Search for a Soul
Chapter 10
"The unthinkable"
By MEGAMANX411

X slowly opened his eyes in the morning to be greeted by the gentle beams of sunlight coming through the windows. He sat up, and rubbed his eyes, trying to find out if this beautiful day could possibly be real. Mega Man X marveled at how he felt. He hadn't felt this way in such a long time, he had almost forgotten how joy could affect the soul. And for that matter, he wasn't plagued by the debate of wheter or not he had a soul. X smiled as he fondly remembered back to the events that transpired last night--his night with Alia. X was simply fascinated that he felt this good, that he wasn't being beaten down with sorrow. He decided to go greet Alia in the morning, and follow up on the conversation he had last night. After all, he couldn't finish what he was going to say, and surprisingly, he was feeling pretty confident.

X got to his feet, and leisurely made his way to Alia's quarters. He was really surprised how confident he felt today. Normally, he wouldn't consider even going near Alia's room without her expressed written permission first. Today though, he was just in a really good mood. He thought maybe he could treat Alia to a nice breakfast or something, or maybe they could just chat. It didn't matter, he just wanted to see her and talk to her. He knocked on the door.

"Alia?"X asked. "Good morning!"

There was no response. He waited for a little while longer. X then got a little worried and curious, and knocked on the door again. It was possible that she just left early, but still, he was getting a strange feeling. Suddenly, the good feeling he had when he woke up was starting to fade away.

"Alia? Are you in there?" he asked.

X was starting to get really worried. He debated whether or not he should go in and check. He did admit that if Alia was sound asleep, he would feel incredibly embarassed, and he wasn't so sure about going into her room without her permission. Still, he was getting worried. He wasn't sure what to do. He stood there for a moment, just wondering whether or not he should go in. He checked the lock--it was unlocked. Almost against his better judgement, X opened the door, and peered inside. No one was in there. Things weren't really messy at all, so it didn't seem like there was a struggle or anything.

"Maybe she's already up...I'll just go look for her around HQ," he reasoned.

X left Alia's room immediately. Truthfully, he felt kind of bad about going in, and he vowed to apologize once he saw Alia. He slowly walked through Maverick Hunter HQ and searched every room, but he found no trace of Alia. Not a single clue. Things were starting to get really strange. He then tracked down Signas in his office. Signas was, of course, doing some more paperwork. He was a real busybody, so he was often busy with work. Still though, X figured that he could take a second of Signas' time to just ask if he had seen Alia.

"Hey Signas...have you seen Alia?"X asked.

Signas' attention went to X, but his face was buried in some records he was holding. He didn't look up at all, but X assumed that he had his attention regardless.

"No, I haven't seen her today," Signas replied, his voice rather emotionless.

"Do you have any idea where she might be?" X asked, becoming a bit more worried.

"She didn't say anything...is there something wrong, X?" Signas asked, a hint of concern now evident in his voice.

"I can't find her anywhere..." X whispered.

"Hm..well, let's see if I can track her down," Signas replied.

Signas brought his finger up to a comlink he was wearing, and tried contacting Alia. There was no response. That was incredibly strange. Alia was one to always have some kind of communication device on her, and she always let people know where she was going. She was very smart, and made sure that everything was properly taken care of so someone could get a hold of her if they needed to. The fact that they couldn't get through to her now was very odd indeed. Signas tried to calling her again. Still, there was no response. X grew tense.

"She's not answering. It is possible she's somewhere nearby, maybe in the city, and simply isn't wearing her comlink...although that's rather improbable, considering Alia's personality..." Signas muttered.

X clenched his fist tightly, and his eyes narrowed. He had an idea of where this was going, but he chose not to believe it. He couldn't believe it. This couldn't happen now. His life was just beginning to turn around thanks to Alia. Why was it that something bad had to happen now? The feeling of fear began to creep into X's heart. It was like some kind of nameless demon strangling his happiness.

"I'm going to look for her..." he whispered, running off.

Signas wasn't entirely sure of what to say to X at this point, but he decided to let him look for Alia. While he did that, he could help by trying to track her down. But of course, he wanted to keep in mind the distinct possibility that Alia was captured. He decided to get some more support on the matter. Calling in Maverick Hunter HQ's top-ranked Maverick Hunter was now necessary.

"Zero, you there?" Signas asked.

