The Voice in Your Heart
Page 36: When Life, You Feel, is in Vain

Guess who got dumped again.

Really, Epsilon?
I don't even know anymore.

Waking up alone under a tree after a drop of water hit my nose, I stared at the greenery in front of me. I just dashed past this area maybe a few hours ago. I don't remember how long I have been out.

The last time I was awake, I was dashing all the way to Lagrano laboratories. I don't remember when exactly did I reach the gate to see Tezuka and Gaudile running towards it. I think it took me about 15 minutes to find Epsilon and his new gang. I tried to talk them down. It might have taken me 15-30 minutes. And then…

And then those two smartasses ruined fucking everything. The fat green guy got himself an idea, and then they tossed some kind of bomb at all of us. And stupid, self-sacrificial Epsilon shoved me and took the blast. After that, there was chaos…and someone hit me so hard, I blacked out.

The next thing I knew, Epsilon was carrying me. I begged him not to leave me again, but I suppose that…that didn't work. I shouldn't have fallen asleep. But my head still hurt and I was still feeling so groggy. I couldn't help myself…or could I?

Nevertheless, arguing to myself in here wouldn't help anything…I wonder if those people are still in Lagrano? Or have they gone back to Giga City? Wondering too much is also pointless. They'd move farther away from me the longer I continue to think here, sitting my ass down.

Lagrano is closer from this place, so I should look there first…I also might find things that can be helpful. Maybe their diaries or something. Maybe. This would also help me, because if I recall correctly, not even KIDO Journal was allowed to approach the Lagrano laboratory directly…I'll get myself some info that no one else can have.

It didn't take long for me to arrive in Lagrano. My bag was lighter…I checked, and the gun that Cumin had given me was most likely taken by the survivors. What a bummer…it was a great gun, too…I hope Cumin would forgive me…but anyways, I'll deal with it later when I get back. I know I'll get an earful from Jasmine, Cumin and Saffron, but I'll deal with it later.

I didn't find anything in any of the volunteers' personal quarters. No diaries, not even clothes. Are they in armour 24/7 because their only purpose is to be experimented on? And why wouldn't Epsilon have a diary? Or could it be that he took it with him? I don't know.

I then zoomed off to the professors' rooms, hoping to find anything. My biggest question regarding this whole experiment is the reason why they'd risk life and funds for this experiment. What is the purpose of this whole bullshit? It better be worth it.
Opening the door, I found two desks with so many files. It looks like a goddamn treasure trove. I guess there's a good side to Cumin's gun being taken. I know I might not be able to fit everything in here that I need into my container program, so the extra space in my bag might just be good.

Looking through the file folders, I only found the progression and hypotheses. They're good and all, but I'm not a Force Metal scientist. They're not much of use to me; I should save my space and get something else. Besides, KIDO Journal's articles on the progression of the experiments are easier to understand for a non-academic like me.

And then, I looked into the drawers, and found invoices. Bills addressed to them, cheques from the government…nothing much of use to me…

Wait.

Why does this cheque bear the logo of the Maverick Hunters? And this is from a "Colonel Redips"?

"Hey, Axl! Guess what? The Hunters just got its first New-Gen colonel! His name's Colonel Redips, and he's posted in Far East HQ." X had beamed to me in a text message about four months ago.
"Well, I know that this might sound kind of small, but considering the bad rap of New-Gens these days, this is very surprising news, Axl." Zero added.
"Well, it certainly surprised me." I had replied. "I never expected such a thing."
"Speaking of which, Axl, did you leave the Hunters because of prejudice?" X asked, out of the blue. "I don't think I ever heard of anyone trying to mess with you, not that anyone will, but…did you?"
"Oh no, certainly not!" I assured, telling him the truth. "I guess…I'm just sick of the same old fighting, I suppose…"

So will I be dragged back to this fate? Am I going to have to return to being a hunter again to pursue this case? Will I have to kill Epsilon? Or will I join him and kill X and Zero? Or am I just thinking a bunch of nonsense to myself and that it'll never come to that?

I don't know. Either way, I need to find as many things related to Colonel Redips as possible. I might be able to get X and Zero to snoop in, since, well, they're still Maverick Hunters, after all…

As I dug into the older records of invoices, I found more and more cheques from Colonel Redips in the early stages of this experiment. And in the very first month, all of the cheques are from Colonel Redips—except the name was just "Redips" instead of "Colonel Redips". He must've been funding this experiment even before he was Colonel…it must be so important to him.
I just took the plastic envelope for that first month and stuffed all the other cheques from Colonel Redips into that envelope before transferring it into my container program.

Colonel Redips must want this experiment more than anybody else…but why? Hopefully, he sent a few orders to Tezuka and Gaudile, and I hope they brought it along with them. And if Colonel Redips funded this experiment, why was his name never on the news of KIDO Journal? And if he did, why did the Maverick Hunters never seem to make it a big issue? X and Zero don't seem to know much about it, if at all. If it was big gossip around HQ, they'd talk to me about it, just like Redips' promotion to Colonel…and Force Metal's been trending for like, five years.

Some secrets have been kept, and I don't know for what reason, but I don't think I should spill the information to the whole world until the time is right. This is just like when I discovered Phi Wily and his lab…it's for the best that I shut the fuck up about him. Maybe this time, it's going to be just like that.

For now, I'm just going to rummage through this place to find as many records on Redips as I can. There are secrets that are being kept, and someone, somewhere, is not going to want them to get out of this place. But I'm here, and I'm going to take those secrets with me.

AUTHOR'S NOTES: It's been literally 3 months since the last update...I can see that the document for TViYH chapter 35 is expiring today already. So...for people who don't read my other, bigger (for now) fanfic Paint My Goodbye Red/PMGR, I've gotten a job and I'm moving from Singapore to Indonesia because that's where my post is. I'm no longer a student with the free time of a student, but I'm a (transitioning) working adult with the free time of one. You can get more details in one of the "end chapters" of PMGR, after the very final epilogue.

From that "chapter", you can also see that I'll be mostly drawing since I hadn't drawn for some time, but it might change as I'm more finicky when it comes to drawing, compared to writing. Well, I was right. After 3 pictures, I'm starting to write again. But then again, my plan *is* to draw some artworks first before moving on to half-and-half, AKA drawing and writing at the same time in a crop rotation style kind of thing. I just didn't expect the half-and-half-ing to be this early, but eh.

But then again, I do have a lot of twists I want to get to in TViYH. And I hope that by now, you've known Megaman X Command Mission well enough...it's been 3 months since I left this to work on PMGR and my life. I won't be able to accommodate people who have not seen it, because I'm going to jump through the chapters, focusing on Axl/Delta and Epsilon, and I will only zoom in to X and Zero as necessary. So if you don't know much about MMXCM, you guarantee your own confusion.