Megaman X: Elysium Rising

Chapter 4: Nephtis

By Genoscythe

The door to the mercenary's room slid open and X stepped inside, trailing Zero behind him. Light crept into the room, and they could see the reploid in the generic uniform closed inside a regen capsule. "He looks harmless to me," X said.

"Don't tell that to Axl," Zero scoffed. "He's not much of a fighter, if that's what you mean."

"I don't know what I mean," X replied, pressing his palm against the glass capsule door. "I just get the feeling that he's not a bad person."

"Let's wake him up before you decide what kind of person he is."

"You talked to him. What do you think?"

"I think once I knock him around enough, he'll make a decent Hunter."

"So he hasn't been cooperative," X deduced.

"That's what you're here for."

"I take it you've already tried knocking him around?"

"That's what I'm here for," Zero said with a devious smirk.

"Well, let's try the good cop approach, and see if that works."

Zero nodded and they both moved over to the regen capsule. X pressed a few buttons on the side and the door on the capsule slid upward into the wall. The mercenary's eyes fluttered open, and he looked around the room. He was vaguely aware of the two figures standing over him, so he sat up. When his vision cleared, he recognized Zero, along with a new Hunter, standing before him. The other Hunter spoke to him.

"What's your name?" the Hunter in the blue uniform asked.

"I figure Zero would've told you by now," the mercenary replied. Zero sighed.

"His name is Marx. He's going to cooperate with us to avoid being labeled a Maverick, right, Marx?"

"Yeah, 'cause I love it when people blackmail me," Marx retorted. "I'm all ready to spill my guts now, Red."

"I guess you forgot about our talk last night. Do you want me to bring out the knife again?" The mercenary said nothing. "Personally, I hope you do. That was a hell of a good time. But it's your choice, Maverick."

"Hold it, Zero," X whispered. "Let's try my way."

The gleam in Zero's eyes subsided, and he stepped back. The Hunter in the blue uniform clasped his hands behind his back and bent his head toward Marx.

"My name is Megaman X," he said. "I've been fighting for peace between humans and reploids almost my entire life. I've been forced to retire many Mavericks, and I can see that you're not one of them."

"Fighting for peace. Good one," Marx said, though his sarcasm hadn't come out as sharp as he had expected it to.

"I didn't choose this life. None of us did, not even the Mavericks. They're enslaved by a malignant computer virus, and until we find a way to purge that virus, we have no choice but to fight them. You can help us, Marx."

"Or what?" he asked warily.

X gave him a beatific smile. "Are you telling me you'll only help us if the punishment for refusing is harsh enough? Will you only attempt to save lives if it spares you from some kind of torture? Are you that kind of reploid?"

Marx didn't know what to say. He only knew that, strangely, he wanted to prove this reploid wrong. He'd heard of Megaman X, and he'd even done some research on his background before the incident that turned him into a gun-for-hire. If the father of all reploids had been wearing his combat armor, Marx would have recognized him immediately. X may have been a Maverick Hunter, but Marx still held a shred of respect for him, and he considered it a challenge to show X that he was worth more than his bullheaded cynicism suggested.

"If you want to save some lives that can still be saved," X continued. "Tell us how you were hired by the Mavericks."

"There was a research base," he began. "I found it on accident. It was underground, out west in the barrens."

"What were you doing in the middle of nowhere?" Zero asked. He seemed a little disappointed that X had been able to talk Marx into cooperation.

"If you have to know – and you don't – I was running with a band of mercs, and they got tired of me. We were camping in the barrens, and when I woke up the next morning, they were all gone and my chaser was scrapped."

"So you wandered into the Maverick base," X concluded.

"Well, wandered over it. Stinger himself came out to kill me, thinking I was a Hunter scout. I recognized him from the wanted bulletins, so I offered my services to him. He must've noticed how clueless I was, 'cause he brought me inside and told me what he wanted me to do. We negotiated a fee – pretty pathetic compared to my usual rate, but I wasn't in any shape to complain."

"Wait a second," Zero interjected. "They were willing to pay you? Just like that?"

"Yeah. The Mavericks aren't nearly as bad as you Hunters try to make 'em out to be."

"Did they make you take anything?" X asked. "Anything at all?"

"No. They didn't make me take anything. They gave me an energy cell when I asked for one, but that's it."

"Have you felt anything unusual since they gave you that cell?" Zero put his hands on the edge of the capsule and leaned forward.

