Chapter 23 – The Huntress and the Clown
Finally left alone with his thoughts, X tried to rest and process the events of the day. His hopes grew, spurred by the unexpected discovery of new leads. However, it seemed that his life was about to get even more complicated.
"I suppose nobody can see where all paths lead…" he mused, lying in his bed. "But… to think that beings like those have been watching us all this time…"
The whole experience still seemed ludicrous, but the library card in his hand was definitely real and the new knowledge in his mind would likely serve him well in future tribulations.
"And then we have those two…" he thought, turning his mind to the armored boy capable of traveling between worlds and his keeper. Their intentions seemed benevolent enough, but the young woman's words had left him profoundly uncomfortable as he recognized familiar self-destructive patterns. Excess zeal, self-neglect, a compulsion to right wrongs.
"Purpose… without grounding. Without any…" he realized, recalling his own state after the loss of his body, even then still burning away his remaining energy until Phantom had finally caught up to him, spent and on the verge of giving up.
"Yes, just like I was..." X wondered. "Is this why that copy lost his mind when he tried to take my place? Was he slipping into this too?"
Ciel was definitely not the only one still dealing with lingering unresolved feelings regarding the infamous Copy X. There had been attempts at copying X or Zero before, but those had been mindless tools of Sigma, not mentally unstable children aspiring to notions of heroism.
"I really don't want to think we're just endlessly repeating patterns until the sun burns out…"
Then his thoughts turned back to the outsiders. Regardless of how things might play out, X did feel indebted to them, for their earlier kindness, for the unexpected insights into his growing power and for the way they seemed bent on moving heaven and earth to reunite him with his loved ones.
"I still think you overestimated me, Miss." he thought. "But I'll do what I can to help your friend find his way… just like others helped me find mine."
Too tired to keep ruminating further, he finally settled down. Not long after his head touched the pillow, his mind slipped into a fitful dream and he saw himself running through a seemingly endless maze, chasing the shadows of the one he so dearly missed and those he had never had the chance to know.
Then, the dream abruptly changed into what could only be described as a nightmare.
X saw himself in another of his old battlegrounds, one of the many cities that had been devastated during the Maverick and Elf Wars. But something was different.
He saw himself standing before Sigma as he had done countless times in the past and recognized the form worn by his old foe – the same towering, obsidian colored horned devil he had fought on the moon. As he examined himself however, X realized that instead of one of his old suits of armor, he was wearing the same variation of the Ultimate Armor that his copy had crafted for himself, with white limbs, winged boots, a black torso and the five pointy golden ornaments on the helmet resembling wings.
"You've gone too far this time, monster…" X heard himself proclaim, with his voice twisted by pure hatred as he stood there with clenched fists.
Sigma's towering form looked down at him and laughed, before unceremoniously dropping Zero and Alia's unconscious bodies on the pavement below. Axl came barreling out of nowhere, firing his twin pistols wildly before Sigma casually swatted him aside with a backhand strike, sending him tumbling into a nearby building.
"And what exactly are you going to do about it?" his old foe taunted, towering over Alia's unconscious form and raising a boot above her head. "You were never strong enough to do what needs to be done."
"Maybe not before." X heard himself hiss as his eyes turned an eerie shade of red like the copy and his lips curled into a deranged grin. "But I've had enough of you!"
The same cruel bladed metallic wings once worn by the copy in a display of vanity sprouted from X's back and he raised his right hand, clawing his fingers, then clenched his fist shut, quivering with rage.
For the first time in his life, awake or in a dream, X saw Sigma stumble back, his usual smug expression replaced by fear of what he had unleashed.
"Now…" X roared. "Disappear in this infinite light!"
X's voice resounded with fury and a great and terrible power surged within his chest and erupted from his Buster.
"Tetractys Grammaton!"
And everything vanished in a flash of white.
With a gasp, X woke up from the strange nightmare. Disturbed by the scene, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself down.
If he were to be brutally honest, X had grown to intensely hate Sigma over the years, but had always refused to ever stoop down to the same level, to turn his back on what made him what he was. This was part of the reason why he had constantly sealed away his suits of armor and only used limited portions of his expansive arsenal at a time. Afraid of growing too powerful, X had constantly placed restraints upon himself – right until the battles against Omega and the Dark Elf.
He knew that his mind was playing tricks on him, blending memories old and new alike with some of his oldest and deepest fears. He understood it on a logical level, but it still left him feeling profoundly uncomfortable.
"Just… no…" he muttered to himself, frustrated with his mind's nearly endless talent for self-torment.
It was a known fact that sleep deprivation in humans would induce psychosis and eventually death. With their potentially unlimited lifespans, Reploids could accumulate an even more massive amount of memories and regrets, which had the potential to inflict a more insidious form of mental degeneration. With body and mind being connected, X had resolved to take better care of his physical form after regaining a corporeal state. He hoped to never find himself adrift again, slowly fading away.
