"I came into a scolding wife, a few short years ago…" X sang out brightly as the ship slowly went up the river, working diligently against the current. He was standing beside the rail, leaning against it and enjoying the scent of the water and the freshness of the day.

Zero slowly walked up behind him, and paused, watching the prototype Copy X. He was out of his angel armor now, wearing only the casual blue armor Ciel had first made him with. He was moving slowly from side to side as he sang. His voice was wonderful… even if his choice of songs was incredibly archaic and left a little to be desired.

"…and if the Devil'd take her, I'd thank him for his pain… I swear to God I'll hang meself if I get married again… Eh?" X looked up as Zero tapped him on the shoulder, then smiled. "Oh, hi Zero! Has Ciel settled down yet?" Ciel had almost pitched a fit when she'd found out about the sanitation arrangements, or lack thereof. Ema had graciously offered to show her the exact way for a woman to pee over the rail, but that hadn't gone over too well. Zero blushed lightly as he remembered it.

"She'll be fine. But she's worried about toilet paper." That made X grin.

"I don't think anyplace has toilet paper, not that soft stuff you have, anyway. But we have lots of leaves!" X's wave encompassed the tropical vegetation on the edges of the river banks. Many of the trees had grown out so far, it actually was feasible to grab some leaves from them, especially for Axl and X is his Seraphim form. Although Zero shuddered slightly at the thought of X summoning that up just to get leaves for Ciel, especially because he was sure Copy X would do it. He wouldn't see anything wrong with using the ultimate power in the universe to cut wood, if wood needed cutting. The strangely practical viewpoint was rather frightening.

"How are we doing?" Zero asked, just to make conversation, and X shot him a puzzled look, his red eyes glinting. Zero had noticed that the light in his eyes wasn't just his spirit… they seemed reflective, where the second Copy X's eyes had been darker. This one's eyes really did glitter like the finest rubies.

"After a single day? We're making good time, not that it means anything. Was there something you wanted?" X wasn't one to waste time on tact, although he was perfectly capable of small talk when there were women about to impress. Despite the kiss X had given Zero earlier, he didn't really qualify. Zero was silent for a moment.

"When did you pick up those bags?" That question was still bothering Zero, but X only grinned.

"Ah, that would be telling! Any other questions?"

"…Alright." Zero paused, very reluctant to ask his next question. It was personal and invasive. But the dramatic differences between Copy X and his prototype had to be explored. "Why did you leave Neo Arcadia?" The humor slowly drained out of X's face, replaced by a look in his eyes that surprised Zero. Those beautifully expressive eyes were haunted, almost hunted. X turned away from him, looking over the rail into the water.

"Because I couldn't be what Ciel wanted," he said quietly, so softly Zero had to strain to hear. "I didn't want to disappoint her, but it would have killed me. A ruler, telling everyone what to do, responsible and tied down to one place…" Zero could hear the repugnance in his voice. "I had to get away, escape from them. Ciel, Harpuia, Phantom, none of them would have understood."

"For most people, being the ruler of the most powerful nation on Earth would have been their greatest dream," Zero observed neutrally. X managed a thin smile, and shook his head.

"I'm not most people. All I want is a boat, some booze, women, and a good fight somewhere along the way." X sighed, and quickly cheered up. "And that's what I have! Ha, if I'd stayed in Neo Arcadia, I'd either have done horribly and been happy or done well and wanted to die. Here, I'm the best at what I do and I love it! What could be better?"

"Nothing… for you." Copy X abruptly looked at Zero, his eyes glittering with a new emotion… anger. And Zero met those brilliant eyes with ice, his own face a mask. It was on the tip of his tongue to say what he thought… that X was a selfish child, putting his own wishes and desires above everyone else's welfare. Wasting all his talents and abilities on this little ship, ignoring the greater world that needed him. But his knowledge of human and Reploid interactions stopped him. Resentful, unhappy, doing his duty without love or joy, this prototype Copy X could have been the worst ruler Neo Arcadia had ever been cursed with. It was never wise to force someone into a role they could not bear. Zero had seen people forced into places where they should not be by circumstances, and it rarely turned out well. "I'm sorry. I should not judge you." The tension sang between them for a moment, before X turned away.

"Oh, I don't know… but I won't care if you do." X said lightly, and Zero smiled slightly. He was sure that was true. The only opinions that could really injure Copy X were those of Ema and Axl. "Ema says I have a wandering foot. A natural gypsy, a nomad… I bet I would have made a great Hun warlord!" Zero considered that, and nodded. He could picture X leading the screaming hordes on endless campaigns of conquest, to create an empire that would never be big enough for his restless nature. That almost made him glad X had limited himself to a boat. What could he have done if he had stayed in Neo Arcadia… and decided to expand it?

