Chapter 16 – vs Mechon

The work on Fiora's Reploid body ended up going into the next night as well, during which time Sixer found himself dozing off in an unused part of the lab while Maria and Joshua sang lyrics at each other from old songs that didn't set his tails tapping in a clear rhythm. Some of them sounded like lyrics to television themes, but Sixer wasn't about to ask.

He ended up waking up some hours later to the sound of Fiora stumbling around the lab while Maria and Joshua helped her find her balance.

"It looks like your experience in your previous state is making it easier to adjust," Joshua commented as Fiora took a few steps with her arms up for balance. Her orange and yellow armor almost made Sixer do a double-take, but then he saw Maria sitting on a chair near his own. "You're picking up on this much more quickly than your brother."

"I'm glad. It means that I can spend more time helping people and less time inside." Fiora lowered her arms and nodded to Joshua. "Thank you for doing this."

"It's the least we could do, after everything you had been through."

Fiora nodded, then looked over at where Shulk was half-sprawled across one of the consoles in sleep. "Oh, Shulk…" She laughed quietly. "You two should be more careful with him. He's not able to go for too long without sleep."

"He didn't do as much this time around," Maria pointed out. "Last time, he did as much as he possibly could. This time I kicked him off after I'd managed to recover from making that crystal shard for your core."

One of Fiora's hands drifted to her chest. "I'm definitely grateful for that. But…how did you make it? It doesn't look like anything I've seen before."

"Probably because it's a piece of my core." Maria pushed herself to her feet, then leaned against the chair she'd been sitting in. "Took a chunk of my energy to make it, but it should be self-sustaining for you now. Mine certainly is."

"And yours probably needs you to go sleep for a while," Joshua replied. "If you want to be able to assist us against Dickson, you are going to need that time."

Maria nodded, then yawned. "Yeah; this is something I don't want to sit out. And I still have to get Dunban that thing I made him."

"Thing?" Fiora frowned.

"Since he opted to not have a built-in weapon, as you did, Maria and I put together a couple weapons that the two of you could make use of." Joshua walked over to another table and picked up a pair of familiar-looking weapons. "In your case, all I did was upgrade your current set of weapons so that they were more compatible with how you are currently. For Dunban…Maria put something a little different together."

"I hope he likes it," Maria commented. "I know he's probably got other swords he can use, but nothing wrong with something a little different, ya know?"

Fiora nodded. "You're going to have to ask him. After you've slept, at least."

"Yeah." Maria yawned. "I'mma do that."

Sixer, who had been watching the conversation, spoke up quietly. "Maria, I could…help you get back to your room? If you have one?"

"Huh?" Maria blinked, looking a bit tired. "Oh, yeah, I don't have one of those yet."

"I think it's close to where we arranged for Sixer's quarters," Fiona commented. "I could show the way."

"That'd be great."

Sixer moved closer to Maria, and she leaned against him for support. He wrapped an arm around her back and under one arm, while she wrapped her other arm around his middle, giving her a better grip.

"Thanks, Sixer." Maria chuckled. "Man, this is the second time I've leaned against you like this. At least this time it's under better circumstances."

Sixer's expression shifted.

"What do you mean?" Joshua frowned as they moved out of the lab.

"Ah—" Sixer looked between Joshua's and Fiora's confused looks, then back at Maria as they started moving down the hall. "How much are we…?"

"Not everything." Maria yawned again. "Puppeteer put a bounty on my head because the Dark Arms asked him to. They caught me fighting one of his henchies with a holy water super soaker, then thought it would be fun to wear me down. Lucky for me, Sixer and the others came up with a distraction and got Puppeteer and the two Dark Arms out of the room I was in. Gave Sixer enough time to get me loose and me to call for help before I went into stasis for about three days."

"Were you—" Fiora sucked in a breath. "You were tortured by the demon and didn't give in?"

"Nope."

"You didn't consider making a deal with him, I hope," Joshua added.

Maria snorted. "Pit no, I'm not that stupid. Besides, if he had gotten through to me, he would've gotten Sixer again, and no way was I gonna let that happen."

Sixer felt Maria's arm squeeze him, then relax. He blinked at the gesture and looked down at her with slightly-widened eyes.

Maria gave him a tired smile back. "I said I wasn't gonna let him get you, and that's exactly what happened. Puppeteer didn't know what hit him."

