By: Cursor
Disclaimer: I do not own or am in anyway affiliated with or endorsed by Capcom and/or Megaman/Rockman Zero.
Some characters that will appear in the later chapters of this story will be original and a claimer will be presented at the beginning of the chapter introducing them.
Summery:
Zero encounters Harpuia on one of his missions and Harpuia presents him with an offer. An offer will force him to leave the resistance.
This story takes place after the events of Megaman Zero 2 shortly before the beginning of Megaman Zero 3.
Chapter 1: The offerZero was sitting on top of the right tower of the new resistance base; he was sitting with one knee bent, one straight, with his right arm wrapped over the bent knee, looking upwards at the moon.
Ciel was sitting next to him, on the barrel of the turret, her feet hanging in the air and dangling with the soft night breeze.
"So..." Ciel started to say, "What will you tell him?" she glanced over at Zero's face; they wore a sealed expression but he was obviously deep in thought.
A few moments passed with only the soft whistling of the wind disturbing the silence before Zero answered, "I don't know." He stated. "He expects my reply within a week so I will have time to think about it." He said, still staring at the round form of the full moon.
"Well, whatever you do choose. Know that I am one hundred percent backing you up. Soon I will finish my energy research the "Ciel system" and we won't have to fight Neo-Arcadia anymore." Ciel informed, her blond ponytail fluttered from the wind.
Zero finally turned his head towards her, staring at her sapphire eyes he said, "I just feel a bit guilty, the only reason that Harpuia offered this to me is because, well..." He trailed off but Ciel interrupted,
"It was his choice Zero. You didn't select his fate he did there was nothing you could do." She said harshly, "You should really stop blaming yourself for it."
He looked at the stars, his gaze passing from clusters to clusters; Orion's belt, the big bear and the small bear.
"I'm not trying to rush you into a decision Zero, I will be okay with every decision you make. If you need more time to think about it then go ahead, there is no rush! You have a whole week to think it over." Ciel elucidated.
He looked at her and she tilted her head a bit and beamed at him.
He smiled back, he seemed more relaxed now and he looked much less troubled.
"You're right, I have time. I shouldn't worry about it so much." Zero said.
"That's right, and I am sure you will make the right decision." Ciel said confidently.
"Let's go back in," Zero said as the wind grew stronger, "It is getting chilly." He slid off the top and landed on the ground.
He stretched out his hands and Ciel dropped down to him.
He caught her and they walked to the elevator leading to the base.
After a few hours... at Neo-Arcadia's fortress...
Harpuia was in the training hall, using his twin lilac sabers to slice sharp disks that were hurled at him at high speed from a machine at the opposite side of the room.
"Increase difficulty, 4 levels." Harpuia said loudly, and the machine produced a low humming noise before spitting out four disks at the same time.
Harpuia sliced two of them on the ground and went airborne to destroy the remaining two.
The machine kept spitting out four discs at a time every two seconds and Harpuia was slicing them fiercely as if it was unthinkable to him to miss any one of them.
He raised the difficulty more, to six discs at a time; he had to move around frantically to be able to destroy them all before hitting the wall; slicing, hacking and firing his light purple blades at the discs at incredible speed.
"Stop the program!" Leviathan's familiar voice rang through the hall as she entered.
Harpuia was still standing slicing the last few discs. He was panting heavily from the effort.
"Harpuia..." Leviathan said, "You're pushing yourself too hard, look at you you're exhausted..." she said worriedly.
"I am perfectly fine." Harpuia muttered between breaths, "Why did you stop the program?"
"Look, you've been training too hard. Six discs? I doubt that even Master X could succeed without difficulty at such a high level..." she sounded very concerned.
"Leviathan leave me alone!" Harpuia said harshly, "I'm sorry, I... just need to train."
"You've been here all day long training!" Leviathan said.
"You have been here all last night while you thought we were sleeping! Even Fefnir doubled his training schedule..." Harpuia bellowed.
"Well..." Leviathan said thoughtfully, "I suppose we're all excited about it..."
"What's going on?" Fefnir asked as he opened the door, "How come you two are here, this is my time in the training room!" he protested.
"Don't worry we were just leaving." Leviathan said, "Let's go Harpuia." She said and they exited the hall with a glance back at Fefnir blasting two discs with his powerful arm cannon.
At the resistance base...
Zero was walking around his room impatiently, looking at the floor as the door opened. Cerveau was standing in the doorway.
"Hello." Zero said hollowly his mind still focused on something else.
"Zero, Ciel told me... about Harpuia." Cerveau said, a mild concern in his voice.
"We all trust you Zero, whatever your decision may be. But do you trust them enough to accept their offer?" he asked and Zero stopped pacing around the room.
"They haven't bothered us for a long time now... they let us get away with countless uprisings I think they mean it..." Zero said.
"And what if this is a trap of sort to retire you? We will be completely defenseless against the guardians without you." Cerveau expressed his concern.
"Harpuia won't do that, he's not into dirty tricks." Zero said sharply.
"I see... Well, I think you should at least consider the possibility. I have something for you in my lab, a special device that in case of such a situation will teleport you back to base immediately, like an escape unit." Cerveau said and left the room.
Zero waited for a while considering his words and left; heading for the one man he trusted more than Ciel. Colbor, he had saved him once from Harpuia's clutches and they fought together countless times since then. Eventually becoming good friends.
He entered the elevator and pressed the button for the second floor.
He stared as he passed old Andrew, Andrew waved at him and Zero waved back an empty smile on his face.
The smile turned into a forlorn look as soon as Andrew was out of sight.
The elevator reached its destination, the second level. Zero exited from the right, heading to the soldiers quarters.
He passed the first, second and third doors and knocked on the fourth.
Colbor soon opened his door, and invited Zero inside to a game of chess.
"So Zero I heard that Harpuia offered you..." Zero interrupted the sentence.
"Yes, you heard right. He did but I don't know what to say," he said miserably.
"I see..." Colbor took out one of Zero's pawns with his knight before continuing.
"Just so you would know it doesn't really matter to me what you choose as long as you're happy with it."
Zero sighed and said, "Thanks Colbor you're a real friend but as Cerveau already asked me, what if this is a trap?"
"There is a high chance that this is a trap. But Harpuia already saved your life once so I doubt it." Colbor said, looking at the surprise at Zero's face he added, "Haven't I told you? He was the one that brought you here. I saw him and so did Hirondelle he told you I remember, about seeing a green storm in the sky? That was Harpuia riding Aztec Falcon."
"But why did he...?" before he could finished Colbor answered, "I suggest you ask him that." Zero knocked away Colbor's queen but then Colbor got his bishop. Leaving his king open to attack. Zero was ready for that and he used the castle move, letting the king out of harms way.
Colbor moved one of his pawn away from the king and that was what Zero was waiting for he moved his knight to a point to the right of the king.
Colbor moved his bishop to eat Zero's castle and then Zero scored a checkmate with his second bishop.
"Rats!" Colbor exclaimed, "Good game. I almost had you." He said.
"Thanks Colbor, for your advice and for the game." Zero shook his hand.
"Anytime..." Colbor grinned at him.
"I'll see you later." Zero said as he left Colbor's quarters. He heard Colbor's "See you." behind him as he walked down the corridor towards the elevator again.
"You're right Colbor..." Zero thought, "It can't be a trap. Harpuia saved me once and I saved him once. But I just can't imagine what will happen to the resistance if I accept Harpuia's offer and become the fourth guardian..."
To be continued...