ZERO

Chapter 4

Fan Fiction by Senya

twilight_rhapsody@hotmail.com

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

Author's Note: Thanks for the kind reviews, you guys are so nice :) hope I don't disappoint!

May saw Zero staring at the photograph and immediately turned it face down.

"Who is that . . . in the photograph?" He asked.

"N--no one." May answered nervously.

"Who is it?!" He repeated. He knew something here was important, it kept tugging at his mind. But he just couldn't know what it was. . .

"It's . . . it was my boyfriend, taken four years ago, in Niagra Falls." She answered softly. "But it doesn't matter now, does it? He died four years ago."

He died.

Four years ago.

Then it was all just a coincidence. Because he, Zero, had been just that--Zero, four years ago. What idiocy, of course he had! He'd been around for longer than this human had been alive, in fact, so therefore--

Suddenly something erupted in the back of his mind, it was like a tidal wave--a flood of something, and it seemed to overload the system. Everything in his eyes flashed white and was gone, he felt himself falling forwards.

"Zero?!" X exclaimed, as his friend toppled over forwards without warning.

May cried out and jumped backwards to avoid being crushed by the tall (and probably very heavy) reploid.

He collapsed on the ground in her living room, causing the furniture to shudder.

He was in a hospital, it was so white--glowing, no, maybe it was his eyes, everything was blurred and hazy--shaking. He was walking down one of the long hallways, human nurses and doctors where watching him. Why . . .?

He came to the end of the hallway, the human--May--was there, she was talking with one of the doctors--human doctors. When he came up to her she looked at him and smiled but it was obviously feigned. There were tears resting her eyes. She turned quickly away.

"Zero?! Zero!!" X was calling him, it sounded from far away, but his head was ringing, Zero touched a hand to his helmet to steady his head, the world swayed beneath him.

"Stop yelling." He mumbled, slowly rising to his feet, he felt like crap but there was no way on Earth he was letting that human know it. She was beginning to freak him out enough as it was.

"A--are you okay?" She asked. There was concern in her eyes. No . . . fear . . . ?

Blasted human emotions. He could never figure them out.

"I'm fine." He answered in his usual nonchalant voice.

He remembered the--the vision--what was it?

"I know this sounds stupid but . . . I've been somewhere with you before, haven't I?" Zero asked her. "A human hospital."

Her eyes widened. "Oh no." She said in a whisper. "No, no, no, this isn't happening. I'm sorry you'll have to leave now." She began to walk towards the door.

"Wait." Zero grabbed her arm. "I need you to talk to me! How do I know you?"

"You don't!" She practically yelled. "Let go of me!"

May tried to jerk her arm out of the reploid's grasp but he was to strong.

It was strange, the feeling of a robot's hand. It was . . . cold.

"I KNOW I know you!" Zero practically yelled back.

What was he doing? Losing his cool over a human like this? Zero released her arm.

She stepped backwards a few feet, rubbing her arm. "You're a reploid." She said, shaking her head. "Why should I say anything to you? Get out of my house before I call the police!"

Now he was angry! "Why you--if it weren't for us Maverick Hunters you and all of your human friends would have been killed by Mavericks and Sigma a hundred times over!"

". . . . . ."

X stepped forwards and tried to calm Zero down. "Come on, Zero, let's go, she's not going to tell us anything."

"I CAN'T leave now!" Zero protested. "I have to know what this means! Why do I see your face when I sleep?!"

". . . . . ."

A voice in the back of her mind: Doesn't he have the right to know? Isn't it partly your fault, anyways? What right do you have to deny him the truth if he really wants to know?

Are you going to torment the man you loved?

*But he isn't a man anymore, just a replicate. A facsimile. That's all any of them are. Reploids.*

But she sighed, and drawing a shaky breath looked Zero straight in the eye, there was a strange look on her face. "You really want to know the truth, huh?"

Zero nodded.

"Alright . . . Zero. I'll tell you. The truth is I'm not really twenty-two, I'm more like a hundred and fifty two. Secondly, that photograph was taken when I was eighteen, which was back in the age of Megaman and Rush Dog. And thirdly, my name was not originally May Mistweaver--I had it legally changed--it was originally May Wily. Grand-daughter of the infamous Dr. Wily."

