Chapter 6 - Dreaming of the Past...

While it is rare, there are certainly recorded instances of reploids that have experienced the equivalent of dreams, the most famous of which is the prototype reploid, Mega Man X. Of course, much work has been put into what makes this possible, unfortunately, we are still decades behind the advances that made the creation of reploids possible in the first place. The designs of Thomas Light remain mysteries to even the best roboticists in the world. We can only hope that by studying X, we might learn more of what makes him so unique when compaired with other reploids. -'Professor Xavier Hikari' -lecturing to NIT students

That night, I dreamed.

--

My eyes opened. I saw flashing lights along with a variety of blinking displays. Squinting my eyes, I could see that they were displaying the inner construction of a reploid. Me, in fact. Suddenly, I was hit with intense pain. I tried to curl up to ease some of the pain, but I found that my limbs had been restrained with tight, and likely very sturdy, steel cables. My insides felt like they were on fire.

"So, awake are we?"

I opened my eyes and looked in the direction the voice had emanated from. Standing off to the side was what appeared to be an old man. However, on closer examination, I could see the strange looking things on his shoulders were actually connected to his head, and the boots he was wearing were the standard design for reploids. The pain began to subside and I was able to speak. "Who are you? What have you done to me?"

"I am Dr. Doppler. What I have 'done,' is to make you better."

"Better? What are you talking about?"

"I brought you back to life and upgraded you."

"You…" I looked down at my body and saw what had been changed. My body was blue and covered with red stripes, but the original structure of my body was still the same. "What is this? Why did you do this?"

"My master thought you would be useful. And I believe you have unfinished business with our enemy."

"Who?"

"X. The same X that destroyed you years ago."

My eyes widened. I had another chance at revenge. "Then I assume I have been upgraded enough to survive another fight with X? Last time, didn't go so well for me."

Doppler pressed a button on his console and suddenly the restraints loosened enough for me to free myself of them. "Heh, correct. However, you are not to act without my permission. I want you to lay low until I deem your actions necessary."

"You think you can tell me what to do? Thank you for rebuilding me, but don't think you can order me around. I work for no one."

"On the contrary Vile, you are a maverick, and as such you will obey our leader, and he has given me command for now."

"Who, Sigma? I would have thought that if X was still alive he would have taken Sigma out by now."

"True, X did defeat our master, but what he killed was only the body. Lord Sigma lives on in his true form."

"His true form?"

"Yes, the Maverick Virus; and with it he can infect any reploid and live on."

I stared at this 'Doppler' for a second, and then abruptly burst out laughing. "A virus? That's absurd! And just who made this virus?"

"That I do not know. Only Lord Sigma does, and I will not press the matter with him. But enough questions; I have given you an order and you are to obey it."

I got into a fighting stance. I figured I could take some scientist. "Make me."

The doctor flung off his lab coat and I could finally see the rest of his armor. "Very well! I shall show you why I give the orders around here!" Suddenly Doppler began to glow as he charged directly towards me.

I was surprised by this and just barely managed to leap over him as he went under me. "Nice move, but you've left yourself wide open!" I leveled my shoulder cannon and fired a shot at him.

Doppler quickly turned and surrounded himself in some sort of green aura. My attack impacted with Doppler's aura and was absorbed. "What the?"

Doppler wasted no time charging at me again. This time I wasn't able to dodge him. I felt like I had been hit by a truck that was on fire. As I lay sprawled on the floor, Doppler stood over me. "You are lucky Vile. I have been ordered not to infect you with the virus. A most peculiar request considering it would make you immensely more agreeable, but one I must not challenge. For now, however, you will obey me, or next time I just might disable your ability to do anything but blink."

"Fine. I just want X any way. I'll help you, for now."

--

The scene began to shift. I was no longer in the underground lab of Dopplertown. Now I was at the Maverick's secret island base. This time, I was painted green, and I was badly damaged. It must have been during the 'Jakob Elevator' incident.

--

I staggered into a room, small sparks of electricity dancing around some wounds and holes in my armor.

"Vile. Looks like you still can't defeat X, even with all the upgrades you've been given."

I looked over to see who had said that. Lumine stood there, arms crossed and staring intently at me. I looked away and said, "he is strong. But I was merely testing him. I will eliminate him."

"You are a very curious creature Vile. Why do you hate X so much? I've been studying your past as best as I can, and it seems that he had no real quarrel with you until Sigma's first uprising."

"I have never seen him take things seriously. He doesn't know the meaning of being a hunter. Every time he fights, he complains about how he's such a pacifist and that there must be a better way."

