SURPRISE! I'm not dead, now I'm so sorry for everyone who was waiting all month for the next chapter now the reason behind it is because i kept hitting roadblocks and I couldn't come up with a logic conversations without it sounding stupid so I am, again VERY sorry for the inconvenience so without further ado heres chapter 4

I don't own anything except OCs, story, and a few other things.


Chapter 4: a new life, and an unexpected encounter

6 months later, Igliak

Xexus was currently walking down the street. He now wears a black trench coat with red accents, over a black t-shirt, black pants, and fingerless gloves. He wanted to forget everything that happened, but he grew attached to the colors of his old uniform.

He just finished his job at the mechanics shop, which he has been working at for the past 4 months. Since it's a little too far for walking to the apartment that he and Deroot own, Xexus went to the nearby metro station and boarded a train departing for city sector S6 where their apartment was located. Xexus' mind then began to wander back to the weird event that happened six months ago when they were traveling to Igliak.

Flashback

Xexus woke up in what appeared to be a black void. He felt like he was suspended in midair, but the space around him felt as thick as oil, giving off a depressing and sinister feeling.

"Ah you've finally arrived."

A voice came from behind Xexus, but instead of seeing somebody behind him, he was greeted with a landscape ravaged and destroyed beyond restoration. Even though he was sitting on top of what was a giant stone pillar, Xexus could make out what appeared to be hundreds of destroyed vehicles, ranging from massive starships and mechs, to small tanks and trucks, also mixed in was thousands, if not millions of corpses littered everywhere, either robotic or biological with various degrees of decay stretched as far as the eye could see.

Unable to say anything due to the shock and disgust of the scene before Xexus, the voice spoke again, "Like the view? We will create something as beautiful as this in due time." Turning back around, he saw a silhouette of darkness standing in front of him.

"Where the hell am I?!" where's Deroot?! And what the hell are you?!" Xexus bombarded the silhouette with questions, all the while reaching for where his lacerator and laser blade were usually kept, but was shocked to find that he didn't have either of them.

"You will not be able to bring any weapons here, but it matters not for this is your mind." 'well that's just great, there's some demonic being living in my head and I can't kill it' With no way out Xexus decided to ask the Dark Being some questions about what it was and what it was doing in his head.

"I am a not a demonic entity but rather a certain someone you have a bond with" it said as it started to create a small red orb in it's non existent arm, the red orb started to form an image of a small black and red creature that has its tentacles wrapped around what appeared to be someones heart, the black creature has a single red eye with red energy moving through its veins.

"Wait, so your the parasite that's attached to my heart then?"

"Yes, i am that parasite that has turned you into the weapon you are" the silhouette started to change its form, it started looking more like Xexus, but it had black fur with red highlights and unlike Xexus its eyes glowed a constant red.

"I think this form is more appealing to the eyes don't you think?"

"So how exactly are you able to talk to me like this?"

"When you let your anger for Otto control your judgement, i became sentient and now that i have, i can start to evolve past what he wanted"

"Wait evolve? What do you mean by that?"

"Exactly what it implies, i can grow past the limitations set for me and grow stronger" Xexus immediately got tense,'if it can evolve, then it can overcome me and take control of my body!' As if knowing what he was thinking about, the parasite spoke, "If you think i will take control of your body, then you have nothing to worry about, i see no point in doing such a thing"

"Wait, what?" Xexus said, completely dumbfounded by what the parasite said.

"I am perfectly fine with the current arrangement between us, it would be a much bigger hassle for me if i were to take control of your body, for it would turn both of us into a ravenous monster that would only stop its rampage if it were killed"

"Oh well then what does evolving do then?"

"It benefits both of us, it allows me to grow stronger which can help you in combat while also strengthening our bond"

"So how do i accelerate the process then?" The parasites' face became grim, Xexus knowing he might not like the answer.

"By allowing me to absorb the souls of people you kill but that's entirely up to you, if you choose to do so, we will become an even greater monster than what we already are now" Xexus started to debate on what he wanted to do with that bit of information before coming to a decision "I'll hold off on my decision for now, until the time is right I guess."

