Megaman X: Elysium Rising
Chapter 30: ...Mate
By Genoscythe
AN: Nice observation, Storm. We'll just have to see how things pan out...
By the way, you won't find out why Tempest did what he did in this story, but I'm planning a side story detailing Nephtis' life in the Byblos Empire. That'll explain it, as well as tie in a few loose ends.
"You had orders, Axl. What the hell are you doing down here?" Zero barked, pacing back and forth around the storage chamber. They could hear the battle above dying down.
"Geez, don't think you could be a little happier to see me after I just saved your lives?"
"You could've gotten killed! X and I are the only ones who can take on Sigma!"
"Since when?" Axl shot back. "You two sure didn't look like you could've beaten him." As Zero and Axl continued arguing, X felt something stir behind him. He glanced back to see Endymion at his shoulder.
"Did you see a gray feline-type maverick?" The silver hunter whispered. X shook his head in bewilderment. He was talking about the same maverick that broke into HQ, wasn't he? X was starting to become worried. First the scar, and now this. It's not like Endy to hold a grudge...
"X!" A soft cry echoed across the room, and all eyes turned toward the source. Alia was running down the platform, waving one hand and clutching a strange blue metool in the other. He was shocked enough to see her in the middle of a battlefield, but when she dropped the metool and wrapped him in a crushing hug, he thought he was dreaming. He was so surprised that he momentarily forgot he was dating Mystic, and gently returned the embrace. After a few moments of stunned silence, reality smacked him like a freight train. X let go and held her at arms length, looking her up and down for injuries.
"What are you doing here! There's a battle going on!" He said reproachfully, and her face somewhat darkened.
"I came to help you! Aren't you at least happy to see me?" Reality then came back for seconds.
"Alia...I need to tell you something."
"...what?" She asked softly, trying to move closer. X kept her at arms length.
"That girl Mystic...well, we went on a date tonight." Alia stopped trying to move closer.
"A date like...a date date, or like..." Alia struggled to think of another meaning for 'date'.
"Why are you mad? You're the one that tore up my apology," he reminded her. She took a few moments to choke back tears before speaking again.
"I did that because...if you really cared about me, you would've actually talked to me. I don't love you because of how romantic you are, or what you buy for me...I love you because I thought you cared enough to talk to me in person, not hide behind chocolates and flowers. That's something Zero would do."
"Thanks," Zero said dryly from the sidelines. X suddenly realized what he had done wrong. Now he just had to figure out how to proceed.
"Alia..." He stumbled over his words, not sure where he was going. Finally, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind. "I didn't know you felt like that..." He soon realized that he should have thought things through a little better.
"Of course! You never know how I feel!"
Zero suddenly cleared his throat so loud that it drowned out Alia's pained voice. "I'd just like to announce a few things, ladies and gents." He stepped on top of a box and raised his hands. "Alia and X need counseling, Axl is in deep shit, and we're still in the middle of a battlefield! I suggest you all work out your problems after we're done killing people!" Silence ensued. Alia was the first to break it.
"I'm...going back to HQ." She turned to look hurtfully at X. "I'll be in the command center." Her unspoken words this time were: You'd better damn well be there. In a flash, she was gone and X was more conflicted than he could remember being in years.
It was a matter of minutes, not hours, to completely wipe out all the mavericks in the base. Some reports stated that a large transport vehicle blasted its way out of the rear of the base, but it was too fast to pursue. It was at the following staff meeting that X decided to finally reveal his secret. Waiting as the reports were read off, as the meeting was about to be adjourned, he stood.
"Hold it. There's something you all need to know." All commanders looked up at him, and X looked around to make sure all had his attention. He then proceeded to explain to them about Elysium, just as Genoscythe had mere weeks ago. Their reactions ranged from skeptical to horrified, but Signas remained utterly calm. "...and according to Commander Genoscythe, the Maverick Virus can be destroyed at Elysium. All I ask is for a small team to get me there."
"A small team?" Signas spoke. "If this place is as dangerous as it sounds..."
"Then the less hunters, the better. All I need is a navigator, a mechanic, a pilot, and Malakai."
"Why Malakai?" Hector, commander of the 9th Ranger Division, asked.
X paused a moment for dramatic effect. "Because Malakai knows were Elysium is." Hector immediately burst into laughter.