"And apparently, neither do you," Joshua replied. "I doubt you could expend that much energy." He frowned.

Sixer's ears flicked back at the comment. He noticed Maria's expression became grim.

"There are worse things than what you know about, Joshua," Maria said.

"If you're talking about the technology the Dark Arms has, I've seen it."

Maria stiffened. Sixer inhaled sharply.

"Right before you were taken, I traveled to a dimension they were intent on taking," Joshua explained. "They were using a version of their technology that they forcefully fused to the spine of their chosen victim."

"Spine fused?" Maria's brow furrowed as they reached a doorway in a hall Sixer found familiar. "That was probably their prototype, then…the version I'm familiar with is more like Brainiac's hacking tech."

"I see. Then they likely advanced their technology between my travel, and the point where they arrived in our dimension."

Maria nodded grimly as the door opened, revealing a small room similar to Sixer's own temporary quarters. "Yeah. MindTech isn't fun to deal with."

"Considering I saw Spike deal with it, I can guess," Joshua replied. "Didn't the Protocol protect you from it?"

Maria pulled to a stop so quickly it almost caused Sixer to trip over his own feet. He looked at her with a surprised expression, but then he saw the grim gaze she met Joshua with.

"When I come home, I am going to be more war-torn than anyone my physical age should be," Maria told him. "And my Protocol will have changed. You won't be able to get into my head anymore with the activation codes."

Sixer stiffened as a shudder ran up his tails. "What?"

Maria's expression soured, and she sighed before looking up at Sixer. "Remember how I told you I knew what you were going through?"

Sixer glanced at Joshua for a moment before nodding.

"The Dark Arms weren't the first ones. The Protocol is leftover programming from an attempt made by one Dr. Albert Wily. And some people found out that they could pull me around by reactivating some of the more dangerous bits of my new defensive programming." Maria gave Joshua a dark look.

Joshua raised his hands as Fiora and Sixer both looked at him with wide eyes.

"You controlled your own cousin?" Fiora asked. "Why?"

"When I knew her, she was very reckless and needed someone to keep her in touch before she killed herself," Joshua replied. "I didn't do it very often – only when there was a chance she could go and do something reckless."

"And while I do appreciate that you curbed those tendencies, I don't appreciate you telling me to 'trust you' that one time on Reverse Cybertron, because my systems took that as an order," Maria replied.

Joshua stared with surprise as Maria huffed and shook her head. Sixer, on the other hand, looked between the two of them as memories stirred at the back of his mind.

"That explains it," Sixer muttered.

"…I see." Joshua's gaze flicked to Sixer for a moment. "I'll keep that in mind in the future."

Maria gave Joshua a curt nod in reply, then loosened her grip on Sixer. "Thanks for getting me this far, Sixer. I'll be okay from here."

Sixer frowned at Maria's words, but nodded and stepped out of the room.

"See you guys later." Maria practically collapsed onto the bed as the door closed.

Joshua looked at the door for a moment before looking at Sixer again. "What did you mean when you said 'that explains it'?"

Sixer paused at the question. "When…Maria assisted in rescuing myself and my family from Cipher's control, only to take us into her and others' hands, one of the first things she did was set up a set of guidelines to keep themselves from telling us to do things that were not meant to be commands, or might be uncomfortable to follow through on. Making sure to know that common phrases such as 'trust me' or 'don't worry' were not meant to be taken as orders was one of the first things she said."

"What was the first thing?"

"No killing, which…surprised me, back then."

"It's not surprising to me. Maria's had a strict no-kill rule for as long as I've known her." Joshua sighed. "What is surprising is that the Protocol influenced her that much when I said that phrase. She never mentioned it to me afterwards, but she was apprehensive about allowing me to use the codes on her again."

"I should think so." Sixer looked the young man over. "What now, then? I've rested enough, and I don't intend to go rest until Maria awakens."

"Why don't you help us with refortifying the colony?" Fiora asked. "It would help to spread the news that you're not who you were, and it would help us make sure we were ready in case Dickson tried anything before we were ready for him."

Sixer tilted his head. "I…suppose so."

Fiora nodded. "We'll start close to this building and work our way out from there. Come on – Reyn, Sharla, and Otharon should already be outside helping with repairs at this hour."

