ZERO

Fan Fiction by Senya

twilight_rhapsody@hotmail.com

Disclaimer: All characters copywright by CAPCOM, I did not create them, nor do I own them. The exception is May, whom I did create.

Author's Note: This Fan Fiction takes place between Megaman X 4 and Megaman X 5. Stars Zero because I feel he is the most interesting character with the most depth and he has the most intriguing persona. (In my opinion.)

Date: August 16th 21XX

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Login Confirmed.

The reploid, Maverick Hunter Rank A, Head of Special Unit Team 0, fittingly, known only as Zero, opened his startlingly emerald eyes. Login confirmed. He had been deactivated for the past eight hours. Well, the others hadn't needed him and it had given him a chance to recharge his internal systems, and for the internal repair job to begin. And he did not have to think.

Did Reploids think?

Whatever it was, he liked it not.

Memories of Iris and the Colonel . . . he pushed them away, he disliked the feelings it gave him, he had no control . . . over his emotions. Robots built for war but who carried with them the knowledge to discern between right and wrong, and with that the burden of emotions. Among them guilt. What a sick twist. He paused to admire the irony.

But that alone was not all that bothered him as of late. Every time he was deactivated . . . when a Reploid is deactivated, like a robot or a machine, it is inanimate and lies dormant until it is reactivated. Therefore the mind is blank, there is nothing, not even an awareness of time.

However . . . Every time Zero closed his eyes during deactivation he saw images. How does one see images when one's eyes are closed? Stranger yet where the images . . .

A room. A well furnished room in a house. A human room in a human house. He could tell no Reploid dwelt there because no Reploid would need a couch with satin pillows, a carpet, or obscure paintings hanging from the walls. And the flowers, there were so many vases filled with flowers. They were not all in his programming, even, he did not recognize them.

This was odd because Zero had never been in a human's house before. Not once, a laboratory, yes, but never a house, he had never stood in a human's house like that before.

Then there was the figure. The adult human female, she was not facing him, she was arranging the flowers in one of the vases. He saw her from the back, he could not move, they were only images blurring before him. The long dark brown hair that hung over her shoulders, the white sweater. She was without doubt a human female.

Zero had never known a human.

She turned, without mistake, every time and smiled at him.

Though he had never met this person.

She smiled, and yet there was some deeply rooted sadness between the smile, it faded and her eyes were sad, clouded in that very human thing . . . emotion. Sorrow. He knew that emotion.

That was all there was. Every time he was deactivated.

It was bothersome.

He had never known a human female. He had never stood in a human house.

Why was he bothered with this thing.

Zero had never told any of the other Hunters. Reploids did not see things during deactivation. What if it was a sign he was turning Maverick?

. . .

He was not particularly close with any of them, either, he preferred to distance himself, the less they knew about him the better.

Of course there was one exception to that. Always one exception.

Speak of the devil, a blue Reploid walked in just at that moment, as Zero was rising from his capsule. "Zero, have a nice rest?" He asked.

"X . . ." The red coloured Reploid shook his head and smiled despite his heavy thoughts. "What do you say we head to the training hall, I've had . . . a lot on my mind lately."

"I see." X paused, he knew what had happened between Zero and Iris, and how it had ended. He had no idea what Zero was thinking though, his friend was an enigma, at best. He steered the subject away from whatever Zero's mind might have been pondering. "You don't want to get out of shape, right? Let's go train together."

"X we are Reploids, is it possible for us to get out of shape? We do not generate muscle and fat storages as living tissue does, therefore are bodies do not change or grow without manual enhancements such as upgrading--"

"Sorry, sorry." X said. "It was just a joke. J-O-K-E. Maybe you should make one sometime."

" . . . Sorry."

"But then you never know with us Reploids, I mean we're programmed to have free will and even emotions so you never know . . ." X continued, almost to himself.

"Whatever. Let's go train, then." Zero said.

Did they truly have emotions, though? Zero wondered as he followed X through the halls of the Maverick Hunter's above-ground base. How would they know what emotions were like? Humans possessed genuine emotions, and theirs were said to mirror human behaviors but was that truly the same thing? How could they tell? When was the last time they were human?

"ZERO!!" The blue Reploid cried at what was the fullest volume of his voice.

"W--What? X, do you want to rupture my phonetic adaptors?" Zero shook his head and glared at the robot.

"Sorry but I asked you three times already! Do you want to fight as a team against one of the Mavericks Douglas constructed for us to practice on or do want to fight one on one?" X would have sighed if he breathed. But Reploids don't breathe.

"Oh, of course one on one is fine." There was the faintest trace of surprise on his friend's face. "Unless you think that will be to much of a challenge for yourself?"

"Uh--of course not--I just--" X stuttered, but regained himself. "I don't mind at all, let's do this thing!"

Zero's saber flashed across X's view, a quick flash of light, impossibly fast. Only he could have dogged it, he did with a diving roll and swung his buster arm around to face Zero. Zero was to fast for him, with lightning-fast reflexes he flipped up above the robot's head and landed behind him, before X could turn he felt a sudden sharp pain in his buster arm. Without looking, because he would hate the sight of it, X could feel the weightless hollow where his arm had been and the sound of snapping and sparking wires.

There was something different in Zero's eyes just then, he thought. They weren't . . . Zero's eyes.

Perhaps he was wrong, for just as the thought had formed in his mind Zero had caught him before X hit the ground and was supporting his fellow Maverick Hunter with concern. "Heh . . . sorry, I thought you would dodge that for sure. Guess I got carried away."

"It's . . . okay . . ." X said but his voice was strained.

Reploids. Their main purpose was war, but they felt the sensation of pain.

Ah, irony.

Lifesaver was in his shop when the automatic door slid open, he looked up and by for of habit smiled to greet Zero, when his eyes took in the scene. "Oh my . . . what in the world happened?" He asked, and went to aid Zero, who was helping X walk. "Your arm . . ."

"Just a . . . training accident." X told him.

An accident? Lifesaver wondered. Zero was not notorious for mistakes. Least of all when training with his closest companion. But there wasn't time for many thoughts, the two of them helped X to the examination table. "I'm not sure what I can do for you, exactly, X." Lifesaver said worriedly, as he rummaged around his work area. "Your programming is far to complex, Dr. Light--" He paused to take something to X's shoulder -- Zero could not see it, but X's body relaxed afterwards. "I severed the nero link, so you feel no pain. Now I'll need to run some scans and I'll need to get in touch with Dr. Light's hologram to help . . ."

"This might help." Zero handed him X's arm. Lifesaver took it with a grimace and set it aside. But he did not trust Zero, he had been to suspicious for to long, and now this.

His eyes were not his own.

Only his imagination?