"And you don't consider this an honorable quality?"

"No! Not when you're a hunter and people are depending on you with their lives. You need to be able to know you're doing the right thing when you pull the trigger. X has always held back during his fights, needlessly prolonging them as he tries to reason with whoever is attacking him. If he were any other reploid he would have been kicked out of the hunters long ago, but he gets special treatment just for being who he is."

"Interesting. What you're saying is, you don't think X is a good hunter, and because everyone else thinks he is, you're going to kill him for it? An odd position for a maverick."

"Listen here you arrogant piece of scrap; I only want X. I don't care about you or Sigma or anything else now. X is my enemy and I will not rest until he's dead."

"Hmmm. I've always wondered about your personal history Vile. Were you always so violent? Surely there must have been a time when you and X could have seen more eye to eye, a time you could have been friends?"

I lowered my head and turned around. "There was a time…but it's long gone. This is all I live for now. If you'll excuse me, I have to repair myself. We are taking the Jakob elevator soon, correct?"

"Yes, and then we shall hold up in Sigma's palace. That's where the last resistance from the old, useless generation will crumble; where my dream will come true. A new world for the new generation reploids. It will be glorious."

I let out a bitter laugh. "I hope you're ready to fight for this new world of yours."

"My abduction at your hands was purely for show. Rest assured I have adequate defensive capabilities should it come to that."

"Others have said similar words."

"Yes, you are one of those if I miss my guess."

I averted my glance from Lumine and continued towards the repair bay. Lumine's line of questions had gone into territory I had not wanted to venture to. My mind began to wander to the thoughts of change. Could it have been possible that my desire for X's destruction had changed me into what I was now? I remembered that Zero used to be totally obsessed with hunting mavericks. However, I heard that he had actually been in love with a girl that he was forced to kill.

--

I suddenly felt a sharp pain that I could not identify. It didn't even appear to have a point of origin. I opened my eyes. The scene from the 'Jakob' incident had evaporated into mist. 'Why is this happening? I've never had these dreams before.' A new setting formed around me as the pain subsided. It looked like the streets of New Tokyo. I was outside of my body this time, a mere observer watching myself walking down one of the sidewalks. I wasn't in any armor. 'Is this from back before I had become a hunter?'

I seemed to be walking at a leisurely pace down the sidewalks and past the various shops. I was struggling to remember what happened all those years ago, and why it was relevant to me now. 'Why am I seeing this? When did this…wait, oh no…' I saw my other self stop in front of one of the shops, a jewelry store. The events of the scenario finally came back to me and I realized what was going to happen. As I was about to enter the store, a loud explosion reached my ears. I saw my other self turn quickly, his eyes wide as he noticed what direction the explosion had come from.

I took off running, following my dream self as it ran towards the destruction. There was a brief flash of light as my dream self warped his armor onto his body. 'No, no, no, not this! Not again! Hurry up you idiot!' I kept on yelling, even though I knew I wasn't able to interact with this vision. As I followed him, we came upon a building that was totally flattened. A rampaging mechaniloid had torn through it. 'No, this can't be happening! Why now?' The mechaniloid was already gone and being engaged by the other hunter units.

There were a few reploid paramedics already on the scene. I saw the building that had been destroyed and recognized it. My other self rushed up to the paramedics and identified himself as a maverick hunter. I listened as he asked about any survivors.

The paramedic looked away, but that gesture said more then enough. My other dashed into the wreckage and began to frantically toss away pieces of rubble, desperately trying to find the person he was looking for. Finally I saw him lift up a collapsed bookshelf that had lain under several tons of rubble. The pure shock of what he saw next caused him to freeze in his tracks. He removed his helmet so that he could see more clearly. Quickly, he reached down, picked up the limp reploid, and went over to the nearest paramedic. The medic, stunned that my other had found this reploid so fast, quickly preformed some basic diagnostics. It took less then a minute for the medic to read the results. He turned slowly to my other and looked directly in his eyes as the words fell out of his mouth. "I'm sorry, but the control chip has been shattered. She's dead."

My other said nothing. The medic turned and walked off, leaving him to be alone with her. He put his hands over hers and felt some sort of liquid fall from his eyes. Slowly, painfully slow, he let go and turned to walk away. He got two steps before he fell to his knees, screaming out in agony. He slammed his fists into the pavement so hard he almost left cracks in it.

I realized that the vision was getting further away. However, I now knew why I had seen this.

