Special thanks to Fox McCloude for the kind reviews and for offering to translate this into Spanish! This is the latest chapter I have on Ao3, so after this, we'll be caught up!

Some backstory here, as well as set up for the next chapter and a well-known character coming into the story.

My author's notes are inconsistent in length, I've noticed. Sometimes I have things to say, sometimes not.

Anyway, this is a MMX story, yes, but it's also the setup for an AU of the series. So there will be some differences, but nothing too major.

Inquiries

X looked down at the puppy again, the white walking ball of fluff looking back, long pink tongue still hanging out of his mouth. "Patarche?"

"Yeah, Patarche." the human girl, Chiyo, told the robot with confidence. "I don't care what you say. I told Cecilia, and I'll tell anyone else that Patarche is MY dog, and I can name him what I want."

"Ok, ok," X told her. "I think it's a good name." whatever it was, anyway.

Chiyo continued to study him, going behind him to see that his buster cannon was still out. "What's that?"

"Oh! Uh, nothing!" the cannon retreated into his forearm, a white hand taking its place.

"Whoa! I know what that is!" Chiyo declared. "You've got a buster!"

X was surprised. "You know what this is?"

"Of course!" Chiyo answered. "Do you?"

"Well…yes, I know what it is. As in, its function and purpose, how to use it-"

"No, none of that boring stuff." the Japanese girl interrupted him. "You know…" she squinted. "You look a LOT like him."

"Who?"

What she said next would bring about the beginning of many things for the blue robot, both good and ill. "Mega Man."

"How did she get in here?!" Fujiwara questioned Cecilia, who was running alongside him and Cain.

"She used her key card!" the woman answered. "I told her to wait at the entrance so I could come to get you, but Patarche ran away-"

"Patarche?" Fujiwara was puzzled. "What kind of name is…whatever!" he then glowered at her. "If she's found with even a scratch on her, you're fired. Understand?"

Cecilia nodded; Cain noticed that the woman looked somewhat intimidated. "It's not as if this place is that big. She couldn't have gone far!"

Fujiwara didn't respond. That's not what I'm afraid of. He thought. If there's even the most minor bruise on her, then everything will be ruined!

X's Room

Mega Man…yes. He had heard that name. And yet, he still asked the girl, "Who's Mega Man?"

The girl's eyes widened. "Who's Mega Man?! Did you just get made yesterday?" she asked. "Did you really just get made yesterday?" she asked genuinely.

"What? No." X said, shaking his head.

"So when were you made? Because I've never seen you before." X was about to answer, but she cut him off. "You know what? Doesn't matter. Because however old you are, there's no way you couldn't have heard of Mega Man!" she said. "And looking at you, whoever made you was a pretty big fan."

"Well, I don't know if I'd say fan, but…"

"I hear her!" Cecilia exclaimed, taking the lead with the two men following her. Fujiwara and Cain realized just where Chiyo had gone as she went ahead.

"But what?" Chiyo asked, she then looked up at him, specifically, his upper half. "Hey, get down here." she said. X was somewhat off-put. Did she just try to order him? "Well?"

"Ok?" he didn't understand it why she wanted him to, but he nonetheless obeyed. What could she do anyway? "Ah!" he quickly began to regret doing so as he felt his mouth being pulled, cheeks in the girl's grip.

"Hmm, stretchy," Chiyo observed. "Feels enough like skin. Just enough, though." she told him, making sure to clarify the last part. "The forearms and everything from the calves down are huge," she observed, giving his left calf a slight tap. "Hm, no echo," she said. "So there's gotta be something in there."

"What are you talking about?" X asked, Chiyo having finally let go of his face.

"I'm trying to figure out what you're made of." the girl said. "You're built to look like Mega Man," she then tapped the red gem on his helmet. "Give or take a few things." X rose, or rather, she allowed him to rise. "And, above all else, you've got a buster. So you must be built with some good parts." she had to admit that this robot "X" looked and reacted much more like herself than any mechaniloid. "Only question is who would make you?"

