Afterlife

by GrimMoody

Bass is in the X series in this fourth entry to my Mega Man quintology. Coping with a darker future, mechanical obsoletion, and a brother inadvertently responsible for the death and destruction of many is too much for Bass to cope with. Only hope can keep Bass and his friends looking forward into the future.

3. If This is the End

All robots were programmed to protect themselves, and suicide was supposed to be impossible. All robots were programmed to preserve their lives. But it was actually very simple to get by these failsafes, if one was a little creative. Bass managed creativity at times. That's why he found himself a junkyard, on the edge of some city. He hadn't been tracking where he was going, and he still wasn't sure where he was, but he didn't care. He could heard the noise of the machinery from far off, but he didn't flinch. He just started walking over the grassy hill before him.

Junkyards were good places for evading the failsafes. All a robot had to do was stand on the edge of the trash compactor and lean in such a way that if they deactivated, they would fall in. It helped to do this right as the compactor was starting to go, so that any noise made by falling would be covered up by the loudness of the machine. With a little effort, no one would notice until it was too late.

Bass felt a little foolish as he went up the hill, but he indulged anyway, closing his eyes. The noise of the junkyard was very familiar, and he was suprised that the technology sounded so similar to what had been a century ago. Was technology really that unadvanced, or did all metal scrunching together sound alike? He didn't care enough to think it over. He liked even this slight familiarity.

As he went up, Bass imagined that the hill was covered not in grass, but snow, and that when he came to the top and opened his eyes, he would see Dust Man below, working his job not far from Cossack's lab. Crystal Bot would be waiting there, keeping the junk-bot company like she did a lot of the time, and as soon as she saw her "Forte-kun" she would smile like a little kid (it was the most annoying thing ever, but how Bass longed to see it again...) and announce that she had built him a brand new upgrade so he should come back to Cossack's lab and see it. Bass hadn't known the Russian doctor very well, so it surprised him how much he missed Dr. Cossack.

And as long as he was indulging, Dr. Light would be alive, not in a stupid hologram box. Bass would be due to call him and see how he was doing. Treble would be there, barking at the telescreen and wagging his giant tail - sometimes Bass thought Treble liked Dr. Light even better than he did. And, for the heck of it, Rock would be alive. No sense in letting Dr. Light be unprotected. If he got annoyed with Rock he could kill him later. And Roll, she could be there. Bass didn't mind her too much. He didn't spare more than a "meh" for Proto Man.

Until the moment he opened his eyes, he had himself almost fooled. But it wasn't Dust Man's junkyard, and he could pretend no longer. There were several robots in the valley down the hill, and a few human supervisors, and a completely unfamilar mess of metals and machinery. No sign of "Daniel Dunn". There was no need to rush things, and the large compactor was still being loaded at the moment. In any case, Bass wasn't in the mood for the sneaking around that his plan would require right yet. He sat down on the hill almost lazily, just watching through dull eyes.

Is there something on my helmet? Bass wondered, only half caring as he reached up to check. He sighed.

Bass had never been one much for self-pity since he had left Wily, not since the days when he had been focused on nothing more than fighting Mega Man. He had always failed at defeating his rival, and there were several times when he and Treble had sat together in a place like this, just reflecting on how close they had come to beating Rock in the latest battle. Now he was sitting, this time alone, reflecting on the lost battle with Zero. There was no pride left to fuel the rage Bass wanted to feel at the thought of Zero. All he could muster was a dusty hate, one with no strength to it.

Here he was too forlorn to wince or try to say it was luck. Zero was more powerful than him, plain and simple. He couldn't deny it, and every new excuse brought to his head had to be immediately dismissed as worthless. Of course Zero would be built to outdo him. He was supposed to kill Bass, after all. And Forte knew that every moment he spent alive was another moment he had simply because Zero let him have it. The very thought sickened him.

But Zero's mercy (gag) wasn't the only mercy involved. Here Bass' pride reared back and filled him with rage. Mega Man X, of all people, had nearly killed him. He didn't doubt for a second that X would have killed him if he had actually defeated Zero. Now, Bass knew that X was going to be more powerful than him, and the thought he was going to be okay with it - because Crystal Bot was supposed to upgrade him and even out the odds. Also, his defense of Zero was a very Light-bot thing to do. Rock would have done the same for any of his friends, even for Bass himself.

Ugh, I should have known that X would be an idiot just like Rock...Why does he have to be friends with that stupid, worthless, evil...?

His thoughts wandered on with more expletives than I care to repeat. Waves of self-pity came over him as he recalled all that he had wanted to do. He had plans of exploring the world, being upgraded by Sonata, writing more books, and most of all finding some way to outdo Mega Man. He would have become the strongest of the robots with Crystal's work, he had no doubt. She was the one who had invented the CPU shielding that had kept him alive. And yet he had failed to save her from the Mavericks.

That was a terrible way to reward her for her dedicated service. The vague thought that this was not his fault crossed his mind, but he knew that if he had killed Zero when he had the chance then there would be no Mavericks, and Crystal Bot would have lived. But it was too late. She had trusted him and believed in him, and he hadn't helped her. She was dead, just like everyone else he had failed to save.

And now all I have is that stupid kid to remember her by...

Bass contorted in disgust at the very thought of Axl. How dare that Dr. Inafune make such a girly, cutesy, feminine-voiced robot from his sleek, intimidating design? He was almost as girly as Zero. He didn't even look like he could fight, the miserable, poofy-haired thing. While he was at it, Bass tried to think of something horrible about Alia or Signas, but he found he didn't care enough.