Shooing away the lingering fragments of the fading nightmare, he set his head back down on the pillow. Calming himself, he closed his eyes and forced himself back to sleep.
The next morning, somewhere in orbit...
"No." the woman in the dress said resolutely, crossing her arms as she stood in a room completely made of white metal, from the floors, walls and ceiling to the furniture.
"But…" the armored boy tried to protest.
"You are not going out there dressed like that." she reiterated, before stepping closer and pulling off his helmet.
"Are you trying to be my mother or something?" he grumbled.
"Don't be ridiculous." she retorted, before grabbing his shoulder. "Now come on. Stop being unreasonable."
Her touch seemed to disarm him and he stood there motionless as she set about examining his face. Though the dark circles around his eyes still lingered slightly, he was looking a little better.
"You need to take better care of yourself." she scolded. "Now come on. Take that silly thing off. You won't need it where we're going."
He hesitated, his expression betraying his anxiety.
"I..."
"If you won't do it for your own sake…" she pleaded, staring intently at him. "Will you do it for mine?"
That seemed to hit a nerve and she seized the momentum.
"Or do I have to dress you too?" she teased.
"I'm perfectly capable of dressing myself." he retorted, noticeably embarrassed.
"Prove it then." she said, taunting him with a slight grin. "I'll be waiting outside."
With that, she stepped out of the room and the door automatically emerged from its frame and closed behind her with a pneumatic hiss. Alone, the boy hesitantly looked at the metal wardrobe built into a nearby wall and then at his reflection in a standing mirror.
"I can't go on like this…"
A few tense minutes later, he finally stepped out of the room… wearing more normal clothing but with his face instead covered by a pair of goggles of a model not too different from those worn by some Resistance soldiers.
"One step at a time, I suppose…" she conceded, with a sigh.
"Now come on!" she added, slightly more upbeat before grabbing his arm. "There's more to this world than deserts, junkyards and ruins. It's full of beauty and I want you to see it while we're still here."
Meanwhile, on the surface…
As she walked across the streets of the settlement with a confident stride, clad in a brown jacket with an unfamiliar emblem, a rather tight-fitting blue undersuit and a pair of sturdy brown hiking boots and some sort of compact metallic pistol holstered to the belt around her waist, the statuesque woman, seemingly somewhere between her twenties and early thirties sighed, brushing a stray leaf from her long golden hair.
While the occasional uniformed guard did not bother her, she did draw a fair share of curious glances, both due to her striking figure and her choice of garments, but she did not care either way. Scanning her surroundings with trained blue eyes, she moved through the sidewalks with purpose, past curious onlookers and sidestepping the trucks and hoverbikes that were moving through the lazy morning traffic at a leisurely pace. It seemed that the settlement at large was still going through its morning routine, and she took the time to take in the sights.
"So small…" she thought with contemplative appreciation. "So quiet..."
Despite the grave nature of her mission and the monumental amount of work awaiting, she smiled, feeling the crunch of snow under her boots and hearing the sounds of simple living. A man shoveling snow from the front of his door. Two women gossiping about daily events. Children playing.
She stopped a few blocks later, upon the sight of two figures standing outside a modest metal shack – a redhead woman dressed in a thick orange coat with matching trousers and boots and a man, clad in a blue tunic. As she looked at the man's face, she suppressed a shudder, her gaze lingering on the soft face and the expressive blue eyes for a few moments before abruptly looking away.
"So…" Neige said, her tone full of hope and anticipation. "The radio station is almost ready. You know what that means, right?"
"I did promise." X acknowledged, though his expression was a little guarded.
"I still can't get over how shy you can be sometimes." Neige noted with a smile. "There's definitely more they left out of the legend."
"I am what I am." X said with a shrug.
"I was wrong about you." Neige admitted, still smiling.
"What do you mean?" he asked, quirking an eyebrow.
"You were right all along and the idiots who tried to turn us all against each other again were wrong. It doesn't make a difference what we're made of, only the kind of people we are."
"Gonna start falling for my buddy now?" Axl teased with a grin, coming out of nowhere.
"Ah!" Neige cried out with a start, before composing herself and glaring at Axl.
"How does he keep doing that?" she hissed in annoyance.
"It's a secret to everyone!" Axl retorted, enjoying his little bit of mischief.
"He can change his appearance." X explained. "You wouldn't believe how many times he managed to sneak into places back in the day by just blending in like that."
"It definitely looks like he's learned how to stretch that ability since then." Neige noted.
She then sighed and glanced back at X.