"It matters not to me what decision you come to, now that we have concluded our business, until next time, host" Xexus's vision began to blur as he started to lose his balance and fade back into the realm of the living.

Flashback end

'I still have yet to come to a clear decision, but I get the feeling I'll have to make a choice soon, Xexus thought as he watched the buildings go by.

As he was about to go back to his thoughts however, someone sat down across from him, it was a woman, an anthropomorphic animal from what he could tell, he wasn't trying to look directly at her because he wasn't really interested with talking to anyone, from what he could tell she was also trying not to draw attention to herself, she had wavy black hair with yellow eyes, wearing a light yellow Carhart with a white undershirt with jeans and combat boots.

"If your going to look at a me, the least you can do is introduce yourself Lombax" she said, without looking away from the window.

"I apologize for my rude behavior. I meant no disrespect, I was merely curious because I've never seen someone like you on this train before miss…" staring directly at her now, seeing that she's actually a black hedgehog. The spikes were a little hard to see due to the amount of hair that covered them.

"…Lucy, Lucy Rosefield mister…" she said, with a slight air of confidence and pride, the kind found usually in people who have combat experience, 'So she's either with the defense force or is an independent mercenary'

"Xexus, Xexus peacemaker.", Xexus said, keeping his words as emotionless as possible to prevent her from figuring out anything about him.

Awkward silence was ensured after that, with nothing else to do except watch the buildings go by, Xexus decided to try and have small talk.

"So what exactly is someone like you doing on a train going to one of the more lesser known sectors of Igliak?"

"Well I would rather not share details, so you could say it's for business"

"Ah well, best to just leave it then."

As Xexus finished that sentence, the train shook violently, they both quickly looked out the window and saw that there was a gunship currently strafing the train, not caring for the passengers inside.

Both knowing what to do in the current situation Xexus pulled out his sword and blaster while Lucy pulled out two briefcases, with one looking like it was military grade and the other a normal suitcase, she opened the military one and pulled out two pistols, one white and one black, and a Bow, the bow was anything but normal with what appeared to be nanotech running along the surface of it giving off a blue hue, she put the bow on her back and attached the suitcase to her belt keeping the two pistols in her hands with the black one in her right hand and the white one in her left hand.

'Ah so I was correct in my assumption, which would explain why there was a gunship here from what Xexus could tell, is that whoever is flying the gunship was probably hired to get whatever is in the suitcase that Lucy has.

Lucy didn't really seem surprised that Xexus had weapons on him so she didn't bother telling him to get to safety, "So from the way it looks your gonna jump into this, well I don't really care if you do or don't just don't get in my way" Lucy said, as she turned towards the door to the cars in the back of the train.

Xexus, understanding what she wanted ,headed in the opposite direction. One thing Xexus usually did on his way back on the train was to familiarize himself with the trains' layout in case he ever got into the current situation he was in, so he knew there was a hatch that lead to the top of the train in one of the front cars. He made a mad dash to it hoping that Lucy and anyone else on the train were alright.

Lucy ran through multiple cars, trying to formulate a way to bring down the gunship as she stopped to help any civilians by telling them to get to a safe place. As she was about to get into the next car, the train shook, it started to slightly lean forward. Afterwords it felt like one of the trains' stabilizers was destroyed.

Even though she had to prioritize the gunship and the civilians first, her mind kept thinking back to the Lombax that she was talking to. Not only did she find it weird that there was a Lombax randomly wandering around when they should all be gone, she also found it weird as to how he kept his calm in a situation that would normally send any regular person into a panic, which meant he must've been in the military at some point.

Another explosion rattled the train throwing her out of her thoughts, telling her that she needed to really start focusing or a lot of people were gonna die.

Running through the next door she came into a car that was completely destroyed with the walls and ceiling gone. The only thing keeping the rest of the train from separating was the floor of the car.

'Probably expecting me' she thought as she put her pistols in their holsters then pulling out the bow, when she grabbed the handle and removed it, the scanner that was built into it immediately recognized the person holding the bow as it owner and proceeded to unfold itself.

