Another Kind of Nightmare
A Megaman X fanfiction by Black Mantle
E's Lessons"So, things have been kinda rough the last few years." Forte questioned; not so much as he really cared, but more to taunt his former comrade.
"No kidding. Aside from being left as scrap for 60 years, I'm rebuilt right in the middle of a war." E thought for a second. "Scratch that, the apocalypse. And now I really am facing what looks like the end of days."
"I am fully aware of what's been going on."
"You sure don't act like it."
"Don't expect everyone to act like you; I'm sure many reploids are accepting what's happening as a sign of things to come, not bothering to fight it as it's inevitable."
"Preposterous."
"Aren't we 'Mr. Smarty Pants', using such big words."
E returned an odd scowl at Forte. "Would you be serious for a minute, this is important!"
Forte raised a hand, indicating that he was going to pass on arguing over such a point and let E go on; although in the back of his mind he thought: (Tell it to the hand.)
"All reploids are being blamed for the mavericks, for the war that raged on for the last decade."
"Everyone is tired, they've given up on fighting; they spent ten years fighting Sigma, now they're fighting the humans. I doubt anyone cares anymore."
"Of course they care."
"You care, and I'm sure everyone cared; once. But no one is unfaltering, even the mightiest warriors tire of battle when there is nothing to do but battle; and at some point, even you will concede and let nature take its course."
"Nature? This isn't natural."
"We're machines, we're not natural either. I have no doubt that whatever god looks upon this forsaken world will eventually guide life back to it. It will be savage, brutal life; as big as the dinosaurs and twice as ugly. Survival of the fittest, with sharp claws and pointy teeth and fangs and it'll grab you and shred you and tear your insides out and spill it on the ground."
"Stop being so disgusting"
"Hey, life is messy; take it or die."
"There has to be something better, someway that we can live peacefully; and we won't have it if we don't stand up for ourselves."
"That's what the humans are doing, standing up for themselves; and unlike your pipe dream of a peaceful existence, they don't mind fighting to take it all for themselves. 'Survival of the fittest' you know."
"It's no dream, people and reploids have lived together."
"Yeah, and look where it got us. Humans liked it just fine when we were simple machines, but then we had to go and start thinking for ourselves; these stupid apes just don't like the fact that there's another sentient race with them on this planet."
"It's attitudes like that that make things worse."
"Attitudes, this isn't about attitudes, it's about fear plain and simple; after all that's happened, the humans are scared stiff that it might happen again."
"Fear…" E sighed; fear was something that he was all too familiar with.
"I see I touched a nerve." Forte wasn't apologetic.
E's tone had totally changed, from anger to solemn pitiful whimpering. "Can't they see what they're doing? Don't they see that by going through with this they're just causing more suffering? I spilt my heart out to them, and told them who I was."
"And nobody believed you… Aw, too bad; you played your one big trump card, and no one listened."
E grunted at the jester, who promptly stepped back to avoid any kind of assault.
"Then again, what did you really expect from these 'humans', you're just a copy after all."
"And what is that supposed to mean?"
"What do you call yourself now, 'E'? 'Elecman' is dead, you're just a copy; why would they listen to someone who's only been online for a few years."
"And what does that make you? 'F'? That would be pretty appropriate."
Forte started to dance a bit. "I'm no copy, I AM Forte. The one, the only."
"You can't be you were…"
"'Destroyed'?" Forte cut him off. "I suppose you also believe that Megaman is the one who killed Dr. Wily."
"What do you mean, Megaman did…" E stopped himself; no he didn't know that, that's what history has since recorded of the incident. Zero's message said that Megaman died fighting Wily, and the doctor died later from his injuries suffered in that battle; but Elecman himself was knocked out of commission before that, just like every other one of Wily's robots.
"I wasn't there when Megaman attacked; I left. I was tired of that old git, so I buggered off. If you thought I bit the big one then your memories are more corrupt than you thought. That was the problem, wasn't it? You've been in that scrap pile for so long that your memories decayed, and since you were rebuilt, they were copied, so there was no way to validate whether your memories were authentic or if they were created."
The taunting was infuriating E, but Forte was right. Accepting the truths that Forte spoke, he calmed down. But he still denied Forte any satisfaction. "They wouldn't listen to me, even if my memories were accurate to the millisecond. They just don't want to listen."
"Just what I was saying about humanity all along."
E mentally slapped himself for the opening.
"Humans don't trust reploids; the whole bit about your memory was just an excuse. Now if your memories were intact, they might be forced to listen to you; but they'd just come up with another excuse."
Forte looked at E, he could see how the reploid's electric heart was being ripped out, so he decided to throw him a bone. "There was something else, wasn't there? Something that the clarity of your memories had no effect on."
Forte paused while E was taking great interest. "You didn't see Wily build Zero, nor did you see him program the Nightmare virus. But I did, I was his assistant for a time. His constant ranting about his new super weapons, it was driving me bonkers; that's why I left, that's why I came back, and that's why I killed him."
E was dumbstruck, while Forte only smiled. "Then you can help me."
"I suppose I could. My memory would be far more reliable and much less open to contest."