His thoughts turned to the disc of the history of the past century Alia had given him. It was still on him and was surprisingly undamaged. He loaded the disc and studied it carefully. Their history was bleak. Strike after strike against the Mavericks, the fall of their space station onto the ground (did any of them know about self destructs?), and the ensuing "Zero Nightmare" all filled his head. It depressed him; he didn't know how much he cared about the welfare of humans. The whole earth had suffered, and Bass hadn't been there to stop it. He had just let it all happen.

What good would it have done if I were there? Bass thought bitterly. Every single time I tried to do something, I failed...

It was true, he told himself. When Wily had first built him, the world seemed at least a fun place. The evil doctor had actually been proud of his creation, saying that he was built to be the best. That changed fast when Bass lost his first battle to Mega Man, in the scheme where he had pretended to be an ally and stole the upgrades. Bass had dragged himself back to Wily's lab, both he and Treble in a terrible state.

"What's wrong with you?" Wily screamed at him as he put his robot back in order. "You couldn't beat him with his own upgrades? Pathetic! I'll just have to fight him myself! It's a good thing I built my new fighting machine! I can't depend on you for anything!"

That was only the first argument they'd had. Bass had watched as his master had also failed to bring down Mega Man, and at the very last moment, when even the kind Mega Man seemed like he was getting impatient with Wily, Bass jumped in and saved his master from harm. Not that Wily bothered to be grateful. He only snapped at his robot for "forcing him to fight" Mega Man and "being worthless".

"Well, you're the one that built me!" Bass yelled right back. "And if it weren't for me, you'd be in jail or shot or something!"

"Oh, right, thank you SO much for dropping an iron beam on my head!" Wily snapped. "You're almost as bad at rescue as you are with fighting!"

The argument went on longer, but Bass didn't bother with it. He tried to go on to the next memory, which was of his failure when Duo came down and there was all that nonsense about the "evil energy". It was no good.

Stupid Crystal Man, deleting my data...

But he did remember when he had destroyed King. This would have warmed his metaphorical heart some, except that Rock had been there; he didn't do that on his own. Worse yet, he had discovered that his own master had contrived the scheme and built King in the first place, one of the reasons for which being that he wanted to kill his rebellious creation. Bass could recall when Proto Man had destroyed the plans for King II, and what happened after Proto Man left.

It was a small, bitter look, but Bass had seen it nonetheless. Wily, as he crawled away from the angry Bass, muttered. "Ungrateful wretch..."

"What was that, old man?" Bass arrogantly snapped.

"Nothing!"

Robots had better hearing than that, and Bass rolled his eyes. "Just get up and fix my buster, moron. I think there's a glitch in it from fighting your stupid minions. You're going to have to build something better than King to off me."

Bass didn't see the full consequences of his actions for some time. He should have known that Wily would bear a deep grudge against him, and that in the end he wouldn't get away with being disrespectful. He had known that Wily was starting up on some new scheme where he was going to steal more Light-bots and reprogram them to frame Dr. Light, so Bass had decided to prepare himself to fight Mega Man once again. Wily had promised him some special upgrades, and like a fool Bass had just taken his word for it.

When Bass emerged from the automated machine, he didn't feel any different at first. That was mainly due to the fact he was buried under rubble, not only the remains of the the automated machine, but also chunks of plaster, metal beams, and other assorted whatnot that was too damaged to identify. He was too busy digging himself out. Throwing off the rubble was hard work for someone half-smothered by it, but there seemed to be someone above.

"Arr, lad, where are ye?"

Pirate Man. Bass rolled his eyes, but help was help, wherever it came from. "I'm over here! Get this crap off me!"

"Where?"

Barking sounded, and with relief Bass knew it was Treble's. It was coming nearer, and he could start to hear digging. Through some I beams he could see Pirate Man's metal claw going to work pulling off all the rubble. In only moments, Bass was free. The day was very bright and sunny, and it was easy to tell since there was nothing left of Skull Castle.

"What happened here?" Bass asked as soon as he finished petting Treble. "Did one of Wily's stupid experiments go wrong or something?"

"Nay, lad." the pirate said. "T'was Mega Man. The master's plan was a failure again."

"Wait, what? You're saying I was left in the stupid automated machine for the entire thing? And he left me here when the castle self-destructed?"

Pirate Man scratched his head. "I don't think he meant it to go that way. Mega Man came quickly this time, and 'e made right short work o' things."

"Ugh." Bass made sure his teleporter was working, and it was. "Just tell me what miserable rock Wily dragged his sorry carcass to. I'll give him a piece of my mind! And why are you looking at me like that?"

The expression was rather strange. Pirate Man was wincing, his pity for Bass very evident. If it had just been the abandonment, Pirate Man wouldn't have cared. All the robots knew Wily cared about himself more than he cared about any of them. The thief-bot sighed.

"Ah, Bass, ye never were one much to look at yer upgrades 'afore the master installs 'em, were ye?"

Bass was taken aback. This must be serious - usually Pirate Man chose to pronounce his name as the fish rather than the music symbol (why did Pirate Man feel the need to annoy everyone?), but not so just then. Doing a quick check of his systems, Bass noticed with horror that Wily had installed new failsafes and programs on him. Then suddenly Pirate Man's appearance made perfect sense. Pirate Man had been one of the robots that had rebelled along with King, and all but he and Burner Man had been left dead for it. The only way Wily would allow the two to live was with several brand new, programmed in failsafes. They were dummies, Bass had told himself; their free will was cut down and chained to Wily's words.

And now Bass was one of them.

Forte couldn't even muster a sigh. He would have killed Pirate Man out of sheer rage that day, but one of his new failsafes was that he couldn't attack a Wily-bot unless it attacked him first. Bass had then gone to the new Skull Castle, but he found he couldn't so much as lay a finger on his creator.

