I got...reviews...

Gomen! My computer recently had a total virus infection and now, after a good five days worth of work on cleaning it out, it's still screwy. But, now that I've got my own laptop, updates should only take months instead of semesters, but let's not forget to factor in school and... (sweat drop) Eh... anyway. I apologize for the delay. PLEASE REVIEW!!

PS: I've heard conflicting reports in regards to Forte's creation. Some say he was made by Cossack and kidnapped by Wily, other say he's Wily's one pride and joy. Honestly, I have no clue, so I'm just going to go with the Cossack report. And, I also noticed someone reviewed in regards to who was who with Japanese names. Sorry for the delayed answer, but here they are!

Rockman is Megaman here in the states. Blues is Protoman, and Forte is Bass. I really hope they meant the instrument and not the fish, because how in the world do you get a fish name from a volume name?? Screwy Capcom who can't do plots and ticks me off. If you've played Command Mission you know what I mean.

Well, I better get on with the story before I give everything away! Eep!

Salvation

Chapter 2: Upgrade

Allure whistled out her own faster version of the lullaby Forte had taught her so long ago. It seemed to be the only thing saver her cookies which added any excess joy to the dark jail block. In her hands she held a tray loaded with a single ham sandwich, two tall glasses of milk, and this time a full bag of at least twenty cookies.

Halfway down the hallway, she heard someone whistling a pitch higher than her. She stopped for a moment with her own whistling. The higher pitch stopped as well. She walked forward a few more feet, then whistled again. The higher pitch answered her. The sunlight filtered out through the bars, spreading forward to reveal the odd crimson flower which had bloomed in the night. It had the familiar golden edge of Mr. Zero's ponytail, but it was up against the wall. Her heart stopped with hope for several seconds as the fact it was not a human-sized crimson flower being reflected in the morning sun, but Zero himself leaning against the wall of the cell, his arms crossed and his eyes closed. He was actually in a different position then the last few times Allure had ever seen him. That alone told the girl something was different with her jailed friend.

Zero opened his eyes. He smiled at her, a warm and gentle smile which did not appear forced or pressured in any way at all. He pushed his lips together and whistled out the lullaby a pitch higher than what Allure had been whistling at. Allure's eyes widened in a way that seemed to say she had heard a message hidden in his tune. She quickly broke into a gentle run, jogging the rest of the way to Zero's cell. By time she got there, Zero was standing straight up with his hands on his hips.

"Mr. Zero!" Allure laughed. She skidded to a halt, grabbed the bag of cookies, and slid the food straight into his cell. Zero stopped the tray from sliding into the wall with his foot.

"What kept yah, Allure?"

His voice no longer held the chalky additive. He seemed so alive to the young girl. It was almost as if she was talking to a completely different person. But yet she knew -- she knew this was the same Zero she had spoken to yesterday. Only now he seemed more... There was no other way to describe him than to say that he simply seemed more real. He was there in the physical world now more so than he had ever been in his whole life.

"M-Mr. Zero!" Allure laughed again, this time accenting her joy with a small tear of happiness. She quickly opened the bag of cookies, allowing the steam to float off into the distance.

"I brought these just for you and me!" Allure gently passed him the first cookie. Zero bent down so that he was squatting before Allure. He took the cookie and broke it in half, passing Allure the larger piece. Allure released a soft giggle.

"Whenever Uncle X and I share cookies like this, we say a little rhyme. Friends for now, friends for later; friends until the sun never shines, and even then we'll be friends forever."

"Friends for now, friends for later; friends until the sun never shines, and even then we'll be friends forever." Zero echoed.

In complete unison, both child and Reploid ate their respected cookie halves in one bite. Without so much as thinking, the girl began to divvy out the remaining cookies. While she did that, Zero pulled the tray forward. He lay down on his side, using his right hand as a pillow, and began munching lightly on his sandwich.

"...Allure..." Allure stopped mid bite of her own sandwich. She looked gently over at the changed Zero. "...I've come to a decision about my past...about what I did working for Wily. And if yah don't mind, don't ever call him in a polite manner around me again."

"Okay, whatever. Half the people give me odd looks when I'm polite about his name, anyway. Mommy just calls him a bakayero." Zero halfway choked on his sandwich at the word.

"Don't call him that around polite company either. It's a word your mother shouldn't be saying around somebody as young as you anyway."

"Then what should I call him? Wily the dork-a-sorus?" Allure demanded. Zero burst out laughing at that one.

"That'll work." His features then dulled slightly, and he took keen interest in the fixings of his sandwich. "Allure... I'd like to speak to your uncles and Commander Signas..." It was Allure's turn to stop eating completely.

