Author's Notes: This chapter was a lot of fun to write. Christopher Tin is awesome. Also, did you know that for a time, Mark Gatha was the English voice of X?
Chapter 11 – Treasures From the Old World
Zero and Ciel continued their descent down the shaft until they reached solid ground, finding themselves in some sort of janitor's closet. At his feet, Zero found a broken piece of a metal grate, which had likely been blocking their path before rusting and breaking off.
He couldn't help smiling and feeling a rush of heat to his face as he was reminded of Ciel's presence, still clinging to him for dear life despite being in no apparent danger. A few dozen thoughts flashed across his mind, but he didn't have the heart to tease her… especially since he was enjoying the close contact despite his reluctance to come forward about his emotions.
"Oh..." she realized after a while. "Solid ground."
With that, she hopped off, and then reached into one of her pockets for a flashlight.
"What kind of place do you suppose we've stumbled across this time?" she pondered, the light illuminating a metal door.
"Only one way to find out." Zero said as he stepped forward and pushed, finding it unlocked.
What awaited them beyond left Ciel wide-eyed… and more than a little giddy.
"This…!" she gasped with awe and glee in equal measure.
Meanwhile, above them…
"So..." Axl said. "I should probably go after them. Why don't you go get that arm checked?"
"That… won't be necessary." X said as he hesitantly wiggled his fingers, slowly regaining control of his right hand.
"OK..." Axl said. "So what exactly was that about anyway?"
"I guess I overdid it a bit." X said. "Using that… light… in my incorporeal state was slowly draining me. Now that I have a body again, I can feel my strength returning. I should probably not push myself too far though."
"Typical X." Axl remarked. "Always burning yourself out for the sake of others."
"Why didn't you say anything back then?" Milan insisted. "I thought I was a goner. I can say without a doubt that you saved my life."
"I followed Ciel back when she went into that lab." X said with a sigh. "You know the squad above was wiped out trying to cover her back. I had to save at least ONE of you..."
"You're not blaming yourself for that too, are you?" Axl scolded. "I saw the aftermath. They never stood a chance. One of those damned Golems wiped them out in a single burst."
"You were there too?" X asked in surprise.
"I was too late to do anything." Axl said with a sigh. "If my old pea shooters were up to snuff, maybe things would have been different."
"What happened to them anyway?"
"Time, lack of spare parts..." Axl listed off. "An involuntary dip in a swamp from hell… Pick your poison. Anyway..."
With that, he jumped down the shaft.
"Make sure nobody follows us until we're sure what exactly we're dealing with." X said, glancing at Milan. "I'd hate to lose more people to some random pre-cataclysm deathtrap."
And so, he followed as well, sliding down the shaft.
Inside, Ciel gazed upon a veritable treasure trove. Not doubloons and gems in a chest like in the stories of old, not rare metals or ancient weapons… and definitely not another hero from a bygone age sleeping in a lab… but instead rows upon rows of bookcases, completely full.
"What..." she muttered as she ran the flashlight over some of the shelves, recognizing the subjects on the spines… of actual paper books.
"Engineering, chemistry, general sciences..." she said excitedly. "Textbooks, theses, manuals..."
"This stuff could probably come in handy." Zero said with an appreciative nod. "Not everyone is as learned in this stuff as you and Cerveau."
They continued walking, on a dusty floor that had not seen visitors for what seemed to be decades or even centuries, with Ciel mentally counting the rows of bookcases and taking notice of the subject matter. Eventually they transitioned into another section where more modern repositories awaited them – in this case data discs of an old format but which she still had some familiarity with.
"Look at this!" she squealed excitedly. "Think of all the things we could do if we found a way to get this out of here!"
"And look." Zero said, pointing at a spot behind her.
Ciel turned around and saw a stone staircase, turning at ninety degree angles.
"It goes on..." she realized, placing her hand on the metal railing before hustling along.
"Wait!" Zero called out. "We don't know what's down there! Let me check first!"
"Ever heard of ladies first?" she teased, mostly to hide the fact that his display of concern was once again making something in her chest feel warm.
"Ever heard of being careful?" he retorted with a smirk.
"I'll give it a try when you stop trying to hitch rides on missiles." she said.