"What did you do to me, old man?" Bass screamed once he had reached the newly constructed Skull Castle. "You better fix it now if you know what's good for you!"

He should have known immediately that something was very wrong. Instead of cowering in fear like he usually did, Wily just smiled, sneering over his ugly nose.

"Kneel."

"What the hell - "

"Kneel, now."

With a thunk, Bass abruptly landed on one knee in front of his creator. He gasped in horror, wanting with his whole being to throttle the old, wrinkled beast. It didn't help that Quick Man and most of Team 1 were watching. They all laughed at him, but there was nothing he could do. He couldn't attack them, and he couldn't attack the grinning evil scientist.

"What...what did you do?" Bass repeated, stammering badly.

"I fixed you." Wily answered simply, casually wiping some of the grease that was constantly on his hands on the edge of his lab coat. "These robots know their place, so I'm not going to restrain them. You needed to be punished. And no, don't get up. Stay down there. I like you being submissive for once. I really hope for your sake that you've learned your lesson."

The dark robot's face and fists clenched as he remained there kneeling, unable to do anything about the robot masters that continued to mock him or the human that wouldn't stop sneering at him. If only he was the same as before, then he would make sure they never opened their mouths again. His only reply to his master was an obscenity.

"You still don't get it?" Dr. Wily pretended to be disdainful, but that was difficult when he was grinning so wide. "I have one last punishment for you, and hopefully you'll remember afterwards that I am the master and you are the servant." Elec Man walked out of the crowd and handed Dr. Wily a broom. "Ah, thank you, Elec Man. Bass, my new fortress is dirty from being so newly built. I want you to sweep out the entire castle right now, and don't stop until it's clean."

"Screw you-"

The broom landed at Bass' knee, and trembling, he picked it up. He desperately wanted to throw it back at the mad doctor, but he couldn't. The programming in his head activated, and after a sickening moment of the programs invading his mind, he found himself swishing the plastic bristles against the tile floor. A burst of fresh laughter ensued from the robot masters. This continued in all the other parts of the castle as Bass swept through them all and other robot masters could see his predicament. Team 5 didn't laugh (other than Gyro Man), and Burner Man only laughed until he found out why everyone else was. Then he abruptly disappeared, his pity a worse insult than any of the mockery. The others wouldn't let up, and they purposefully tracked in more dirt and mud until finally Wily got tired of the constant mess and made them stop.

Before that day, Bass had bullied and intimidated his creator without expecting repercussion. Afterwards, all he could do was rebel as much as he could with his words, and nothing more. And Wily didn't care at all. Let the robot have his useless insults - Wily had the advantage, and Bass was nothing more than his most powerful slave.

The whole situation with roboenza had made no sense. Wily had given him no orders, but because Bass wanted to kill something he went ahead and looked for the machine parts to make the cure for roboenza. It was entertaining to kill the team 10 'bots, but once Wily revealed it was him that started everything in the first place, Bass gave up. He stopped caring. He didn't even bother fighting Mega Man for the umpteenth time.

Of course Wily would want his dark creation to get him out of the hospital once he was well enough, and there was only more bickering after that.

"You couldn't bother helping me defeat him? Miserable, useless fool!"

Bass kicked at a rock, watching it roll down the hill. He was miserable, and he was useless. He finally admitted to himself that in his many years as a servant to Dr. Wily he would have been happy to actually impress the man. But he had never done that. Time and time again he had failed to stop the blue bomber.

What did it matter when he changed to the good side? He hadn't saved any of the scientists Wily had targeted during the apocalypse, nor had he saved any of the people he tolerated. He hadn't even saved his best friend, Treble, who had died in his defense. Worse yet, Bass hadn't saved Rock. Ever since Mega Man had stopped Wily from activating the self-destruct function built in Bass' systems, the dark robot could barely stand it. And once he had the opportunity to return the favor, he had failed. Rock was dead. Forte had to wonder if anything he did was worthwhile in helping Mega Man X. Surely Rock and the others had done everything, and he had done nothing.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"YOU!" Jewel Man shouted in reply. "What have you ever done that means anything? You let Dr. Imahara die in the dumbest way possible, and you were utterly helpless stopping Ring Man from killing Dr. Polovstiansky! Ring Man! I could beat that idiot twice with my eyes closed, and you're supposed to be the greatest robot ever? And then, the worst thing you could have possibly done is not tell Rock about Zero from the very beginning! He could have found the real Zero and destroyed him! But you're so useless and arrogant that now any moment he could show up and make things worse than they already are!"

That exchanged pained him as if it had just happened. A new, vibrant hatred for Zero began. He hated Zero for what he had done to the future, but he hated him worse for becoming a good guy and making it so X would defend him. Bass wanted to cause Zero as much pain as he could, and yet it was too late for that, not if he wanted X to leave him alone. Most of all, he hated himself for not putting a stop to Zero in the first place. He could have killed Zero and stopped all these nonsense Maverick Wars once and for all. And now everyone, humans and robots alike, had suffered because of his failure. He didn't even know half of them. He was every bit the failure that Jewel Man had called him.

"That day when Wily set Bass' self destruct...you should have let him die."

Bass closed his eyes, whispering, "No...I should have died long before that."

All those times Mega Man beat him he could have killed him. Bass saw that now. The far too merciful Mega Man had let him live, every single time. But no, he shouldn't have even died then - he should never have been created in the first place.

Forte looked back up at the trash compactor. It was almost full. He would have to get ready soon. But there was time enough for one last memory.

