Relic from the seas
By
Dr Facer
-6-
"Wait, you're going to Siberia again?" Zero asked, not bothering with hiding the disdain in his voice. "Signas isn't happy about you being absent so much."
"Not to mention you're hurting our teamwork, the three of us haven't trained together in several days!" Axl rejoined. "What if we have a Maverick virus outbreak?"
X, who was about to exit the Maverick Hunters headquarters' resting area, stopped and turned to look at his two teammates and crossed his arms in defiance. "Sigma's dead. There haven't been any traces of the Maverick virus or the Sigma virus since, well, since Lumine killed him. And that was almost a full year ago; everything has been peaceful for a change. Besides, I…"
"You've been going to Siberia every day since that capsule was found," Zero interrupted. "You normally bring all the Light capsules here for analysis, even if analyzing those things is pretty much impossible, so what is different this time? What did Tsunami Mako find?"
"Yeah, you haven't told us!" Axl said. "And Alia isn't speaking either. What was in that capsule?"
"Were they diagrams for new weapons?" Zero guessed. "Like that 'Mega Trident' you had our scientist make for you?"
"You know about that?" X asked. He had hoped Zero would not find out about the trident.
"Very interesting weapon, to be honest," the crimson hunter said. "It can shoot a powerful concentrated laser beam capable of penetrating pretty much everything, and it can be fired fifty six times with a single charge, I wouldn't mind having something like that myself."
"That weapon sounds effing awesome!" Axl exclaimed. The young hunter, a weapon specialist by nature, was very excited about the possibility of handling something so good. "Can I copy that sometime?"
"Weapon designs was only a part of it," X said. "Doctor Cossack decided not to reveal all the capsule's contents until we were sure it was safe. As for you copying that special weapon, Axl, I don't think so."
"Meh, bummer. Anyway, I have something better to do. Call me if you want to train, will ya?" Axl said and waving his friends good-bye, walked down the hallway. He had a date with Pallette later that day and was hoping she'd finally let him do certain things with her again. Failing at holding back a grin worthy of a perverted teenager, Axl chuckled and thought it would be best if he bought his date a gift. Something fluffy, he decided, would probably help set the mood.
"That idiot's going to ruin his date again. Pallette is not going to let him link with her if he keeps acting like a fool," Zero announced once Axl was gone. "Yeah, linking. It's what adult reploids who love each other do, X; don't give me that stupid look, Doctor Cain and you both included that feature you also have in all standard reploid models, so you know about it. Besides, it's all Axl's been talking about all damned day… well, that and how you're spending so much time in Russia, that is."
"Linking was never supposed to be used like that, Zero. As for going to Russia, I do have a good reason for it," X said, purging an image of Axl linking with Pallette from his temporary memory files as he did so. "Also, can you please never mention Axl and linking again in front of me?"
"I can do that. Anyway, X, why can't you tell me what's going on? I get it, Doctor Cossack wants to keep it a secret, but you're hiding this even from me? After all we've been through together?"
X sighed. He had hoped Zero wouldn't push things this way. They had known each other for so long already, they had bled together and conquered incredible odds side by side. He was more than his best friend, he was his brother and hiding things from him was very difficult.
"The capsule had more than just things inside, Zero," X said after a moment of silence. "There was someone in the capsule."
"Someone, who?"
"A Lightbot."
"Are you serious?" The red hunter whistled. "I thought the only way to see a Lightbot these days was to either look at you or reading a history book."
"There's more, Zero. She… she's functional."
"Functional! Wait, she?" Zero frowned as he pulled all the information he had about the Lightbot series from his databanks. "Is it DLN-002?"
"Roll?" X said, recalling DLN-002 had been the designated serial number of the original Mega Man's sister (and because of this X considered Roll his older sister as well, though he kept this hidden to avoid possible jokes made at his expense). "No, the one Tsunami Mako found is called Splash Woman, DLN-067."
"I don't know her."
"I didn't either, but according to Doctor Cossack she was one of the last Robot Masters produced by Light Labs and there's not much information on her."
"And she is functional…" Zero leaned on the wall. "She can change the way we look at history, X! Now I see why you and Doctor Cossack are keeping quiet about this, what are you going to do with her?"