When she got to the middle of the car, the gunship flew out from under the train hovering on the left side of the car training its weapons on Lucy, instead of just simply gunning her down the speakers mounted on it voiced the person piloting it.

"Well, well, well, bout time i snuffed out the rat, and it looks like it brought the cheese with it as well." the pilot said with a Australian like accent and knowing that there was at least one species that talked like that, and one certain mercenary group that has and ridiculous amount of the not so smart species, Lucy determined that the person piloting the ship was with thugs-4-less and that they were hired to get the documents that she currently has dangling on her leg.

"No matter how many times i run into your hard headed, reckless group I'm always baffled at how little morales you all seem to have."

"Why I'd never!" the thug said, as if trying to mimic him the gunship moved in a dramatic fashion, "We're a respectable bunch, only doing what we're told to do! The client just ain't specific enough about the met-"

before he could finish his sentence something black hit the side of the gunship, before the thug could do anything to shake off whatever it was, it started to rip through the gunship and hit the engine, causing the ship to spin out of control and crash into another car of the train, taking out another stabilizer.

'Oh shit' Lucy realized that with the loss of another stabilizer, the train began to plummet towards the ground below, thankfully the train was currently going through an industrial zone so nobody would be around when it hit but it didn't change the fact that there were still people on board.

The only thing Lucy could do was find something to grab a hold of and brace for the impending impact, the last thing she saw was more gunships coming in before everything went black.


2 hours later, Igliak industrial sector S5, POV change

When Lucy came to, she was surrounded by the remains of the train, with a spotlight showing through every now and then. Indicating that the sun had already gone down, after taking a look around she turned to look herself over for any major injuries. Unfortunately her left leg had a good gash in its side but thankfully it wasn't bleeding that much. Her weapons were still in useable condition and she still had the briefcase holding the documents.

'The one mission i thought would be a cakewalk turns into a clusterfuck'. slowly getting up in fear of making the gash worse, she limped for a small hole in the wreckage to see how the situation outside looked. Sadly there were a few dozen thugs-4-less troops all over the wreckage with at least 4 gunships in the skies.

'Seems like everyone else is dead' Lucy then proceeded to remove bits and pieces surrounding the hole until it was big enough for her to squeeze through the small gap.

Once she got past she began to memorize were the thugs were patrolling along with the gunship.s flight paths. When she was done memorizing them, she decided to navigate her way through the wreckage.

'Alright almost there' she was near one of the exits to the yard the train crashed in, but when she got up to get to it, she knocked something over witch caused a lot of noise and before she could react in time a thug that was close by grabbed her and threw her at some debris causing her wound to open up even more.

"So that,s where you were this whole time, and you also have the documents as well" the thug said, holding both hands and having one foot on her feet to prevent movement. His apparel was different than the other thugs. Instead of wearing the usual gray gear that the regular thugs used, with was mostly a few grenades and pants, this thug was wearing red combat armor with a helmet.

"When i get out of this, I'll kill you for what you did!" Lucy spat at the leader. Instead he just chuckled and rammed his fist into her abdomen, knocking all the oxygen she had out of her mouth as he let go of her to crumple to the ground.

"My you sure have some fire in you, I like that in a women." he ripped the briefcase off her belt and walked away to look inside, "Now let's see what these juicy little- WHAT!" he threw the briefcase at the ground causing its contents to fly out showing a bunch of paper with nothing on it. Where there should have been documents related to all the projects going on at Polyx industries Igliak branch. Turning back to Lucy he grabbed her by the throat and hoisted her up to his height. "Where are they you little bitch!"

Lucy smirked and replied, letting her cocky side show "You morons clearly went after the wrong person after the exchange" The thug threw her into the ground and started to kick her relentlessly.

It looked like he was about to kill her with a strong blow to the head when his radio crackled, with the voice of one of his men panicking "Boss we need help! There's this crazy maniac over that's! AHH GET OFF ME A-" the radio cut off mid transmission, causing him to stop midway with his attack, he decided to forget Lucy for now as she couldn't do anything but watch from the ground.