"What are they doing?" Cain asked, Fujiwara listening in while holding Cecilia back when she tried to get Chiyo again.

"They're just talking." the Japanese man said.

"About?" Cecilia questioned.

"Shh. Both of you." Fujiwara ordered, listening in on the conversation between his child and the mysterious DLN. While it was unexpected, perhaps Chiyo's presence was just the "test" he needed to see.

"Well," X began, pondering what exactly to say.

"Well, what?" Chiyo inquired.

The blue robot was stuck. Should he tell this girl who his creator was? Was he allowed to? What would the consequences be if he did? "Well, it's kind of a…complicated issue."

"How?" the Japanese girl placed her hands on her hips. "I just want to know who built you."

"Yeah, I don't really know if I should say," X admitted. "Dr. Fujiwara might not like it." then he remembered what the girl said her name was. "Wait, your name's Fujiwara too, right?

"Yeah, Chiyo Fujiwara." the girl told the machine. "Though, if you want to be technical, Fujiwara would come before Chiyo, and…" she then stopped herself. "You know my dad?"

"Dad?!" Yes, the last name indicated some relation, but X assumed that this girl was a niece or the child of a cousin, not someone with a direct link with Fujiwara himself! "You're his daughter?!"

Chiyo was unaffected by the robot's shock. If anything, he appeared more animated than she did. "He didn't mention me, huh?" she said, not asked. It was a statement, not a question. Before X could answer her at all, she looked away. "Doesn't surprise me a bit." she didn't have much emotion to her voice upon saying that. Yet X detected a slight sense of disappointment. As if, while she wasn't happy with the news, she expected it. "But he didn't mention you at all." she recovered quickly, X noted, as if she was used to this. "And you couldn't have been made by him either."

X was growing nervous. She was making it clear she was getting an answer, one way or another. "And…why do you say that?"

And he heard something that he had heard from her father before. "Because something like you isn't supposed to exist." She didn't mean anything by it. If anything, she was just being truthful. Something like this robot just being here was breaking all sorts of laws. AI at a level like his was strictly forbidden. Still, she had read of such things before. And when she saw the blue robot trying to get rid of his hurt expression, a name came to her. "Did Doctor…" she began but stopped herself. "No way. That's impossible."

X was about to sigh in relief, hoping that she wouldn't pry further. Yet despite himself, he was curious. "What is?"

"Doctor Light couldn't have made you." Chiyo said. "All of his robots were-"

"Chiyo!"

"Damn it, Cecilia! I told you to wait!"

A woman rushed into the room and grabbed the girl and white pup, then looked at X. Cecilia was startled and stepped back. "Doctor, what is this?"

"Cecilia, just shut up!" Fujiwara shouted, pushing the woman aside. This caused her to hit the wall and Patarche fell out of Cecilia's grasp, the young pup hitting the floor and letting out a pained squeal.

Fujiwara was about to shout at the robot for even letting the girl into his room, yet X ignored him completely, going over to the injured Patarche. He bent over and picked the dog up with one hand while lightly feeling his paws. The pup gave a small yelp when X went over his left one, the robot worried over whether or not he had squeezed too hard. "Sorry." he apologized. He then turned to Cecilia and Chiyo. "I don't think it's broken." The woman looked at him with wide eyes, torn between awe and fear. Chiyo reached out and took Patarche from X and held him, the woman going off with the girl and dog.

Fujiwara looked at X, yet instead of anger, the robot and Cain saw that he was perplexed if anything. After a few moments, the Japanese man finally found his voice. "You…you were concerned about a dog?" he asked as if he couldn't believe it.

"Of course! It sounded like it got hurt!" X said, baffled that the man didn't show any worry at all.

Cain looked at X, then at Fujiwara, who was still in shock. Then to X again, the robot appeared anxious. "I did something wrong, didn't I?"

"No, absolutely not," Cain assured him. "In fact, I think this might be just what Sho here needed to see."