"I'll think about it." he said, echoing a conversation they'd had during some of his previous shenanigans.
"Together, then?" she offered.
"Fine." he conceded.
Downstairs they found a different section, containing a repository of what looked like history and geography books. Once again Ciel was overwhelmed.
"Centuries of lost history!" she gasped. "So much we could learn from this!"
"I seem to remember a saying about those who don't heed history." Zero pondered with a nod. "The kids and the adults should probably take a look at some of this… assuming we manage to get it out somehow."
Ciel nodded and reached into her pocket for a portable radio.
"Cerveau, can you hear me?" she called out.
"You just- stay- trouble- can you?" the Chief Engineer's voice came in through a considerable amount of static. Ciel adjusted the frequency and called again.
"Better?"
"Much better. What have you landed yourself into this time?"
"Something grand." Ciel said, starting to feel positively giddy. "Listen, we need a portable generator and some lights over here. Can you get someone to bring them over?"
"On it."
Footsteps echoed behind them and Zero looked over his shoulder to find X and Axl.
"I can see why you'd be too distracted to hear us calling out." X said as he surveyed the shelves.
"Oh." Ciel said. "Sorry if we worried you."
"Well then..." Zero pondered. "Since we're here, how about we see how deep this goes?"
Sure enough, they found another staircase at the end of the hallway, leading to a section laden with art books.
"I've never even heard of some of these..." Ciel said with a sad look on her face as she flipped through the pages of a picture catalog full of pictures of paintings and statues time had long forgotten.
"We've lost so much…" X lamented. "Sometimes it feels like an impossible dream to put the world back together. But we have to try."
"Yes..." Ciel said, once again regaling the others with her soft smile. "And one day… we'll create new beauty of our own."
With that, she closed the book and placed it back on its shelf. Before moving on, she paused briefly and, to the others' surprise, blew a kiss at the bookshelf.
"See you soon." she whispered fondly.
Zero was particularly surprised by the gesture, but couldn't blame her. Even though he knew very little about art, he couldn't help feel something stirring inside at the sights contained in the book.
The next floor contained what looked like a collection of music records, mostly in data disc format, though there were some solid state drives in a stack near the middle of the floor, plugged into an ancient-looking computer covered with a thick layer of dust.
"We'll definitely have to come back for this..." X said, looking at some of the labels.
They knew they wouldn't be able to listen to anything until they had a device capable of playing the records, so they continued, to yet another floor.
"Well now..." Axl said. "I definitely wasn't expecting this when I got out of bed this morning."
Before their eyes, under the flashlight's shine, they beheld a massive collection of fiction books, movies and other pieces of entertainment – likely centuries' worth of them. Hardcover tomes, digitized books in data disc, movies in digital format, reaching as far as they eye could see.
"Some of these..." X realized. "I remember watching them when they first came out, back in our days as Hunters… and… wow..."
The four wandered about, with Ciel shining her flashlight at everything in range while the others, able to see thanks to their superhuman optics, ended up drifting in a different direction.
"Not just movies and books either..." Axl said. "Even animated stuff."
"Feature length…" X said. "Weekly shows..."
"This is way too well stocked to be just any random library..." Ciel pondered. "Maybe someone threw in their personal collection as well? Some eccentric benefactor?"
"I don't believe this..." Zero said as he ran to one of the shelves, his gaze darting from top to bottom with the grin of a little boy left to his own devices in a candy shop.
He lifted a finger and checked the shelves, sorted in alphabetic order, until he found something that made him laugh out loud. Ciel watched, wondering what was going on.
"Hey X!" Zero called out. "Guess what I found!"
X turned his attention away from what looked like a shelf containing a collected of movies derived from the works of one Isaac Asimov in time to see his old friend strike a strange pose. First Zero opened both hands and stretched his arms down diagonally to his body with the palms facing forward.
"What is he doing?" X wondered.
Zero then clawed up his fingers and positioned his hands diagonally in front of his chest, with the fingertips pointed at each other. As recognition set in, X found himself grinning.
"Gemu giru gan go gufo..." Zero hissed before he clasped his hands together and pointed them forward, leaving Ciel utterly confused.