That one event had been the point everything changed. What I had said to Lumine had been true; X and I could have been friends long ago, but her death had changed that. I became obsessed with being a hunter. I lost myself to hunting. That was why I hated X so much. I thought he was demeaning the hunters with his pacifistic ideals. He didn't know why I did what I did with the fervency that I had. Maybe if I had explained myself, he would have had sympathy, but I walled myself in and refused to expose my reasons to him. I was a fool, and now I had the chance to atone. This, more then anything else, convinced me that I was doing the right thing.

--

My eyes opened. I had overslept. I meant to get an early start today so that I would have a chance to talk to X, but now I would have to wait. 'He probably went with Zero to that therapy session. Damn.'

I got out of the stasis capsule and wandered into the hallway. Immediately, I realized something was wrong. Hunters were walking by whispering things to one another. Though they were trying to be discreet, I distinctively heard X and Zero being talked about. Then I heard 'med-bay' and I realized that things were probably worse than I could have imagined.

I made my way to the medical bay and noticed that there were quite a few reploids jockeying for a position outside so they could look in. I tried to talk to the nearest one. "What's going on?"

He just looked back and said, "we don't know. Commanders X and Axl teleported straight to the med-bay with Zero in tow. Zero was unconscious and X looked like he had been attacked by something."

My eyes widened. Sigma had mentioned that Zero had already attacked X just a few days ago. 'That must be what happened. Oh god, it's starting to happen, I have to tell Cossack's bots about this.'

Suddenly, I felt someone's hand on my shoulder. The world instantly became monochromatic, and another hand covered my mouth, muffling the startled cry I was about to utter. A quiet voice whispered into my ear, "follow me. Don't make a noise, or you will regret it."

I turned and saw Axl behind me. I realized then that he must be using his cloak to envelope me as well as himself. We walked away from the med bay and found an empty room off one of the hallways. Axl turned off his cloak and faced me. "Well, it's certainly been an interesting day. So, I assume you want to know why there's a big party outside of Lifesaver's pad? Well, it happened about an hour ago. I met up with X and Zero after they had left the psychiatrist's office and joined them as they went to the Robot Museum. Something about Zero looking for clues to his past or something like that. Anyways, we had just gotten to the Hall of Robot Masters when I noticed that Zero seemed to be acting strange. He started spacing out and talking to himself. Then when X and I drew closer, he attacked X. I managed to get him to release X and then he staggered into the next room. He briefly looked like he was convulsing on the floor and then he fainted."

"He was having a vision then?"

"Sure looks that way. I can only imagine the trouble this is going to cause him when X tells Signas about this. Signas is probably going to put Zero under house arrest. This just might be enough to convince him to go AWOL. Hopefully he'll find the little clue I've left, although, I doubt it. Not very bright that one."

I frowned. "What clue?"

Axl grinned and responded, "ohhhh, wouldn't you like to know? You know what I think? I think you're trying to sabotage our little operation."

I swallowed nervously. "Ridiculous. I want to know so I can help. Zero's opened up to me. We've run simulations together, he trusts me. I can help lead him in the right direction, but only if I'm in on it."

Axl looked thoughtful. "Hmm, you raise a good point. Too bad I don't give a damn. Zero may not have figured it out yet, but being persona non grata with the one thing that matters to you can do interesting things for one's clarity. I'm betting he'll realize that the path to the answers he seeks is closer then he realizes." Axl turned to exit through the door, but first, he stopped to look at me. "I'll be talking to Sigma in a few minutes. He may want to see you after we're done. Keep one thing in mind, I think you're trouble, and as soon as you aren't needed, I'll be a comin'." Axl left the room and I waited for a few minutes so that, hopefully, he would be gone by the time I needed to leave.

I had to tell Cossack's robots about this new development. I quickly made my way to my secret stash and recovered my helmet. I activated my warp systems and headed for Cossack's Citadel.

End Chapter 6

Author's Note: This took longer then I thought it would. The dialogue for Doppler and Lumine was rather difficult to come up with, but after that, it just flowed out. I honestly was not sure what one event would have caused Vile to hate X as much as he does in the games. Then, when I introduced X and Alia talking to one another, the idea of giving Vile a love interest just lept out at me. It made so much sense that that traumatic an experience would be the catalyst that made Vile such a ruthless hunter, andalso serve to polarize him against X. I'm not sure how many chapters this story has left, but, rest assured, the action is heating up. The next few chapters will take place during the two days covered in chapters six through ten of DF. Well, that's about all I can say right now, I'm off to work on Chapter 7! Read and Review, I loves me the feedbacks.