Conscience
By A.R. Carpenter
Zero, Harpuia, Ciel, and Alouette (c) CAPCOM.
This story is copyrighted 2004 by A.R. Carpenter, reproduction of any part of this story in any medium is prohibited, unless with written permission from the author. Measures will be taken against anyone who alters, copies, distributes, or claims authorship. If you do, I get to send you on a one-way trip to the Threshold of Pain.
--
"Miserable." Harpuia noted.
The wet marshes were always the same around this time of year, where the wind and rain slicked this place into a muddy hole, large trees and vines twisting through it like a maze. It was a horrible place to be, because the stinging cold mud would chill you to the bone, but the foliage was thick and it was easy to get lost in … and a perfect place to hide.
That was the main reason he was sent to patrol the area from the air on his off days – a smart move, but not a savoury one. On top of the miserable coldness, it was also as boring as hell to look at. He envied his lucky sister Leviathan, who got to patrol the lovely sea and shore, despite the fact it ticked him off on how she'd rub it in his face.
It was so boring, in fact, that when he detected a small sound down below, he practically skidded to a stop and wasted no time in pinpointing the origin.
He drifted down through the cold misty air, frost gathering on his armour as he reached the muddy ground, small flecks of mud flying behind him as he flew. He bobbed lightly through the marshes, acutely homing in on the sound until, out of the shadowy mist, he saw a small form. His sharp green eyes focused on it, and within a second he realized it was a small reploid girl.
She was nothing more than a child; she could barely reach his waist in height. She looked utterly pitiful, kneeling in the mud, clutching a dirty and wet plush toy. Her golden hair was plastered across her face with mud, her pink dress encrusted with grime, and tears fell unbidden from wide blue eyes. Her quiet sobbing permeated through the marsh.
"Mama … mama, I'm lost! I'm lost! Come find me!" she cried.
Harpuia couldn't help but pity her, and he shut off his hovering ability, his boots sinking into the mud. As he stepped closer to the girl, she heard the muddy footsteps and snapped her head up, overjoyed that someone found her. But as her eyes rested upon his armoured form and they froze with realization, she let out a piercing scream of terror. She leapt up from her spot and ran blindly into the marshes.
"Stop!" Harpuia cried out, perplexed and horrified by her reaction, "Come back!"
When she didn't listen to him, he took a few vigorous lopes through the mud before flying off through the woods, shooting after her like a cork from a bottle. She was smaller than him and could hear him behind her, and he found it difficult to follow her as she darted through every twist and crevice in the marshes. But he was determined to follow her, and zipped through the maze of trees, leaves slapping mud and water against his face.
"Please!" he cried again, "Come back! Why are you running away?"
She ignored him, moving ahead. Frustrated and anxious, Harpuia reached for one of his blades and activated it, blasting ahead with increased speed. Whipping his blade in thick, heady strokes he tore foliage out of his way, allowing him to decrease the gap between them both. He could clearly see her form now, completely drenched and filthy by this point.
His eyes snapped up, noticing an irregularity in the area in front of them – the trees had parted just before steep incline, sharp and deep. The young girl seemed completely oblivious to what she was running towards, and Harpuia realized that if he was going to save her, it had to be now. Pushing his flight to such speed that he broke the tree limbs on contact, he swooped down onto her.
But he was a fraction too late, and with a muddy skid and a shriek, the girl tumbled over the side, starting to roll down the sharp incline. Harpuia dove down it after her, flying so quickly the mud around him flew up in waves, his arms grasping out before plucking her from the mud and shooting off into the sky.
He clutched her close as he hovered in mid-air, puffing mightily from his exertion and wincing from the stinging pain from the foliage that had slapped his face. He softly floated back to solid ground, placing her gently on the ground and trying to part the mud off her face to see if she had sustained any injuries. Luckily for her, most of the mud had cushioned her fall and she was merely shaken. He gave a long sigh of relief.
"Are you alright?" Harpuia asked, and the girl blinked at him. When the terrified look came across her face, Harpuia grabbed her firmly by the shoulders, "Please, don't run! You almost got yourself killed."
Nonetheless, she grimaced at him, "Let me go! Let me go!"
"Why are you doing this? Why are you running away from me?"
"You're a evil man!" she cried out indignantly, scowling at him.
