"Damnit! Fine already! Just leave me alone!"
The bathroom door was slammed shut, a very irritated red reploid disappearing behind it. The Gem Gang cheered, even though the majority of them were more ragged-looking than when they had started their little escapade. Opal smirked mischievously as disgruntled sounds filtered through the bathroom door.
"Gave up, did you?"
The response was muffled, Omega still pouting, "Only because I wasn't about to let you see me without a shirt on."
"Is that all? I saw you shirtless the first time I met you!"
"You know what I mean!"
"It's a shame, really..."
"I heard that!"
The rest of the gang were reduced to laughter following the retort. Inside the bathroom Omega's face was red with a mixture of anger and embarrassment. He glared at the door as if it was the source of all his problems, but the blank surface didn't seem to care for his plight in the slightest. He huffed and turned his attention elsewhere. The bathroom he was in was small, various shades of a neutral gray colour covering its entire surface. There was a toilet, mirror, and a sink crowded against one side of the wall while the bath (complete with shower head) was against the adjacent wall. Apart from soaps and some hair care products, little else covered the counter surrounding the sink or the side of the bathtub. An unused towel hung on a rack to his right.
"By the way, you'd better use that soap in the shower," Ruby's voice shot, "because if you don't come out of there smelling of lavender-"
"But the soap doesn't-"
"Smell like lavender!"
"Shut up! If you don't come out of there smelling nice..." Her voice paused when she took a moment to scowl at the twins, "then we're going straight back in there to clean you up properly. And yes, I did say we for a reason."
"Perverts," Omega turned around and locked the door, ignoring the snickers from the other side. He went over and stepped into the bathtub, throwing off his tattered clothes. After turning the temperature to just below hot he pulled on the tub's knob, adjusting the shower lever. But instead of the water being warm, the high-pressured liquid shooting straight in his face was freezing cold.
"YEEAAARRGH!"
"Oh yeah, we forgot to mention that you have to let it warm up first. Oops." Diamond coughed.
"I'm gonna kill you-!"
"Stark naked? That'll be one for the records!"
Omega kept his mouth shut as more guffaws came from outside the bathroom. Instead of thinking up back-talk, he decided to just get the damn shower thing over with as soon as possible. Fortunately the water had begun to warm up throughout the unorthodox exchange. With that train of thought Omega grabbed the soap, lathered his hands, and began scrubbing.
Despite his previous reluctance, Omega was actually enjoying the wash. As the thick, bloody grit sloshed down the drain an unfamiliar and almost light feeling crawled over his skin. The soap bubbles practically tickled as his fingers scraped away the dirt he'd been covered with for years. After all, the only kind of bath that was available in the underground was a dust bath, and a dust bath didn't really cut it when it came to being clean.
That was when Omega got to his hair. The water added a surprising amount of weight to it as he threaded his digits through tangles older than the Gem Gang themselves probably were. Whole battalions of dust-bunnies were washed out and drowned in the puddles at his feet, brackish water sucking the little beasts into miniature whirlpools. The true golden-white glint of his hair was finally exposed, gleaming underneath a wet sheen.
After about fifteen minutes he turned off the faucet, his task complete. Squeezing more water out of his hair, he let it drip freely into the bathtub. Even the God of Destruction had to admit that the shower was enjoyable. Grabbing the nearby towel, Omega dried himself off. When he was finished he looked up into the mirror, once again combing his hair with his hands. Looking at the reflective surface, however, showed something that surprised even the Devil Reploid.
On his chest, previously hidden by grime, was a long and jagged scar. Lighter than the rest of his armoured skin, it ran from his right shoulder to the bottom of his left ribs. He glanced over his back, noticing that the scar was visible over his spine and shoulder-blades as well. Memories of the humiliating defeat at the hand of his rival flowed through his mind.