"Malakai doesn't know where he keeps his pants."
"He's a Purifier from Elysium. He knows where it is," X assured them. Hector opened his mouth again, but then he realized that the idea wasn't as farfetched as it seemed. At least, not if everything about Elysium was true.
"What about Zero?" Signas pointed out.
"I figured he was a given," X said, resulting in a few chuckles around the room.
"And Axl?" Zero himself asked.
"You wanna try and stop him?" X replied, sitting back down.
"Clearly this requires some more organization," Signas said. He sounded and looked beaten; most likely due to the information just handed to him. Unlike most of the division commanders in the room, he was smart enough to know that X was telling the truth and to understand the ramifications of it all at once. "X, when you find a suitable team to go with, we'll schedule another meeting and plan from there."
"We don't have much time," X spoke. "Sigma is already on his way."
"Better find your team fast, then."
Nephtis was leaning against the wall outside the medlab, waiting for Marx to get a replacement arm to replace the replacement arm he had lost to Tempest, when she heard it. Megaman X was talking to Axl down the hallway, and she had tuned most of it out until she heard the word 'Elysium'. Moving toward them with her purposeful stride, she stopped before them.
"What about Elysium?" she said immediately. X didn't respond at first; he looked at Axl, who merely shrugged. He seemed to be contemplating something, then finally spoke up.
"I'd like you to come with us. As our mechanic."
Nephtis raised an eyebrow. "Come where?"
Now it was X's turn to raise an eyebrow. "Elysium. If you didn't know about it, why'd you ask?"
"I...heard about it at the battle."
X's eyebrows were getting a workout as they now narrowed. "You were there? After I told you not to go?" Nephtis opened her mouth for a retort, but it never got there. A hand grabbed her waist from behind and pulled her back. She came to rest against a familiar body.
"She took care of herself. Took care of me too, actually," Marx said nonchalantly. "I would've been dead if she hadn't showed up." He looked around at the three other reploids. "What were you all talking about?"
"Nothing," X said hastily.
"Something called Elysium," Nephtis corrected venomously.
"Nephtis..."
"I'm not going unless he's going."
"Going where?" Marx interrupted.
"I still don't know," Nephtis said in an exasperated tone. "I just know that's where Isis is going." Marx's face hardened.
"Sounds like a plan."
"You don't know what you're getting yourself into," X warned.
"X, I just faced down an international criminal. What's the worst that could happen?"
X shook his head. "I'm only okay with letting Nephtis come because she won't be doing any fighting."
"Like hell I won't!" Nephtis broke in.
"She's a mechanic," X pointed out.
"And she's as tough as any of you," Marx said defensively, earning a kiss on the cheek from Nephtis. "Like I said, she saved my life tonight. If you give her a chance, she might save yours."
X opened his mouth, but quickly shut it. His face darkened even more as he said, "Alright, I don't care anymore. Come along if you want. I'm tired of trying to defend people that don't want protection." With that said, X stormed off down the corridor. Axl's gaze followed him, then turned back to Marx.
"Uh...I guess we'll tell you when the meeting starts."
"Meeting?" Marx questioned.
"Will we get any damn answers?" Nephtis asked.
Axl's head bobbed, intimidated by the woman's tone. "Yeah. Should be early tomorrow. I'd recharge a bit, if I were you." Marx nodded, and Axl left as well. As soon as they were alone, Nephtis twisted around in his arms and launched into a passionate kiss. When they parted, she whispered, "If I didn't know better, I'd screw you right now."
"Define better," Marx retaliated, which merely prompted her to kiss him again.
"Thanks for being on my side," she said sincerely, resting her head against his shoulder.
"No need to thank someone for using common sense."
"You're earning major brownie points tonight, Marx."
"I'm starting to wonder if those count for anything..."
"Marx! We went over this!"
Alia was walking down a nondescript corridor, her head spinning. Instead of working out the problems she had been expecting, X had presented her with a new one the moment he entered the empty command room. He had fully explained to her about Elysium, and that he wanted her to be his navigator. She found that harder to believe than the existence of a space station that had controlled humanity since their creation.
As opposed to saying anything, she merely stumbled out of the command room to think. X didn't follow her. Now she was more confused than ever, and she almost wished that he had.