"Huh? But I thought you swore never to talk to anybody in the higher ranks?"

"That was..." he paused, almost as if he were about to will himself to defy the world, "That was before you convinced me to activate the sentient program data and apply it to my memories. I hate that monstrosity, Wily, for what he made me do in the past. You were right when you said I didn't have a choice in wishing to kill X. Wily hid the ability to choose my own destiny from me, and for that I will never forgive him." Zero looked back at the girl.

"I'm not going to carry out my mission to destroy X and cripple the Maverick Rebellion. Instead, I'm going to defect to the Maverick side of the war."

Allure's eyes went wide. She dropped her half eaten sandwich, having just recently learned the meaning of the term 'defect' in the context Zero was using it, and in knowing what it meant, fully understood the repercussions of her friend's statement.

"Don't change your mind when I get back, or else we're both in trouble. Deal?" the girl questioned. Zero stuck his hand out through the bars. Allure gripped it tightly.

"Deal." Zero answered. Their handshake was broken. Zero had only seen one thing move faster than his young friend, and that was himself.

"Uncle X! Uncle Blues! Forte! Mamma! Zero said he wants to talk to Commander Signas! He's gonna defect to the Maverick side of the war!"

A resonating 'Holy shit' from the guards echoed into his hearing. Well, he'd expected a rather shocked reaction, but he hadn't expected something like that. Nor had he expected Allure's mother to come to a careening halt before his cell in a matter of seconds. He was still lying on the floor, finishing off the remainder of his sandwich as casually as if what the child had just relayed of his wishes was nothing more than an everyday activity. Slowly, he stood up. He brushed himself off, patted his armor clean of dust, flicked his hair away, and faced Allure's mother.

"Is...Is what my daughter just said true?" Caroline demanded. She looked just as exhausted as her daughter, who had just slid back with Forte and Blues in full armor hot on her heels

"It is. I wish to defect to the Mavericks."

"Holy f...!" Zero's eyes instantly fell on Blues, whose mouth had been clamped closed by Forte's hand. Caroline simply echoed what her mechanical brother would have said in German. Allure, knowing some German of her own, looked up at her mother.

"Mommy! It's rude to curse like that with a three year old present!"

"You're four in half a month, so it doesn't matter." Her mother waved off her daughter's retort.

"She's right, though. It's still rude to curse like that with a kid present."

"Hey! I'm four in half a month!"

"And you'll still be a kid." Zero countered. Allure made a face at him.

"Be glad you're still stuck in there, or I'd kick yah in the shin!" Allure warned.

"You'd only hurt yourself if yah did that. My armor's made from titanium x plating."

"T-Titanium x... It registered as meta-alloy though..." Caroline stated in wonder.

"That was something my former employer threw in to confuse enemy scanning equipment." Zero explained. Caroline nodded her head up and down in shocked recognition.

"Hey, everyone!" X shouted. He came to a screeching halt moments later, a pair of meta-alloy handcuffs in dangling loosely in his grip.

"Signas just sent word. Here, Blues, you cuff him with these. I'll hit the lock, and Forte you..." Before X could finish, Allure had already disabled the lock. Zero simply pushed the door open and stood there in the hallway. All eyes save Zero's slowly turned on Allure.

"What? You were gonna make the lock click anyway. And I trust him, Uncle X, just as much as I trust Forte." Allure answered to the blank stares. Forte seemed to smile lightly if not blush at the comparison, whereas Zero reached up with one hand to scratch the small tingling sensation rising up on his face. Both knew how fondly and with such courage the child spoke of and defended the other with.

X regained his composure a few moments later.

"Well...uh... Oh, alright...! Hold out your hands, Zero."

-----

The argument raging inside Signas' office seemed more like a battleground without weapons. It was the silent Forte, loudmouth Blues, heroic X, and short tempered Caroline, all against the brick wall of Signas' will. Meanwhile, outside of the office, Allure involuntarily winced with every fist pounded or foot kicked against a desk. She looked over at Zero, whose hands were cuffed.

"Want me to make the lock click on those? They look pretty un-comfy." Allure tried. She winced as she heard her mother's voice echo out something very foul in a language Allure had yet to be introduced to.

"Nah. They may be annoying, but it's best I keep them on. We want Signas to trust me. With these off, he might consider me a threat." Zero replied. This time it was his turn to wince as the wall directly behind his head received a pounding. Slowly, he decided to cut in and make his point clear for himself.

"Can you make the lock click on Signas' door, though?" Allure looked up at him in confusion.

"Yeah, why?" An echoing bang was heard throughout the room.