"What?" she asked, unsure what the gibberish meant.
She was then startled and nearly jumped back as Zero cried out at the top of his voice synthesizer.
"HELL!"
"AND!" X shouted back, mimicking his pose.
"HEAVEN!" both of them shouted together.
Ciel stared at Zero, then at X, then back at Zero, completely and utterly confused.
"Will someone please tell me what that was all about?" she asked.
"Are you serious?!" X asked, clearly excited as his gaze darted towards the shelf Zero was standing next to.
"See for yourself!" Zero said, absolutely giddy.
Intrigued, Ciel edged closer as the two walked in front of the large shelf, both of them now grinning ear to ear at what appeared to be a massive collection of very old shows in digital format, preserved in sturdy metal boxes that were decorated with what she could only assume to be the original cover art.
The box Zero was holding in his hand was decorated with what looked like a black robot – not exactly a Reploid, but something else entirely – its chest decorated with a golden ornament in the shape of a lion's head. In fact, the closer she looked at it, the bigger the resemblance she could see between Zero and the main character that was standing close to the robot with a winning grin and a fanciful pose.
"What's all this then?" she asked.
"If you don't know, then… you're in for a treat." X said.
"We spent so many nights in the break room at the old Hunter HQ watching this stuff with the others..." Zero reminisced.
"So many classics." X said with a fond smile, overcome by emotion as he recalled days long gone. "They were already old before we ever came along, but they had their undeniable charm. I… I didn't think there were any copies left."
Ciel felt a soft warmth blossoming in her heart. She had seen them happy, sad, pensive, troubled and angry before, but the sight of the three goofing off, enjoying themselves like that, with their burdens momentarily set aside… that made her happier than she could put into words.
"Even with all their emotional baggage, there are still things that can bring them such simple joy." she thought with a smile.
"Of course this would be here too..." Axl said with a laugh as he picked up another case. "Hey X! Tell me if this sounds familiar."
X glanced at Axl and watched him raise his right fist, turning the back of the hand outward.
"This hand of mine glows with an awesome power!" Axl cried out in a deeper voice as he struck a dramatic pose.
"That does look like someone we know." Zero remarked with a chuckle. "Especially after what we saw upstairs."
Ciel couldn't help giggling at the cheesy display, even if she didn't know the context. Soon enough, however, she frowned as a thought took form in her mind.
"This place..." she realized. "This place is a real treasure trove of the old world. Between all the wars and cataclysms, I don't think I've ever even seen a fraction of this material before. All this history and culture. All this knowledge, science and who knows what else…"
X and Zero glanced at her, realizing what she was thinking.
"We can't just leave this here." X said. "Who knows how much longer this building is going to last?"
"Especially now." Zero pondered. "It may have been relatively safe up to this point, but now that it's exposed to the air… and buried underground…"
"It's only a matter of time until the wind, rain, mold and other stuff start seeping in." X realized with dismay.
"You're absolutely right." Ciel said, feeling positively giddy at the thought of recovering lost knowledge that might help pave the way for the future. "But… how are we going to get all of this out of here?"
It was then that they heard footsteps from above. Someone else was coming down the staircase. X and Zero exchanged glances and took a step forward.
"Two sets of footsteps..." Zero pondered, studying the sounds. "Relaxed. One of them a little hesitant..."
"Oh. Hello there." a woman's voice said, soft and gentle.
"Fascinating..." a man's voice said next to her. "To think that a structure of this size would survive being buried for so long..."
In front of them stood a woman in an armored suit that left her head exposed… and what they could assume to be a man, completely covered by a bizarre set of armor. The second figure's helmet was emitting some sort of bluish light from the sides, likely powered by the suit.
"And you are?" Zero asked, a little hesitant as he glanced at the two.
"I'm afraid I have no name to give you." the armored figure said. "I still don't quite know what to call myself."
"What, another amnesiac?" Zero asked with a scoff.
"Not exactly." the armored figure said. "Though we are on a journey of self-discovery of our own."
The figure then appeared to exchange a glance with the woman, before turning his attention to X. He seemed hesitant to approach, but she smiled and nudged him forward.
"I guess now we know why we ended up here." he finally said.