"I'm coming as well," Joshua spoke up. "With our work done in the labs, I am going to be looking for something else to do."

"The more the better," Fiora replied. "Come on, then."

Time Break

"We've got company!"

Sixer looked up at Reyn's shout, the fire on his fingers fizzling out as his attention was diverted from fusing a new part of the wall to the construction process.

"Looks like repurposed Mechon!" Reyn warned. "Of all the times for Shulk to be asleep with that Monado of his—"

"What's so important about it?" Sixer moved to get a better look at the enemy approaching. Three pod-shaped machines on spindly legs with pincer hands, made of a dark metal Sixer couldn't identify as anything familiar.

"The Monado swords are the only thing that can pierce their armor and kill those things," Reyn replied. "An' on top o' that, you can see Dickson's had his fingerprints all over those. They used ta have more gold accents before everythin' went south."

Sixer looked again and noticed that, on top of the dark metal, there were sky blue runic symbols. Some of the runes looked familiar.

Sixer rolled up the sleeves of his sweater slightly. "Let me try something."

Reyn frowned. "What are you – hey! What do you think you're gonna do against those things?! You're gonna get cut open before—"

Sixer rushed through the gap in the wall, summoning his fire. The flames crawled up from his fingers to his elbows and – at the same time – lit the tips of his tails alight. His focus wasn't on himself, however.

Sixer bared his teeth in a snarl and leapt up, just barely missing a pair of pincers that came at him before he landed on the first of the three Mechon. He could hear Reyn shouting about getting backup as the fire on Sixer's arms started to become warmer.

At the same time, the sky blue runes started glowing brighter before becoming dull.

The glowing red eye on the back of the pod focused on Sixer with a loud whirring sound that didn't sound kind.

"You really should learn not to let the Weirdness seep into everything you make," Sixer hissed at the eye.

And he pushed against the metal.

The metal dented under Sixer's clawed hands, causing the Mechon he was crouched on to start flailing its pincers as its inner mechanisms were damaged from the melting metal and increased heat. One of the pincers caught two of his tails and pulled in retaliation.

Sixer yelped in pain, and instinctively released a pulse of fiery energy before whirling on the pincer and grabbing the arm. He gripped it tightly with one hand and started to melt through the metal.

The other pincer would have hit him in the head if Reyn hadn't come running in with a yell of his own and cut the arm off.

"How the – hey!" Reyn stared in surprise.

Sixer finished melting the arm and pulled the pincer off his tails. The two that had been grabbed flicked wildly before settling back among the others. There was a soreness there, but it wasn't terrible.

"Get that started on the other two!" Reyn told him. "I'll finish off this one!"

Sixer gave a curt nod, then leapt off the Mechon and grabbed the second, which was currently distracted by Riki and Sharla.

Immediately, the runes reacted, and while Sixer pushed his fire against the metal and dented the main body's armor, the runes faded.

Sixer blinked, then glanced back at the first Mechon as Reyn came down on it and cleaved it in two with his own weapon.

The runes on that one had faded as well.

"Well, I guess this has some perks." Sixer ducked a pincer that swiped at his head, only for Sharla to shoot it off.

"What—"

"He's weakening the armor somehow!" Reyn shouted. "I think it's got ta do with what Dickson did!"

"Keep going, Sixsix!" Riki called.

"I'm doing what I can!" Sixer backed away from the second Mechon as Riki launched himself at it. He looked around for the third Mechon, not seeing it within his immediate vicinity.

And then the Mechon landed in front of him and grabbed his torso with both sets of pincers. The drone lifted him up, squeezing as it did so.

Sixer gasped reflexively at the pain to his ribs, but he steeled himself; he'd felt worse.

Reflexively, another burst of energy went off, but he aimed this one this time, hitting the Mechon him with a burst of firepower from his hands that was much more concentrated than the pulse from earlier.

Sixer made a hissing snarl of a sound as he blasted the Mechon, and when the pincers released him, he dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way as the mechanical monstrosity fell over, a large hole melted into the armor and the moving mechanical parts inside.

"Are you all right?" Sharla ran over while Riki crowed in triumph over the sound of a collapsing Mechon.

Sixer hissed as he breathed in. "I'm fine. I've felt worse." He started to push himself upright, then winced as his ribcage complained. "Just give me a few hours and – and I'll be fine."

