File 21: This is Progress?

Dr. Doppler started as a healer-mechanic, where his skills at listening between the words gave him a waiting list of patients who were mostly psychotic. So he was allowed to take classes in psychotherapy. Applying that science to reploids was a new area of study, and Doppler had the advantage of being one of the few reploids in reploid psychotherapy. He was world renown for his groundbreaking papers and ability to turn difficult cases around. Such was the hope for Maverick X.

Doppler would use the first few months of borderline therapy to soften up the mavericks, to get them used to talking in session. X was taking longer than usual. Then again, Sigma himself had come to talk to Doppler, to try convincing him to give X up to the law. That was in the fifth month of X's therapy, as he was becoming a regular at the group sessions. Sigma almost convinced Doppler, and then made the mistake of saying that if X was found guilty, of anything, he was up for total destruction.

Had he been informed of this when X had asked for therapy, Doppler would have agreed without hesitation. But at that point, he was beginning to like X and wanted to see him set straight. His interview with Blues had influenced him greatly. So learning that X was up for the deletion, Doppler refused to turn him over. He reminded Sigma that as a willing patient, X could not be harmed on hospital property. Sigma gracefully accepted that, but was obviously irritated.

So X was taking his time opening up. In fact, X's year review was coming up, and Doppler suspected he would not pass. But last session, he had not cussed. It made Doppler feel confident on saying, "I think you need to stop skipping around the main issue here. We're not going to make any more progress until you do."

"What are you talking about?"

"We need to talk about your father."

"I don't want to talk about him. He was a ******* jerk," he moved to a defensive position by crossing his arms on his chest. It rang to Doppler's ears like the weak spot in a pane of glass. "Worse than me, I think."

"How's he worse than you?"

"I don't remember much of that time. But what few memories I do have are of him and me arguing. A lot. My brother remembers the same thing."

He was avoiding remembering, Doppler thought. Blues had recalled Dr. Light and X getting along early on. "Memories of the first few years are lost for some reploids. It's a strange occurrence. What did you argue about?"

He shrugged. "He gave me free will, but didn't like the way I was deciding things. He tried to control my actions, which made me try to choose what he would not want me to choose, and so we argued more. It just got worse until the last one."

Doppler made some notes. He already knew X had control issues. "What happened at the last one?"

"I don't remember. But it was something… it was a very bad scenario. I knew it was wrong, but I either wasn't thinking about right or wrong or I didn't care and did it anyways."

"Did what?"

"I don't ******* remember. It was something very bad. Then we argued until he threatened to dump my current programming and start all over again. I told him if he did that, I hoped I would remember to hate him and to not acknowledge him as my creator. Then he disowned me, and I ran away. He died a short while later."

That wasn't something he got in the interview with Blues. "So from what he said in anger, you assume he's a worse jerk than you are."

"I know he is. Look, my brother remembers him fondly and they never argued. Of course, he's a perfect law abiding citizen. And all he remembers of my relationship with Dr. Light is that we argued constantly. Don't you see? Maybe I did like him at one point, but Dr. Light erased all the good memories and left all the arguments alone. He's a total jerk."

"He erased all the good memories."

"Yeah," he said, but obviously didn't mean it.

"I think there might be something good left."

There was quiet for a half minute, and then X said, "So there was this stupid incident with a prism crystal. We were talking about rainbows, or something like that. I don't remember it entirely. But that wasn't an argument. And there was some other time… I was really young, mind you. Real young. I think maybe three months or something. There was a severe thunderstorm and he stayed with me the whole time. But that's before I really understood I could chose to do what I wanted, so it doesn't count. But that's it. One stupid conversation and once when I was young and scared. So I know he could be nice, which only made him worse when we started clashing."

"Right. So now that he is gone…"

"Bloody humans…"

"Do you miss him?"

"Heck no."

"Be honest. Do you miss him?"

There were fifteen minutes left in their scheduled appointment. It was silent the whole time. Dr. Doppler sent him back home as nicely as he could, but X wouldn't meet his eyes.

There was always the next session.

Zero hung around the Blasted Machine Shop, but wasn't quite sure what to do with himself. He wasn't a mechanical genius like X. Sure, he could do simple repairs and keep his saber working perfectly, but beyond that, nope. Nothing. He did odd secretarial jobs every so often, but was too restless to stick to it. He played music, but his irregular shows earned him little money. In fact, he lost money on his passion more often then not, like when he had his guitar fixed after the Jumbles incident. Once he tried to help clean up the shop, but the mechanics went nuts if their 'organization systems' were messed with. Anyhow, it was near impossible to keep the shop clean every day. His best income potential was his freelance job as a mercenary.