"What do you mean?" X asked.
"Well..." the armored figure said, before raising his right hand.
Then the hand started glowing with a soft white light, illuminating the chamber around them.
"As you can see, there are others like you."
"This is a surprise..." X said. "I don't think I've ever seen others display this ability. I was beginning to wonder if I was the only one."
"That said..." Zero added. "Just what is that exactly?"
"Light." the man said.
"We can see that." Zero retorted with a hint of annoyance. "But what exactly does that mean?"
"It means..." the woman explained with a smile. "That your friend is quite special. Though you probably already knew that."
"In theory, everyone has the potential." the man said. "In practice, few manifest it."
"But… why me?" X asked.
"Some would say that this overflowing radiant power comes from love and courage." the woman said. "From having something worth protecting, and acknowledging it."
"I just say it is something not given, but rather that stems from your true self… though I too am still in the process of understanding it." the man said. Even through the suit they could tell her choice of words had left him a little uncomfortable for some reason.
"So what exactly brings you here?" Ciel asked, intrigued by their appearance and abilities.
"Just a brief stop on an endless journey." the man said. "We were taking a break to see the sights before moving on when we saw the commotion. Clearly your friends had it covered."
Ciel could have sworn she sensed a subtle undertone of embarrassment in that last statement, though she couldn't figure out why.
"So..." the woman said. "Who might you be?"
"Ciel. A scientist." Zero introduced the petite scientist.
"Zero." he said, pointing at himself. "A guy who's good at breaking things and putting fools in their place."
"I'm X." X introduced himself. "A long time ago Zero and I fought to protect the future of the world along with Axl. These days we're just… trying to find ourselves, I suppose."
"You are still fighting." the man said with certainty.
"We are aware of some of your work, to an extent." the woman said with a sympathetic nod. "Something terrible happened to this world, and you are putting the pieces together."
"Just what exactly do you know about us?" Zero asked, somewhat suspicious.
"Not as much as you may be thinking." the woman said. "But enough to know that to people in your situation, the contents of this place are priceless."
"Just what is this place anyway?" Axl asked. "It looks like some kind of library, but..."
"We… did some investigating before following you down here." the man said. "From what we could gather by remote scanning, it looks like we're standing in the ruins of a bigger complex. Possibly some sort of university campus."
"I may have heard of one such place around this region..." X recalled. "But that was a long time ago. Before the space colony incident."
"Don't tell me." the man said with a sigh. "Some idiot tried to crash it? Probably blonde, angsty and with a lame mask?"
"One out of three." Zero corrected. "A megalomaniac monster. I guess I can't blame you for not knowing the details, seeing how it all happened so long ago."
Ciel looked around, still pensive.
"You're probably wondering how you're going to get all of this out of here, right?" the woman asked with a soft smile.
"Well, yes..." Ciel admitted with a nod. "It'll probably take weeks or months to do it by hand."
"By hand." the man echoed. "We have a better option. Just two questions."
"Huh?" Ciel muttered.
"Where do you want it?" the man asked. "Also, do you want the bookcases too, or just the materials?"
Ciel looked at the odd pair and blinked incredulously.
"Are you seriously proposing to get all of this out of here yourselves?" she asked. "How?"
"We have our ways." the man said.
As far as Ciel could tell, they were serious, and their strange appearance and manner of speaking piqued her curiosity. While she wasn't sure whether to trust them or not, she was still intrigued by their words. Then she had an idea.
"There's a place where we once took refuge." Ciel said, testing their reaction. "It should have plenty of space for all of this… without the shelves."
"Storage crates it is." the man said with a nod. "We have plenty of those and didn't know what to do with them."
X and Zero exchanged confused glances, but let things unfold on their own, seeing how Ciel appeared to have the situation under control.
"We'll just need to make sure we don't miss anything important..." the man said as he started walking again, going past them. "The computers should have some sort of catalog but you won't be able to consult it until you get them working."
They followed the strange figure down another staircase, seemingly leading to a basement. A final door stood in their way, but that too yielded with a push from one of his armored hands. Inside, however, they found something different.
In what looked like a common living area, if not for the obvious age of the furniture and electronics, the figure's helmet lights revealed what appeared to be two skeletons on a decrepit old sofa.