"We… we're hoping she can decide by herself once she's able to speak again," X said. "Her voice box burned when she was reactivated."
"Decide?" Zero had trouble believing what he was hearing. "She's a Robot Master, X. From what we know they can't make those choices, they weren't even better than our current mechaniloids."
"She is different," the blue hunter challenged. "You just don't know her and she… she's almost like all reploids that were made based on my design. I think she has free will, Zero."
"Well, if you wish to believe that, then that's fine by me," the crimson hunter said, not feeling like arguing over something X obviously felt so strongly about. "And who knows? If you say so then perhaps it's true. I guess I can judge when I meet her."
"About that…"
"You don't want me to meet her, do you?"
"Not yet."
"And the reason for that is?"
"She's still adjusting, Zero," X said cautiously. "It's been over a century since the last time she was active. She is dealing with the concept of being obsolete. You know that can't be easy… I don't want to overwhelm her."
"Fair enough, but that still doesn't explain why you visit her every day," Zero said. "Oh well, I'll meet her when you think she's ready. Who knows, she may even join the Maverick Hunters, too."
"I hope she never has to," the blue armored hunter said. "Listen, Zero, I do have to go now, so…"
"Of course, don't keep the lady waiting," Zero said, holding back a good natured grin as his friend teleported out of Hunters HQ.
Once alone, the crimson hunter made his way to the control room, there was someone he wanted to see and talk to, and her shift was about to end.
=0=
"I'm sorry to tell you this, Alia, but you look miserable," Pallette said after she logged out of her terminal so the next navigator could use it freely. "Will you tell us what's going on?"
Alia looked up from her terminal and rubbed her temples with a tired hand. The senior Navigator didn't feel like talking, all she wanted was to go home and rest. Not that she could rest. She had spent the last few days wondering about X and what he did when he visited that marine Robot Master. Had he found a way to communicate with her? It certainly seemed so, otherwise he wouldn't have asked Douglas and his mechanic team down at the weapon R&D lab to make that stupid 'Mega Trident' for her, something X didn't tell her about. The only reason why she knew X had requested that weapon was because she asked Douglas and he told her. This had never happened before, after the incident with Gate during the sixth Maverick uprising, when she opened up to X and told him about his troubled past, they had agreed to avoid keeping secrets between them. But she had changed it all. Splash Woman's activation had opened a schism that separated her from X in a way she had never considered possible.
"HQ to Alia?" Pallette tried. "Alia, you went blank for five seconds, are you malfunctioning?"
"I… I'm alright," the blonde navigator said. "Just thinking about something."
"Something you are refusing to talk about and is obviously keeping your systems two steps away from overloading," Layer, who had also just completed her shift, indicated as she sat next to her two friends. "I agree with Pallette, you do need to tell us what's bothering you."
"Believe me, I would like to talk about it," Alia sighed. "But I can't, not yet… I'm just not ready."
"Is it related to Captain X's visits to Russia?" Pallette ventured. "I tried monitoring him once in case something bad was going on, but he blocks the HQ signal so I couldn't do it."
"That's something we can work around if necessary," Layer said. "I can do it tomorrow if you want me to, Alia."
"I say you girls should let X have his space," a voice interrupted then.
The trio of navigators looked up to find Commander Zero standing by the door. The crimson hunter nodded at them and leaned on one of the many unused terminals before he continued speaking.
"I just talked to X, there's nothing wrong with him. He's busy helping Doctor Cossack with something very important, he'll go back to his usual schedule once this project is complete. I'll even mention this to Signas tomorrow, too," Zero said, offering what he hoped would be a sensible explanation that would also help covering a little for his best friend.
"If that's the case then why isn't Alia helping as well?" Layer wondered. "She was summoned to Siberia as well."
"Correct, one would assume Doctor Cossack would appreciate her many talents," Pallette added.