Zero had a major problem, which had incited his efforts to earn his keep. When X had found him, he was barely alive from decades of neglectful maintenance. Now he was operating efficiency. His mind felt clean and clear, his wit and senses were sharper than ever. Zero knew full well what that meant. He knew there wasn't a standardized part in his body; he knew organizing his inner systems was like unknotting fishing line. He knew his design required high quality parts and some rare materials. Zero's debt to X was in the range of millions of zenny, perhaps even more.

And yet so far, X had asked nothing of him.

So Zero had spent the past few weeks making inquires about becoming a mercenary. He'd already done a few odd jobs: dealing with Clover's stalker, claiming a few bounties from the local police, and guarding various individuals. The plan was to pay X off with the money he earned. But things would be a lot better if he had his own office and X's blessing.

It was after dark when Zero came in to ask. He found Black Dyne leaving. He was always last to leave. "G'night Dyne."

The human nodded. "Later Zero."

"Hey, where's X?"

"In his office. Why?"

"I want to talk to him about something."

He shrugged. "All right. But you might want to be careful."

"Careful?"

"Yeah. He came back from his session with Doppler in a black mood. We haven't seen him since."

"Oh, well, that was hours ago. He should be all right."

"Go ahead and choose your poison, I guess." He left.

Choose your poison? Zero brushed it off as some human thing. They could be so weird at times. He went up to X's third story office. The blinds were drawn shut and the door was closed. Light came out of the cracks. He knocked. "Hey X. Can I talk to you for a minute?"

He didn't hear anything, so he knocked again. "X? You are in there, right?"

There was a mumbling sound that might have been an answer, but it was too quiet and the door blocked out the rest.

Zero opened the door. "What're you doing?"

X swore very loudly. "I told you not to come in!"

"I couldn't hear," he said, flustered, but then he noticed, "Have you been crying?"

"That doesn't matter! Just get out!" (Actually, what he did say was longer, but Zero is polite and won't use that sort of language)

"Okay, sorry… I'll talk to you later… you sure you're okay?"

"Go away."

"Right, well, I'll be around."

The door slammed shut behind him. Zero muttered a soft curse against himself for not staying in there. Then again, X had his auxiliary hand off and his buster readied, so it was a bad idea to stay in there.

But wasn't X in borderline therapy? What brought this on?

Zero had noticed something out of place in the office. There was a new still image caster on X's desk, or at least one he hadn't seen before. He hadn't gotten a good look at the image, though.

He thought about it and realized two things at once. Witnessing this did give him some slack on his debt to X. But it also meant he'd probably be here longer.

Doppler was alone in his apartment. He tried rearranging the programming error patients into different groups. None of the three current groups were working out. It was a difficult task, because there was such a range of symptoms. Not to mention the feuds. Axel and Dizzy were the most blatant, but certainly not the only ones fighting.

As that wasn't working out, he turned to his other problem: a bizarre chain of deaths in his facility. It started when he took in Vile fifteen months ago. The Hunters said that the Cult's Prophet was depressed. The drug chip's symptoms included ecstasy, which accounted for the depression when it was stopped. Doppler was curious about the drug phenomenon in reploids, so he requested Vile's body to be studied. Instead, the Hunters handed him over alive.

Doppler worked with Vile for three weeks before he died. It was a sudden strange death; his power core had burst from overwork, but he had done nothing to account for the strain. And when Doppler went to study Vile's central core, he found it completely blank. Whatever had killed him had taken everything out of his brain with it.

Then another patient, Shield Sheldon, claimed to be 'channeling' the Reploid Goddess. Conversations with Sheldon were filled with strange religious overtones and outrageous claims. For instance, he once said that when the Eternal Clock began keeping time, the whole world would be torn apart, and then put back in perfect order. A month after that, Sheldon was found dead too, his power core in shreds from overwork and his central core completely blank. Ten more reploids fell victim to the same possession and death since, and Doppler didn't have a single rational explanation for it.

He rubbed his forehead. Perhaps the Goddess was a real being. He'd continually dismissed it as some strange fantasy, but with so many of his patients claiming to have met or worked with her… but why would a being with worshippers continually kill them?

He was about to give up and go to bed when a sudden feeling of panic hit him. He looked around frantically for some invader, but couldn't do anything as the invader was already digging into his central core. Then his security system was fried and a strong feeling of happiness and peace came over him. He wondered for a moment if this was how Bluebell felt all the time.

"Wow," he mumbled. "What is it? Some malfunction of my pleasure senses?"

"Is it really a malfunction if it makes you so happy?"

He squinted. It made no sense whatsoever, but a beautiful blond woman was sitting on his coffee table. She was wearing a tight fitted baby doll t-shirt, very short cut-off jeans, and red sneakers. He felt a strange desire to do whatever she asked of him, if only this feeling would stay. "Well," he said, "it's not normal."

She stroked his chin. "It's perfectly fine, Dr. Doppler."

He smiled at her. Of course it was. "Sure. Who are you?"

