that it was good, for Axl's sake, that Zero hadn't been here. "Hi, X!" Cinnamon called. "How did you know when we were coming back?"

"A coincidence, mostly," he said. "What's this ship doing here? I thought you took Marino's craft."

"It's because they took Black Gull from us at Melda," Axl said, looking to Marino and the other woman.

"We returned it, didn't we?" Marino asked. "X, this is my boss, more or less, Dr. Palei. We talked her into joining us too. Palei, this is X, you know."

"It's an honor to meet you, sir," Palei said, shaking hands with him.

There was something peculiar about her, but he decided not to press the issue yet. "You too, doctor. And we're glad for any extra help we can get. We can go up to the Governor's Precinct from here, if you'd like."

Back up at the command center, X sent Axl and Cinnamon off on an errand, more to get them out of the way. Then he brought Palei and Marino to an engineer's room where Gaudile was currently working on something. The two women glanced to each other, perhaps nervous.

"Hey Professor, we might have someone to work with you now," X said. "This is Dr. Palei, Marino's friend."

The platypus looked at them, then looked puzzled. "Oh, is that so? Well it'd be good to have the help… but you seem awful familiar. I can't quite place you though."

"We worked together for a brief time," she said. "In Lagrano."

"She's a human, if that helps your memory any," X stated.

Marino looked startled. "Wh, huh? How did you figure that out?"

Coming over, Gaudile took a closer look at her. "Oh wait… Amanda Morrison? I worked with you on the Belladonna project."

Palei, or rather, Dr. Morrison smiled. "Why yes, you did." Then she chuckled. "But I must know too, X, how did you see past my disguise?"

He pulled over a few chairs and sat with them. "The position of your tear ducts, the design of your eye shield to obscure that and other signs, and the filter projectors on your helmet. That's how I could tell so fast, although time might prove more signs."

"Oh yes." She touched her visor while taking the chair given her. "This keeps most people from noticing, but I should have expected such sharp observation out of you."

"Amanda, what are you still doing here?" Gaudile asked, sitting with them. "It's dangerous for a human to be in Giga City these days. Even though Epsilon's orders were to simply evacuate, they would kill you if they find you here."

"That's why I've been keeping hard to find," she said. "And even then, I've been using this suit as a disguise. It covers most of the signs of what I really am, as well as giving some strong hints that makes most assume I'm a reploid. I'm hoping that what signs there are to the contrary are obscure, like the position of my tear ducts as X pointed out."

"Well that explains how, but not why," Gaudile pressed.

She smirked. "Well partly to test the limits of this disguise. I've had this kind of technology in development for a while. Also, you might remember that I'm not good in listening to authorities. I got fired for arguing with Dr. Lagrano, actually."

"Oo, that's trouble," Gaudile said. "Then again, much like you. But you should be a great help. I do remember that you're very cunning with armors and weapons. Would you mind finishing up the project to upgrade the current standard armor for our volunteer force? Most of them are civilians, generics at that, so it should be a piece of cake for you."

"That's fine. Although, given that I am a human and this disguise doesn't work too well if I'm constantly observed, it would be helpful if I was working elsewhere, out of the main crowd of Central Tower."

"Right. We hold a few districts now. My labs are still damaged and not good for mass production."

"How is your suit for high temperatures?" X asked.

"It protects me in most circumstances," she replied. "Why?"

"We recently took Ulfat Factory. It is built to accommodate a few humans acting as engineers or overseers. You could work from there provided you had a guardian with you who knew what you were, and could help cover for you."

"I have the Belladonnas," Amanda said. "They're more sophisticated than mechaniloids, although not quite reploids. They'll do what I ask of them. Although if I had Raffie still around…"

"You took the Belladonnas, then?" Gaudile asked.

She nodded. "Well Dr. Lagrano didn't want them."

"Actually, I've been meaning to ask you Professor, about Dr. Lagrano," X said. "Not right now, as I have a mission coming up. But in researching the Rebellion, I think I need to know about the man who is most responsible for their creation."

"He made me, but I'm not afraid to say that Dr. Lagrano was a complete and heartless jerk," Gaudile commented. "I'll tell you what I know."

"In that case, Dr. Palei," X said, with a slightly teasing tone, "we ought to introduce you to Chief R and some of the other staff, especially Nana. She's most likely to figure you out besides me. And then get you and your Belladonnas settled into Ulfat."

"Sure thing. I'll have to call up my whale lab for them, but that won't take long."

"Whale lab?" Gaudile asked.

End of interlude.

Since I skipped over the weird shiptease moment, I made up a substitute! I don't actually ship X and Zero, though, because I don't think it makes sense for either of them to have been built that way, considering their makers. If anything, I'd put them in a romantic asexual relationship, but it doesn't interest me enough and most shippers probably wouldn't be into that.

I did rewrite that scene (and the one in the previous update) three times in total. After I figured that the Minus metals would probably act as a depressant to Zero, I just could not resist writing him like that.

One of the things that's missed a lot in Megaman fics (especially X era) is interactions between reploids and humans. I know it's even missing in the games themselves, since the only human in the X series is Dr. Cain and you don't even see him (and Dr. Light is a hologram). I think it could have been an awesome addition to Command Mission to have a few humans still around, even if just for flavor. So I added Amanda/Palei, since she fit a few other needs for the story too.