"Well then. I was thinking about doing something special after all the work I put into this, so…"
"I want to inaugurate my new radio station…" Neige announced, raising a finger before dramatically pointing at X. "With your interview. Your story. What made you who you are and why you do the things you do. What do you say?"
"So…" X said, still a little hesitant about public speaking even though he wouldn't have an audience staring at him. "Are you preparing a script or something or…?"
"Just be yourself." Neige said. "That's all I need. That's all everyone needs."
"Fair enough." X said with a nod. "But on another note… how are you holding up?"
"Work is going well." Neige said, attempting to deflect the question.
"That's not what I'm asking about." X said.
"You noticed, didn't you?" Neige muttered, her expression momentarily souring.
"We all carry our wounds." X said. "Ragnarok left its mark on the world and on us all. You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but..."
"That's so like you." Neige noted with open admiration, before treating him to an earnest, warm smile. "I don't know how you've gone all those centuries without losing your mind or giving up on people, but I'm glad you didn't."
Sensing the shift in her mood, Axl quietly backed away, allowing the two to continue their conversation in peace.
She hesitated for a moment, but then finally let it out.
"I still don't understand how that idiot Craft could have done something so horrible…" she lamented, her face a mixture of anger and regret. "I honestly don't know if I can forgive him for that."
"What he did was unconscionable." X said with a heavy frown. "We still don't know how many people died in the blast."
"And to think I…" Neige muttered indignantly, before abruptly stopping herself.
"I won't pry, Neige." X said earnestly. "But you know you can talk to me."
"I could never understand why he was playing along with Weil's plan, even if we now know what his real goal was." Neige said, clenching her fists. "Right until the end I wondered… no, I hoped there was more to Craft than that. That he was better than what he turned out to be."
"You cared for him, didn't you?" X deduced, having heard her express similar frustration and disappointment before.
"He did save my skin once." Neige said. "But why? I'm just a human… and if he was going to do what he did anyway… why?"
"Maybe we'll never know." X mused. "I'm just glad we were able to get some people out in time."
"I must confess I didn't understand it at first." Neige said. "The Maverick Wars, the Elf Wars. It all felt like conflicts between Reploids, with humans caught in the middle. When I was a little younger and more hot-headed, I resented Reploids for the state of the world… but now…"
"Now I understand." she said with conviction. "We're all in this together and we need to make sure we don't have some idiots repeating the same mistakes in ten or twenty or hundred years."
"I still wonder what kind of world we'll be leaving behind." X mused.
"A better one." Neige said. "I hope. As a reporter, it's my job… no, my duty... to uncover and spread the truth, and Ciel's library project is going to play a big part in this. People are learning… and this time we'll make sure they don't forget the lesson."
She paused for a moment and looked intently at him.
"Well…" Neige said, looking a little better after venting. "Thanks for putting up with my ramblings, X. I'll… be in touch."
With that, she left, her walk slightly lighter after getting that particular weight off her chest.
Once she was out of sight, Axl's stance shifted completely, suddenly snapping to attention and staring in a very specific direction.
"So…" Axl said, looking directly at the woman still watching them. "I know he's handsome and all, but are you gonna introduce yourself or are you just gonna keep stalking my buddy all day?"
"You noticed, did you?" the woman retorted, completely unfazed.
"Lady, I'd have to be blind not to notice someone like you." Axl said in a flirtatious tone. "You don't exactly blend in, and you're staring at him like you've seen a ghost."
"They warned me about you." the woman said, looking unimpressed. "Your flirting and your antics won't cut it with me."
"Don't mind Axl." X said with an amused smile. "He tries to push everyone's buttons. But is something wrong, Miss?"
"It's a long story..." the woman said, noticeably hesitant to look directly at his face. "Is there a place we can speak a little more privately?"
"Wow X!" Axl teased. "Already trying to follow you home?"
"Is he always like this?" the woman asked, still unimpressed.
"You should be worried when he gets serious, Miss." X said, already more than accustomed to his friend's antics. "But right this way."
X turned around, opened the door to the shack and held it open for her.
Once again, Axl backed away to give them some space, but as he did so, his usual mischievous grin faltered and he quietly edged out of sight. Focused on his new visitor, X did not notice Axl disappearing around the corner with a pained expression, all trace of humor gone from his face.
"Can't even be a proper troll anymore…" Axl silently lamented, feeling something cracking deep inside.
"A gentleman, I see." the woman noted with an amused smirk. "Cute, but I'm not made of glass."
"OK…" X muttered, a little taken aback.
"Don't get me wrong." she added with a slight smile. "In my line of work it's rare to meet someone with actual manners."
Inside she found what looked like a typical bachelor's residence, with a main division where two beds were laid out against the walls on opposite ends, each with a small nightstand nearby. There was a small kitchenette area in the back – noticeably unused since even though Reploids could consume human food they hardly ever did so at their own homes – and a small walled off bathroom and dressing area in the far left corner of the structure.