"No one should be able to heal that fast, even if you aren't human. Stay still."

Sixer blinked at the serious tone in Sharla's voice, and he obliged her as she put a hand against his sweater, where the pincer had pressed against him. When Sixer winced at her hand, she pulled back.

"Looks like you've bruised a bit there." Sharla frowned. "We're going to need to get you medical attention inside."

"How did you do that?" Reyn asked in amazement. "That stuff is harder than normal Mechon to beat, and that's saying something!"

Sixer hissed as he breathed in again, his bruised ribcage complaining at the movement. Sharla started helping him to his feet carefully as he responded. "Those runes – they're a spell that I've seen before. It's powered by energy from the Nightmare Realm, where Cipher came from." He hissed again as Sharla helped him get completely to his feet. "Since – since I was changed by those energies, it makes sense that I can interact with it. Also, Cipher made it so that we could dispel certain barriers when he needed us to. I…I suppose that the defensive barrier spell over those Mechon counted towards that."

Reyn and Sharla exchanged looks.

"How does that work? This thing wasn't even built by him." Reyn frowned.

"No, but – but Dickson was changed by him. And that's all that matters." Sixer met their gazes. He was breathing more heavily now, and it wasn't just because of his bruised ribs.

"…how much energy did you use up?" Sharla asked.

"A bit," Sixer admitted. "I burn my own energy when using my abilities."

"Then it's settled. Come on, we're getting you back inside so you can sleep and I can look at those bruises."

"L-looking at me won't be necessary," Sixer replied quickly. Maybe too quickly, because Sharla looked at him strangely.

"…all right, I'll wake up Maria and we can have a chat about that," Sharla replied. She started to move towards the wall, helping Sixer move along with her.

"Ah – all right."

There was a bit of a crowd watching from a distance as Sharla helped Sixer get back into the main building. Reyn shouted at them, and a few scattered while others moved to pick up the slack of the wall repair before more Mechon could try and take advantage of the break.

"Does this…happen often?" Sixer asked.

"More often than we'd like," Sharla replied. "The walls usually keep the smaller ones out, and give us time in case anything more dangerous comes out of the woods. It's been hard on Shulk, because only his Monado can get through to damaging them for some reason, but the attacks haven't been often enough that he's collapsed from exhaustion yet."

Sixer frowned. "I see."

"Why do you ask, anyway? Maria isn't nearby to—"

"She doesn't have to be." Sixer grunted as Sharla adjusted her grip. "She…isn't as restrictive on what I can and cannot do on my own. I still…require her, for certain things. But Maria doesn't need to be watching me constantly, like…"

Sixer trailed off with a shaky breath. Sharla seemed to get the message, because she didn't ask any more questions of him until they reached the bed they'd lent him.

"Is breathing still difficult?" Sharla asked as Sixer sat down on the bed. "Be honest, now – I've known people to make the pain sound less than it is."

"The pain's faded slightly, but it is still there," Sixer replied. "I wouldn't say breathing is difficult so much as it causes the pain to flare up."

Sharla nodded. "That would just be the bruising. I'm going to go find Maria so I can get a proper look, since you've been so insistent."

"Much appreciated."

Sharla gave Sixer an odd look, then stepped out of the room. A few minutes later, she came back with Maria in tow.

"You okay, Sixer?" Maria stepped into the room. She still looked tired after helping Joshua in the lab, but Sixer could see that furrowed brow of concern was much more pronounced.

"I will be," Sixer replied.

"He bruised his ribs fighting against a few of Dickson's Mechon," Sharla explained. "Apparently, Dickson did something to them that Sixer can affect."

Maria frowned and rubbed one of her wrists. "I see." She moved closer to the bed. "It's just the ribs, then?"

Sixer nodded.

"Okay." Fire sparked from Maria's fingers. "I think a Flash Fire will be able to take care of that. It's gonna feel really uncomfortable, but it'll make sleeping it off a bit easier. You ready?"

Sixer nodded again. "I've felt worse. I should be able to handle this."

Maria's frown only increased at that, but she nodded and reached out, leaving her hands to hover near Sixer's sides.

And then she released her own fiery energy.

Sharla gasped in surprise as the flames hit Sixer's sweater, only to flicker and fade into the woolen material.