"Then we have to get ready, we can go to the council…"
"'We'? What makes you think I would actually help you?"
"What?! You came here to reveal yourself, and you're not going to help?"
"Well, there really isn't anything in it for me."
E was getting infuriated. "Of course there is, what do you think is going to happen if the city passes B-154?"
"Then I'll leave, and I'd suggest you do the same."
"It won't stop here; this anti-reploid sentiment has to be stopped. It'll just spread further; there will be nowhere to go."
"Still doesn't bother me. I'm not a reploid; I'm just a simple robot. I may have learned quite a bit about humanity and emotions, but I don't have emotions of my own. I don't feel happy, or sad, or angry, or scared. I may act like I have emotions, but in reality, I have nothing to lose."
"Try convincing the humans of that."
"I don't need to; I'll destroy any who dares challenge me. Besides, they don't know who I am; they'll just think I'm some random robot, or was created as a non-reploid because of the fear that I'd go crazy with Wily's virus. This world is destroyed, and much of its history has vanished; no one but you knows who I am, and do you think they'll believe you now?"
All of this was too much for E, unable to comprehend the workings of this monster.
"I'll be seeing you around. And good luck with that B-150-whatever thing." Forte turned, swinging his cape in the wind, and started walking.
"What do you want?"
Forte stopped.
"What would it take for you to help us?"
Forte thought about it, he wondered what he could get from E, and decided it would more fun to keep him on hold for a while. "I haven't decided. But when I do, I'll call ya." Forte continued his march, eventually walking off the building and flying away.
"Wait a minute! I'm not done with you."
Forte didn't answer with words, but with power. He swung one arm around and aimed straight at E, firing one burst of energy that catapulted the reploid across the roof of the building and almost over the other side.
"Don't bother me. When I'm ready, I'll have my people call your people." Forte turned and floated away.
It took a few minutes for E to pick himself up after the blast.
(Where did he get that power?)
The conversation during supper focused on the strange robot that confronted E above ground.
Dr. Cain asked the important question to get the ball rolling. "So who is this 'Forty'?"
"Forte." E answered, emphasizing the "eh" at the end. "He was one of Wily's robots; I'm surprised there was no record of him."
"There are very few records of Wily's robots, since he was a criminal, he didn't bother registering any of his own creations; only those he reprogrammed were officially recorded, and for the others there were limited 'unofficial' records. And all that was distant history, little of which can be easily recovered now."
Dr. Cain's statements were a little eerie to E, and hit a little close to home; he was one of the robots Dr. Wily reprogrammed, and while Elecman would have thought nothing about being "registered", it was too close to what was now happening to the reploids for E's comfort. He shrugged them off to continue the conversation.
"Forte was one of Wily's attempts to defeat Megaman; basically he was trying to copy Megaman, giving his similar weapons and the ability to emulate the weapons of his enemies, with a big power boost. He even went so far to create a robotic canine companion, just like Megaman's dog Rush. He was tough, and Megaman was never able to defeat him, but Forte wasn't any more successful at destroying Megaman either; every time they fought it came out to a draw."
"But I thought all of Wily's robots were destroyed." Katie mused. "How did he survive? And how could he still be functioning to this day?"
"How did he survive? I was left for dead, and I'm here. Forte wasn't there when Megaman fought Wily, but he came back afterwards to finish the job. I don't remember all the details, but he had a bit of an attitude problem and walked out on Wily; after Wily finally defeated Megaman, it was Forte who came back and did the doctor in. At least that was his story. Besides, all that matters is he's here."
"Fine, but what do we do with him? He doesn't sound like the friendly sort, so why should we care?"
E did not like Arm's lack of interest. "Because he may be the proof we need. The city didn't take my memory seriously because it was corrupted, but they might listen to Forte; he wasn't sitting in a scrap heap for 60 years."
"Or they might reject him too." Dr. Cain didn't like shooting down the first bit of enthusiasm E had shown in weeks, but he had to interject with a bit of reality. "E, this is one of Dr. Wily's robots, a man who sought to destroy the world; do you think that they would be willing to take his testimony into consideration?"
"They considered mine, but rejected it because of my condition, and because there was no hard proof. But Forte wasn't almost destroyed like me, and more importantly, he knows more about Zero than I do; he's the one who stole the plans for X from Dr. Light, and Wily used them to create Zero."
"Are you sure about that?"
"I'm certain of that…" E that stopped and thought; the whole question over his reliability was how corrupted his memory was, how could he trust that this fact was true. "I'm pretty sure he did."
"You're pretty sure." Cain sighed. "E, maybe you should try thinking like your old self, more like a robot would. You're allowing your emotions to run rampant without sitting down and devising a clear plan, which you already have. You know full well what's at stake, and you must know that this plan is a serious long shot at best; the odds of Forte helping are low, and the odds that the city will listen are even lower. The cost of failure is too high to not have a back up plan. Look behind you."
E didn't have to turn, he knew what was there, but he did it all the same.
"The three of you are in danger, how much danger is a question, but it's enough that you should be concerned. You have to work together, and you need to help each other, and they need you to be ready and to do your part. It's quite possible that Forte may help, and the city may listen to him, or maybe they won't enact B-154 at all; but you have to be ready for the alternative. You're trying to prepare a vehicle to make your escape, you should complete it, and to be ready to leave if needed."