The floor, also made of metal, was covered by a few rugs here and there, but the decoration in general was simple and rather spartan. At the foot of each bed was a metal footlocker and on each side of the shack was a pair of storage shelves and a small wardrobe. In the center of the living space was a wide metal table where a map was laid out, covered with notes and stickers, filled with annotations and with dozens if not hundreds of areas circled, some of which were also crossed out. Next to the map was a small portable computer and a stack of what the woman deduced to be data storage devices.
"You have to be one of the tidiest bachelors I've ever seen." the woman noted with amusement.
"I don't need much." X said with a shrug. "But I do like keeping the place presentable for visitors."
With that, he pulled up a chair and offered it to her.
"Can I get you anything?" he asked, glancing at medium-sized fridge in the kitchenette area.
"Maybe later." the woman said, still not looking directly at his face for some reason.
"Are you OK?" he asked.
"Oh, don't get the wrong idea." the woman said, sitting on the chair while X pulled up another one for himself. "It's just that… you remind me a lot of someone I used to know."
Once X finished sitting down, she finally broke through her hesitation and fixated her gaze on him.
"I'm not going to beat around the bush." she said, leaning back on the chair. "As you've probably guessed by now…"
"You're not exactly from around here?" X deduced. "Axl's ogling aside, you do stand out, Miss…"
"Aran." she introduced herself. "Samus Aran. A mutual acquaintance asked for my help with a… missing persons case, shall we say?"
"I was told someone was coming." X noted. "I didn't know who to expect though. It looks like we both have some very unusual acquaintances."
"We definitely do." Samus said. "But I would have come sooner if I'd known the situation."
"What do you mean?" X asked.
"The whole time relativity thing." she explained. "It has this way of sneaking up on you. Another reason why I hate inter-dimensional travel. But I had to come."
Feeling that there was more to the story, X let her continue.
"Unlike those two, I don't care for theatrics or the whole mysterious stranger crap." she said, crossing her arms. "I knew your brothers and your sister once upon a time… and now that I know they've been missing for so long, I'm not just going to sit around with my hands in my pockets."
"You what…?"
"Yes." she confirmed with a nod. "But I don't expect you to take just my word for it."
She reached into her jacket and produced what looked to X like a sophisticated tablet with a sturdy yellow casing and an unusual design style. As the screen lit up, she brought up a collection of pictures… and X was glad to already be seated as he started feeling a little weak in the legs.
Her words and the pictures lit a fire in X's chest and a million questions buzzed through his mind.
"Could you… tell me about them?" he hesitantly asked.
Her face lit up with a soft smile.
"It's a good thing we're already seated." she said. "This is going to take a while…"
Many hours later…
"And so Rock walked up to him and shouted…" Samus recounted, openly grinning. "'It's not my Metal Blade you should be scared of!' And then Roll clobbered him with the broom so hard the handle snapped."
"Wow…" X muttered, alternating between glancing at the pictures on the tablet, which he was holding with both hands as if made of glass and watching her expression as she continued to reminisce.
"That bastard Ridley kept coming back over and over and again for years…" Samus recalled. "It almost looked like he was immortal or something. But I'll never forget the sight of him getting the crap kicked out of him by this cute little robot girl."
"That must have been quite the sight." X said with a laugh. "But so this all started with that… thing? The… Master Hand, was it?"
"Right." Samus confirmed with a nod. "That was when I met Ness for the first time too."
"What exactly can you tell me about him?"
"Another ray of sunshine, you could say. He also has some kind of weird psychic powers. Don't ask me why, but they've always made me feel a bit nervous. Maybe it's just the fact that he still has the face of a little kid too."
"But what about this Master Hand you mentioned?"
She raised a clenched fist and grinned in amusement, her strikingly beautiful face momentarily resembling that of a predator.
"That thing snatched us from various places and dragged us into a weird pocket dimension. It thought it could make us fight each other for its amusement… and it got a walloping like you wouldn't believe."
"And that was when you met them?"
"Yeah." she confirmed with a nod. "Both of them looked like little kids, but even back then you could tell they'd been through much. I tried to keep them in one piece, but they gave as good as they got… and I'm not ashamed to say they saved my backside a few times like I did theirs."
"What about Blues?" X asked.
"I got to meet him some time later." Samus recalled. "Blues was always a bit more stand-offish. He liked doing his own thing and would show up whenever he felt like it. Honestly, he should have gone into acting. Sometimes he would cook up some ridiculous disguise and pick fights with Rock out of nowhere."
"Whatever for?" X asked, more than a little surprised.
"Testing him, I suppose." Samus said with a shrug. "Mind you, they were pretty stupid disguises. I still can't tell if Rock was honestly fooled or was just playing along."