A hard metallic clanking broke into her thoughts. She whirled around to find Endymion, resplendent in his silver armor, striding toward her with purpose in his legs.
"Alia," he said as a form of greeting.
"Oh, Endymion..."
"You were at the battle tonight. Did you see a gray feline-type maverick?"
The question caught her completely off-guard. It took her a few moments to remember that she had. "As a matter of fact...I did."
Endymion went rigid. His eyes suddenly took on a life that didn't seem to belong in the emotionless shell of a reploid. "Where? What happened to him?"
Alia's thoughts were temporarily put aside as she realized they had left Mystic to deal with him. "You know, I'm not sure. He was in the back of the base, loading some kind of transport. Last time I saw him, he was fighting a 17th hunter named Mystic."
What little color was in Endymion's flesh disappeared. "What?" His eyes burned with rage. "I'LL KILL HER!"
"Say what!" Alia gasped.
"She's a maverick! She's a damn maverick!" Endymion took off at a run, and Alia struggled to keep up with him.
"Wait! What's going on?" At this, Endymion shoved her brutally aside. She collided with the wall, and slumped to the floor. Though she knew Endymion could be cold sometimes, he had never hurt any of his comrades nor had he lashed out. Some of his teammates didn't even know what his voice sounded like. And here he was, screaming like a madman and throwing Alia about like a piece of baggage.
Alia stood up, her legs trembling uncontrollably. The only thing that seemed certain right now was that she had to tell X about this.
In five minutes, Alia was back in the command room and only mildly surprised to see X still sitting there.
"X," she said, her shaky voice surprising herself. "There's something seriously wrong with Endymion. He said..." She didn't know how to make the next sentence sound sane. "He said he's going to kill one of your hunters."
Slowly, X got to his feet in disbelief. "Why?" He asked, afraid of the answer. Alia explained the situation to him, and his shock melted into a frown. "Mystic's not a hunter. Zero saved her on the way back from the mountains." None of this made any sense. "Why would she pretend she's a hunter?" However, X soon realized the obvious.
"I'm not – " Alia began, but X cut her off with his revelation.
"You said she was fighting with a cat reploid?"
"In a manner of speaking..."
"That cat was the one that chased her into the maverick attack Zero saved her from. She must've been looking for revenge."
"That's not what it looked like."
X stared at her in confusion. "Then what did it look like?"
"It looked like she was trying to...protect him, as crazy as it sounds. She told us he wanted to defect, and when he attacked us she kept knocking him down. That doesn't sound like revenge to me."
X pressed a palm against his forehead, emitting a low growl of anger. So this means Endymion's right? She's a maverick, and I should let him kill her? He knew that, logically, he should let him. However, there still wasn't enough evidence to condemn her to death, at least in X's mind. If she were killed and they found that she wasn't a maverick...
"I'll stop him," X said, and Alia nodded in agreement. He tapped his comm. link, and found Endymion's frequency. "Endy, it's X. Whatever you think you're doing, stop."
"Shut up!" was the enraged reply. X paled; despite all Alia had said, he still couldn't believe that Endymion could fly off the handle like this.
"I won't let you kill that girl," he said, more forcefully this time. He was already subconsciously moving toward the door.
"Why not? She's a maverick!"
"You don't have proof." X was now walking down the hall.
"I'll kill you too!"
"Endy, where are you?"
"She let Claw escape!"
"Where are you?" X's voice was razor-sharp now. He was met with silence. The line was broken. Thinking quickly, X connected to Zero. "Zero, where's Endy?"
"Dunno. Why?"
"Find him on your locator."
"...he's heading toward the second floor elevator. Shit, he's moving fast. What's going on?"
"Keep me updated," X said, ignoring Zero's request. He was flying down the corridor.
In less than five minutes, he was running out the door of the lobby elevator. As Zero had told him, Endymion was standing in the dead center. He seemed to be deciding where to go. X rammed him shoulder-first. Glad that he hadn't taken off his combat armor as Alia suggested earlier, he pinned Endymion's arms behind his back.
"What...X!" Endymion's voice was wild. "She's infected! She needs to die!" X didn't know what to say, he just held him to the ground. However, Endymion slipped a hand free and shoved X off him. As the 17th Commander recovered, he found a blade sticking under his chin.