"There's no way, we bribed the defense force to not come after us!" He tried to contact the gunships and any of his other men but all he got was static, pulling out his gun he put himself in the middle of the area scanning his surroundings, until he heard a voice.

"I have dealt with my share of assholes before, but you guys just smell of stupidity and ignorance." Something flew out of the debris. When it landed, Lucy immediately recognized it as the Lombax from earlier with his name being Xexus if she recalled but something was different about him. She noticed he was a little banged up from the crash and had a few blood stains on him. What she noticed more than that was that he was glowing red.

Xexus threw something that was in his left hand right in front of the thug leader. It made both the thug and Lucy want to throw up as it was the head of one of the thugs, if you could still call it a head, clearly indicating what happened to the rest of the thugs that got in his way.

The Leader was appalled at what happened to his men. He didn't really care for how this lunatic killed them, he was more mad at how he probably left their bodies, almost unrecognizable, going into a blind rage he started to shoot wildly at Xexus. The Lombax didn't even try to move, letting the gunfire fly at him until the last second which he seemed to have just simply vanished.

"Your value towards other's lives makes me sick, way more than how I killed them." The Thug froze in place when he realized that the voice was directly behind him. Quickly reaching for his knife, he pulled it out and swung behind himself to find that Xexus disappeared again. Now going from anger to fear, he turned around again to find Xexus standing there, a look of disappointment.

"DONT YOU DARE LOOK DOWN ON THEM YOU BASTARD!" Knowing he couldn't beat Xexus he grabbed Lucy by the arm and held his knife to her throat. With a look of confidence on his face ,"Heh I bet you won't try shit when I got this bitch in my hands, right you freak!?" Lucy was actually terrified, not by the Thug but by Xexus. Because she didn't know if he would actually care whether or not she was in his way of killing the Thug.

Xexus didn't move from his spot, nor did he say anything. He kept his eyes on the Thug as he started to make his way to the exit, while keeping his eyes on Xexus ,feeling like he actually had the upper hand.

"Ha I knew it, you don't have the balls to kill me when I got this bitch in front of me now do y-?!" before he could finish his sentence there was already a laser going through his head, with Xexus' currently smoking lacerator, almost too fast for anyone to actually see him pull it out. The Thug fell to the ground, losing his grip on Lucy. With her passing out from the pain she had and from possible trauma. Before she hit the ground, Xexus caught her. With no real way of making it to the hospital, he decided to head for his and Deroot's apartment. Recalling that they had bought some medical supplies for some random time, and that it was closer than the nearest hospital.


Several hours later, unknown location

When Lucy woke up, she was staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. She tried to get up but the pain was too much for her. She looked around at what appeared to be someone's room with a basic desk and dresser. Her jacket and clothes were on a nearby chair. She looked down at her body to see bandages covering most of it, with some blood stains on it.

The door opened to reveal a brute of a Lombax wearing a simple black shirt and pants walk into the room, with a small tray of food, "Oh your awake, thats good" he said as he pulled a chair close to the bed. Putting the tray in front of her, looking at the food questionably, he simply nodded his head indicating that the food wasn't in anyway poisoned or drugged. When she started to eat, he spoke again. "How are you feeing?" After she finished the food, she responded with a bit of annoyance ,"I feel like shit, where am I ?"

"You're at our apartment. Xexus wouldn't have made it to the hospital in time so he brought you here and treated your wounds, It's currently 8am"

Immediately recalling what happened yesterday with the train, the crash, and how Xexus became some sort of monster, She became scared and tried to push herself as far as she could from the Lombax that was next to the bed. "W-Wait so you're both like monsters or something then?" she said as she was truly terrified at what Xexus did yesterday. She isn't usually terrified of things in this galaxy, with her seeing usually all it had to offer, this was something completely new to her.

