I brace myself; Because I know it's gonna hurt.
But I'd like to think that at least things can't get any worse.
[…] I've never felt so alive, and so... dead.
-Florence and the Machine (Hurricane Drunk)
. . .
Sage Harpuia knew and understood that getting into the Mother Elf's antechamber was supposed to be a difficult task. But he didn't quite appreciate this until he was trying to smuggle in something that he wanted the Mother Elf to see and no one else. It took a lot longer than anticipated, but he was able to make it without his gift being ruined.
Once he was sure that the door to the chamber was shut, Harpuia got down on one knee close to the Mother Elf's main body that hung suspended in the air.
"Greetings Mother," Harpuia said to the orb above him, "I've come with a gift."
"Oh?" a voice with no body questioned with a certain air of amusement. With a nod, Harpuia presented his gift like an offering as he bowed his head in reverence. It took a few short moments before he felt a prickling, static-like feeling at his fingertips as the rose lifted up from the palm of his hands.
"A pink rose, a symbol of admiration. Surely your color spectrum is off a little- I believe you meant to pick a red rose instead?"
Harpuia snapped his head up at her as his eyes widened with fear and surprise. The Mother Elf's hologram looked at him softly and laughed at him.
"Don't tell me that you forgot that I am connected to every monitor in Neo Arcadia." she said to him teasingly. "The floral shop may not have any, but across the road in the window, the electronic store has seven."
Harpuia's expression did not change as he watched the Mother Elf's hologram gently smell the top of the rose.
"Of course," the Mother Elf continued, giving him a darting side glance, "You were being followed by admirers who thought the rose was for them. Correct? Perhaps you just wanted to get in and get out before one of them attacked you."
"I'm sorry." Harpuia told her, giving a bow.
"What for?" the Mother Elf questioned. "This room is so dreary, a nice rose of any color will brighten it up with its heart. Leviathan, too, brings me gifts. Most of her gifts do not have a long life here, I'm afraid..."
Deep within Harpuia, a certain feeling of a jealous justification flared inside of him. The siren gave gifts of the sea to a woodland elf, not the best of ideas if you were trying to impress them of course...
"She has her own meanings of course." the Mother Elf then said, snapping Harpuia out of his greedy thoughts. "Just as you came with the intent of trying to seduce me."
"M-Mother!" Harpuia declared in shock. "I... I would never!"
The Mother Elf's hologram gave the Guardian a rather slow blink. She then started to slowly walk over to him until there was just enough space between them so that the rose just barely touched either of them.
"Love is a human hormone." The Mother Elf whispered gently into Harpuia's ear. "And yet, you were the Guardian cursed with a Mega Man's affections toward my original will."
"Mother..." Harpuia said in a single breath as he tried to move closer to the Mother Elf's hologram. She kept moving away, just slightly, every time. A tease, on both of their parts, to coerce the other in a subconscious act neither could quite control.
"I only loved once." the Mother Elf then whispered. "And you are not Mega Man X. Your affections and your attraction means nothing to me. Who do you think you are talking to now?"
Harpuia said nothing as he attempted to steal a kiss from the hologram. Just one... Just one tiny little touch...
"Oh my sweet griffin, you are so young... and so foolish..." the Mother Elf's hologram soothed as it slowly started to fade away. "True love is unexpected. What you seek is lust, not love. My sweet... silly... deluded griffin..."
"No...!" Harpuia slowly gasped when he realized what the Mother Elf was going away. "C-come back! I didn't mean to hurt you, I only want..."
"You did not know the true Mega Man X." the Mother Elf said from above, although her voice sounded as if it were still next to Harpuia. "But when I look back on my past life's memories, I realize that I didn't know the true Mega Man X either. By the time I knew him, Mega Man X was so alive and yet... he seemed so... dead. I couldn't understand it; why did he try so purposely to shut me out when I only wanted him to see me as his reincarnated lover? But slowly, I came to realize, that I wasn't his lover. I'm a shell. I had her consciousness, yes, but I was not the woman that Mega Man X once loved. And I believe that in knowing this, he saw himself as a shell as well- Reploids do not have souls like humans do and it made him more depressed and heartbroken the longer he spent time on this earth. You, Sage Harpuia, do not need to follow in his footsteps; to chase after a broken reflection of a shell. Mega Man X was never truly happy after her, and I think that is why he was so willing to sacrifice himself so that you four could be born. It was a sad fate, but it could have been an inevitable one regardless.
"What you also fail to realize is that Mega Men are... blind to romantic advances at first. They never make the first move; and this is why they are so sought after by admirers. You acknowledge these advances but you choose to ignore them, therefore you are not truly a Mega Man. But, there is more to a Mega Man than just their demisexuality, something I don't believe you quite understand yet. When you can come to me and tell me what makes a Mega Man just so, then perhaps I will tell you a secret that is hidden within the four Guardians."
Harpuia did not respond, nor did he seem to give off a response.
"Mother, it is time for me to leave." he eventually said.
"I understand." came the reply. "Remember what I told you, and perhaps our next conversation will be more lively."
Harpuia gave a little smirk before turning to leave. Next time their conversation was going to be more lively alright. Despite the fairly obvious, one question still stood tall;
What makes a Mega Man a Mega Man?