"Anyway…" Samus added, her expression turning serious once again. "I'm here because I have a certain set of skills that could help make some sense of this… and if they're still out there somewhere, I want to help bring them home."
"Just what exactly did you do before coming here?" X asked.
"Some would call it bounty hunting." Samus said with a shrug. "But it was never that simple. A better description might be monster exterminator, considering all the weird bullshit I had to deal with."
"Do I even want to know?" X asked.
"Probably not too different from some of the things you've done." she said. "I've heard of your reputation before coming here."
"Let's just say I may have become a little too good at my job." she added with a mixture of pride and frustration. "I became the person on call to deal with high tier ridiculous crap of the world threatening variety. Usually created or unleashed by government stupidity."
Then she scoffed.
"After the last few stunts they pulled, they can just clean up their own mess for a change."
As the hours went on, both of them completely lost track of time and eventually the afternoon rolled in and out.
Meanwhile, at Cerveau's workshop…
"Sorry it took so long." Ciel said as she finished some last minute adjustments on a brand new Reploid body, painstakingly recreating the original.
"I am… just glad to have had this opportunity at all." Phantom said, looking genuinely touched.
"You've earned it." she retorted. "But if you really want to thank me, there's one very simple thing you can do."
"Which is?"
"Like X said when the four of you came to visit him for the first time." Ciel said with a determined expression. "Find happiness. Here or elsewhere. I'd prefer if you would join us, but whatever you do, I'll respect your decision. Just… find some way to get on with your lives."
"I know it will probably feel awkward to hear me say this, considering I look older than you…" Phantom said, his composure cracking once again. "But I cannot begin to express my gratitude for this… and for bringing me into existence in the first place."
Outside, the other three Guardians awaited in silence until he emerged.
"Looking good, Phantom." Leviathan said with a smile as she saw him step through the door.
"Just try not to blow yourself up again." Fefnir scoffed. "Ciel probably has better things to do than putting your ass back together."
"I will take my chances…" Phantom retorted, completely deadpan. "If it means not having to listen to your nonsense."
"Now now…" Ciel said with a smile as she followed behind Phantom. "Be nice."
"Don't pay them too much attention." Harpuia retorted, rolling his eyes. "They're always like this."
"You're one to talk." Fefnir retorted with a scoff, struggling to conceal the grin at the sight of his brother restored to full strength.
"On another note…" Leviathan added. "Is that offer still on the table?"
"Do you mean the house or the Resistance membership?" Ciel asked. "Because both are."
"The time isn't right for us to move in… not yet." Phantom mused, his eyes showing just a little more emotion than usual as he became re-accustomed to his full sensory range. "But we could definitely use the place while we are visiting."
"Visiting?" Ciel asked. "Does this mean you're going to make it a regular thing?"
"Your guys have guts, I'll give them that." Fefnir added. "But we're whipping up a little training regimen that should make them a little more capable."
"Oh?" Ciel asked.
"Our sister decided to take X's words to heart…" Harpuia noted. "And try to move forward by helping someone else do the same. I guess you could say her enthusiasm is contagious."
"Let's just say that we have… a very motivated volunteer." Leviathan said with an enigmatic smile.
"What is she up to?" Ciel wondered, noticing the glimmer of excitement in her eyes, which had definitely not been there in a long time.
"It doesn't always have to be about fighting, you know." Ciel pointed out. "Phantom has already helped out a lot on the technical side of things."
"There you are!" Alouette chimed in, coming up from behind the Guardians with Croire perched on her shoulder.
"Are you not supposed to be at school right now?" Phantom asked.
"Maybe, but I had to see this." Alouette replied.
She then walked up to Phantom and cast him an appraising look. Ciel had definitely done a great job and the new body was virtual indistinguishable from the original.
"So, all good?" Alouette asked.
"Better than new." Phantom said appreciatively, wiggling his fingers.
"Good." Alouette said, before openly smiling. "Maybe now you can stop skulking around and come visit us more often."
A few more hours later, with the setting sun peeking over the horizon...
"Thanks for coming everyone." X said as he stood in front of Ciel's house alongside a tall, strikingly beautiful woman the others had never seen before.
She was wearing a strange yellow suit of power armor with a prominent green cannon of some sort mounted on the right arm and under her left arm she was holding a red helmet with a green visor. Her long, smooth golden hair was tied in a ponytail behind her head, likely to make it easier to put on and remove the helmet, while her deep blue eyes took in the faces of everyone present.
"What's this about?" Cial asked, a little taken aback by the woman's choice of garments.
"It's… a long story." X explained.
"I take it that it has something to do with all the strange things that have been happening around here lately." Cial said.
"Well…" X continued. "It looks like there are more people out there who knew my siblings. People from… out there."