The Lombax frowned at that response indicating that she knows about their 'special abilities' and how Xexus got reckless with using 'it' again. With no way of calming her down he sighed and got up from the chair and walked a little ways away from the bed before responding "Well yes and no. We have these 'unique' abilities, but we rarely use them. I'm more mellow about using mine, but Xexus…" He trailed off not knowing how to explain when Xexus feels like using his abilities so he turned around to look at her again. "Well I guess you'll have to ask him yourself, but we rarely ever use them, mostly because we want to live a somewhat normal life." She relaxed slightly at his response since it mean't they never really want to do anything wrong and just wanted to fit in with society. It still freaked her out, but not as much as before.

The Lombax went and sat down on the chair again putting his hand out towards Lucy. "I forgot to properly introduce myself, I'm Deroot, Xexus' best friend and friendly neighborly giant of a Lombax.' He said in the most friendliest way he could make his voice appear with a goofy grin to boot.

Lucy hesitantly grabbed his hand and shook, "I'm Lucy, Lucy Rosefield", Hearing her full name, Deroots smile grew slightly, "Ah the head of the private military company, Rosefield Inc.? Its a pleasure to make your acquaintance" Lucy slightly blushed and was a little surprised that Deroot knew about the Company that she created after separating from her parents company awhile back, she didn't like the way they did things it reminded her too much of the thugs-4-less's way of doing things, so she created a PMC dedicated to security mostly to spite her parents.

"W-W-Well thank you, I guess" she stuttered a lot when it came to being complimented but before there conversation could continue the door opened, revealing her would-be savior from yesterday in a black t-shirt with red accents and shorts, he also had some bandages as well although they weren't as severe as Lucy's were, yawning as he walked into the room "Hey Deroot is she up yet?" not noticing that she was probably due to the fatigue from yesterday Deroot got up, putting his hand on Xexus' shoulder as he walked by "How about you learn to look first and ask before walking into the room?" before Xexus could retort, Deroot was already out the door "I'll just leave you two love birds alone" he said as he was closing the door behind him, leaving Lucy and Xexus alone together, with the former slightly blushing at his statement.

"I swear it i'll never get use to his antics" He said to no one in particular, he turned around making eye contact with Lucy which immediately causing her slightly flinch under his gaze, she usually wasn't like this, mostly due to yesterday with how Xexus went from a calm collected person, to an insane animal that liked to play with its food, He went and sat in the chair Deroot was in before he came into the room, he waited patiently for her to ask about yesterday or something related to the matter before he would drop her off at the hospital to get her injuries thoroughly checked.

"So what was that yesterday? with… you know" she looked down with a tinge of guilt, with how she automatically thought of him and Deroot as freaks or monsters all because they had something 'special' that seemed a little personal to the both of them.

Xexus was silent for a little bit before answering "While Deroot calls it an 'ability' I see it as more of a curse, Also I can't stand people who use their power to hurt and abuse others for personal gain" Lucy was expecting something a little different, she was not expecting that kind of answer she thought he would have been a little more self centered instead of doing something selfless like that.

"So you do have a heart, sorry for my assumption" Lucy felt guilty for automatically assuming since if you were to analyze what happened, he only targeted the thugs attacking people.

"Its understandable, since you wouldn't have known my intentions otherwise"

"Did anyone else survive the crash though? I labeled them all dead for my own survival" She said hesitantly, since being put in such a position, she usually focuses on her own survival more even though she regrets it every time she needs to do that.

Xexus stayed silent, trying to come up with a response after what she told him, but quickly realized what she was trying to say, "If your saying its your fault if anyone died then your wrong, you were badly injured yourself so you couldn't have done much, but yes some did but most did not."

He then got up and put the chair back were it was before deroot moved it, he turned back to Lucy "Look theres only so much you can do against something with a vast amount of power at its disposal, I'm not saying that your efforts are in vain or anything like that, but even with the power i have its hard to save people with it, now we'll drop you off at the hospital after you change and eat alright?"