"I'm fine," Marx said uneasily. " I still feel exactly the same as I did last week."

"Last week! He gave you the cell last week?" Zero asked.

"Yeah. One week and two days ago." Zero turned to X and they began talking quietly. Marx caught a sliver of what they were saying.

"...checked out clean!"

"...maybe there was something else in..."

"...Douglas look at him?"

"...he might never put the poor guy back together again..." The rest of the conversation was inaudible to Marx. He hoped that whatever was going to happen to him didn't involve this 'Douglas' guy. He hadn't thought much about the energy cell, but now that he did, he became worried. They say I checked out clean for the Sigma Virus, but... He didn't want to follow that thought any longer. Zero began talking to him, bringing him out of his daze.

"We want you to see a mechanic in the hangar. She can run a better diagnostic than we can up here."

"She?" Marx raised an eyebrow. This may not be so bad after all.

"Her name is Nephtis. Find her in section D."

Marx laughed. "Aren't you going to escort me or something?"

"No. The exit doors only open with authorization, and besides, I believe you genuinely want to help us," X said.

"And you're surrounded by Maverick Hunters, so forcing your way out would qualify as a bad idea," Zero pointed out cheerfully. Marx groaned at this, and hoisted himself out of his capsule.

"Hangar, huh?"

"Yeah. Use the elevator. The button for the hangar is labeled." Marx walked out of the room, leaving X and Zero standing there.

"That energy cell must have had the virus in it. It's not like the Mavericks to pay someone to work for them when they could just infect them. Do you think it's a good idea to let him wander around on his own? What if he does have the virus, but we can't detect it? Some kind of new strain, or something," Zero suggested.

"He won't try to escape," X replied simply.

"Willing to bet on that?"

"Remember, Zero. We're doing it my way now."

"Hey, do you know someone named Nephtis?" Marx asked a mechanic in hangar section D. The Hunter pointed to the section of small work rooms in the middle of the hangar and told him the number of her room. He walked over to the cluster of little buildings and looked for the correct number. When he found it, he knocked on the door loudly.

"Gimme a minute," a female voice with a lilting Arabic accent spoke from the interior. Marx waited, and at length she opened the door. Marx didn't quite know what to do. He wanted his jaw to drop, but then the steely woman in front of him would probably kill him. He wanted to look away so it wouldn't look like he was staring, but he also never wanted to take his eyes off of her. He wanted to run back to his little empty room and avoid doing any of these things. Instead, he stood there and began to stammer to the beautiful woman in front of him.

"Erm...you must be, Nephtis, right?" Without saying a word, her deep hazel eyes examined him from head to toe, glittering like buried gems in the midst of her dark eyeshadow. It looked as though she had rubbed charcoal into her eye sockets, and the effect was inexplicably enchanting. Only after she was done with her thorough evaluation did she reply.

"I'm sure you already know the answer to that. Are you the mercenary Zero mentioned? You're a perfect fit for the armor he gave me last night."

"Ah, yeah, I am," he mumbled, hating every half-formed syllable. " You have my armor?"

"Selene almost turned your helmet inside-out, but I hammered it back into shape."

"I'm fine, by the way," he said, trying desperately to recover his wit and only managing to sound like an asshole.

"You're welcome. Now what do you want?"

"Zero wants you to give me a diagnostic. A Maverick gave me an energy cell he thinks had the Sigma Virus in it, but I haven't gone Maverick yet. He wants to know why." The beautiful, dark-haired woman laughed.

"He wants me to open you up? You're kidding, right?" Marx shook his head. "I'm not a bloody doctor. Why didn't he send you to the Lifesavers? Or Douglas? He loves to take people apart."

"It doesn't look like you know how to follow orders very well, lady," he said, Asshole Marx still standing in for Clever Cynical Marx.

"Lady! Who do you think you are to tell me how to do my job, huh?"

"Your job is to check out my systems and find out what was in that cell the Mavs gave me. I can't tell you how to do your job if you won't do it at all!"

"You're not my superior. Hell, you aren't even a Maverick Hunter. Why should I listen to you?"

"Because my order came from Zero. He's superior enough, isn't he?"

"If Zero wants me to do something, he can come down here himself, can't he?"

"Fine, if you want me to get him, I will."

"Either get Zero or get out of my way."