Ciel eyed the woman with curiosity, silently wondering what she had to do with it.
"Well, there's no easy way to say this…" Samus said, stepping forward uttering the next words as if they were perfectly normal. "My name is Samus Aran, and I'm a bounty hunter… or maybe intergalactic pest control specialist would be more accurate."
"A bounty hunter?" Ciel asked a little nervously.
"Relax." Samus said with a smile, amused at her reaction. "I'm not here to start anything. It's a long story, but I guess you could call me a friend of the family."
"How is that possible?" Ciel asked. "Wait… The others did mention something about time flowing differently between…"
Zero watched the exchange from a distance, quietly sizing up the armored woman. In her stride and posture he recognized the confidence of an experienced warrior, possibly a former soldier. Her claims, while a bit outlandish, were far from the most absurd things he had seen or heard in recent times.
"Yeah…" Samus said with a nod. "One of the reasons why I hate inter-dimensional travel. But after hearing what happened I wasn't going to just forget about my friends."
"How do you know them exactly?" Ciel asked.
"I'm not sure if it makes sense to be speaking of time scales when this kind of crap is involved…" Samus explained. "But this all happened many years ago."
"She looks capable and honest enough…" Zero mused. "But I'm not sure how to feel about all these people from other worlds popping up whenever they feel like it."
"Long story short, I'm not happy to know they're lost out there somewhere." Samus summed up. "I'm here to do something about it."
The woman's confident poise and the figure she cut standing before them definitely struck a chord with Ciel.
"She's so cool…"
Glancing at Cial, she could tell that while her outward reaction was more subdued, similar thoughts were going through her mind.
"So wait…" Zero chimed in. "Does that mean you're another of those…?"
"No." Samus said, shaking her head. "I'm just me, with the gifts my adoptive family gave me and the skills I picked up along the way. Honestly, I'd rate pretty low on the weirdness scale compared to some of the others out there."
"That reminds me…" X remarked. "I forgot to ask this earlier, but did Rock ever show the same abilities?"
"Not that I know of." Samus said, a soft smile gradually blooming. "But that kid was a walking ray of sunshine. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to have them too."
The way her tone and expression changed at the mention of Rock did not escape the others.
"So…" Zero said, a little taken aback. "You and X's brother…?"
"Like that never gets old." Samus grumbled, glaring at him. "Should I assume the same thing about you and these girls here, seeing how you're hovering around them like a bodyguard?"
"I-It's not like that…" Ciel protested. "Yet."
Realizing she'd struck a nerve, Samus looked at the petite scientist with genuine surprise.
"Huh… Really? Well, it's none of my business. I just don't like people assuming things."
"But no." she clarified. "Rock may be a big damn hero but he still looked, sounded and acted like a kid the last I saw him. If anything, he was more like the little brother I never had."
"I assume you have some proof?" Zero asked.
"As a matter of fact, I do." Samus retorted, before glancing at X.
X in turn nodded and showed them the tablet in his hand and the pictures contained inside.
The others were surprised to see his lost siblings standing next to her in various situations, many of them surprisingly normal. From eating ice cream together in what looked like the streets of old Megalopolis to Rock and Samus standing in full armor next to a statue commemorating the former's heroics, to Rock and Roll striking dramatic poses while Samus played along and Blues stood in the background with an amused smirk. Memories of an age long gone.
"She definitely reminds me of Alouette." Ciel noted with a fond smile, staring at a preserved moment of Roll's life. "Just as adorable."
"I can see why." Cial said, glancing at her sister. "But something about her reminds me of you, too."
"It's not the first time I've heard that." Ciel admitted, leaning closer to take a better look.
"No doubt about it." Zero conceded, before seeing one unusual picture of Roll. "Hey, is that…?"
In that particular scene, Roll was clad in some sort of pink suit of armor, with a design clearly inspired by the ones worn by Rock and Samus.
"Ah yes." Samus recalled. "I remember this one. She fretted so much about her brothers being out there fighting all the time while she stayed at home that we ended up putting this together for her… and she definitely put it to good use."
"It's still weird to think how they're older but look so much younger than me." X mused.
"Like a big sister to them, huh?" Zero asked, glancing at Samus, still taken aback by the contrast between her confident poise and the sudden softness in her tone and expression.
"Weird as it may sound, the times I spent with those three were some of the best of my life." she reminisced with a glimmer of sadness in her eyes. "Both my biological and adoptive families were wiped out. Once I was old enough, I'd spend months at a time on dangerous missions I could very well not return from and almost died a bunch of times. That kind of life doesn't leave much room for other things."
"I don't know if I could do that…" Ciel mused, surprised by the contrast between the imposing armor and the gentle expression of the woman wearing it. "That takes a kind of strength I'm not sure I want to have."