They had just defeated Team 2 and the Cain robot masters all at once, and now Dr. Wily was cornered. Mega Man had gone after Cut Man, and Proto Man had chosen to take down the Skull Capsule so that Wily couldn't escape. Bass had chosen to grab his old master, but there was no hunt to it. The pathetic man was having some sort of heart attack, he assumed, and all he had to do was go up to him and grab him.

"Come on, old man." Forte was surprised how nice he was being as he held up Dr. Wily and kept him from collapsing in the street. "Let's get you over to an ambulance. Don't be an idiot, just cooperate."

"Hee...hee...muahah..aha!"

Wily still managed a wheezing laughter through his pain. Bass was intent on ignoring it, but Wily wasn't going to let him. He turned and faced his creation, staring him coldly in his eyes.

"It isn't going to last, Bass. All this good guy stuff...someday you're going to screw it all up. You're going to fail in the worst way imaginable!" Wily began to laugh, and it was his most sinister, poisonous laugh to date. "You weak, pathetic fool! You're no better than the other crap robots I built! So enjoy this 'hero' stuff while it lasts, Bass...hee hee ha! You don't really think you can win at anything, do you? You're a failure! Miserable...failure...ha, ha ha..."

As the final insult, Wily had died there in his arms, leaving his repulsive body behind as he began his descent into hell.

Bass wished he could fight those words, but he couldn't. He had no fight left in him. Wily had been right. He had failed. All of the mistakes Rock and Proto Man could possibly have made faded away into nonexistence. He had failed. Because of him, the Zero virus had lived on. Wily had won and scored his ultimate revenge against the world, and nothing he had ever bothered to do prevented it. And that was why Bass was now staring into the junkyard, planning on ending his useless existence.

"Haha...AHAHAHAHA!"

Bass burst out laughing. It was funny, so completely funny. Had his creator really driven him to this? It wasn't possible. He wasn't some pathetic machine, he was Bass! Forte, the mighty, the invincible! He had survived the robot apocalypse, decades of rusting underground, and had defeated three Mavericks at once despite the fact that he was over 120 years old. He was awesome! Suicide? Why would he do that?

"I BET YOU'D REALLY LIKE THAT, OLD MAN!" he screamed into the empty air. "YOU WOULD, WOULDN'T YOU? WELL TOO BAD! YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"

Bass stood up, not caring that several workers down at the junkyard were now staring at him. But what did it matter? Wily had killed Rock, damaged earth's economy, endangered millions of lives, and spread his virus with impunity. But one of the evil doctor's simplest goals had ended in failure; the ever beligerent Bass was still alive. The dark robot had every intention of keeping it that way.

But now that he had decided that he was going to live the question of what to do next loomed over him. He was still damaged from his fight with Zero, and he hadn't been at his best in the first place, even when he didn't consider his missing arm. Grumpily, Bass realized that the Maverick Hunters was probably the best place for him to get repaired. But his pride had been severely damaged there, and he had no desire whatsoever to go back. Perhaps if he found someone else able to repair him...

No...they've been working on X and Girly for...however long it's been. Who else would know how to work on old robots?

He sighed. There was no getting around it. But there was still some fight in him left, and he comforted himself with the notion that there would be plenty of Mavericks for him to beat the crap out of, and that thought alone delighted him. The only way to satisfy his pride was to kill off some more of those virus-ridden idiots and make a name for himself. If he couldn't go back to the Hunters with his head held high, then he wasn't going back at all. Not under his own power, anyway. He got to his feet, stubbornly digging them into the ground with resolution.

A dread still made itself known. Revenge against Wily wasn't enough. Not for him to live in this sort of world. None of his failures had disappeared, and each one clasped poisonously to his remaining determination. But Bass stubbornly held his ground, resisting the dark thoughts that still remained within him. If he was going to die, it would be against Mavericks, in the apparently never-ending war against Wily. He wasn't going to take the coward's way out. That was not the Forte way of doing things.

With grim determination, Bass strolled on. He wasn't really sure where he was or where he would find any Mavericks (oh, to kill an idiot!), so he just wandered down to the junkyard to get his bearings. He didn't notice at first the commotion that was starting next to the office of the place. But soon he did, and he casually hung on the chain-link fence to see what was going on. A crowd of people was gathered there, and they seemed to be holding some sort of robot. There crowd was to thick to see past, so Bass just listened.

"Where did you find this thing?"

"In my new backyard! I was putting in a pool and there it was. I wonder how old it is."

"It might be valuable!"

"It looks a mess. It won't be valuable at all unless we can repair it - "

"This doesn't look good, Cavis. She's just too old. Rusted, and besides that, no one knows how to get one of these old things started again, even if it were brand new."

"Come on, she's got to be worth something."

"Eh, she's worth twenty zenny to me - my price for getting rid of old metal for you."

"You're serious?"

"I'd love to repair her, but I don't think there's anyone in the world that would know how. You see her condition, besides."

"I guess I'll pay up, then. I don't need any rusted out junk. Pity, though."

A faint murmur of curiousity stirred up in Bass. He had nothing better to do than look, and he figured he could at least ask someone his location if whatever this was about proved disinteresting. Some of the people were staring at him oddly, especially because he was in such bad shape, but Bass ignored them. Wondering what it was they were talking about, Bass seached around uncertainly - until he spotted a rusted, but very familiar helmet on the body of a robot that was being hauled by a skinny reploid to the trash compactor's conveyor belt.

PROTO MAN'S HELMET? How the crap is that still around?

Bass promptly kicked the reploid and snatched the robot away, laying it out on the carcass of an old, broken down mechaniloid and ignoring the protests of the people around him. He snatched off the helmet, and under it was the face of the last person he ever expected to see again.