"A man..." the armored figure said.
"And a dog, by the looks of it." Ciel added.
The human skeletal remains, still clad in ancient casual clothing, were curled up on the sofa, with a hand on the dog's cranium. The dog's skeleton was lying down in a relaxed position, as if sleeping. Ciel felt a pang of sadness as she deduced what had happened.
"If this place was around when Eurasia fell..." she thought out loud. "Then the keeper probably got trapped inside by the landslide… and either starved or suffocated."
"I guess that explains some of the collection." X pondered. "The librarian probably added his personal stash to the shelves."
"What a sad way to go." the armored man remarked somberly, lowering his head. "Trapped and forgotten. I suppose at least he did not die completely alone."
With that, he abruptly left the room, followed by the woman. Intrigued, Axl followed them only to find him in the hallway, with the woman patting his back.
"I'm never going to get used to that..." he heard the man whisper.
Then he straightened up and headed back upstairs.
"Let's get to work." he said, wiggling his armored fingers. "By the look of it, we have an idea of everything is. Just one last scan and… there we go."
As he uttered those last words, he turned to Ciel and opened a panel on his left wrist guard, revealing some sort of compact computer interface.
"Well then… where shall we put it?"
Even more intrigued, she took a look. The technology was clearly advanced, but the design layout felt almost familiar – or perhaps it was simply intuitive by intent. She reached for her portable radio once again and set the frequency to the old Resistance base, where she knew a small garrison was still stationed.
"Jaune, Rouge can you hear me?" she called out.
"Loud and clear." a chipper female voice replied.
"I need to put some stuff in the main storage room. Is it being used right now?"
"Not really."
"Is anyone there at all right now?"
"No reason for them to be. Let me just double check. Yes, all clear."
"Good." Ciel said. "Have someone keep an eye on the door."
With that, she entered the coordinates, having become quite familiar with the location due to her extended stays there in the past.
"Excellent." the armored figure said. "And now… time for a little technological magic. Observe."
Ciel let out a startled yelp as the contents of the shelves began disappearing in sudden flashes of white light, not too dissimilar from when someone traveled through a Trans Server terminal.
"How are you doing that?!" she cried out in surprise as the items continued to disappear faster than her eye could follow.
"We have our ways." the armored figure said, with a hint of amusement seeping into his tone.
"A wizard did it?" Axl chimed in with his usual irreverence.
"No..." Ciel pondered. "This looks like teleportation. But how are they doing it without a Trans Server link?"
"Uh… Ciel?" a voice chimed in through the radio. "Something you want to tell us? We've got stacks of metal crates popping up in the storage room out of nowhere."
"Just… something we found out here." Ciel replied. "Keep everyone out of the storage room until this ends. We don't want any accidents."
She then turned to the armored figure.
"I don't want to push it, but… could you send the computers and some of the music discs… to a different place?"
"Very well." he said. "Show me where."
Without thinking, she entered the coordinates to her home.
Moments later, the shelves were completely barren. In disbelief, Zero and Axl ran upstairs only to find that the other floors had also been picked clean apart from the computers.
"And just to make sure you know where to find them..." the armored figure said before snapping his fingers, after which all the computer equipment disappeared as well. "There we go. Marked crate."
Ciel blinked twice and looked at the two strangers.
"Well now… I'm still not sure how you did it, but you've just saved us a whole lot of work. For that, thank you. But… why?"
"Because what you're doing here is important." the woman said with a fond smile before turning her gaze to her companion. "And because we can't resist giving people a hand."
"The real work is up to you." the armored figure said. "Keeping track of all that… and making sure it's not lost to time again."
Then he headed back downstairs. Surprised yet again, Ciel followed only to catch up with him just as he made it into the living area and carefully lifted the two skeletons off the couch.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"You'll see."
Instead of snapping his fingers, he simply muttered something Ciel couldn't understand and all of them found themselves standing on the surface again.
"Hey!" Axl cried out. "What gives?!"
"Beats climbing back out, I suppose." Zero said.
"And with that, we leave you to your work." the armored figure said, turning away. "But first..."