The Next Day

X was surprised that he had been summoned to Fujiwara's office. He was surprised that he had been let out at all given yesterday's events. Whatever the reason, he just hoped that it wouldn't involve any more testing of his buster. He stood in front of the door and was allowed to pass through, Fujiwara sitting at the main computer. The door closed behind X, making the robot wonder just what the man had to say to him. What would happen? Would he be permanently kept in his room, or would he be taken somewhere else? Somewhere dark and away from the sun. X, despite being an automaton, held his breath.

Fujiwara rose from his chair. "I suppose I should go ahead and tell you why I called you here." the Japanese man said.

"It's about yesterday, isn't it?" X asked. Fujiwara said nothing, but that was enough of a confirmation for him. "There's no excuse, but I didn't leave the room. Cain asked me to show it to him before, and I guess he left the door unlocked. But I didn't touch her." though he DID touch the dog. And kind of hurt it when he checked where it had been injured. Maybe that was why he had been called here. "I'm sorry, Doctor. I didn't mean to-"

"No, you don't understand." the scientist interrupted. "I'm the one who's sorry."

The blue robot was perplexed. "What?"

"I said, I'm the one who's sorry," Fujiwara repeated. "I didn't realize just how advanced you were." he then led X to his computer and pulled up a schematic of the robot's head. "This is the scan from when Cain first brought you to my lab." Fujiwara then pulled up another. "And this one was from just a week after." he went through scan after scan, X remembering these well. Every week, the Asian scientist would take a snapshot of the robot's cerebral chamber. Why, X didn't know, but as the human scrolled through the number of weekly scans, he noticed that there were notable differences between each. "Despite being a creation of Light, your programming appeared to be pretty basic. But over time, I've noticed that there have been new developments. Your systems are becoming more complex. It's almost like a child's brain developing into that of an adult in just a month."

Was that how a machine was supposed to operate? Or was it not? X hardly knew. "And what does that mean?"

"It means I've misjudged you severely," Fujiwara told X. He then turned away from the screen to face the blue robot. "You see, AI such as yours is strictly banned."

"So I've been told," X said. "But no one's told me why."

Even now, his memory was fuzzy, yet he could scarcely remember faces. Human-like faces resembling children. Wide eyes staring down at him with awe. They too thought he was strange, but they were at least accepting. He couldn't remember what about, but he remembered how he and his visitors talked with each other, told either other about what was going on in their lives, and, of course, answer his questions regarding Dr. Light. He could remember none of it, but it did happen.

But now, they were all gone. But wait. He remembered that he wasn't down in the underground lab alone. "Hey," X said. "Where is that other robot?"

"You mean the mechaniloid from yesterday?" the human questioned. "Don't worry. I…patched it….him up. He'll be operational tomorrow."

"Really?" X was pleased with this news. "That's great. Thank you."

Yes, yes, whatever. Fujiwara thought. For something with a computer for a brain, he sure is an idiot. Especially given all I did was just trade the damaged one for an identical copy from the same line. Still, he seemed to have gained the robot's trust with this "kind gesture", so he didn't want to risk losing it.

"But no." the blue robot told the human. "I meant the one from the lab?"

"Hm?" Fujiwara was confused. "What do you mean…oh!" he suddenly realized. "That damaged one? What about it?"

"I thought 'it' was a girl." X told him.

"Yes, well, whatever the case, her body's been shipped off to a robotics museum in the United States."

"What?!" X exclaimed. "When was this?!"

Fujiwara didn't understand the machine's reaction. "Not long after I salvaged what I could from her hard drive," he said. "She's no good to anyone in that condition." X looked saddened by this news. "And today's technology wouldn't be able to sustain her anyway. She's too outdated. Her internal clock stopped around sometime in 201X."

"201X?! That was so long ago." X sighed. He remembered what the blonde robot looked like: young and as if she were in a peaceful sleep. Yet she also had a gaping hole in her chest that X had to admit would take a lot of effort to repair. "What happened to her?" he asked aloud. Even if he was mainly saying it to himself, it could've also been interpreted as a legitimate question.