"It's not the kind of life I'd recommend to most people." Samus admitted. "But I like to believe I left my mark. Made things just a little better."
"But why do you think you'll have better luck than X after all this time?" Zero wondered. "No offense, but if those people went that far out of the way to get you..."
"Capturing or taking down targets were not the only parts of my jobs." Samus clarified. "Most of the time I ended up fighting all kinds of dangerous creatures in space stations and huge buried ruins with their own set of hazards. If they are still around, then I'd bet good money that they ended up trapped somewhere, possibly after getting damaged and shutting down for repairs."
"That's pretty much the conclusion we reached too." Zero said.
"Especially since your world has so many ruins you almost can't go for a walk without tripping on one." Samus pointed out.
"You should have been here for the colony drop then." Zero reminisced, rolling his eyes. "Huge damn mess."
"I still don't know how this one world could have gone through so much…" Samus noted, looking genuinely baffled. "And survived."
"We're hard to get rid of." Zero remarked, allowing himself a mild boast. "We just won't stay down."
X suddenly glanced around, as if expecting something to happen.
"Something wrong?" Zero asked.
"Where's Axl?" X wondered. "I haven't seen him since this morning and he's not answering calls."
"Yeah…" Zero realized. "He's not the type to miss out on this, especially when someone like the lady over here is involved."
"I have a bad feeling about this…" X said, before turning to the twins.
"I'm sure you have you fair share of questions for our new guest." he said, noticing the glimmer in their eyes. "I'm going to check up on Axl and I'll be back later."
Instead of getting his own home, Axl had kept his quarters at the local Resistance barracks. While not a formal military organization, everyone involved knew the importance of keeping a certain level of readiness in case of unexpected threats and several members had opted to dedicate themselves to that role on a full time basis.
X made his way through the streets, eventually reaching the large square metal building, easily one of the tallest in the burgeoning settlement with its four floors. The female soldier sitting at the front desk stood at attention as he walked by and he gave her a polite nod. With practiced ease, he then headed to the ground floor living area where Axl and other full time soldiers had their individual quarters.
As he stood in front of the metal door, X paused. He heard a strange, indistinct sound coming from the inside and instinctively tensed up. Something definitely felt wrong.
"Axl?" he called out, knocking on the door.
There was no response.
"Axl?" he called again. There was no response, and the strange sound from inside continued.
With growing unease, he simply opened the door… only to find his old friend sitting on the floor in a corner of the room, clutching one of the books X had only recently retrieved from Hunter HQ while a few others were scattered at his feet.
"Axl?" X called out again, disturbed by the look on his face as he walked closer. "What's the matter?"
Axl barely lifted his gaze to look at him. He seemed to be in terrible pain, with tears streaming down his face.
"What's going on Axl?" X asked, kneeling next to him.
"Ah buddy…" Axl said, his voice cracking. "Maybe you should have left these where you found them…"
"What's wrong?" X insisted, feeling a sting in his chest at the sight.
"This stuff…" Axl lamented. "It reminds me of things I don't wanna remember…"
As he saw the cover of the softcover book, X understood. One of the volumes he had so recently teased Axl about. A gift from someone long gone.
"You mean…"
"Yeah buddy…" Axl whimpered.
"It's never easy." X said with a frown, placing a hand on his friend's shoulder. "I was afraid Zero would never be himself again after Iris. But he-"
"Funny that you'd mention Iris…" Axl said weakly, averting his gaze. "I guess I never got around to telling you…"
"Telling me what?"
"What happened back then, right after you sealed the Dark Elf." Axl clarified.
"Does this have something to do with why you were so sure Palette wasn't coming back?" X asked, recalling their earlier conversation.
Axl nodded.
"What do you mean?" X asked.
"My old guns didn't just break buddy…" Axl said, looking and sounding like he was in pure anguish. "I broke them… after what I had to do with them…"
"Axl?"
"Zero was under." Axl recalled. "He wasn't gonna wake up anytime soon. Weil still managed to snatch his old infected body and went on his merry shithead rampage until we put a stop to that and shot Omega into orbit tied like a salami."
"I couldn't have done it without you." X recalled. "But what does this-"
"And then you gave up your body to seal the Elf away." Axl continued. "We lost… a whole damn lot of people, humans and Reploids, but we won. But… you remember, don't you?"
"The Dark Elf's madness…" X said with a haunted look.
"Yeah buddy…" Axl said, with tears pouring down. "You know what that shit did to Reploid cores when she was at full power."
The words sent a chill down X's spine as he recalled the masses of maddened Reploids that had spread chaos throughout the world at the time, clawing at everything in sight in a primal frenzy.
"You mean…" X realized with growing horror.