Roll.

"Roll!"

She was rusted, dirty, and creaking at every joint, but the face was the same, though rusted over by time. Her once brilliantly blue eyes were cracked and one of them was smashed entirely, leaving only an edge of crackled white around her open eyelids. Her armor (his armor!) was banged up and scratched with a few spackles of stiff paint still clinging on in random patches. As he surveyed the damage of the poor girl, a certain flashback popped up in Forte's mind.

"If I don't make it back, please protect Roll. She's not strong..." Mega Man looked up at Bass with earnest, pleading eyes. "Please, I couldn't stand it if something happened to her because I wasn't there to protect her! She can't manage on her own...not with the world like this. You've got to watch out for her! Promise me you'll keep her safe if I die!"

Rock...you idiot... Bass almost laughed aloud. I bet you knew this would happen, didn't you?

Bass meant no insult by his words, but he had few compliments in his vocabulary. Still, if Mega Man were alive to see the smile on his face, he by no means would have been offended. Roll was here, and though Bass had barely gotten to know her at all in the past, she was a purpose. She was a reason to go on living; revenge was by no means good enough to live on. Better still, she was X's sister. He could go back to Maverick Hunter HQ with pride intact, for her sake of course. And if he happened to get repaired at the same time, well, he earned it. He had made a promise, and he was going to keep it. Even if it was just a promise to the blue dweeb. But first things first. He had to see if she worked.

He examined her, noticing that the helmet wasn't the only thing she had borrowed. The strength, design, and sound the legs made when Bass tapped on them made it very obvious that the legs were his own spare ones. And of course he knew the Mega Buster on her left arm when he saw it. Her right arm was...something. It took him a minute to realize that it was an energy sword generator. He had a brief moment of oddity when he imagined that Roll had somehow been the one to defeat Rock, but he pushed that thought aside as soon as it popped up. He knew the difference between a plasma sword and an energy sword.

One of the humans, a big, burly man nearer to fifty than forty, pushed his way through the crowd.

"What are you doing with my property?" he demanded.

Bass turned and glared with such hideous daring that the man backed away two steps. Snatching away a screwdriver from the reploid at the human's side, he removed the panel from Roll's head, no easy task with only one arm.

Poor Roll...this metal is nearly rusted through. Bass noted as he settled down the plate. I don't know if I can deal with this...

"Do you...know how to fix her?" It was the human again.

"BACK OFF AND GIVE ME SOME ROOM!"

They obeyed, and the crowd of workers gave him a generous radius. But the crowd got thicker all the same. Security reploids started showing up. Bass didn't notice. He reserved all his focus on the internal workings of Roll's head. His technical study came in handy, and parts of her head started looking familiar to him. It looked like most of it was intact and none of the pieces were missing, fortunately. But rust and dirt were everywhere, and Bass hardly knew where to start.

He started by doing a wiring check - he would allow her to have a small amount of his power (not that he had a particular lot to spare at that moment) to see if her wiring made a complete circuit. It didn't, but except for some wiring issues, it looked like she was more dirty than broken. Bass checked to see how much free space he had on his hard drive. Worst come to worst, he could at least absorb her memory and -

Bass snapped around scowling terribly at the reploid that dared approach him. It was a humanoid bot with green armor, and was a lot more boring looking than the other extravagant (ugly) reploids Bass had seen to that point. He shakily lifted a toolbox over towards Bass, reluctant to come any closer.

"I can't work like this." the dark robot muttered.

Replacing Roll's cranium plating for the time being, Bass carefully pulled her over his shoulder.

"Just what do you think you're doing?" The man's face was starting to get red with anger as he spoke. "If you can fix her, do it, but she doesn't belong to you so she's staying here!"

Forte didn't bother answering, though if he did his response would be a combination of two comments, one informing the human that Roll indeed was his property and the other a sickening reference to the man's mother. Surprising even himself (just a little), one-armed Bass managed to snatch the toolbox while still holding the girl-bot over his shoulder. That done, he hopped away over the fence and ran off. He could have just teleported, but it was funnier to him to dodge the security reploids' shots and put them to shame. The frantic cursing of their manager was the icing on the cake.

That done, Bass teleported a short distance away, gently placing Roll in the grass and beginning again at the work.

"You're going to be alright, Roll. I keep my promises."

-t-

Meanwhile at Hunter HQ, the tone of the small meeting could hardly have been darker if someone had announced the return of Sigma. Signas, X, Zero, Axl, and Alia were gathered in Signas' office, as they were the only ones that now knew the truth about Zero and the Maverick Virus, and they were going to have to deal with it somehow. Zero was slumped against the wall, separate from the others. He felt like he was awaiting the verdict of a jury, one that didn't like him very much.

X glanced back at his friend with pity, uncertain whether he should keep giving Zero a little space or try to say something to him. He settled on the former for the moment, uncertain that he could do anything for Zero. Axl was completely confused, and he looked back at Zero with more than a little confusion. It was clear he was trying his hardest not to believe that Zero was the cause of all their battling. The concept just didn't fit to him. Alia, on the other hand, hadn't looked at Zero since they entered the building. A stubbornness was in her eyes and upper lip, and she kicked one leg like a child unwillingly putting up with a time-out.

None of them were concerned about Bass, for the moment, as they had Layer scanning for him in the navigation room. That gave them the time to talk, though at first little of that was going on. Signas had just finished telling the others about how Zero had transferred the Maverick Virus to Sigma.

