About a quarter hour later, with Zero's exact directions and my highway speeds, we arrived at a low-lying building with a single-story parking garage beside it. I parked my 'bike at the far end of the row of 'bikes closest to the wall. I checked out the other motorbikes while Zero walked over to the wall and entered a pass code.

Quite a few of the bikes were like mine, but an equal number were of the old wider Harley-Davidson style. The rest – a surprising number, in fact – looked like jet bikes, with their sleek bodies and dual exhaust pipes… plus the fact they were resting directly on the ground. I glimpsed some of the other vehicles in further rows. They were of intermixed types – ground cars, trucks, a few vans, and some enclosed and a couple of open-air hovercraft, the older brothers of the jet bikes. The variety of vehicles was absolutely amazing.

"Khareesa, we need to go see Dr. Cain," Zero said, breaking my trance of fascination. I had always been a tinkerer, and my 'bike was the perfect example of my skills. I averted my eyes from the many beauties I saw before me and followed Zero into the actual complex, starting on my sandwich as I did so.

From the outside, it had looked like an abandoned warehouse. From the inside… well, it was pretty sterile. Harsh fluorescent overheads lit the whole hallway with a pure white light. We finally entered the stairwell at the other end of the hallway. We could have taken the elevator, but I'd rather not have done that, anyway.

The stairwell was mercifully dim. My eyes adjusted quickly as I followed Zero down. After so many flights of stairs I lost count (part of that was due to the fact that I was still focused intently on my sandwich), Zero opened a door. I expected more actinic light to flood into the dim stairwell. Instead, softer, more natural light flowed through the door. I smiled as I took the last bite of my sandwich and put the wrapper in my purse for later recycling.

I was thirsty, so I opened the bottle of water and drew a small drought into my mouth. I followed that with a potato chip. I finally noticed the look that Zero was giving me as he secured the door behind us. "Want one?" I asked reflexively. Of course, he shook his head in refusal.

"Is something the matter, Zero? Do I have cheese on my chin?" I asked, grinning. He didn't respond. I popped another chip into my mouth.

He shook his head again, almost like he couldn't believe what he was seeing, and asked, "How are you eating that? Does it not jam up your systems?"

"Well, in some cases," I said hesitantly, "yeah, but not if you eat them in moderation." I knew he was a reploid, but I would've thought he knew something about human consumption habits.

"No, I mean… I thought Dr. Cain said…" Then his eyes widened and shrank, as if remembering something he wasn't supposed to say. He sounded slightly confused.

"Dr. Cain said what?" I asked as he turned his back to me and continued on. He was avoiding my question. This gave me a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach, so I walked after him, my chips forgotten. I caught up to him quickly and placed a hand on his shoulder, which I subconsciously expected to be cold, but was about body temperature. "What did Dr. Cain say, Zero?"

Zero turned and faced me again, with the look of a cornered cat in his eyes. He tried to back away, but my gentle-firm grip stayed him. He finally stammered out, "You-you are supposed to be a r-r-reploid!" He ran off down the hall as shock loosened my grip on his shoulder. I stared after him for a minute or two, trying to register what he'd said and what it meant.

No, it can't be. I have human eating and drinking habits… I do things that no reploid could… There's no way! My thoughts went in a downward spiral as my body slid down the wall I found myself leaning against. I didn't care, not even when I landed on the ground hard enough to bruise my butt bone. It was almost like an out-of-body experience.

As I sat there, I finished my water, then threw the bottle down the hall in frustration when there was no more. I heard it thunk against someone and land on the floor, bouncing and rolling around a bit before it settled. The noise drew me out of my reverie enough to notice a blue-armored man – reploid – standing where the bottle had impacted.

"Good shot," the reploid complimented. "And you were not even looking." I drew my knees to my chest and turned my back to him. He came around and knelt down in front of me so I could see his face. "Would you feel better if I did not have the armor on?" Without waiting for an answer, he pressed a button on his left wrist. When the armor faded, I saw he had on jeans and a t-shirt… normal human clothes.

Without the armor, he didn't look half bad. He was about my height, with chestnut hair and a nice build. Reminded me of Tarron… "Well, does this make you feel better?" His repeated question caught me off guard.