That made Harpuia pause, staring back into wide blue eyes. It wasn't the accusation she shot him with – he had heard dozens of such things before, usually the pathetic dying words of his enemies in their rage or despair. He usually gave them no heed.
"The battlefield is no place for accusations or insults, Harpuia." His wise elder brother Phantom had said.
But it was from whom he was getting this accusation that was making him pause this time. She was only a little naïve girl, but she was innocent and yet her eyes accused him in the same manner of those he had destroyed. Something twisted sharply within his gut, sending waves of pain right through every nerve in his body.
He allowed his hands to slide limply off her shoulders and stepped back, letting her stand up and wipe mud off her dress. He eventually asked, "…Why do you think that?"
"Because you hurt people." She replied, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"But that's my job, you see – those rebel reploids are a threat to Neo Arcadia and humanity. I have to stop them, I – "
"That's not true!" she snapped, "They never hurt anyone in their whole lives, and they never hurt you! They couldn't hurt you even if they wanted to! You just hunt them down and hurt them for no good reason!"
"But I have a reason!"
"It's not a good enough reason!" she said fiercely, and with surprising resolve from someone her age, "There's no good enough reason!"
Harpuia bit his lip as the feeling in his gut was ached twice as hard.
"Sometimes … it isn't that simple. I know it might not be fair, but sometimes you need to make sacrifices for the good of everyone else. It is my duty as a General to protect humanity no matter … what the cost may be."
She frowned, "That's not a good reason."
"But if you had to choose between destroying a few reploids and dooming humanity, which would you pick?"
"I'd think there'd be a better way than to kill everybody. My mama says if people have the ability, and even the right, to end other's lives … they should also have enough justice, responsibility, and ethics to try and find another way."
"But there isn't!"
"Have you tried?"
"…No, but I don't make that decision! The only one I can make is to wither or not to protect humanity. I made the choice to save humanity, even at the cost of some reploids."
"If you have the choice between protecting your family and 'dooming' humanity, which would you pick?"
Harpuia stared at her, "What?"
"You have a family, right?"
"Yes."
"So, which would you save?"
Harpuia struggled with the question. His first instinct was to instantly say that he would save humanity, but then it tumbled under the very thought of losing his brothers, sister, and master. He felt like his heart was being torn apart on the very idea.
"And," she said, interrupting his thoughts, "What if the reason people wanted to hurt your family was because they didn't try to find another way? Wouldn't that make you angry?"
"Yes, it would," Harpuia said, "But what is your point?"
"You keep thinking that hurting people is okay because you think of them as a sacrifice. Because you don't think of what it'd be like. If you put yourself in their situation, then you'll realize it isn't as simple as a few casualties, right?"
"…I…I suppose," he mumbled, before his mind suddenly pounced on a sudden realization. He looked at her, "Why do you say 'family'? Do you know them?"
Her face was hesitant, "…No."
"Don't lie," he snapped, "Are you a member?"
"They're my family!" she declared, staring up at him fearlessly.
"Your family?" he echoed, "How can that be? Who is your 'mama'?"
"Miss Ciel is my mama!"
Harpuia's jaw dropped in shock. This girl thought that the human scientist was her 'mama'? Finally things were starting to make more sense, "And … Zero?"
"Zero's new. But he's my friend."
"He's a criminal," Harpuia said sharply, "He hurts people too."
"Not innocent people. And it's only because he's trying to protect me and everyone else! You are the guys who hurt us first!"
"But they're lying to you! Master X has declared they're rebels against humanity!"
She peered at him, "How do you know Mister X isn't lying to you?"
"He wouldn't do that!" Harpuia snapped, his anger boiling, "Every Maverick must be destroyed! For the good of everyone else!"
"Me too?"
That shut off Harpuia's anger like a faucet, "W-what?"
"I've been called Maverick too. Something to do with my energy systems and my low productivity. Something like that," she said, "So, if killing every Maverick is for the good of everyone else, shouldn't you destroy me or something?"
Harpuia's hand gripped on his deactivated blade unconsciously, running that thought through his mind. If she had been declared Maverick then it was his duty to destroy her. Master X had told him constantly that it was for the best for everyone, how they were only a small part of a larger picture, it had to be done. But staring her in the face, in the cold and misty marshes, none of that made any more sense.
She is only a child.
