River Deep, Ocean Wide Chapter 3, a mega man fanfic

No idea translated into wandering around and taking in the sights.

Of course, they couldn't all do that. The entire crew and all the Rebellion soldiers except one waited on the ship. Zero and Leviathan didn't really feel the need for any firepower besides themselves. The Rebellion soldier was only along to help out Ciel and keep her out of danger.

The streets were wide, but still packed with people. The only vehicles used seemed to be hovering skateboards of a type Zero had never seen before, and aerial cars that zoomed by overhead on silent jets. They all stopped to look at one of those, one that looked like a sleek sports car. Vehicles of that type were not unknown in Neo Arcadia, but they were always larger, to accommodate the generators that powered them. This was a sleek little bird of a vehicle.

"If that isn't powered with a fusion generator, I'll eat my notebook." Ciel said firmly, and everyone nodded. Nothing else could keep that car in the air and moving so swiftly.

"How expensive it must have been," Zero muttered to himself with a faint scowl. For all the riches and wonders of this strange land, they had already passed many beggars, many human children. Starving children. He was of two minds about that. Neo Arcadia looked after its citizens and didn't permit such things to happen… but perpetrated its own abuses in the name of stability. Here, the people obviously had more freedom but for the lowest of the low, that was only the freedom to starve.

Wasn't there a better way? Zero suspected there wasn't. One way or another, you paid for what you got. The price of utopia was the loss of freedom. The price of freedom was the cruel hand of fate. If he had to vote, though, Zero would always pick freedom.

Still, in so many ways, this was a wonderful place to be. They paused for a moment to listen to a group of buskers, singing and playing for coins on the street. Leviathan tapped a foot in time with the music, grinning in pleasure. Ciel traded a small pin for some food, and soon they all had a kebab in hand, meat and vegetables threaded on a stick then grilled over a small brazier.

They passed from the port district into the city proper, and the traffic became lighter. Zero looked around, curious. The city was mostly made out of the same light woods as the village they had passed through earlier. It was curiously unfinished, but then, this was typhoon country. He imagined the inhabitants were used to having to rebuild, so they didn't put a lot of effort into the original building. Rickety or not, though, the houses looked quite comfortable.

Zero was just finishing his kebab when someone jumped over a balcony right above him. He only had time to look up before he was slammed to the ground in a sound of clashing metal.

"Oh, thank you," A disturbingly familiar voice said in his ear, and the person pulled back enough to grin down into Zero's face. "You broke my fall perfectly."

"Copy X?" Zero gasped out, almost petrified. He'd killed Copy X the first time, and Weil's booby trap had killed him the second time. There was no way at all he could be alive, here! But the blue armor, the bright red eyes… the angel armor… it was all exactly…

But no. Something wasn't quite right. Zero only had a blurred impression of it, events were going so fast, but X's eyes were gleaming in a way Zero had never seen before. It was almost like they were burning with a powerful, vibrant inner light. Compared to these glorious eyes, the Copy X he had killed had been lifeless from the beginning. This person was-

Ducking as a wild shot whizzed over their heads. The Rebellion Soldier knocked Ciel to the ground, covering her with his body, and Leviathan gripped her staff in a state of confusion, staring at the new Copy X and then up at the balcony. Zero managed to tilt his head back enough to get a look at the balcony, and he was just as confused as Leviathan. Two humans, siblings from the looks of them, were struggling over the gun the man had fired. The girl, Zero noticed, was completely nude and definitely a natural blonde…

"SHAMELESS SLUT! Get your clothes on! I will avenge our family honor!" The man roared, and the woman screeched right back.

"TAKE THE FAMILY HONOR AND SHOVE IT UP YOUR-" Her description of where exactly the family honor would go was anatomically interesting. Apparently, when she was done, the man would be hiring a proctologist to find his head.

"Time to scram!" Copy X said brightly, and leaned forward, giving Zero a quick kiss, to his everlasting shock. "See you later, sweety." Then the strange Reploid was pelting away at top speed. Seeing his quarry escaping, the human screamed in rage and shoved his sister away, jumping off the balcony himself. Zero winced, but the human managed to land without incident.