"I guess," I replied. My nerves were still a little racked, but at least Blue Boy was trying to calm me down, unlike Zero. He offered me a hand up, and I accepted.

"Do you think you are up to seeing Dr. Cain, Khareesa?" he asked.

"Might as well," I responded noncommittally. I wasn't even sure I could leave, now, if I wanted to. I followed him down the hall.

"I have heard some interesting things about you, Khareesa," the reploid said noncommittally. "For instance, what happened a little while ago between you and Zero."

"It's not true, is it?" I asked.

"I am not at liberty to say," he replied, "and neither was Zero. He just gets flustered sometimes and does not know what else to do." We stopped in front of a metal door that slid open with a little prompting from Blue Boy. I followed him inside.

I hopped lithely up onto the nearest med bed and sat with my legs dangling. The reploid left the room for a minute, then returned, followed by an older, kindly looking man. "… And I found her in the hall near the stairwell. She is a good shot, by the way, sir." My cheeks warmed as he referred to my thrown bottle. Blue Boy walked over to me, with the older man not far behind. "Khareesa, meet Dr. Cain."

Dr. Cain was a shorter person, with a crown of white hair. He had a cane that supported the limp he had, but I suspected that the cane was more than it appeared. He put his hand out in greeting. "Nice to meet you, miss. I hope Zero's words didn't scare you too badly."

"I'm still not sure of the truth in them, sir," I replied respectfully. Dr. Cain just had one of those presences that said respect me or get your ass blasted. Or maybe it was just my imagination in my present state of mind.

"Thank you for finding her, X. That'll be all for now. You need to go rest a bit," Dr. Cain instructed the reploid I'd been thinking of as Blue Boy. Then I put two and two together. Blue armor… X… This was Megaman X that had come to find me! My eyes widened and my head felt like it was going to float off my neck, and I blushed more fiercely when I recalled my inadvertent attack with the water bottle. X didn't seem to notice as he walked out.

"Khareesa, I know what Zero said is a shock to you, but it's the truth. Since you've had the unexpected chance to assimilate the data, I hope you can accept it." Dr. Cain sounded really sympathetic for my situation.

"Is there any way you can prove it to me? I hate to sound ungrateful, but this is one of those things I'm not sure I could believe unless I saw it," I replied.

"Of course. Why didn't I think of that?" (A/N: Okay, so it's cliché. We're all allowed to use 'em every once in a while. If you don't like it you can… *the story's characters suddenly choke out author*) Dr. Cain continued, "Just lay back on that med bed and slide your arm into the sleeve on the side." I felt I could trust him, so I did as he asked. A few seconds later I felt a strange tingling all down my forearm. I just lay there without flinching. It was pretty easy, actually.

A little while later Dr. Cain asked me to sit up again. I did so and looked at whatever data he extracted from my arm. He selected a file (interesting how everything he got is separated into files) and activated it. A bust shot of a woman with long silvery hair was frozen on a holopad beside the monitor. Dr. Cain hit the Play button.

"My little creation, I hope this file finds you well. I am sorry I had to keep the secret…" She continued on, though I filtered her out so I could think. She looked familiar. I thought light for some reason, then luce, the Old Spanish word for light. "Dr. Luce," I whispered.

I thought I was quiet about it. But Dr. Cain hit the Pause button and looked at me. "Do you recognize her, Khareesa?" I nodded. "I don't know who she is," Dr. Cain continued, "but I think it would be best to look at the rest of these files." I nodded again.

He opened a file named k-specs. Instead of the bust, the holopad showed a shadowed figure, almost like an outline. He clicked a button reading "accept vocal commands".

"Show skeletal structure in the file." The holopad displayed not the shadow, but just a female skeleton. "Show musculature." The holopad added muscles over the skeleton. Dr. Cain turned to me and said, "This is very good work, Khareesa. Your Dr. Luce was very good at what she did." He turned back to the computer. "Display circulatory system." A million little veins and arteries were shown weaving in and out of the muscles and the bones, almost in a pattern. "Display outer structure." The holopad now showed a girl whose face I'd seen in the mirror every day of my life. She was wearing jean shorts and a loose t-shirt.

"Well, this is all very interesting, Khareesa," Dr. Cain said. "I need time to study it some more. I also need to look at your body armor specs to see what we can do about that. In the meantime, how much self-defense training do you have?"