"Our main concern," Signas continued. "Is how to properly contain this new information. While no one outside this room knows about the virus, it is very clear to all of the Maverick Hunters that a robot last known for fighting in the apocalypse has a problem with Zero. Rumors are sure to be spreading, and we're going to have to have a logical explanation for this without divulging the truth."

Alia started, growing upset at her boss. "What? We're letting him stay? Do you have any clue how dangerous it is to keep Zero around our most valuable Hunters when at any moment the virus could spread?"

The red reploid felt stabbed at her words, and none of his fearful glances caught her attention. It had been lingering in the back of his mind but now the idea of him being destroyed came right around to the forefront, refusing to go away. X too was shocked, and Alia had two robots to ignore. She stared straight ahead at Signas, waiting for his answer.

And then she had three, but Axl was the hardest to block out. "What do you mean? Of course, we're going to keep Zero!"

"Are you crazy?" Alia snapped at him, causing Axl to jump back. "He's not safe and something has to be done!"

"Stop talking like that, Alia!" X desperately joined in. "Zero is not our enemy!"

"You still say that after he killed Mega Man?"

"We don't know that Bass was telling the truth!" X tried his hardest not to let his doubt weaken his resolve, but he knew Zero's Maverick past. He knew there was the possiblity that the accusation of killing his brother was fact. "I refuse to believe it!"

With all this arguing being dismantled doesn't sound so bad. Zero scowled at the floor.

"Calm down, all of you." Signas ordered before focusing on Zero's accuser. "Zero has been a Hunter for a long time. If there was any risk of anyone getting it, then Mavericks would have appeared from our own ranks rather than from the outside. Don't forget, you or I are just as vulnerable to it as any other reploid."

Alia tried to protest, but she could think of nothing to say. That is, not until she saw in her periphery the hurt that Zero tried so hard to disguise, and it sickened her. What right did he have to be upset? Eyes narrowing, she found the words to go on.

"But what about Gate? He made his reploids using a part from Zero...that's where the Zero nightmare came from! You should have told me about this so I could at least work on a cure or something!"

"That only means that Zero's parts are safer inside him than otherwise." Signas replied. "In any case, how do we know that you working on him would have a different result than Gate's?"

"If I can ask, how did you find out about this?" Zero uncomfortably asked his leader, reluctant to attract any more attention to himself.

It was X that answered Zero's question. "You told me what Sigma had shown you about the virus, and well...I thought it was best that Signas knew. You're not offended, are you?"

Zero fidgeted. As little as he liked this, there was no point in complaining about it. Zero got back to staring at the floor, getting increasingly sick of this conversation. Was he going to be betrayed by everyone he knew today? His rational mind managed to gain control before he spoke.

"You did what you thought was best." he weakly managed.

X felt torn up on the inside for his friend. He knew how hard Zero had worked over the years, and better than anyone else he knew the pain that Zero had because of his origins. Seeing the pity in X's eyes, Alia scoffed and folded her arms. Was everyone going to just excuse Zero for what he had done? Gate had been one of her closest colleagues, once. And she couldn't help but think if it weren't for him, Gate wouldn't have to have been killed. And he wasn't the only friend she had lost during the wars. Everyone had friends that had gone Maverick, and everyone knew the bitter sting of loss.

"So what are you going to do? He's potentially dangerous!" Alia said, trying to keep her frustration under control. "What if someone else somehow gets another part of Zero and then it's the Zero Nightmare all over again?"

"You're always saying that Zero's data can't be analyzed completely." Signas remained calm, but from his tone Alia knew she had better be careful how she spoke. "And you also said that Gate was a brilliant mind - better than you, in fact. I don't believe the common Maverick, or even Sigma, can do anything harmful in that way. Sigma would have tried if that were possible. Alia, I want to make it very clear," Signas leaned forward in his chair. "You're not to tell anyone about this. That's an order."

"I can't believe this!" Alia protested. "You're really going to let him continue to be a Hunter? He should be-"

"He should be what, Alia?"

The technician didn't have to say. The pain and hatred in her eyes answered the question for them. But she knew that there was no way Signas would listen to her. She threw her hands in the air. "Fine. I won't tell anyone."

"Let me remind you that Zero has been a Hunter for a long time," Signas was stern and unrelenting. "And his record is unimpeachable. A lot of reploids look up to him. Seeing as he hasn't spread the virus in the many years he's been working with us, there's no reason to think that he can. Nor was any of this intentional. The only thing that's changed is that now you know about it. I expect you to keep yourself under control, Alia. Do you understand?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now go and help Layer find Bass. You will say nothing of this meeting. That's an order."

"...Yes, sir..."

Alia wanted to find out more of what would happen, and she didn't like being excluded from a meeting like this. But she was an obedient reploid, even though her world was turning upside down. She left without a word, even resisting the intoxicating urge to slam the door. Once she was gone, Signas turned to Axl.

"Are you going to be able to keep quiet about this, Axl? ...Axl?"

"Oh!" Axl started, blinking back into awareness. "Sorry, I was just looking at these memories Bass gave me. I was hoping I'd find out something that might help or give us a clue about what Bass knows."

"That's a good idea." X said in that encouraging tone he always tried to take with Axl. It felt like a relief to change his tone. "Find anything?"

"Not yet. It's just clips of Crystal Bot. She's so cute!" Axl had to smile. He liked being based off of her. "She was pretty much Bass' navigator, so maybe she'll say something important."

"I'll want a copy of those memories." Signas said. "But for now I need to know what you're feeling about this."

"I...I don't really know what to think." Axl got a little nervous and began scratching the back of his head. "I mean, the Maverick Virus has been around way before I was built...it feels like ancient history. But I do know that Zero is my friend, and we've been through too much together for me to just get upset about this. I don't want to throw that away. I won't say anything about the virus."