His fists clenched as he mentally raged at Zero and the guardians who'd sealed him away. The red demon remembered the bitter vows sworn the moment he'd discovered that he would be imprisoned for countless ages within in a single room, trapped in his last battleground. Omega had cursed the heavens and all levels of hell, promising to reap his revenge tenfold. "Damn you, Zero...!"
His dark thoughts were interrupted by Amethyst knocking on the door. "Hey, you still alive in there? We've got some clothes out here for you if you are."
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming..." tying the towel around his waist, the pale blonde fighter unlocked the door, opening just enough that he could pop his head out from behind it, "just hand them over, then."
"Alright, here you go!" The violet-garbed man passed Omega a tightly folded bundle of cloth. Behind him, Opal tried to peer into the bathroom, her eyes sparking with gleeful mischief.
Unfortunately for her, Omega wasted no time shutting the door the moment the clothes were in his hands. He put them on quickly, threw the towel on the rack, and left the gray bathroom behind.
As he left, he noticed that both the girls (excluding Opal, who was giving him a disappointed pout) and the twins were nowhere in sight. When he asked the Gem Gang leader about it, Diamond gave him a nonchalant response.
"They've gone back to their room for the night. You know, to sleep? Since you're rooming here, the twins have moved permanently to the girl's apartment."
"Fair enough." The red reploid sauntered over to the couch, paying little attention to Opal as he passed. Upon being ignored she huffed, making a big show of leaving the room unhappily even though she sent a quick, if poorly hidden glance Omega's way before she actually left. For his part the God of Destruction just settled down for the night as if he could care less what anyone else was doing, which was fairly accurate all things considered.
Amethyst, now sitting at the table and picking over some type of sniper rifle, looked at Omega curiously. "Don't you want any dinner? We have leftovers."
"No thanks, not hungry," he replied, tossing a nearby blanket over himself. Tired from the day's slaughter, he gave a quick yawn and went to sleep.
"Sometimes I wonder about that guy..." Amethyst mused. Emerald, sitting across from him, grunted in agreement.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Alfredo and Scimitar stood in awe at the hordes of data flowing down the screen.
After the Twilight Pirates finished excavating the ruins of the lab, they had immediately sold almost all of what they had found. It had been a veritable treasure trove of mechanics, reploid parts and odd machinery hidden away under the ground, the result of what must have once been a very productive laboratory and/orresearch center. Alfredo, however, wanted to keep the main hard-drive of one of the computers, along with all of the data disks from the site. Because of the victory over their rivals and their now excessive funds, Scimitar allowed him to keep as much information as he wanted. It was always the hardware that sold for the highest price anyways. Normally the data would have been sold as well, but Alfredo's curiosity had gotten the better of him. After rigging up his computer, the older man had proceeded to take hours to crack the codes on the files before being able to read the interesting tidbits it had to offer. But the more he saw, the more he realized just how lucky it was that they'd kept all the information for themselves. It was when he looked into a particularly large file that he'd called immediately for the commander.
And now, the two of them were staring incredulously at the screen, numerous records and sinister blueprints plain as day in front of them. The commander turned to his first mate.
"You know what this means, don't you?"
Alfredo didn't bother returning the look, still gaping at the computer. "This data... It's been lost for centuries! Not even Legion knows about this! And the contents of it... It's... it's incredible...!" The researcher turned to Scimitar, "This data... It's imperative that we read all of it. It may contain more information, more secrets that we must act upon! The hardware we sold was nothing compared to this!"
The raider leader nodded in agreement, "Yes... We will act upon these secrets. In fact, we must change our organization's very name! This is a turning point! A new purpose!" he looked at his hand, clenched in front of his face. His knuckles were pale from the strength of his grasp. "We will no longer be known as the Twilight Pirates. From this day forward, there's only one name our enemies will hear," he raised his fist outwards, his eyes set upon it as if he were staring down the gods themselves, "and that name will be Dark Prophecy!"
Thick silence filled the room. Alfredo bowed his head, his solemn expression filled with understanding. "How appropriate a name. After all, this data..." he muttered as he gazed at the screen, "foretells the end of the world..."
