Disclaimer: If I owned Mega Man X, I wouldn't be writing this.

Shadows of my soul

Chapter 2: Just another day

Axl leaned back in his chair and yawned. "Man, this is boring." the young Hunter said to himself as he tried to memorize the file of Magma Dragoon, one of the Mavericks in the forth Maverick War, also know as the Hunters-Repliforce War, as Axl had just recorded on a small note pad. "And to think, it was Sigma who started this war. That bastard just refuses to die and stay dead." Axl thought as he clicked on a file. The file turned out to belong to Colonel, an officer in the Repliforce who had been killed by Zero. Having already read this file Axl was about to close it when he noticed the file had an attachment called "Iris". "Wonder what this is?" Axl thought as he clicked on it.

Warning! Warning! This file is only accessible user: 7584 with password: 8935. This file cannot be accessed by any other user.

"Someone doesn't want me to see this file." thought Axl as he reached into a compartment in his armour and pulled out a data disk. The disk was hacking program developed by Snipe Anteator, Red Alert's hacker-in-residence. Smiling, Axl put the disk into the computer and watched it work its magic

User Name: Zero

Password: Iris

Access granted to restricted file.

"Yes!" cried Axl, quickly silencing himself and checking over his shoulder to see if anyone was coming. Seeing no one, he turned his attention to the file on screen. He saw the picture of a young, brown haired, girl reploid. Taking note of it, he proceeded to read the file:

Name: Iris

Occupation: Officer of Repliforce/Navigator for Maverick Hunter Zero

Known Relatives: Colonel (brother, Maverick, retired)

Date of Activation:

"Boring. Think I'll skip straight to the good part."

Status: Maverick (retired)

Hunted by: Zero

Axl blinked a few times and double checked the file. No, he had read it right. This girl, Iris, had been Zero's navigator but had also been retired by him. Axl leaned back in his chair and absorbed the information, "Whoa, poor Zero. This Iris girl must have been a good friend of his. This explains why he was so understanding after we retired Red. Still, I wonder why only he can access this file." BEEP, BEEP, chimed the alarm Axl had set on his helmet. "Breakfast time. And a good thing too, I 'm starving. Plus, I can ask Zero about this file." Axl double checked his notes, retrieved his hacker disk, turned off the computer, and then headed for the cafeteria.

(Later, in the cafeteria)

"Hey guys, what's hanging?" said Axl to X and Zero as he headed over to their table after filling his tray with pancakes, sausages, and a tall glass of orange juice.

"Nothing really, you ready for your test later?" replied Zero, stuffing his mouth with a slice of toast.

"I'm always ready, bring it on. How's it going X?" Axl asked. X, however didn't respond, and continued to stare dreamily into space. Following his gaze, Zero and Axl looked and saw that was looking at Alia. X had a huge crush on the beautiful reploid, and Zero and Axl both knew it.

Zero sighed and waved his hand in front of X's face, saying, "Hello, earth to X."

"Wha… oh, hey Axl, when'd you get here?" asked X, coming out of his trance.

"About five minutes ago, the same time you started admiring Alia." said the smiling reploid, suppressing a laugh as X turned as red as Zero's armour.

Zero, however, immediately burst out laughing. Gaining control of himself, he clasped X's shoulder and said to his friend, "Come on, X, why don't you just ask her out?"

"It's not that simple." replied the blue Hunter. Despite having faced powerful foes like Vile, Dr. Doppler, Sigma, and Lumine without flinching, X could never build up the courage to ask Alia out. Hell, he could barley even talk to her if they weren't working together on a mission.

"Yes it is. You just walk over to her table, and then you say "Hi, Alia." then you simply talk to her, until you come to a point where you can say "You know Alia; I've always had the biggest crush on you. You're smart, funny, kind, and breathtakingly beautiful. So I was wondering… will you go out with me?" said Axl, using a God-awful impersonation of X's voice. Then the three friends started laughing, partially because of Axl, and partially because the chances of X actually doing that were slim to none.

As they were, Zero felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned around. Seeing who it was, Zero calmed himself down and said "Hello, Layer."

The purple haired navigator smiled sweetly at Zero and acted calm but in her mind she was saying "Whoa, he is hot .Really, really, hot. O.K., calm down Layer. Just tell him how you feel and ask him out. You heard Axl's jokes. This is really easy." "Um… hey Zero."

"Is something up Layer?" asked Zero.

"No, just…thought I'd say hi." responded Layer. She turned around and walked over to her and Pallette's table, mentally kicking herself for not going through with her plan.

Axl looked over to Zero and said "What was that! She was hooked on you, all you had to do was reel her in and you let her go. Why?"

"Because I don't have the same feelings for her that she has for me" replied Zero, although his thoughts seemed to be somewhere else.

"You're thinking about..." X began, but was cut off by a voice on the com. system saying:

Attention all personnel. The time is now 8:30 a.m. and all personnel should begin their morning duties. Repeat…

"Ahh man, this just sucks." complained Axl. He finished his juice, got up and yawned.

"Not sleep again?" asked Zero as they began to walk over to the briefing room/classroom.

"Nightmares again." replied the young Hunter.

"I see. Well don't worry; I'm sure they'll fade away eventually"

"I sure hope so." said Axl as they reached their destination.


Review Responses:

Erckie: Thanks for the positive reinforcement! Hope you like chapter 2.

Uzu-Chan: I guess you really like stories that are post X8, huh? Thanks for reviewing. I'll look into your stories too when I have a free miunte.

Prjct. WAR: Hey. I see we're both something of Axl fans. Sucks your PS2 broke, and you didn't get to see Axl's secret ending. Hope it gets fixed soon so you can see it. Any way, glad to see I struck a cord with someone using Axl's dream. Thanks alot for reviewing.

A/N: Yes! Two chapters down! I'm really enjoying writing Shadows of my soul. Anyway, just thought I'd clear some things up. First, Axl's class is not like a school class. It's simply a time when he reviews some reploid history and learns new battle strategies with Zero.Also, someinformation is for any one who hasn't played X4 and was wondering "Who's Iris?" (Spoliers)Iris is an officer of Repliforce who was in love with Zero (and Zero with her) who appeared in X4 (oh, and Xtreme 2 on the Game Boy Colour). She was driven insane when Zero killed her brother Colonel and she confronted him on the Final Weapon (a weapon satellite) where he killed her. I will give more information on her later in the story. Finally, please review! I love feedback! So, until next time, adios amigos!

Next chapter: Revelations and explanations