X was proud of Axl. The young Hunter was being very mature, and it saddened him that Alia couldn't do the same. "That's very good of you, Axl. Of course Signas, you realize that Alia and Axl are probably not going to be the hardest to keep quiet. Bass is very vengeful. If we don't find him soon, we have no way of knowing how far he's willing to spread this."

Bass...Zero thought numbly. With only a little guilt he wished that Bass had never been found. Bass hadn't liked the look of him (to put it mildly), and the opposite was definitely true. He could recall his vivid dreams of the withered old man, whose haunting, creaking voice urged him to do nightmarish things, not the least of which was to murder X, his best friend and someone he would trust for anything. When Zero had fought Bass, the evil in the dark robot's gaze could bring to mind no one else but that demented human. They looked so much alike...

"Wow!" Axl suddenly exclaimed. "No wonder he looks so much like him!"

Zero jumped, almost wondering if Axl was reading his mind.

"Who looks like who?" X asked, almost as startled as Zero.

"Bass looks like Zero!" Axl exclaimed.

"Well, he does sort of look similar in the face." X said, much to Zero's dismay, as he examined his friend's face. "As if they were related."

"They are related!" The young hunter started to get more excited. "And Alia did say that Zero's power core was similar to his! It's because they have the same creator! And that's Dr...Wily..." Axl's voice slowed as he realized how terrible what he was saying was.

Everyone's eyes widened, and X couldn't resist looking at his companion with the same level of horror that Zero felt. Axl went over to the screen behind Signas' desk to show the memory he had just seen to the rest of them, and all eyes went to it.

"Forte-kun! Welcome back! Kaja and look at what I made for you!" the perspective of the memory showed a peppy, crystaline girl-bot pulling Bass over to an automated machine monitor. "Chan! I can double the power of your crystal buster addition, and also make it so you can run and shoot at the same time!"

"Cool. I never got why Wily made me that way..."

"It's more complicated than it looks." Crystal Bot started pushing buttons on the machine as she talked. "So, didya find your lil' brother today?"

"For the last time, Sonata, robots don't have family!" Bass said with obvious disgust. "And even if we did I'd still have to kill Zero anyway."

"Yeah, I know. Aigoo, Zero is so ugly. I just wanna remodel him so bad!"

"I think saving the world is a little more important than fixing an ugly robot."

There was no point in watching any more, and Signas turned off the clip. There was silence again for a moment. Zero lowered his eyes.

"It...it makes so much sense, I guess..." X muttered. For once since this whole thing started he was depressed. "You were made by Dr. Wily..."

Zero looked up and scowled. "Well, who else from that time could have built me? Dr. Cossack? There was no one good enough to program a virus of that caliber! And no one else would have the motivation! Of all things, this upsets you?

X didn't answer. He couldn't. He loved Zero as much as he hated Dr. Wily, and his heart didn't know what direction to go. Secretly he had hoped that some unknown scientist, maybe a trainee of Dr. Light, had built him. But that was no good: Zero had been violent when he was activated. Perhaps he was built by another and only stolen by Wily...if only X knew that story wasn't true. He trembled...the idea he had about Zero being made for good had to be excluded. Zero was his enemy, and only by sheer luck was he anything different. The idea that Zero was built to kill him - of course Wily would want it that way - only further sank him into his gloom. He slammed his eyes shut, letting hateful curses circle through his mind rather than past his lips.

"Again, there has to be complete silence about this." Signas affirmed, completely focused, at least on the surface. "Zero, you are always welcome with the Hunters."

"That's right, we'll always be your friends!" Axl piped up. "Nobody cares where you came from! Well, except Alia...but..."

Zero's frown wrinkled up a bit. That was as close to laughter as he was going to get. Sometimes Axl had no idea how awkward some of the things he said were. He looked over at X, daring only a little hope. He knew how X felt about Dr. Wily. And if he truly had killed X's brother, he had no right to expect any forgiveness.

His hopes were not ill founded. Though shaken, X knew what he wanted to say. "Zero, our friendship has lasted through war, death, fights with Sigma, and even learning about the virus itself. And it will survive this."

"Thank you."

That was all Zero could say. He was too emotional, and he hated it. All of his life he had tried to be as in control as possible, and he hated people feeling sorry for him. Zero was used to being the one X could talk to about his fears and hopes for the future, not the other way around. Zero liked being "the strong, silent type", letting everyone else's drama take precedent, especially since his own issues were hazardous. The guilt he carried he feared would never leave him. There was no point in talking about it.

Bass. Stupid Bass. His own brother had wanted him to die. But if he was going to be honest with himself, Zero couldn't blame him. How would he know that Zero constantly fought his hardest every day to make up for what he had done, to make up for his horrible heritage? The fact that he was "family" wouldn't matter: Bass' family was the wicked Wily and his plethora of ridiculous robot masters. Zero's heart sank. That was his family too. And now the old, evil man in his dreams had a name: Dr. Albert Wily.

"You've been scanned for any sign of the virus during every rest period, just like any other Hunter." Signas said. "But if it's possible we're going to have to intensify the detection power of the scans. I'm concerned that too extensive a search by any of our scientists could prove risky for them. This is the best we can do."

"It's a good thing that the Mavericks only care about trying to get my mind." X said cautiously. "If they knew about this..."

Zero was quiet, silently thankful that X didn't go on. He could guess what would happen if their enemies found out. Then again, if Sigma never tried to capture him, then there probably wasn't any way for them to use his mind to spread the virus - that Sigma knew of. Zero's thoughts continued to spiral downwards, but this was interrupted by an audio message from Layer.