The two reploids where shocked into silence, their eyes wide in shock. They couldn't even think of anything to say: May Wily continued.

She cleared the air with her hand, and sat down on the couch. "The man in the photograph was Nathan Soland, my boyfriend. Back then . . . I had no idea of my grandfather's evil schemes to control the world and destroy Megaman. Everything was just . . . great. Just great. Then of course it all had to get blown to hell!" The human took another deep breath, shaky, there were almost invisible tears falling from her eyes as she spoke. She was no longer looking at Zero, but at the photograph, having retrieved it from the coffee table. "But Nathan had a lot of health problems . . . he was almost always sick or in the hospital. He was so frail! When the Doctor's told me he had only a year or so left to live . . .I . . . I didn't know what to do! I--I knew that my grandfather was a scientist, and since my father had died when I was young he'd always had a special place in his heart for me.

Wily told me he had a great idea--he would change the reploid he was working on--which would have been a near duplicate to Dr. Light's X project, to a reploid that would be made in the image of Nathan. I--I didn't know! I DIDN'T KNOW!!" May began to cry harder, her voice broke off and she covered her face with her hands, sobbing uncontrollably.

X was to stunned to speak, but his instinct to help people, drove him to move towards the pained human, until Zero raised a hand to stop him.

Zero himself was the one who moved to May, the one who--summoning what tenderness he could, for he had never done so before--held her in his arms and--trying his best to be gentle--stroked her brown hair.

She stopped crying suddenly, and wiped the tears from her eyes. "No that isn't all. Zero, you were that reploid, obviously, but it wasn't only your appearance that my grandfather used. He was a mad man! If I had known that at the time I--" She took another breath. "To make the reploid he needed something more. Keep in mind that you, Zero, together with X, were the first reploids ever to made with free will and thoughts and emotions. Because Wily didn't really know how to do it--or maybe just because he was insane--he used the brain wave patterns and DNA structure of Nathan as the blueprint for what he would use in his reploid."

Zero understood. He had been modeled, not only in appearance after a real human man, but also his mind. And that man had been her boyfriend. So that was how . . . he knew her.

"But. . ." She continued, "Wily was to insane, he made you, Zero, for the purpose of destroying Megaman. And when you were activated you were--insane as well. You not only killed Megaman but you killed my grand father, and me as well. You killed me, Zero."

"No . . ." He said. "But you're here right now."

She laughed bitterly. "Oh really? Real humans don't live one hundred and fifty years! I don't even look fifty, do I? Not even close! You see, I should have died, with the wounds you gave me! I WANTED to die! But the other scientist that surrounded Wily and kissed his butt all day rebuilt my body. I'm the 'apple of their eye' you could say, half human, half machine. They never once stopped to think that maybe I didn't want to live on like this! Some of their sons or grandsons still come by from time to time apologizing but it will never be enough."

". . . I'm sorry." He said, it sounded worthless, those words.

How can you apologize for killing some body? Just like Iris . . . history runs in loops.

"It was never your fault." May shook her head. "You never asked to be created. It was my fault, for not being able to deal properly with my loss. But I--"

Suddenly the house shook violently, furniture slid and toppled over, a great explosion tore through their ears. For a moment the world was silent. Then, in a flash sirens wailed and the screams of people and reploids alike on the street outside rose over them like a torrent. "What's going on?" X cried, he ran to the front windows and peered out. "The city is under attack, Zero, it's Mavericks!"

"Damn!" Zero joined him, outside a group of Mavericks tore down the street. They were larger than average, taller than the humans. "They seem to be in a definite group." Zero said quietly, "Notice how they follow that big one in the front, I bet he's the leader."

"So we take him out and the rest are no problem!" X finished. "Let's go!"

The Maverick Hunters raced to the street, X powered his Buster, and Zero drew his saber. The Mavericks stopped when they saw the two reploids.

"You aren't going to run like the others?" Laughed one, he was tall, his armor was the colour of wine and it displayed long yellow fangs and nails almost like talons. Its eyes glowed red for a moment, eyeing them. "Maverick Hunters . . ." He hissed.