E nodded, of all of them it was so often the human who spoke with a clear mind and intelligence. "I suppose."
"Good."
Dr. Cain was ready for bed, and made one last pass through the house to make sure all the lights were out; in the kitchen was one light left on, with a large shadow looking out the large sliding glass door.
"Not sleepy?"
E turned back. "No."
"Katie not around?"
"I told her to go to bed, no sense keeping both of us awake."
"Are you expecting to see Forte out there?"
"Right now, I don't want to see anything out there."
Dr. Cain walked to the other door and looked out; instead of a night sky and a glowing moon was a rocky ceiling and slowly dimming halogen lamps.
"Well if you want to see nothing, that's exactly where to look for it."
Dr. Cain looked down and noticed that E was holding the Elecman plush doll. "So is that a comfort doll now?"
E looked down at it and gazed on the happy face that didn't spark the same laugh in him that it did yesterday.
"I was trying to remember what the past was like. Forte was not only a kick in the teeth, but he also shook up my memories."
"You think you recall something you didn't before?" Dr. Cain pondered that, robotic memory was more organized than human memory; it couldn't just get buried and recalled later like that.
"I wish that were the case." E's gaze returned to the absent sky. "This whole week has totally torn me down. First was the debate, then Forte, but both told me the same thing; my memory is junk. And then there's this doll, it's not right. I know it's not exactly like my old body was, but it does look like me; how do I know if it's the doll, or me. Everything I used to know, or thought I knew is almost totally bogus."
"That's not true, your memory is faint, but it doesn't lie."
"Only to me, no one else believes it; I don't even believe it."
"Then that is dangerous, if you can't believe your mind, then you might as well give up. You have memories that you know are not trustworthy, but what about the last 7 years, that is true and undeniable."
"I know, but there's a part of me that I fear I'm losing, or may have lost already. I'm Elecman as much as I'm E, I'm losing my memories of my old life just as I'm on the verge of losing everything in my real life."
"Welcome to the club."
"Huh?"
"I'm an old man, I can barely remember what I ate for lunch yesterday, let alone what my old friends looked like; and just like you, I've lost a lot over the last few years, friends in real life, and memories of old friends."
"Then what do you do?"
"I fight to keep as much that I can, just like you are doing now; and if that doesn't work, I make new friends, just like you."
"Oh yeah."
"And if you're lucky, your new friends will remind you of your old ones; like you."
"Oh yeah, who do I remind you of?"
"X, you really are a lot like your brother."
"My brother?"
"You were both built originally by Dr. Light, and all reploids including yourself are based on X's design; and beyond that, when I look at you and how you're doing, it's just like X was here in your place. The both of you have always looked for the peaceful way, trying to get humans and reploids to work together; so many times had X encountered reploids who sought to overthrow humanity, and X fought to stop them; now the world has you, trying to defend reploids from unjust treatment from humanity."
"And did he question himself this much, brooding like the world was falling apart and he couldn't do a thing to stop it? Did he feel totally out of place in a world that wasn't his?"
"Yes, he did. By the time you came along, he had found friends and a reason for being, but even then he still felt a bit distraught with the chaos in the world. But if you had met him in those first years when he was activated, or during the first few maverick uprisings, he was worse than you are now. He was totally unsure of his place in the world, and was constantly questioning his actions in a world that was quickly deteriorating."
"So what did he do?"
"He searched for an answer, and came to one conclusion, he wanted to fight for peace and that was what he did."
"That's a very simple answer."
"It's the simple answers that are the hardest to come by. Now what do you want more than anything?"
"I want to live in a world that won't discriminate against me, or hate me and my friends."
"Then that's your answer, plain and simple, work for that and accept nothing less."
"Is it really that easy?"
"The path is often hard, but your answers are only as hard as you want them to be."
E took a minute to ponder the odd tidbit that for all he knew the human got out of a fortune cookie.
"Now, I have a question for you."
"What is it?"
"How long are you going to keep brooding like this and asking me stupid questions? This is really getting on my nerves."
"That's not funny."
"I'm not trying to be funny; you really do have to get over all this." The doctor turned away from the window and headed back to the stairs. "I'm off to bed, turn off the lights when you go, and don't stay up all night."
"Doc, can I ask you something, seeing as how you seem to know everything?"
"Oh, what is it?"
"How is it you always seem to know what to say? Even if it doesn't always work."
"Archaeology is as much knowing human nature as human history; besides, I know more about reploids than anyone." Dr. Cain continued his answer with an odd smirk on his face. "And as much as Dr. Light was a robotics genius, even he cut a few corners on some subroutines here or there; a lot of what I'm telling you I practiced on X."
"Programming, humph. I guess 'free-will' isn't all it's cracked up to be."
"Free-will does not mean total control, it means you have a choice; but sometimes the deck comes stacked against you."
To Be Continued
This is a fanfiction, and as such, most of the characters in the story are not mine. Most characters are © Capcom and are used without permission. Pheromone "Katie" Skunk is © Black Mantle.