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
In the heart of Legion, four very bored Mega Men sat around a circular table. Thetis was reclining as he played with a yo-yo, Siarnaq was having a silent conversation with his biometal, Aeolus was sitting in a stoic silence as per usual, and Atlas...
Her fingers edged under the table's edge, grasping it tightly. Damn that Thetis, his yo-yo going up and down, up and down, up and down so many times that it was driving her to insanity. She had had enough. She was going to cause some chaos! The moment the red Mega Man's muscles began to flex, however, Aeolus put his hand down on the table, effectively preventing her plans.
"I'd rather the table not go flying, thank you." She looked at him, surprised. Thetis kept yo-yoing, happily oblivious of the situation while Siarnaq purposefully ignored them. Atlas went back to staring at the hell-born yo-yo, eyes narrowed. Aeolus followed her gaze.
"If you want to do it properly..." He reached into his shirt pocket, bringing out a pair of scissors (because as well as being stuck-up, Aeolus was also consistently over-prepared). The Wind MegaMan leaned over, cutting the yo-yo's string. It clattered to the floor.
"Hey!" Thetis complained, facing Aeolus. "I was using that, meanie! Now I have to repair it!" He looked back down at the floor. "Wha-? Where'd it go?" He began searching for the missing toy, getting off of his chair and onto his hands and knees to search for it.
Atlas glanced at Aeolus, who shrugged. They looked at Siarnaq, whose expression was much too blank even for Siarnaq, and whose normally flat and emotionless eyes were twinkling slightly. Atlas looked back at Aeolus but remained silent, a small smirk on her face.
The door to the small room opened, causing all four of the Mega Men to look up. Thetis cracked his head on the bottom of the table.
"Ow!" The blue teen went ignored. Master Thomas entered the room, looking at the three sitting around the table. Thetis scrambled out from under it shortly thereafter, rubbing his head as he sat back down in his seat.
Thomas addressed them with a reserved tone, "I see that you all are doing well. I'm glad the experience you all had has not affected anyone permanently. That being said, do you still wish to remain silent about what has happened?" They nodded as a group, eyes hard and hinting at suspicion. Thomas ignored this, continuing his speech, "Then I will bother you no further, unless you wish to change your minds." He began to leave.
Aeolus piped up, "There is something we would like to ask you, though."
Thomas turned around, his face as emotionless as Siarnaq's, "And what would that be?"
"We wish to join Legion. With Albert and the Model Ws gone, the Game of Destiny is no more. Because of this, there is nothing else for us Mega Men to do. Even then, the more we've thought about what happened with Albert, the more we realized that we were all being fools... But as for joining Legion, we might as well, so... What say you?" He looked inquiringly at Thomas. Thomas stood still for a while, then smiled.
"I say this; Welcome to Legion!" He left the room, motioning for the relieved Mega Men to follow.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
Outside the main tower night was stirring, covering the land with its dark and soothing embrace.
Two lone people walked along a sea wall just outside of Legion's main city. Both of them were talking in low, excited tones as they giggled and gestured romantically. Water lapped at the wall as the two sat on it, leaning forwards to kiss each other.
"Oh, John..." said one as they came apart.
"My sweet Julie..." said the other. The pair looked passionately into each other's eyes, and were about to lean into another kiss when a strange sound was heard.
THUNK.
The female looked around, "What was that?"
Her partner also glanced about, "I don't know, dear..."
The ocean crashed against the sea wall harshly, demanding their attention. The pair looked down at it curiously before recoiling in horror at the sight it held. The woman's hands cupped themselves over her mouth and the man, after recovering from his initial shock, grabbed his lover and ran towards the city.
"Police! Ambulance! Anybody! Help!" They dashed towards civilization, panic clawing at their hearts.
Cradles in the salty waves beneath the sea wall, two bodies were being tossed gently by the surf. One black, the other white.