He desperately tried to reason his way out of accepting that. Child or not, she was still a Maverick and had to be destroyed. And she wouldn't stay a child forever; even now she could be helping the resistance, who were actively staging a rebellion. He rattled off a thousand different excuses and reasons, but the ache in his gut was pulsing harder than ever, chanting that fact back at him.
You can't do this, and you know it.
That was the truth, and his mind went dry when he tried to refute it. There was no excuse, no justification, no petty reason he could give that would allow him to do it. He simply couldn't.
His face started burning with shame, horrified by his own weakness before a girl who wasn't a threat to him in the least. He was one of the holy Generals who descended upon countless enemies like the vicious harpies he was named after, a terror of the skies. But he all came screeching to a halt before her.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"…Yes. Yes, I'm fine."
"It's okay if you don't want to. There's nothing to be ashamed about."
He swallowed thickly, "I can't do my duty if I feel like this."
"It's your conscience. It's not a bad thing, as long as you do what's right."
He snorted, "Why do I need a damned conscience?"
"Because if you didn't have a conscience, you wouldn't have a soul."
That was also the truth. And he knew that too.
--
Zero loped through the marshes, flicking his wet and dirty hair from his face, squinting through the mist. The mud was so wet he couldn't find any tracks from Alouette, and he didn't dare call out for her. Everywhere he looked was the same, the dark trees looming in the mist – if he didn't have a map with him, he'd be lost beyond the telling of it.
"This is a wild goose chase." He growled to himself, bringing himself to a stop. He grimaced as he sunk in a few more inches into the mud, his legs already coated with grime. His anger flared up a little, seething at the result yet another Alouette's 'exploration parties', but he bottled it all down – she was just a kid, after all.
As he tried to decide what to do, his hearing sensors picked up a very slight hum on the wind, somewhere above the trees. His mind automatically snapped into gear – he knew what that sound meant, and peering through the canopy above he could barely make out Harpuia's outline. There was a good chance that Harpuia hadn't seen him yet, so if he timed this just right, he might be able to –
"Hello…? Any one down there?" came a light, high voice. Zero face-faulted.
Then he realized whose voice that was – that was Alouette! The General must have caught her on one of his patrols. He stalked after Harpuia, dread and seething anger pumping through his body. If he didn't horribly dislike Harpuia before, he was going to tear the General apart for this.
He saw Harpuia begin to descend downwards towards a clearing up ahead, and Zero moved through the shadows and perched just on the rim of the clearing, ready for an ambush. He saw the General land neatly into the mud and place Alouette down, and waited for that one moment when – there!
With one ferocious battle cry Zero tore forwards towards him, his hand whipping his z-sabre down in a large arc of blazing neon green. It clashed angrily against Harpuia's pink blade, the General just barely able to fend off the attack with both arms. Harpuia looked surprised and rather startled, never seeing Zero this angry before.
As the two of them pressed their weapons together, glaring at each other through the blazing light of their weapons, Zero rasped, "Alouette, get behind me."
"Okay." She replied, running off to the safety of his shadow.
Zero's eyes narrowed at Harpuia, "If you've made but one scratch on her, I'm going to tear out your guts."
"I didn't hurt her!" Harpuia said.
"Like I can believe you!"
"Ask her yourself!"
Alouette tugged lightly on Zero's arm, "Zero…"
"Not now."
"But Zero, mister Harpuia saved me!"
Zero paused. He took his eyes off Harpuia to gaze at her over his shoulder, "That true?"
She nodded, "Uh huh. He saved me from falling and then took me here to help me find someone to take me home!"
Zero's eyes darted back to Harpuia, the rage in his eyes simmering away. He paused for a moment, "Truce?"
"Truce." Harpuia replied, before they both backed off, deactivating and sheathing their weapons.
"You okay?" Zero asked, patting Alouette on the head.
"I'm all dirty and cold." She replied sullenly.
"We'll get you cleaned up back home," Zero said, before looking at Harpuia. He gave an uncertain grimace, before saying, "Thank you for rescuing her."
"You're welcome." Harpuia replied quietly.
Zero couldn't help but raise an eyebrow, "You've certainly had an odd change of heart."
Harpuia merely gazed back at him, looking oddly tired, "…Yes, I suppose I have."
And then the other two reploids watched as he activated his wings, and flew off into the misty sky.