Marx grunted and turned around. "I don't know if I want someone like you messing around with my insides anyway," he muttered under his breath, but apparently she heard him. Expecting a rebuttal, Marx turned around when all was silent. A familiar helmet flew into his face and smashed his forehead, knocking him backward and almost sending him onto the floor. His blue and gray helmet fell into his hands as the rest of his armor tumbled out of Nephtis's doorway. Rage boiled inside the mercenary, and he took a deep breath.

The entire hangar turned to listen to the immense string of curses resonating from the reploid in front of Nephtis's office. When it subsided, one of the mechanics got a call on his commlink, and he tapped the receiver. "Hangar section D," he said monotonously.

This is Zero. Did you see the mercenary come by yet? The mechanic was forced to chuckle a little.

"Yes, we all saw him. He just finished cussing out Nephtis."

Ah, hell. I knew this would happen.

"If you need something, sir, can I help you instead?"

That depends. How much do you know about reploid anatomy?

"I'm a chaser mechanic, sir. I could get Douglas for you, if you want someone who knows anatomy."

He heard Zero sigh on the other side of the link. Don't bother. Sounds like I'm gonna have to come down there myself.

"Understood, sir." The commlink went silent. Moments later, the mercenary reploid strode past donned in his navy blue combat armor. He was on his way to the elevator when the double doors opened and Zero walked out looking furious, though fortunately not glowing-red-eyes furious. He walked up to the mercenary. Immediately, Marx opened his mouth.

"It wasn't-"

"...your fault, I know. Nephtis likes to be a pain, but she's the best at what she does."

"Isn't there anyone else that can check me out? She said you guys have some Lifesavers."

Zero shook his head. "Frankly, we don't want you anywhere near our medical supplies. Just because we couldn't detect the Sigma Virus in you last night doesn't mean you're safe. If you have a virus that spreads to our energy stores, we're in trouble."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about," Marx replied.

"Now you're an expert?" Zero asked.

"I know my own body."

Zero leaned toward him, until his angular features were hovering uncomfortably close to Marx's face. "That's a dangerous assumption," the progenitor of the Maverick Virus told him. He walked past the mercenary and headed toward Nephtis's workroom. After knocking on her door, another argument erupted between the Hunter and the mechanic. This time, Marx refrained from commenting. At length, she agreed to run a cursory diagnostic, though she refused to perform anything invasive. Marx was okay with that.

He was laid on a metal table, and Nephtis began gathering tools for the operation. Behind her back, the mercenary whispered to Zero, "Make sure she doesn't rig a time bomb in my chest or something." The Hunter laughed, and the mechanic cast a glare back at them. In a few moments, Marx was shut down and Nephtis began the procedure. Soon, she had his energy cell port open and manually pulled out the capsule they were looking for.

She shut the port and moved to his forearm, where she detached his armor and peeled away his gray uniform. She cut into his smooth, unblemished skin, folding back layers of slate-colored imitation muscle until she found his metal endoskeleton, and the various tubes snaked around it. She extracted a sample of his energy supply by tapping into one of his fuel lines with a syringe, and she hooked a scanner into one of his nerve cables to take a reading of his impulse patterns. When she was satisfied with her samples, she sealed him up with palpable relief and deposited her tools on a nearby bench.

"Well, I need time to finish studying the results. And space," Nephtis said. Marx rebooted slowly, feeling around to make sure he hadn't been tampered with.

"Are you done?" Marx asked, and Nephtis sighed theatrically.

"She wants us to leave, Marx," Zero filled in. "Let's – " Suddenly, he turned around and placed a hand against the side of his helmet.

"...Okay, where?" He was speaking in a hushed voice into his commlink. "...I'm on it. See if you can get X to intercept it first, though." He turned back to the two reploids. "I need to take care of something. You stay right there!" he barked at Marx. The mercenary was about to protest, but the crimson Hunter was already running to the elevator by the time he could open his mouth. He looked at Nephtis.

"Don't think you're staying here," she said, raising an eyebrow. " I've had enough of you for one lifetime."

"But Zero said..."

"Are you gonna hide behind Zero every time someone tells you to do something? Besides, this is my workplace. I have a right to kick you out."

"A right! I'll say again, I don't think you know how to follow orders very well."

"Zero never gave me any orders. He told you to stay here, that's got nothing to do with me."

"If you kick me out, then you're interfering with my orders."

"If I kick you out, then it's your problem, not mine."

"Fine!" Marx practically yelled as he got off of the operating table and walked out of the workroom. "I expected this treatment from the kid Hunter, but not from someone like you."

