As Ciel showed him the command centre and its personnel, Zero spread his hands and sang, "What a dump!"

"Hey! We're at war! Have some respect!"

"It's been trashed! Wasted!"

"This is another one of those bases destroyed during the Elf War! We barely have an operating shield system and Trans Server!"

"So how do you fight against… hey, what are you fighting for?"

"Oh! That. We're only fighting against Megaman X and his legions of Pantheons, that's all."

A blue helmet, the red forehead gem cracked.

"Zero? Are you okay?"

"Zuh?"

"Your eyes became distant."

"That name sounds familiar."

"It should be. You fought by his side, a hundred years ago. But now he's trying to retire us all."

"Why would X…" Zero began, but then that annoying lapse of memory got in the way. He sighed, hanging his head.

"What am I fighting for?"

"Freedom," Ciel summarized, "I'll tell you everything later, but we're in a pinch right now, and we have no time left."

Zero shrugged.

"Considering you have a handful of guards, a kid with a stuffed animal, a fat guy, a kooky old man and a mad scientist, you probably do need help."

Ciel spread her palms open.

"We have you now! You are everything we need."

"But I mean nothing to you and you don't know why."

"What?"

"Sorry, Freudian slip."

"I have a mission for you…"

"First!" Zero interrupted, pointing at the happy fairy buzzing around his head, "What is that?"

"Oh, that's one of the cyber elves you rescued while you were rescuing me. The rest are stored in your memory."

Zero inclined his head for a moment, processing his storage commands. The fairy flew into his head, disappearing in sparkles. Zero grimaced as she entered his database catalogue.

"Nuppie? Did a second grader come up with that name?"

"Actually, Alouette named them."

"The kid with the stuffed animal?"

Ciel shrugged and smiled.

"Hey, she lost everything, you know? So I let her name the elves. She thinks of them as her children."

"But where did Cyber Elves come from?"

"They're electronic entities. Maybe they came from ghosts in the shell…"

"The anime?"

Of all the things to remember, that had to be one of them. Ciel sighed.

"No. It's a theory that program code will develop consciousness over time."

"Maybe they're the souls of reploids," Zero postulated.

"Or maybe…" Ciel pondered. Zero raised an eyebrow.

"Maybe?"

"Just maybe… they're magic."

Zero burst into laughter.

"You silly little girl."

Ciel pouted.

"Hey! I'm a scientist! With a PhD!"

"Sure. What's this mission?"

"Our comrade was captured and is being processed at the disposal centre."

"You want me to save him too?"

Hope bloomed in those wide blue eyes.

"Yes, please! We have so few allies left to us!"

Zero was a sucker for puppy eyes.

"I'm on my way."

888

"The disposal centre is just ahead of you."

"Whoa! A voice in my head. I know that reminds of someone, I just can't remember!"

"I know it's been a long sleep, but please focus on the mission at hand."

"That's just what… whoever… would have said, too!"

"Look, are you going to save my friends from certain crushing spiky death or not?"

"Yeah, I'm going."

Spike balls and Pantheons that fell apart at a single swipe of his Z Saber were the only resistance he encountered. A jetpack Pantheon appeared once or twice, but Zero could perform aerial attacks too.

"Geez. I have this feeling that my enemies were more of a challenge than this!"

"Be glad the current ones aren't."

"I understand the need for mass production when you're trying to rule the world with an evil robot army, but come on! I'm not even trying that hard!"

"Zero, the issue here isn't enemies, it's time, and they are running out of it!"

"Oh, right."

Running through the rest of the stage without a smidgen of effort, Zero encountered a garage door. Well, it looked like a garage door, but it was of very thick construction and sealed with interlocking bars.

"Through the shutter, our allies are being held."

"That's it? It's like something is missing…"

"The reason we sent you on this mission is because of the boss of this area."

"Oh! That's it, yeah. I knew there was something bad behind one of these garage door thingies!"

Feeling more secure about his place in the world, Zero entered the disposal centre. As expected, there was the boss, a combat-class reploid beast.

"I am Aztec Falcon," the boss introduced himself, "Harpuia sent me here to clean up the trash. That includes you!"

"What razor wit," Zero snorted, "Let's see if my Z Saber is sharper!"

"Um… help?" squeaked the reploid soldier in green, trapped with some mechaniloids beneath the spiked compactor. Ignoring them, Zero and Falcon flew at each other above. Saber and galvanic claws smashed together, crackling as the warriors pushed against each other.

"Maverick trash!" Falcon shrieked. Zero's eyes widened.

"Maverick…"

A skull with purple scars over its burning red sockets.

"NO!"

Zero kicked Aztec Falcon against the wall, dashed and jammed the Z Saber through the boss' fusion core. His dark eyes blazed green.

"I AM NO MAVERICK!"

The reploid and mechaniloids cowered as an explosion ripped apart the compactor. A god clad in red armour fell from the sky and walked among them, his dark eyes showing concern.

"Are you all right?"

The mechaniloids beeped affirmative. The reploid soldier's knees were shaking.

"Ah… thank you. I thought no one was coming to save us."

"Let's go back to base," Zero invited, "Dr. Ciel will find work for your new friends."

"O RLY?" the mechaniloids chirped.

"YA RLY!" Zero replied in their native tongue.

"NO WAI!" the mechaniloids seemed to faint from happiness.

"YES WAI!" Zero laughed.

"ZOMG!" the mechaniloids cried, breaking into dance. The reploid soldier blinked and uttered, "WTF?"