"They can't seem to get him to hear anything they're saying. So, I'm going to speak for myself." Another miniature explosion of wits and anger snapped through the door.

"Okay. Just don't get killed trying to get them to calm down." Allure giggled, though it seemed more depressed than jubilant. She jumped off the bench gracefully and approached the lock. Zero stood at the door.

"Ready?"

Zero simply nodded, trying hard to keep the anxiety down. Allure hit a single button, and the door opened, admitting a flying paperweight into the hallway. Zero's eyes went wide, and he just barely managed to duck in time to avoid a killer headache. Allure let loose a small whistle, for whomever had thrown that paperweight had thrown it with enough force to have it become lodged in the wall behind Zero. Zero gulped upon noticing that it was Caroline whom had provided the momentum for the paperweight.

"Suddenly, this is feeling like a very bad idea..." Zero gulped. Despite his fears, he swallowed and entered. Allure shut the door behind him.

Signas' office was a bright, well lit, almost gold-plated room, and his desk was just as bright if not brighter than the room itself. Signas was in his normal general-style uniform, only with his hat resting askew on a hat hook on his desk. The Reploid in charge, who had been sitting down in his chair, stood to his full daunting height of well over six feet.

"I understand you are Maverick Hunter Rockman Zero?"

"Yes,"

"And you wish to defect to the Maverick Resistance, Hunter?" The way Signas echoed out those words only confirmed Zero's understanding that he had a lot to answer for. He had, after all, been the top Hunter for nearly twenty years. That alone should have told him he had more than his fair share of sins.

"Yes."

The question he halfway dreaded came to light. Signas' eyes narrowed, and he leaned forward so that he was all but in Zero's face.

"Why?"

Well, time to tell it like it is... Zero sighed to himself.

"I wish to defect, sir, because I despise and loath my creator with a newfound passion. He hid from me the ability to influence and direct my own destiny, a birthright to both humans and Reploids, and directed me like a puppeteer directs his prized puppet to destroy those who would stand against him. I want to at least put my own soul to rest on what I've done in the past." Zero answered truthfully. He had thrown in the 'sir' as show of respect. He could tell by the look in Signas' eyes that the commander still doubted his word.

"And what, exactly, awoke this ability to 'influence and direct' your own destiny, Hunter?" Signas lifted his coffee cup to his lips. Bad move.

"Allure,"

Signas just about spit out the coffee he was in the midst of swallowing.

"Explain!"

"You yourself authorized her to visit me in my cell for approximately four hours and forty five minutes yesterday. During that conversation, Allure brought to light the fact my sentient program had been left inactive and also set me straight on a position I held about humans."

"Which was?" This time the question came from the comparatively gentler voice of Caroline.

"That humans are weak." Zero semi-chucked at the memories the conversation brought on.

"She agreed yet disagreed with my statement. I'm halfway surprised she's just a three year old after the argument she put up yesterday. She argued that, physically, humans were the weaker group. However emotionally, they measured equal and at times stronger than their Reploid counterparts. That argument, coupled with the fact I didn't want to her to cry for me because my emotions had been hidden away, lead me to run a system diagnostic search on my hard drive for the sentient program data. After finding it, activating it, and then applying the newfound feelings it awoke within me to my memories, I've come to loath my creator." Zero took a deep breath before locking his eyes in Signas' towering stare.

"I'll be blunt. I want that bastard dead for what he did to me."

Signas slowly sank deep into his chair. After seeing the truth reflecting in Zero's eyes, he had little choice but to agree with his statement. Zero did indeed want what the rest of this base did. He wanted that fat... Well, there was no need to spoil his coffee with foul words. The point was Zero was telling the truth.

"...One month..."

"Sir?" X questioned lightly. Signas took a sip of his coffee before repeating his decision aloud.

"He shall be kept under observation and handcuffed for one month. If he doesn't try to pull anything that could be considered harmful to this base or the members of the Maverick Resistance, he shall be allowed to join us in combat. However, even with the combat allowance added in, he shall still be strictly observed for a grand total of several years. I'll keep the exact number to myself as a precaution. When he is not in combat during this second phase, he shall be required to wear those same handcuffs. And those, might I add, are lock-clicking proofed." Signas eyed Zero. The latter looked as if he had just run a marathon with half the world tied to his back.

"For that total of one month while he is under heavy observation, I'd like Forte to keep an eye on him."

"Wait just a second, Signas!" Caroline jumped in here, "Forte's assigned to Allure!"

"Which in turn makes Allure assigned to Zero," Forte whispered. He smiled lightly to himself. So Signas was listening to his report about Allure's trust in Zero.