"Someone like me?" Nephtis echoed icily, following him out to make sure he wouldn't try to come back. "What am I like?"

"Nevermind," Marx grunted. "I'm going."

"Ya gazma yibn ig-gazma," Nephtis spat, rooting Marx to the spot as she turned her back on him and sauntered back into her office. Marx sighed as he watched her go. He could tell that whatever she'd just said was meant to be an insult, but the rhythm and flow of her words struck him deeper than the venom they were supposed to contain. And she was so beautiful, in spite of all that anger. Darkly toned skin, straight, silky golden brown hair, loose tank top and, of course, those charcoal pit eyes. Quite a refined chassis, too. Her creator has good tastes, he thought.

Klaxons blared throughout Maverick Hunter HQ, and from her vantage point huddled in the corner of an abandoned office block, the Maverick known as Diamond Edge watched groups of Hunters rush past the open doorway. They were looking for the intruder who had eviscerated four Hunters and left a trail of blood halfway across the third floor of the base. They weren't looking for a pale reploid woman with pinned-up hair and a translucent white dress, who appeared just as unarmed and terrified as any of the HQ's noncombat staff.

Diamond Edge's quiet sobbing attracted the attention of a lone Hunter, who ducked through the doorway with his buster pointed at the floor.

"Ma'am, we're locking this floor down. Come with me, I'll get you to safety," he told her, and she watched through beaded teardrops as his gaze wandered from her immaculate face down to the valley of her cleavage. It was hard to avoid. Diamond Edge had seen many women do it, too, if only for the curiosity factor.

"I-I'm afraid to move..." she wailed, trembling. The Hunter moved closer and took her by the wrist.

"I'll take care of you. Come on, now." He pulled her to her feet, and she swooned against him.

"Please...p-please protect me," she gasped, clutching his neck with her right hand while encircling his waist with her left. The Maverick Hunter paused for a moment to savor the erotic aura that radiated from this oddly well-dressed woman. Then, he found something else to give him pause. The flesh of her right hand parted down the middle, and a razor-sharp blade flashed out, piercing his neck and bursting out the other side. Diamond Edge dragged him to the corner as he gargled leaking reactor fuel, and she rubbed some of the substance on her sparkling dress before she screamed and ran out into the hall.

The Maverick immediately collided with a Hunter, and she flung her arms around him wildly. "Oh my God, help! It went that way!" She released one hand to point back into the office block. For the first time, she checked to see who she had latched herself onto. It was none other than Zero, the Maverick antihero.

"Uh..." Even the legendary reploid was speechless in her embrace. Diamond Edge relished the thought. Zero tapped his commlink absent-mindedly. "X, it's trying to cut through office block 2. Um...heading east. I'm okay, I've got a civilian here, I'm gonna try to get her out."

"Thank you so much," Diamond Edge mewled, clutching him with desperate abandon. Looking down at her, Zero could see her body underneath the flimsy, translucent dress she wore.

"You're a little overdressed for a day at the HQ," Zero said, trying to be nonchalant. He disentangled himself from her in order to take her by the hand and start leading her to the elevators.

"What a nightmare! M-my boyfriend, he's a Hunter. I wanted to surprise him, he didn't know I was coming to visit. I got all dressed up, I came up here, and then this...thing smashed through the window and started chopping everyone up."

"What did it look like?" Zero asked.

"Disgusting. It was all a big mass of swords and daggers, with this weird bug-looking head."

"No worries, then," Zero said. "Blades are my specialty."

"Don't go after it!" she cried. "I don't want you to leave me here."

Zero glanced at her, watching as she tugged on her dress. He forgot where he was going.

"I'm not leaving you, lady. Trust me."

"Call me Kamilah," Diamond Edge said.

"Alright, Kamilah. Who's your boyfriend? Maybe I know him."

"Probably not. He's kind of a loser," she scoffed.

"Doesn't look like it from where I'm standing."

"Oh, my," she purred. A group of Hunters rushed past them in the windowed corridor, elbowing her aside brusquely. She cried out, turning toward Zero and draping her arms over his shoulders again.

"This is horrible. I just wanted to give my boyfriend a nice surprise...what if it got him?"

"Your boyfriend's probably fine," Zero said, subconsciously kneading her supple waist. "Not a lot of casualties yet. Got the Mav on the run. Hey, once you're finished with your boyfriend, how about giving me a nice surprise, too?" he asked, acutely aware that it had been far too long since his last nice surprise.