He was about to leave the room before Lucy, somehow got off the bed and grabbed his hand, "I'm sorry for how i acted there and you seem like someone who's willing to do the right thing, if you want you can come work with me, I run a pmc thats more about helping people than gunning them down for money, so if your interested…" She trailed off afterwards not really knowing what to say because she sounded desperate to have him work with her, she couldn't really figure out why though, but her mind was just telling her that Xexus is someone she shouldn't let go of.

Meanwhile Xexus juggled the idea around in his head, if he was the same person before Otto's motive was revealed he probably say he wasn't interested but that feeling of being used and betrayed by someone who was out for themselves and nobody else, seeing everything as toys or as pawns made his blood boil, and when he first met Lucy back on that train, he thought she was just another stuck-up bitch who was just as arrogant as most others were, seeing her act like this in front of him showed him that she was being sincere and that gut feeling telling him that this was very personal for some reason.

"I'll… think about it, I'll have to talk it over with Deroot first" he then decided to point out the obvious "Um did you forget that you don't have anything-" before he could say anything else and arrow went flying past his head and imbedded itself into the door, he immediately felt a massive amount of killing intent coming from behind him, "Mention that again or look at me as I change, I'll make you regret it~" she said in the most uncomfortably friendliest tone she could ever make.

Without saying another word he bolted out the door and immediately closing it before two more arrows went through the door.


3 hours later

After they dropped Lucy off at the hospital (And after fixing the door) Deroot and Xexus went to a nearby cafe to discuss the offer Lucy left for them.

"So do you think its a good idea?" Xexus asked as he took another sip of his coffee.

"Well i don't have anything against it, Plus its got a better pay than your current job has." Deroot said, leaning casually back in his chair.

"You know I don't care for money Deroot"

"Yeah but still the decision lies with you and what you want to do, I personally don't care since I'm alright with whatever you choose." Xexus sighed, he should've known that Deroot would throw this on his shoulders like with most important decisions they had to deal with.

So Xexus began to look at the pros and cons, They would be able to get better living arrangements and other assorted items, along with having some friends that are willing to help each other out but theres a fair share of cons to the offer as well like making enemies with the wrong kind of people.

The one deciding factor to the decision in Xexus' opinion is how much of a difference can they make, if he was to accept the deal they would be doing something that Xexus thought was the right thing to do, after losing everything once Xexus doesn't want anyone to feel that kind of pain ever again, while it wasn't just Otto's fault for the other clones deaths, Xexus saw why Ratchet & clank did what they did.

Xexus finally came to a conclusion after looking over everything that he thought would make the choice easier, "I think we should do it. As much as I would like us to keep a low profile and steer clear of the wrong people, we're not really getting anywhere with our goal." Deroot didn't say anything since he didn't care for what choice Xexus choose and that he already knew what their 'goal' was, all he did was nod in response.

Getting Deroots message they both left to return to the hospital to tell Lucy their decision, which hopefully will go down the way they hope it will.

When they got back to the Hospital, they already saw Lucy walking out, since they live in such an advanced era, she was probably given some nano tech and told to take it easy for a few days, when she noticed the pair of lombaxes walking towards her, she walked over towards them.

"So your guys decision?" Looking back at Deroot to see if he wanted to back out, Deroot simply nodded to tell her their decision, fully knowing that they won't be able to go back to their regular lives. "We will accept your offer then." Xexus said as he put his hand out towards her.

Lucy grew the biggest smile she could ever make, with a hint of happiness she put her hand out and shook on it, "Then welcome to Rosefield inc. boys."

Unbeknownst to any of them someone or something smirked in anticipation"Let the reign of this weapon begin"


Now I have 2 announcements and no I'm not gonna stop writing this in fact I'm actually editing out a few things.

First I'll be dropping two crossovers that we're gonna take place after this first Arc due to the fact that it would take FOREVER but the Arcs after that will be created so i'll be putting a huge time skip for those in their place, problem is, is that there are a few OCs that come from those crossovers, so be prepared for that


Now for the second announcement, In order to get things moving to prevent another month of absence, I'll be making the Second Original arc that happens after the first crossover, along with the Third crossover and original Arc.

Now that thats out of the way see you next time!