"You probably know. Where is she? She's still here, isn't she?"
"How could you..." The blade pressed deeper, and now X could feel it on his neck.
"She's in a lab on the third floor," Zero's voice said in X's comm. link. Not sure why he would say this, X decided to act on it.
"She's in a lab on the third floor," X blurted, trying to sound reluctant. Endymion nodded in content and began running toward the elevators. Even before he got to one, it opened. X looked back in time to see a crimson fist fly out the door and smash Endymion squarely in the face. The silver hunter fell back, his processor jarred and temporarily shut down. Zero stepped out of the elevator calmly.
"Told him the knuckles were useless..." the blonde hunter muttered as he bound Endymion's hands. X walked up to them, looking down at Endymion in bewilderment.
"I don't believe it," X said slowly.
"Believe what you see," Zero grunted, hoisting the unconscious Maverick Hunter over his shoulder. "Now we need to figure out what to do with him."
The next morning, X was back in the command room. This time, there were no other commanders save Zero. Only Marx, Nephtis, Axl, Selene, Alia, and Malakai occupied the room, and all of them sat at the long holo table in the center of the room. X and Signas stood in front, both their expressions grim.
"This morning, we got a report that Doppler Airport was attacked. There weren't many casualties, but a plane was stolen. I think you all know who attacked and where they're going with the plane." Signas's powerful voice filled the room. Most people were paying attention, apart from Marx and Nephtis. Marx had just found a ticklish spot on her thigh, and he was attempting to find out exactly how ticklish it was.
Nephtis choked back a giggle as he touched the correct spot. In retaliation, she pinched his side. Where, to his great misfortune, he was ticklish as well. He barely managed to stifle a laugh. Nobody was paying them any attention, except for Malakai. He watched them with a massive grin splayed across his sharp features. Marx decided to push his luck and he reached farther, going under her shorts. Now, he definitely found a ticklish spot. She doubled over, shrieking with uncontrolled laughter. As the sensation subsided, she straightened up and backhanded Marx on the way.
Now people were paying attention to them. Everyone, in fact, had their eyes on the couple. Malakai's grin had somehow expanded, and Zero was giving Marx a thumbs-up.
"If we could continue..." Signas finally said, breaking the stupor in the room. "It seems we have everyone we need. A pilot..." Signas nodded to Malakai. "A mechanic..." he now nodded at Nephtis, who had flushed scarlet. "And a navigator..." his eyes now turned on Alia. "Everyone else, you all understand that we have no idea what we're up against, correct?" They all nodded.
"Selene...what about Endy?" Marx heard Axl whisper. The chocolate-haired girl, who seemed to be both furious and saddened, turned a red eye on her boyfriend.
"What about who?" She muttered angrily, wiping away a tear.
Axl looked wholly confused. "Are you all right?"
It was now Selene's turn to hit Axl. "Do I look all right!" My brother's lost it! He freaked out on Commander X, and threatened to kill him!"
Axl's eyes widened as his face paled. "...why?"
"I don't know, and I don't care! That bastard's locked up now, and that's all that matters." From her tone, Axl could tell that that was definitely not all that mattered. He put a comforting arm around her waist, but she moved her chair out of his reach.
"Once again, if we could continue..." Signas reigned in the meeting once more. "Are you prepared to face the unknown?" Another round of nods. "Remember, Sigma is no longer our main concern. The destruction of the Maverick Virus and the prevention of this 'Carbon Reinitialization Program' are all that matter anymore.
I called the NTNA, and they have an airship waiting for us. You leave immediately. I wish I could give you time for goodbyes, but we have none." With Signas's speech finished, everyone slowly got to their feet. The situation felt unreal; it was unreal. "Alia, if you may...?" Signas prompted her to activate the IT satellite.
"Wait!" Nephtis cried out, rushing out the door. In a moment, she was back, cradling a large blue metool in her arms. They all disappeared before she could see the look of gratitude on Marx's face. However, there were two unwanted guests that soon followed them: the first was a blonde woman listening to the meeting from down the hall. The second was thebound silver Maverick Hunter listening through Zero's comm. frequency.
End of Chapter 30
AN: Something cool that I never noticed before: The maverick symbol is really the letter Sigma in the Greek alphabet. Just a crazy little bit of trivia.