"Correct. If this Hunter is truly honest with his words, then he will not hurt Allure. That, and Allure's the only person on base everyone trusts and would protect without hesitation, adding yet another layer of security to monitor the Hunter. And she's also the only one that has yet to carry her own weight."

"Excuse me! She's just a child!"

"And we're at war! My apologies Caroline, but there's no way around it." Signas countered.

"Dismissed!"

Caroling instantly went into a cursing spree in foreign languages. She stopped for a second to look at her daughter, then stormed off towards her lab. Blues and X exchanged a look.

"Forte, you explain what's going on." Blues ordered.

Forte simply nodded his head to the two Commanders. They were quickly gone down the hallway after their cursing sister. They knew better than to think she'd break her hand or something; however, both had a habit of erring on the side of caution, especially when their fleshy sister was in one of those kinds of moods.

Allure exchanged a confused look with Forte and Zero. The both of them seemed to sigh. How could they explain to a three year old that she'd just been put on active duty?

-----

Zero snapped awake in the middle of the night. His mind was a whirl of confusion, his emotions running ramped. He quickly looked down at his hands. To his relieve, he found them still to be their familiar white color and still locked up in handcuffs.

"Mr. Zero?" Allure's soft voice echoed. Zero looked quickly over at her. He released another sigh when he saw it was her and her alone standing at his bedside.

"Mr. Zero, are you okay? You were practically yelling in your sleep." Zero shook his head slightly.

"I don't know, Allure..." Zero whispered. Allure pushed herself so that she was sitting next to him in his bed. She wrapped her arms around his. For some reason this made him blush a light crimson hue.

"Whenever I start yelling in my sleep, Forte says I'm having a nightmare. Did you have a nightmare, Mr. Zero?"

Zero seemed to think deeply on that. He had never had a dream before, and yet the visions that had plagued him were too gruesome to be what his internal dictionary defined a dream as.

"...I...I think so... I've never even had a dream before..." Zero answered.

"Want to talk about it? It always helps when I talk about my nightmares with Forte." Allure explained lightly. Zero somehow managed to make it so that he could gently pat her hand without moving his arms too much.

"I think it's best if I talk about this with Forte alone." Zero whispered.

A shadow came across the room. Zero wasn't at all surprised that Forte had appeared as if he were nothing more than a shadow; after all, the Reploid had a habit of showing up whenever he so much as heard his name. Forte gently eased the girl back to her bed. He had to use the dreaded threat of telling both X and her mother that she was staying up past her bedtime just to get her out the door. Forte closed the door after her, staying still for a few moments.

"Alright, she's not listening." Forte sighed. Zero looked down at his hands. Forte noticed this with his usual emotionless glance.

"If you truly wish to tell me about your nightmare, please start talking."

Zero involuntarily shivered, not from the cold, but from what he remembered of the dream. He stared intently down at his hands.

"...My hands were covered in blood... He was laughing at me, saying I was his perfect puppet and... She was dead..." Zero stated bluntly. Forte nodded in some secret understanding.

"I see. I, too, was plagued by similar nightmares when I first awoke." Zero looked over towards Forte, a confused expression easily readable upon his face. Forte sighed.

"I was at one time under Wily's control, as well. I was never able to find out how Dr. Cossack did it, but he was able to deactivate me and install the sentient program. When I awoke here, in MHQ, Allure was but a small infant that had followed a wish. Fate led her to the room I was stationed at. Just in time, too, for if I had awakened without some kind of company I might not have been found even to this day.

"For days I learned of what had happened. And for nights, I was plagued by the same nightmare of my hands being stained with my creator's blood. But one night, they stopped. I came to terms with the fact he had given me a second chance. If he had willing done so, then he would have forgiven me for my crimes. I had a mission to fulfill."

"To protect Allure," Zero cut in. Forte nodded his head in agreement.

"Yes. My willingness to fulfill that mission is something I think would make my creator proud. I would assume that since your creator is the man you loath, what would ease your own nightmare-ridden conscious is to come to terms with your creation. I believe Blues put it best when he said you're a stubborn jackass that likes to follow only one rule: Your own word is your own law." Forte stood up form his position across from Zero.

"And to be blunt, I think he's right."

Zero casually snickered at that. To be honest, he rather liked the definition of himself Blues had found. It fit like the proverbial glove. Seeing as his trick had worked, Forte exited the room, leaving Zero to his own thoughts.

Yes... Zero had to admit it. He was a stubborn jackass. Every last bit of his programming told him so. And something told him that Allure wouldn't have him be any other way.