"Commander Signas, we're getting an emergency call from Briggs City junkyard."

"Put it on."

Another audio message came in, this one obviously a human, and an angry one at that. "Commander Signas! You've got to come out here and do something about this Maverick!"

"How many are there?"

"Just one. He came in and stole a machine I was trying to repair and then just disappeared!"

"Calm down, sir, what did he look like?"

"He was black with gold trim, and he had these weird...fins on his helmet."

The Hunters looked at each other knowingly. X asked, "Was he missing an arm?"

"Yes, he was. Ah, so he's a suspect in a crime, is he? Been tracking him a long time?"

"We'll be right there, just send us teleport coordinates."

\\\\\\

Author's notes:

- Ha, none of y'all saw that comin', did ya? I tried hard to foreshadow Bass' extreme depression in Wily Ga Taosenai, and I'm not quite sure how well it came out. But yeah, everything that happened has given Bass a fear of failure. But at the end of the day, he's still himself, and he wouldn't be able to go through with something like that.

- It always annoys me when people pair up Zero and X. There is a deep love that isn't romantic love, and when people try to characterize it as romantic, it pisses me off at the oversimplifying of it or ignoring of it. Of course, they got that "bromance" thing going on in hollywood and whatnot, so I guess not everyone is ignoring it.

- Kaja means "let's go" or "come on", a very casual korean way to say it. Chan means "tada". Aigoo is a mild expression of annoyance, like "darn". Crystal Bot is obsessed with Korea, for the newcomers to the story.

- I forgot to mention something to the newcomers. In my trilogy, there was a villain named Dr. Nikola Cain who was an excellent programmer, but a shoddy robotics technician. He built eight robot masters that were kinda lame, but Wily forced Dr. Cain into serving him, stealing the robots for himself and using them in the robot apocalypse. Signal Man was the lamest one, and he could freeze time, slow down robots with a jamming shot, and shoot green lasers (think traffic light). Emit Man had a shield of random things surrounding him, and shot flying blade bombs that damage both when they hit and when they explode. Psycho Man was a clown robot with tall, thin legs like poles, and his arms were held on only by electricity. These arms could turn into a mini-clown, and three orbs around his neck generated lightning. Echelon Man is a very boring robot that can go from humanoid to six triangle shaped parts that fly, and his weapon makes all electricity work against the robots that fight him with it. Bullet Man has two different kinds of bullets and a laser, besides being able to glide like a bullet himself. Sight Man is a skinny, ninja robot that looks like a geometric ant (think Nintendo 64), and carries a huge cannon on his back. Algorhythm Man is the hacker-bot that can cause robots not to be able to teleport or communicate, and he has a colored set of laser pellets for weaponry. Epic Man fires homing torpedos and sends out a massive electromagnetic pulse that hits all robots nearby. Demi is a small, vicious little robot that assisted Dr. Cain, and when combined with Epic Man they form Epidemic Man, who is stronger and spreads viruses. You may not need to know quite all that, but there it is.

- Also, a couple of things about the Mavericks: if you get one, you can do with it whatever you want. Mess with the name, change the weapon, write a story, whatever. It's yours. Also, I can't use all these guys in my story right here. Besides that being a really gimmicky thing to do, I have a lot of reviewers. I dunno...I might include one if I feel like it, but I can't include everybody. It's like trying to base characters in your stories off your friends: if you don't have inspiration for it, you can't do it.

Jade Ryuusugin

======Darling Malachite

"Don't call me cute!"

Darling Malachite is a very young Maverick, and was only two years old when he caught the Maverick Virus. He has a metal helmet in the shape of emo hair covering his face, and he loves rocks and stones of all kinds. He jumps very high, and throws rocks at a ridiculous speed. He has a thin sword which he uses to cut stone, and he likes to cut boulders from the ceiling to crush his enemies. He's very, very adorable. Players who beat him get the Malachite Foil, which is of course Darling's sword, and you can cut through walls and baddies with ease.

I didn't know what Ryuusugin meant, but I do know that if I searched google with it, I got a lot of those weird Japanese cartoon girl dancing video things. Hence the "Darling". Malachite of course refers to stones. I would also like to point out that I don't know if Jade is a dude or a chick. :)

ThatFanFicGuy

======Omnibus Gamin

"Tell me more..."

Omnibus is a historian, and he loves knowing everything about everything. He is the owner of a vast digital library, and it always about discovering more about the Maverick Hunters. Sometimes people wonder if he's too interested in studying the Hunters to fight them properly, but he's a very useful Maverick. He shoots spines, spins into enemies, and can jump on them. Players how beat him get the Omnibus Spine Gun, which fires five shots in a spread attack.

I didn't know quite where to go with this one, so I picked "omnibus" as a reference to having knowledge (i.e. knowing enough about a universe to write fanfiction about it) and "gamin" is slang for "street urchin".

Numbervania

======Cipher Apparition

"Boo! I'm a ghost! Booooo...!"

Cipher is ridiculously hyper. He jumps about everywhere, and he flashes a shimmering light to blind his enemies. He's the fastest Maverick alive, and he lets everyone know about it. He can calculate math at hyper speeds, and while he doesn't have a weapon, Cipher can unleash a fake version of himself that has a gun. If the player beats him, they get Warrior Apparition, which produces a fake image of the player and tricks baddies into shooting it instead of the real player. It also does damage if an enemy runs into it.

"Cipher" came from Number, and since "-vania" reminded me of vampires, I went with a synonym: Apparition. Actually, that word usually refers to ghosts rather than vampires, but whatever.