"Wow, Zero," she said. "They were right about you." She arched her back, rubbing her navel against Zero's chest. Suddenly, her eyes narrowed to crystalline slits. "You are as foolish as the rest of them." A blade burst from her chest and imbedded itself in his. Zero's eyes widened, and his grip on her waist was released. "Maybe more foolish. I've never been outright propositioned before. I wonder what makes you so desperate?" Her blade slid back into her body and her skin closed together perfectly, as if she were made of clay.

Zero fell back against a window, leaving a dark red stain as he slid to the floor and giving the illusion that the paint on his armor was rubbing off on the glass. Diamond Edge looked down at her dress. It was covered in blood now, and there was shouting in her direction from the far end of the hall. Her cover was blown, and she hadn't found her target, but the chance to assassinate Zero had been too tantalizing to pass up. Vulcan Stinger would be furious.

She was about to drive another blade into the prone Hunter, but suddenly she was knocked off her feet and sent sprawling down the corridor. Diamond Edge got up and turned around to see a Maverick Hunter clad in blue armor, holding a smoking buster in front of him. She knew instantly that this was the one she had been sent to kill.

Every blade in her body instantly unsheathed. She was a human-sized grinder with a woman's head. She wondered for a moment why Megaman X would not fire at her, but then she started running at him. She was not aware that he was gathering energy into his buster. She leapt over Zero, about to fall on the azure Hunter and instantly tear him to shreds when he let loose a massive blast of energy that engulfed her completely. If her blades hadn't been extended, the shot could have killed her.

Instead, she was merely knocked across the hall again, but now she was disoriented. Her blades retracted, and before she could sort out the warning signals flashing across her vision, she felt a strong hand around her neck. Then, she was being thrown into a window. The strong glass exploded and she continued on. X raised his buster and fired at the retreating form. The shot took her in the chest, and she was propelled out of sight with only a trail of smoke to mark her passage. The azure hunter spun around and ran to Zero as other Hunters found the scene. One Hunter inspected his wound, then he was unceremoniously hauled off to the medlab.

Marx was surprised to find Nephtis reemerging from her office. Though he was leaning his back against a work station, he could hear the door open. Without looking back, he called out to her. "What did you say to me?" He could practically feel her stiffen.

"I didn't say anything. I just need a new spanner," she said.

"No, before," he specified. "It sounded insulting." Silence ensued, and Marx expected her to walk back into her office or throw something at him.

"I called you a shoe," she said at length.

"You called me a shoe?"

"Shoes are dirty. It's worse if you're Egyptian."

Marx laughed, risking a peek at her by disguising it as one of his convulsions. Yes, she was still gorgeous, and yes, she still looked borderline-homicidal. "Okay, so I'm a shoe. How about Nephtis? What does that mean?"

"It doesn't mean anything," she snapped, digging through one of her many toolboxes.

"Of course it does. Even my name means something, and I'm a nobody."

"I've already forgotten your name."

"I never told you. It's Marx. It means 'created by a crazy old Russian guy with an unhealthy fascination for 19th-century philosophers.'"

"I wouldn't have guessed. You don't seem like a communist." Nephtis found her spanner, but she had yet to retreat to her workroom. She sat on the edge of a table, watching him just as critically as she had the moment they met.

"I'm not. Neither was my old man. I mentioned he was crazy, right?"

"Why are you still here?" she asked.

"Because I don't see Zero around anywhere, and you haven't kicked me out yet or told me about your name."

"Then why do you care so much about my name?" There was a hard undercurrent to the question that hadn't been there previously, and there was even a hint of panic. It sounded like the tone a shoplifter might take on after someone asks them why they've suddenly gotten so fat.

"Because you care about it," Marx answered. "And you don't want to tell me. I'm way too stubborn to let that slide."

"If I give you a hint, will you leave me alone?"

"Yeah, I don't see why not," he said. She didn't reply. Instead, she returned to her office. He was about to protest when she reemerged from the doorway, carrying a thick, deep brown book. She strode up to him, dropped the book carelessly and let it thud onto the operating table. The thin pages rustled unhappily for a moment before the tome settled down.

"Knock yourself out," she said. Without another word of explanation, she retreated to her office again, but not before he caught her lips twitching slightly upward. He didn't even know what the book was about, due to the blank cover and Nephtis's lack of direction, but that was fine. He was pretty sure he had gotten her to smile.

End of chapter 4