"That's right! I'm X and this is Zero! So stop terrorizing these civilians right now or we'll have no choice but to fight you!" X shouted.

Zero said nothing, he tightened his grip on the saber. Mavericks never listened to reason.

The fanged Maverick laughed, just as Zero had expected, "Ha! I want to fight! Puny reploids, we're not afraid of you! We're not afraid of anything! You aren't even aware of how much you're totally capable of until after you ascended to Maverick freedom!"

"You mean descend into Maverick insanity!" X tried, but a second Maverick, a large emerald coloured female fired at him. X dodged it expertly, but the time for talk was past, Zero leapt at the fanged Maverick, X took the emerald one.

Zero leapt at it, but this Maverick had a surprise--wings, they burst from his back while Zero was in mid-air, large bat-like things that spread out--black. It made a hissing sound at Zero and swiftly moved out of his path. Zero turned the leap into a diving roll and landed on the ground, he leapt to his feet and spun around. The Maverick was diving down after him, Zero swung his saber around and thrust it between the robot's eyes. It screeched as the saber tore through it, its head fell into two pieces and the body collapsed, the head a mess of sparking wires and spilling Maverick-blood.

The leader set his sights on Zero at that, he was the largest of the Mavericks, at least twelve feet tall, and with an enormous shoulder span and huge arms. He was bronze in colour, but his eyes were black, and he grinned wickedly, leaping down at Zero and punching him from behind.

X fired his fully charged Buster at the emerald Maverick, she laughed and spun out of the way, then doubled-back, preformed a leaping flip and before X knew what hit him she had landed on his head. Her boots dug into his shoulder and the impact caused his knees to buckle. He managed to fling her off, she collided with a parked car. The windshield smashed. She looked at X with fire in her eyes and screaming leapt at him, from her hands nails like razors shot out, she swung them at him. X dove backwards, and swung his buster arm at her, he fired and the shot struck her point blank. It was over.

Zero buckled under the massive blow of the Maverick leader. He turned around, raising his saber. "You think you can beat me?" The Maverick asked.

"No . . ." Said Zero, in a split second he leapt and spun up around the Maverick, kicking his knees out and holding his saber at the robot's neck. ". . . I know I can beat you."

With one swipe of Zero's glowing saber the fight was finished. The leader's head spun through a close by store window sending shards of glass raining across the street.

Zero and X nodded to each other from opposite ends of the street, the Mavericks were deleted, the city was safe.

May came out of her house shakily and looked around at the destruction. It wasn't actually all that bad to the Maverick Hunter's eyes, but regular people--human people--were rarely truly exposed to such a scene. "Is it . . . over?" She asked.

Zero nodded. "Your city is safe."

". . . For the time being, at least."

He did not reply.

"Sorry, I don't mean to sound ungrateful. . . . Well that's that, good bye." May turned back to her house.

"Wait!" Zero called. "After all I know . . . you want me to just forget about you?!"

She turned half ways towards facing him, the one eye he could see was filled with tears. ". . . I wish you would. I'm sorry, Zero, but you are just a reploid. I don't know if it means you are more than a human, or less than a human, but you aren't a human. You can't feel the wind brush gently along the back of your arms, you can't feel the crisp freshness of autumn, or know the joy of wading over pebbles in a merry brook in the heart of summer. And regardless of what the scientist's may say . . . I don't believe that you can know love either, not truly. So . . . it hurts me to look at you. You aren't Nathan. You're just his gravestone."

Author's Note: Well it's not the end (I wouldn't end it like this) things are going to get even crazier in the next chapter-- "INSANITY"--just wait! Oh yeah, and for purposes of my fan fiction can we all just pretend that Zero learned about being created by Wily and killing Megaman back in the ending of X 4 instead of X 5 'cause I couldn't write my fanfiction to take place between X 5 and X 6 because Zero was dead then and after X 6 he went away so that's why it ends up like this, kind of messed up, but oh well, it is just a fan fiction after all! Also X knows about Zero killing Megaman in this because he wasn't surprised when May mentioned that (this just makes more sense . . . I fear to many surprises in one day and my dear reploids would die on me -_-; ) C ya in Chapter 5!!