"X didn't say that much," Zero answered in what he hoped was a relaxed tone. He hadn't anticipated the girls would ask any further questions. "Perhaps he…"
"Doctor Cossack didn't invite me," Alia said then, her voice low and ashamed. "I asked X if I could go with him and he agreed to take me along. It's alright… I would like to help on this assignment, but I understand if my services aren't required… this is what I've been thinking about, girls. The work is done exclusively by Cossack Laboratories and even if I am really interested I just can't ask them to let me participate. I… I can't ask X either and… I honestly feel left out…"
"You should ask them anyway," Pallette said, wondering why Alia was acting like this over something that could be easily fixed. Judging by how depressed her friend had been for days, she had imagined her problem was something of fatal proportions.
"I agree, there's no way they would turn you down, Alia," said Layer with a soft smile. "You are a brilliant researcher and your knowledge about reploid development is an asset to anybody working on your field. Ask X, I am sure he will be glad to have you on Cossack's team."
"Perhaps I will," Alia said as she stood up and picked up her data pad. She was aware Pallette had things to do after her shift and suspected Zero wanted to take Layer somewhere. Alia didn't want to be the reason why her friends couldn't have some well-deserved fun, so she concluded going home was the best that she could do. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go home to work on some personal research."
"Sure, Alia," Layer said. "Call us if you need something, ok?"
"Yeah, don't forget we're here for you, we'll help you if we can," Pallette offered.
"I'll remember it, thank you both," Alia said and after giving her friends a soft smile, she beamed out of Maverick Hunter HQ.
"She's never going to ask for help," Pallette stated then. "Not if this has anything to do with X."
"I believe she will," Layer said. "But not until she has no other choice."
"Well, I guess all we can do is wait," Zero concluded.
=0=
Her apartment was small, neat and well-organized. She didn't own a lot of furniture and what she had was covered by well-catalogued and numbered boxes containing extractible memory discs, platinum chips, old school printed books and manuals and several digital video discs, all of these full with information she had accumulated through the years.
Normally, she would go over some of this information to pass the time, but she found the idea unappealing that afternoon. All Alia could do was to enter her bedroom and drop down on the only couch she owned. Glancing at her home, the idea of how bare it was, save all the information she kept mostly for the sake of keeping it, finally struck her.
"It wasn't always like this," she reflected, remembering how it used to be back when she and Gate worked together. Things were good back then, they even lived together for a while and had mutual friends, their lives were normal. But then Gate became obsessed with creating reploids so advanced they could defy all analysis and in doing so he slipped into madness until…
"Until I had to help retire Gate's eight advanced reploids," she muttered, staring at her hands and remembering using her own weapons system to… destroy, Gate's creations. He never forgave her and went into hiding, eventually infecting himself willingly with the Maverick virus just to quench his thirst for revenge.
She had sworn off relationships after that, focusing on her work so intensely she even believed that emotions where nothing but a distraction, something that machines didn't need.
Until she met him.
Mega Man X.
He welcomed her into the Maverick Hunter team without reservations and eventually, by showing her how much he cared about everyone even in the middle of the battlefield, had helped her recover her faith in everything that was good and right. Thanks to him she finally understood that blocking out everyone was not the answer. He gave her hope.
And that was why she fell in love with him.
Unfortunately, and she could understand this well enough, her previous experiences had made it difficult for her to approach the one she cared about and instead opted to caught his eye by using subtler methods, like changing her appearance to be more feminine looking.
"But I also did this so I wouldn't look the same as when Gate and I were together…" she thought, staring at her reflection on the mirror hanging from the opposite wall. "So I could be free of the past when we…"
Alia stopped there and reached for a data pad, which she turned on and opened the image her sister had sent her earlier. An image of X holding a smiling Splash Woman in his arms. The photo arrived with a note: 'You better do something soon about X, because her emotional responses are almost reploid level now and they keep improving for some reason I can't understand.'
She stared at the image, tried to feel upset about it, to feel angry and jealous… but she couldn't. Because X looked so happy and he hardly ever had reasons to be happy. And if Splash Woman's presence was able to make him experience happiness then Alia could only be thankful to her, even if seeing Splash Woman with him was breaking her heart into little pieces.
"I just wished I knew what I should do… X…"
Notes:
Thanks to Adam for beta reading this chapter
As Toki pointed out in his review, the Nina here is indeed named after the character from the Breath of Fire RPG series of the same name that Capcom also publishes. This will play a little bit in future chapters, but there's a long way to go until that happens.