"I am a Goddess of reploids, that's all you need to know. But I need to know about Maverick X. You tell me what you know."

"I, uh, really can't do that."

"Tell me." Her voice was still sweet, but a touch of sour impatience was there.

"Of course, Goddess. But, are you making me feel like this?"

She nodded. "And I can teach you much in the way of happiness and pleasure. But you must do what I ask of you, slave."

By this point, the dreamy feeling overrode his logic. She was a Goddess and he would serve her, especially if he could make others happy. "Sure, whatever you say."

"Good. You're going to need some help."

Zero waited a few days before trying again. "So I've got this freelance bodyguard job, and I'd like to use that office I practice in sometimes. You know, cause I need somewhere to keep things safe and organized."

"Sure, I have no problem with it."

Zero paused. He'd expected more argument than just, okay, go ahead. "You don't mind me being a merc out of your shop?"

X shrugged. "It's as you say, you're not much in the mechanically skilled department. So you might as well earn your keep in the way you best can. I don't mind. Just so long as you don't work for those Hunters like some certain backstabbing brother of mine," he finished off in a mutter.

"I intend on being picky. I do have honor."

"Good. You can have that office; I'm not using it for anything. If you want the glass tinted, I'll see to it. Or whatever. Just tell me before you do anything like that."

"Okay. I'll look into it later. I've got a few jobs going on already."

"Nice going. What is it, if you can tell?"

"No specifics. Trust of the subject, you know."

"I know."

"But I was protecting a girl from a stalker. No one you know."

He smiled. "How do you know? I've done some stalking myself."

"Seriously, you're nothing like this guy. He's a total loser."

"That's good to hear. I actually have to be off myself."

"Doppler, huh?"

He scowled. "Yeah. I'm hoping to get out of this week's group session, so I can spend more time on my secret project."

"Secret project, huh?"

"It's a secret."

"Of course. Of what?"

X laughed. "I'm not telling. But you'll know in time. Probably not until I'm done. Good luck on your post, man."

He smiled. "And may time fly during the psycho doc's appointment."

They both laughed at that one.

"Why did the Goddess call us here?" Bit wondered aloud.

"Never mind," Byte said. "She called us, we must not question her. Especially when she's finally called us both up to assist her." He sighed. "I failed her before, I will not fail her again."

"But Dopplertown? I heard they killed Vile."

"Maverick X killed Vile. The Goddess must have her reasons."

"That she does," Doppler said, walking up behind them in the halls. "Bit, Byte."

"You're with the Cult now? Brilliant!"

The psychologist nodded. "Yes, yes, come in before one of my clueless staff comes by. And shut the door." He waited until that was done. "I've spent years and years trying to make reploids work properly, to clean them up and make them acceptable to society again. But now that the Goddess has come to me herself…" a dazed happy look crossed his face. "Now I know happiness is the true goal of all reploids. And in order to be happy, we must be rid of the humans. I should have seen it, should have noticed all those cases where a human messed up a reploid and the reploid suffered for years after the human was gone."

Byte nodded. "So like us, you know the Goddess is the ultimate being of wisdom and peace, even if we must make war on her behalf."

"Even if we must kill other reploids."

Bit and Byte looked at each other. "Kill… other… reploids?"

"You mean the Maverick Hunters?" Bit said, excited. "I totally agree. They need to go, as soon as possible. They can never understand."

"No," Doppler said. "Leave them for now. The Goddess intends on bringing them to happiness too. If they fight it, then they must die. The one who must die now is Maverick X."

"But he absolutely rocks on a keyboard," Byte said.

"If the Goddess says so," Bit scolded, "we must! She is wise. She knows everything. She is the only one who can truly judge others."

"He is coming today," Doppler warned. "I will take care of him myself. I have called you two in to help with my other plan."

"Other plan?"

Doppler opened his curtains, displaying a good view of the asylum he ran. "Yes, to bring happiness into the world in accordance to the will of the Goddess. She will go with you today. You will go to my patients and allow them the true touch. These reploids are miserable suffering creatures. Allowing them to know absolute happiness will be the best thing to ever happen to them. I have a great many warriors among my patients. They will help us. Combining what is left of the Cult and those that are here, we will create an army to fight off the human authorities. It will be weak at first. But once we infiltrate the Hunter base, there will be no force on Earth able to stop us."

"Certainly not," Byte said. "We have been in training so long, since the Goddess Zero has ordered us to."

"We will be with the Goddess herself all day?" Bit asked, voice trembling with awe.

Doppler held his hand out, acting as if he were holding something. "The True Goddess form is not what you expect. Zero was only another shell for her. I have been a shell for her; so has Vile. And now, one or both of you will be her shell."

"We will do whatever she says," Bit replied.

"I will not fail her this time," Byte repeated.

After several goof-off chapters, we get plot progression. Yay! Of a very bad sort though, at least for X.