He walked a few more steps, until he reached a fresh patch of soil. Almost reverently, he set the remains down side by side and, seemingly out of nowhere, produced a glass flask, seemingly filled with water.
"Your time in this world is long past." he said solemnly as he poured the water on the remains. "Though you perished in the dark, forgotten… someone knows that you lived."
The man raised his right hand and the remains were suddenly consumed by a strange white flame that burned without smoke, releasing a soothing, ethereal fragrance into the air.
"And there." he said after a moment. "For now we leave you to your work."
"Nice to meet you all." the woman said. "We look forward to seeing what you'll make of this world."
And with that, they started floating in place above the ground for a brief moment, before disappearing in a burst of white light.
"Well… that happened." Zero thought out loud.
"Looks like our list of things to do just got a lot bigger." Ciel pondered.
"Don't overdo it." Zero said, knowing too well how she could get carried away.
"For now..." X said, still pensive about the whole experience. "Let's go home."
Later that day, as she finished hooking up the ancient computer equipment and began the process of dissecting the library catalog at her home, Ciel opened one of the metal crates and picked a random music disc on a whim. She carefully removed the disc from its casing and upon inserting it on the reader she was pleasantly surprised to find that the computer she had at hand was capable of reading it. With a sense of trepidation, she started the playback and a moment later a beautiful song, forgotten by time, started playing through the speakers.
Una volta che avrà
spiccato il volo deciderà,
sguardo verso il ciel, sarà,
lì a casa il cuore sentirà!
Una volta che avrà
spiccato il volo deciderà,
sguardo verso il ciel, sarà,
lì a casa il cuore sentirà!
Glorious, soaring, it evoked mental images of open skies and left her feeling misty-eyed even though she was unfamiliar with the language. Then, as she looked at the back of the cover, she understood.
"Sogno di volare..." she thought, marveling at the emotions evoked by a song whose existence she had only just become aware. "The dream of flight..."
"One day..." she muttered to herself. "We'll stand tall and strong again. We won't just rebuild what we lost, no. We'll do better. And even if it doesn't happen in my lifetime… someday we'll reach for the stars."
With the fortuitous find of this treasure trove of the old world, the hope in her heart was further kindled. Her dream of preservation and restoration felt like it had taken a considerable leap forward. Whoever those strangers were, she would be eternally grateful for their gesture, even if she could not truly fathom their motives.
For his part, Zero felt a silent joy to see her so fired up as he watched her through the window… and once again struggled to contain the affection consuming his heart.
"I'm not ready yet… Still have too much shit to sort out. But… seeing you like this is doing wonders for me as well."
With that, he turned around.
"Wait a minute…" he realized as a smile crept onto his face."I've gotta pay the old base a visit. She has to watch that stuff at least once!"
As if on cue, X and Axl showed up in front of him, each carrying a small pile of the discs in question.
"Looking for these?" Axl asked with a smug grin.
"H-How did you…?" Zero stuttered.
"X." Axl said simply. "I guess he knows you too well. Now come on! Let's get Alouette… and some popcorn!"
"Thank Asimov for Trans Servers!" X said with a smile.
Minutes later, after grabbing an old disc player and hooking it to the largest computer monitor they could find, the five sat down on a couch.
"So… why exactly did you want me to take a break right now so badly?" Ciel asked, a little dumbfounded.
"You'll see." Zero replied with a grin. Sitting on his lap, Alouette was holding onto a bowl of freshly made popcorn almost as big as her.
"Ladies..." Axl said proudly. "Your education begins now!"
Ciel was even more confused as a cheesy over the top opening sequence started playing with an overly enthusiastic theme song. Then, as the character so similar to Zero came into view, she blinked.
"What…?"
Hours later, at the crack of dawn, with the popcorn long gone and Axl and Alouette fast asleep (with the former snoring with his mouth open), Ciel blinked and looked at X and Zero sitting next to her.
"That has to be the most ridiculous… or most ridiculously awesome thing I've ever seen." she said, scratching her head as she grappled with the mental image of Zero pulling the same kind of over the top stunts she had just witnessed.
"Those two looked so adorable though..." she thought, suddenly getting flustered again. "Wait… is he trying to tell me something with this?"