"I could see it in their eyes, buddy…" Axl whimpered, clutching his chest. "The look when the madness took over… and then they were gone. Even with the Dark Elf put under, there was no coming back from that…"
With a sinking feeling in his chest, X watched as Axl began openly sobbing.
"I loved her, man. I loved her so I had to be the one to do it. Layer too and a bunch of others. That shit fried their cores… and just like that they were gone. Mindless."
It was X's turn to feel the tears pouring down.
"Axl…" he muttered, placing both hands on his old friend's shoulders.
"If I had that funky power of yours, maybe I could have done something…" Axl lamented. "But they were gone. No better than those Reploid zombies you still find in old junkyards out there. So I did the only thing I could… and I almost turned my guns on myself when I was done."
"What a goddamn hero I turned out to be, huh?" Axl added between sobs. "I couldn't even… keep them company for the trip."
"After that, I smashed my guns to pieces." Axl continued, his face completely soaked. "Threw the pieces into some random swamp. Tried to hide and pretend I was a nobody… And just when I was starting to think that maybe things were gonna be OK… shit hit the fan again. First Ciel's old school getting hit, then that asshole copy of yours… and then everything else..."
It made too much sense. The clown antics, the evasiveness, the reluctance to meet his old friends again. At a loss for words, X simply let him vent everything.
"I couldn't even hold a gun anymore." Axl said, his hands trembling. "That's why I started using my abilities as a spy instead. Figured at least I wouldn't be… completely useless."
"Why didn't you tell us?" X asked, wiping his face with the back of his hand, looking like he was on the verge of losing what little composure he had left.
"You guys were finally on the mend." Axl whimpered, curling up with his arms wrapped over his knees. "You were finally getting over all the shit that happened to you. I thought I was too. And then you found this stuff… and it all came rushing back."
"It was a gift from her." Axl said as he held up the book and stared wistfully at the young couple on the cover. "She had me figured out from the start. Didn't let my antics drive her off, oh no. Even joined in on my pranks. The sound of her laughter was… oh man..."
X let out a deep sigh and did the only thing he could, placing a hand on his old friend's shoulder.
"It wasn't your fault…" he said, with his own voice cracking.
"So the truth comes out…" Zero remarked with a somber expression as he stepped inside. "I thought there was another reason for all that clowning around."
"Yeah…" Axl whimpered. "Too bad I can't just lose my memories like you, huh buddy? Maybe wake up in a few hundred years and make a fresh start?"
"Don't be ridiculous." Zero chided, stepping closer with a raised hand.
Axl just sat there in a slump, unsure what Zero was going to do… until Zero lightly bonked him on the head with his knuckles like he and Ciel had taken to doing when he started spouting too much of his trademark silliness.
"I was forced to do the same with Iris, remember?" Zero pointed out, crouching down to look at Axl eye to eye. "You were one of the people constantly pestering me to forgive myself, so how about you practice what you preach?"
X knew that for a long time Zero had frequently taken the tough love approach when dealing with most people, being reluctant to openly show his softer side until fairly recently – especially after the loss of Iris. However, even Zero had a heart like everyone else, and soon all three had their faces stained by tears.
"I know it hurts…" Zero said, giving Axl a sympathetic look. "But you're not gonna heal by bottling it up and trying to force yourself to laugh. You're not alone anymore, dumbass."
"You're right…" Axl admitted. "I guess I just… thought I could deal with it."
"Quiet you." Zero said, his tone considerably softer than the previous times he had uttered those words. "You were there when both of us were in the pits. When anyone else was feeling like shit and needed someone to prop them up. It's our turn."
"You guys…" Axl whimpered, managing to show the faintest hint of a smile as he looked up at them.
Some time later, after Axl had finally settled down in his bed, the door opened again and Cial stepped inside with Alouette in tow.
"What's wrong with him?" Alouette asked, casting a worried glance at Axl as he lay there in sleep mode.
"He's had… a lot of crap to get out of his system." Zero said with a heavy frown. "Best to let him rest for a while."
"I had the feeling something was wrong." Cial noted, also frowning as she stepped closer. "It's a good thing that sister of mine is too busy showing our new visitor around."
"I wouldn't want her to see this…" she thought, spotting the tear stains on the pillow and once again feeling as if she had been punched in the stomach, just like during X's emotional outpouring after receiving his new body.
"You may be a fool, but it definitely looks like there is more to you than I thought." she mused, watching his sleeping face.
"You even have some endearing qualities, when you are not running your mouth and making a nuisance of yourself." she silently admitted.
She then glanced at X and Zero.
"I know better than to pry in other people's affairs. Just… do what you think is best and let me know if he needs anything."
"I… uh…" Zero muttered, caught by surprise.
"Do not get the wrong idea." Cial cut him off, raising a finger. "It just bothers me to see him in such a pitiable state."
The look on her face, however, told a different story from her detached tone.