Sixer grimaced as the pain in his ribs flared up in response to the sudden increase of energy, but then he sighed quietly and relaxed as a warmth started there and slowly spread through his chest. It felt like being hugged, but not too tightly or too loosely.

It made him think of Jheselbraum's presence, but more noticeably, Maria's physical hugs.

After about half a minute of this, the warmth started to fade as Maria cut off the energy flow and pulled back.

"Feeling better?"

Sixer met Maria's gaze and nodded. She didn't look concerned so much as…something else Sixer couldn't quite identify. The concern was there, yes, but she also looked like she wanted to actually hug him.

The warmth from Maria's fire sat in his chest for a moment longer before it finally faded completely.

Maria held his gaze for a moment, hesitated, then nodded. "Okay. I just jumpstarted things, and Sharla mentioned you were in a fight, so I'm guessing the reason you look like one of the undead is because you're burned out a bit."

Sixer nodded. "That…would be correct."

Maria made a snorting laugh of a sound. "Look at the two of us, using up our energy so fast. If we're going to find Dickson at this rate…." She shook her head. "Joshua left me a message about going out to find Dickson tomorrow. In the meantime, you need to get some rest. We both do."

"Of…of course." Sixer grunted quietly as he lay back on the bed, mindful of his tails as he did so.

Maria produced a yellow-green feather from under her jacket. "I noticed you left yours at home."

Sixer's eyes widened. "Maria, that—"

"I'll be fine. I've got a spare." Maria pressed the feather into Sixer's hand; he closed his fingers around it carefully. "Get some rest, okay? We're gonna need all the strength we have if we're gonna do something about that henchie."

Sixer's eyes started growing heavy, and he nodded before letting his consciousness fade into slumber.

Change in POV

"You care about him a lot, don't you?"

Maria stiffened slightly as she stepped out of the room and looked over at Sharla. The sharpshooter was leaning against the wall of the corridor, a knowing smile on her lips.

"He's been through a lot," Maria replied. "I would be stupid not to want to make sure he's okay."

Sharla looked like she wanted to say something else, but she paused and shook her head.

"What?" Maria frowned.

"No, no, you're right. It would be stupid and hard for someone to not care about his well-being. Considering what we saw on this side of things, I don't doubt that he had his own kind of hell to live through."

Maria's expression turned grim, and she nodded. "Thanks – for not trying to look at the bruising."

"You sure that fire thing is going to be enough?" Sharla frowned. "I would feel better if I had the chance to have a look."

Maria shook her head. "He wears long sleeves for a reason, and he isn't going to say why unless he has to. I agree with him on that."

Sharla's eyes widened slightly. "Is it from…."

"It has something to do with the demon, yes." Maria nodded curtly.

Sharla blinked. She looked like she wanted to ask something for a moment, paused again, then asked carefully, "What was that feather you gave him?"

"It's called a Lunar Wing. It helps to stave off nightmares." Maria stuck her hands in the pockets of her jacket as her shoulders relaxed. Clearly, she appreciated the change in subject. "Which…it helps, but it doesn't keep them away completely. But it makes sleeping at night a little easier."

"A feather?" Sharla frowned. "Well, I suppose that could be possible. Your world must be different from ours that way."

"You have no idea." Maria laughed, but it turned into a yawn halfway through.

"What was that trick, by the way?"

Maria finished her yawn. "What, Flash Fire? Sixer and I have the same abilities – or, at least, similar ones. He and I can absorb fire if we come into contact with it, and it gives us a natural energy boost. It doesn't last for long, though, so all I did was make the bruised areas heal more quickly. He's going to have to handle the rest of that on his own."

"Ah." Sharla nodded. "That's a neat trick. But it looks like it tuckered you out."

"Yeah, bit of a side-effect. I'll be right as rain after I get some energy in me." Maria yawned again.

"I'll let you get to that, then, and let Reyn know that Sixer's all right."

Maria gave Sharla a thumbs-up. "Thanks."

"So you're coming along with us to find Dickson?"

"I'd like it if we could."

Sharla considered that, then nodded. "I'll swing by if you two aren't awake by the time we set out."

"Thanks. I appreciate that." Maria walked over to the room next to Sixer's and bumped the door open. "See you then."

"See you," Sharla replied.

As soon as Maria had disappeared into the room, Sharla chuckled and shook her head, then turned and walked down the corridor with a knowing look on her face.