"You'll die! Defiler of the innocent!" He chased after the fleeing X, leaving all of them staring after.

"What in Satan's fiery arsehole was that?" Leviathan asked, but no one could answer.

"Okay, Ciel. You created the Copy X. So what WAS that we just ran into?" Zero asked her firmly.

They were in a sidewalk café. It catered to anyone in need of a snack and a cool drink, and with a little haggling, they'd sold a few drams of spices for gold link chains. A link snapped off from those chains had paid for their drinks, with some left over to spare. Ciel took a deep drink of her fig wine, then sighed.

"I think it was my first attempt at making an X copy. He… didn't really work out the way I'd expected. I'm still not sure why. Everything seemed to be going well, but one day he just vanished."

"Not exactly," Leviathan said, amused at being able to correct Ciel. "I wasn't there, but I heard the story from Harpuia. Didn't he manage to crack every code in the base, steal a shuttle, and make a break for it to parts unknown?"

"Uh, well, maybe…" Ciel appeared to be sinking into her chair, her face turning a dull brick red. Zero was fascinated.

"I never heard of this. Why didn't anyone mention it?"

"Because it was a huge blotch on our collective history," Leviathan answered promptly. "Total failure for Ciel, Harpuia AND Phantom. Only Harpuia ever had the guts to admit to it, though. The whole security system got a total revamp after that." Ciel covered her face, totally humiliated.

"I went so wrong with him," she said miserably. "Even more wrong than Copy X… I don't know what I did wrong. I thought he was an exact duplicate, even closer than the Copy X I made later." Zero hesitated, remembering those jewel-like red eyes. Eyes that had flamed with life, even in the very brief time Zero had seen them. The eyes of an untamed soul, possibly dangerous and fickle but glorious with sheer power and joy.

"No," Zero said, his own voice sounding far away. "No, you didn't go wrong Ciel. I think you went right. I only saw his eyes for a moment, but there was something in them, something so individual and so strong… Copy X wasn't like that. I haven't met many people like that." Strangely enough, one person he thought of was Elpizo. He had flamed, too, with the strength of his convictions. It had been a joyless flame, not like the energy he had detected in this X copy, but it had been strong too. And Zero's memories vaguely recalled someone else, someone in black armor with a sweet laugh… Zero shook his head, chasing those memories away like cobwebs. They were too fragmentary to be useful, in any case.

"If she made him right, why would he have run away from his duty in Neo Arcadia?" Leviathan sounded skeptical, tilting her head at Zero. Zero smiled faintly.

"From what little I've seen of him, it's hard to say… but can you imagine THAT as the ruler of Neo Arcadia?" That created a brief silence… until Leviathan snickered, and slowly started to laugh.

"God! If he was, Harpuia would have a fit! Everyone would have a fit!" Ciel looked embarrassed, but also started to giggle. It really was impossible to imagine a Reploid who would seduce a woman then jump off a balcony with the brother in hot pursuit, as the ruler of Neo Arcadia.

"We should find him," Zero decided. "Find out what he's doing, what he's up to. If nothing else, he can probably give us directions." They'd discovered, after a few queries, that maps were pretty much unknown in this place. And everyone had a different opinion about where they should go for a fusion generator. It was really quite confusing. Zero didn't really have any high hopes that this prototype Copy X would be any more informative, but it was worth a shot.

"Another thing that could take all day," Leviathan sighed, but Zero shook his head in disagreement.

"Not really. I saw which way he was going." As it turned out, Zero was right. It took a great deal of questioning and some careful backtracking, but X's trail really wasn't that hard to pick up. His angel armor was truly flamboyant, even at the best of times.

But even with the advanced warning the scene on the balcony had given them, they weren't really expecting Copy X to be in a tavern in the port district. Although it WAS getting rather late… late enough for serious drinkers to be out…

"Dear lord," Leviathan poked a few Reploids out of the way, then jumped with a squeal and smacked a hand away from her butt. "HEY!" The Rebellion Soldier prudently stood behind Ciel, defending her buttocks from random groping.