A horrible scream made them both jump. They ran to the aft section of the ship in time to see…

Zero activated his beam saber, eyes narrowing. Copy X only huffed out a disgusted sigh. "A Strangletree! Stupid." A massive vine had caught the Rebellion Soldier and hoisted him into the air. He was trying desperately to shoot it, but his arms were pinned to his sides. Ciel was screaming… but Axl and Ema didn't look particularly worried. Axl dashed up into the air, hovering and aiming a gun at the vine. A single shot neatly lopped it off, and X jumped off the ship, activating his Seraphim form and catching the soldier as he fell. That almost gave the Rebellion Soldier a second reason to spasm, begin caught in the huge clawed hands of what looked like the Rebellions greatest enemy… but it only lasted a moment, before X flew back onto the ship and went back to his angel armor, dropping the soldier onto the deck.

"What… what was that?" Ciel asked, horrified. What was left of the vine was thrashing in what looked like pain. Copy X looked at her in puzzlement.

"You don't have Strangletree's, where you come from?" He asked curiously, and all the newcomers looked at him like he'd grown an extra head.

"Of course not!" Ciel gulped, and started sorting through her backpack. "Where's my Geiger counter? That must be some kind of mutation." She couldn't imagine something like that occurring naturally. Axl shrugged, putting away his gun.

"They're harmless as long as you don't go too close to them. Pretty weak, too… really, their proper prey is small animals and children. That was a really big one." Axl idly poked the remains of the vine, which had ended up on the deck with the soldier. "They make a pretty good salad."

"Gaa!" Ciel immediately went to the railing to lose her last meal. Axl blinked, startled.

"Was it something I said?"

Strangletree salad, as it turned out, was indeed quite tasty. And the Rebellion Soldier in particular took a great deal of pleasure in eating something that had done its best to eat him.

Midway through their fourth day on the river, though, Copy X started grinning for no apparent reason. Zero, Leviathan and Ciel knew enough about him now to be seriously worried. They got more worried when Ema threw a cloak over X, and another over Axl, and peremptorily ordered Zero and Leviathan to make themselves inconspicuous.

"Why?" Zero asked, and Ema grinned, her eyes twinkling wickedly.

"Well, if you had a low, suspicious mind like the three of us, you might have noticed some fresh burns near the river. And… if you had really good eyesight as well as that low, suspicious mind, you might have noticed a bit of smoke away up where the river is bending." She pointed to a clump of vegetation ahead, where the river made a lazy curve. "And it might make you think… could there be a ship hidden behind that curve, and some lazy, careless fool of a pirate is smoking his pipe?" Ema looked over at Ciel. "Perhaps you should get down below."

"What about you?" Zero casually stepped behind a barrel, kneeling down easily. He could see what this was now… the ambushers were about to become the ambushees. Ema just shook her head, and opened her purple vest to reveal her white blouse… and the criss-crossing black straps over it. Zero frowned slightly, regarding them. They had strange nodes in them that looked vaguely familiar, and right now, those nodes were gleaming with faint blue light.

"This is a force field generator. It's weak, but it'll protect me a touch so I can duck below when the fighting starts." She grinned widely. "I'm a bit of bait in the trap." Zero nodded, and glanced out at X and Axl. They were both looking remarkably human, now, and remarkably old. It was mostly in the posture and the way they were moving… they had obviously done this before. By the time the pirates realized otherwise, it would be far too late.

Things went exactly as Zero had expected. The ships defenses were already spooled up when the pirates attacked, and the shock of seeing their plasma bolts splash against unseen defenses made them hesitate. That hesitation turned fatal when X threw away his cloak, changing to his angel armor and vaulting into their ship. Axl dashed across to it, Zero and Leviathan following, and the rest of the battle was a bloody massacre. The crew of the pirate ship was mixed humans and Reploids, but it didn't make much difference to the powerful group.

Many of the pirates escaped by jumping into the river and swimming for shore. X amused himself by firing into the water at their heels, but he wasn't serious about getting rid of them, to Zero's relief. He wasn't sure what he would have done if Copy X had been callous enough to kill defenseless men and women swimming for their lives, even if they likely deserved to die. According to Axl, pirates were under an automatic sentence of death almost everywhere.

"The loot isn't bad," Axl announced, and Zero turned, appalled, to see what Axl was doing. He was riffling through the bodies, confiscating every bit of jewelry and coin they had on them. "For a bunch of river rats, anyway. Nothing to write home about." X immediately joined in with the grisly chore, showing every sign of enjoyment.

"Ohh, I think I found the captain!" Copy X laughed as he tried on a silver bracelet. "Very nice, don't you think?" Zero met Ciel's eyes, as she stared at him from the Bad Penny. She looked just as horrified as he felt. Zero slowly turned his head to look at Leviathan, and shivered faintly as the wind plucked his hair, beading the blood splattered across his armor.

For the first time in years, he felt sick. Not by the death, but the callous looting of the bodies. Yet, from the way X and Axl were acting, it was completely normal.

What kind of world had they stumbled into?