Zero casually walked into the room. He didn't seem to know what was going on,and he certainly wasn't letting anything get to him. He appeared as calm as ever. It wasn't so much that he was cold, it was just that he was very serious.

"Alia's gone. X is looking for her, and I'm trying to track her down. I smell foul play," Signas explained.

Zero nodded, keeping his cool. He was trying to be reasonable and open to ideas.

"Have any leads on who could've captured her?"Zero asked.

Zero took the immediate assumption she was kidnapped. He generally assumed the worst, so he wouldn't be surprised or disappointed. Even so, he was still pretty angry that these Mavericks would do something like this. They would pay. Meanwhile, X was frantically searching the city streets. He ran outside as fast as he could, and he was trying to be as thorough as possible. He went everywhere he could think of going. He ran as fast as he could, and because of his abilities, that was pretty fast. He checked stores of all kinds, apartments, any place he could think of. Each place he went to, however, didn't have the person he was looking for.

"Alia! Alia! Can you hear me!"X shouted, becoming increasingly worried. "Alia! Alia! Where are you? It's me X!"

X received plenty of stares from confused citizens, some of which jeered at his apparent worry. X ran to every place he could think. He probably searched the entire city with his sensors, and by foot, he searched almost the same area. He was trying to be as thorough as possible. He simply couldn't shake the horrible fear inside of him. This just wasn't fair. His life was getting better, and Alia was the one helping him. She made him feel better, that was all. Why did she have to suffer? It wasn't fair at all! She did nothing wrong!

I'm the Maverick Hunter! Why don'tthey just attack me directly? Why? Why is this happening?thought X.

He had searched everywhere, and he couldn't find her. He felt so helpless. Alia, the one person to finally make him feel better, was missing, and he couldn't find her. It was tearing him up inside. He felt like some primal force was eating him away. In the midst of a crowded street, all X could think of was Alia. He simply screamed her name as loud as he could.

"Allliiaaaaa!"X screamed. "Where are you?"

X fell to his knees, and a defeated look washed over his face. This couldn't be happening. She was gone. She was just with him yesterday. It felt like they would have all the time they needed, but no, Alia was now taken away from him. A familiar but even more potent sadness came back to haunt X. He could feel his depression coming back into him. It was so overpowering, he couldn't withstand it. He finally broke down. A few tears cascaded down his cheeks, and he buried his face in his hands.

"She's gone...she's gone..."X whispered to him.

Meanwhile, many people congregated to see the famous X crying his eyes out. For an average human, seeing a reploid cry was pretty uncommon. It was downright strange. Although they technically had the ability to do so, it was definitely out of the ordinary. Reploids had a different social status than humans in some respects; reploids were generally firm and calm whereas humans were more expressive and dramatic. At least, that was kind of a social stereotype. X completely defied that through his actions. The faces of the humans didn't seem to matter to X. He couldn't see them anyway, his face was buried in his hands. He could still hear their voices though.

"Hey, it's that Maverick Hunter, X!" one human observed.

"Look at him!" another added.

"He's crying! He's actually crying!" muttered another passerby.

"Man, what a complete wuss...what sort of war machine is broken down to tears?" one mocked.

X slowly got to his feet, and sifted through the crowd of people, not saying a word. He felt so angry and heartbroken. He had saved those same people time and time again, now they mock him? He simply didn't want to give them the time of day. He didn't look at them, he didn't pay any attention to them...he just wanted to leave. Some people laughed and chuckled, but X didn't say one word to them. If they were in his way, he kept walking. X walked all the way back to Maverick Hunter HQ. It was the longest walk he had ever taken in his entire life. X soon made his way back to HQ, and he slammed his fist down on the main computer console.

"Where is she?" he shouted, a single tear streaming down his face.

Signas sighed lightly. He couldn't help X, and he knew it. The guy that normally had all the answers was unable to help for once. Zero turned to face his friend, and was shocked to see him actually crying. He didn't know what to say either. Everyone was at a loss for words. Finally, Signas decided to speak up. He didn't know if it would help at all, but he just felt like he had to say something.

"We don't know.."Signas replied.

Just then, a signal came from the main computer. They had an incoming transmission. At last, something broke the silence, although it wasn't quite what they were hoping for. In fact, it made things even worse than before. X, Zero, and Signas looked at the screen in complete shock.