"There he is," Zero said, looking towards the back of the tavern. X was seated in a chair that looked like a bizarre throne. It was light stained wood, carved into scenes of fantastic sea monster, nerieds, tritons, and other myths of the sea. He had a large tankard of something frothing, and was taking the occasional drink from it… between versus of a song. Zero listened to the words, fascinated. He was sure the song was very old, but he had never heard it before.

Well there is an ancient party at the other end of town
And he keeps a little grocery store, ah the ancient's name is Brown
And he has a lovely daughter, such a treat I never saw
Oh, I only hope someday to be the old man's son-in-law.

Well, Old Brown sells from off his shelf most anything you please
He's got jew's harps for the little boys, lollipops and cheese
His daughter minds the store, and it's a treat just to see her serve
I'd like to run away with her but I don't have the nerve.

And it's Old Brown's daughter is a proper sort of girl,
Old Brown's daughter is as fair as any pearl.
I wish I were a Lord Mayor, a Marquis or an Earl
And blow me if I wouldn't marry Old Brown's girl.
Blow me if I wouldn't marry Old Brown's girl.

Well, poor Old Brown now, has trouble with the gout,
He grumbles in his little parlour when he can't get out
Oh, and when I make a purchase, Lord, and she hands me the change
That girl she makes me pulverised, I feel so very strange

But Miss Brown she smiles so sweetly when I say a tender word
Ah, but Old Brown says that she must wed a Marquis or a Lord,
And I don't suppose it's ever one of those things I will be
But by jingo next election I will run for Trinity.

Copy X suddenly noticed them, and his bright eyed gaze fixed on Ciel as unerringly as a hawk spotting a mouse. He grinned, joyful and faintly malicious.

"Why, mother! Hello! Forgive me for not rising, but I'm a little unsteady." X drained his mug in one long swallow, and followed it with a tremendous belch. A girl laughed, walking up to his chair and tugging on one of his angel helmet spikes.

"X, you are so totally disgusting." She said fondly, and kissed him on the cheek. Zero looked her over, interested. Her skin was Polynesian dark, and her hair and eyes were pure black. She wasn't particularly attractive, though. No, her face and body were simply pleasant… and X was smiling at her with genuine affection.

"Tell me about it, darling. So, momma dearest, how can your humble creation serve you?" X tried to bow, and almost fell over, an interesting accomplishment in a chair. Ciel was looking mortified by the whole display.

"X… what's happened to you?" She whispered softly, appalled. It wasn't just the drunkenness, womanizing and general slovenliness that was horrifying her. Her prototype X copy was dressed like a barbarian. Now that they had time to examine him more closely, they could see he was wearing a red velvet vest embroidered heavily with gold thread. Gold chains were dangling from the shoulders, a vast display of portable wealth in this culture. As they watched, he broke off another link and ordered more drinks. Silver chains formed a belt around his waist, twining with strings of lapis and gold beads. Zero cautiously estimated that X was fairly well off. Some of the items might not be real, so it was hard to say for sure. X only grinned at Ciel, far too amused to take offense.

"Happened to me? Nothing. I got exactly what I wanted… freedom from you and all your smothering expectations." X shrugged, waving one hand as if to dismiss all of it. "But that was a long time ago. What do you want now, Ciel? If it has to do with me going back to Neo Arcadia, I'll tell you right now that I'd rather stick red hot pins in my eyes. Horrible place."

"Hey!" Leviathan protested. "It's not THAT bad!"

"Compared to what? Hell?" X drank noisily from his tankard, then grinned at them again. "So what's brought you here? Tell, tell."

Seeing no reason not to, Zero went over all their reasons for coming. X listened intently, his eyes gleaming with something Zero couldn't quite name. Passion? Interest? Or something he had never seen before?

When Zero was done, X grinned.

"A quest, then! Wonderful. It's been a long time since I did a real quest. Would you perchance like a guide?"

"We'd love one," Zero said quickly, cutting off the two girls. He thought they desperately needed a guide, without any maps available, and he wanted to get to know this Copy X better. There was something so different about him, so very, very unusual.

Keeping him around as a guide would definitely be one way to find out exactly what was so different about him…