Fujiwara shook his head. "I can't say for certain," he admitted. "She was built without any means to defend herself, and her outer shell had been rather easy to tear through, considering the wound she had."

What could've done that? X thought, then he looked to the forearm that held his buster. He then remembered the sizable exit wound he had left on the mechaniloid. Though the blast that went through the robot girl's chest was much more powerful. Her entire chest cavity had been blown out, her core would've been blown to pieces. If he was right in that a buster was what caused the damage, then who's? And even more, for what reason would someone shoot her? It wouldn't matter now though seeing as her body was long gone. But X recalled something Fujiwara said. "Didn't you say that you copied her hard drive?"

"What I could." the human confessed. "I've collected a span of memory files over a span of ten years, all varying in quality. Unfortunately, all of them are somewhat corrupted, but you can at least decipher what's being said."

X thought for a moment, wondering whether or not he was ready to do what he had initially wanted to do. Ultimately, though, he feared he wouldn't get the chance again if he didn't ask now. After all, Fujiwara was being quite generous at the moment. "Can I see them?"

Later

"All right, turkey's done!" a young, female, chipper voice declared, opening the oven to reveal a reddish-brown, sizzling bird, ready for consumption. Well, for those that had stomachs. "Thankfully, the Professor's invited some folks over, so things WILL be eaten." she then turned to look at the plethora of food she had prepared. "They had better!" she huffed. "I spent all day making this." she then turned to the kitchen door. "Rock! Rush! Come help me get some of this, would you?"

X watched staticky footage of the more miniature robot's memory files from the computer screen, eyes glued to the screen and absorbing everything he saw. It was somewhat offputting at first, everything he saw being from her point of view, but it didn't take long for X to adjust. "What's going on?" he asked Fujiwara; the clip had just started when the robot took the turkey out of the oven.

"I believe they're celebrating Thanksgiving," Fujiwara told the robot. "It's an American holiday. Though the history of it is much more violent than what the country's children are taught."

X was very aware of that. He had the primary knowledge data for a standard machine around the time he was constructed, but he found himself not satisfied. Seeing the footage before him made him wish he could actually experience what was taking place himself.

Why? X thought. Why was I kept in the dark for so long? True, according to the warning installed in him, it was to test his reliability. But still, couldn't it have been a little shorter? X was drawn from his thoughts by the sight of someone else entering the kitchen. He looked like a young boy with a blue shirt and black shorts on. Yet everything from his knees down was covered in a pair of thick, blue armored boots. So very much like himself, X thought. "Wait." he then realized. "Is this Mega Man?"

Fujiwara looked at X. "You know who that is?"

"Well, yes and no." X answered. "I know who he is, but…I don't really know him."

True, Dr. Cain told him how a helper bot named Rock was reformatted into a robot meant for combat, Mega Man. He was also told of how another scientist named Dr. Wily stole Dr. Light's original line of specialized robots (called Robot Masters) and created several of his own. He was told of the man's continuous schemes for world domination and how every time, the "Blue Bomber," as he was sometimes called, managed to stop him. That was all that, ironically, Mega Man X knew about Mega Man.

"What do you mean?" Fujiwara questioned. Even if he had just called the robot in here to get him to comply with the scientist's requests for more tests, there was so much going on at this moment that he couldn't simply ignore it.

"I mean, I've seen him as Mega Man, but…not as Rock, I guess?" X explained though he wasn't exactly sure how to express himself in words adequately.

"Rush! No!" X was drawn back to the computer screen. A red, robotic canine had come into the kitchen and tried to get what appeared to be a colorful screw from a bowl of more colorful screws. "That's for dessert! Well, OUR dessert anyway." the helper robot doing the cooking said; she and Rock took the remaining food out to a large table where Dr. Light and some other humans were seated. Yet a majority of them were, to X's surprise, robots. The same eight machines that Wily had adducted. "Were they a family?" X asked.

Fujiwara thought for a moment. "Hm. If you mean in the traditional sense, no." the man said. "Though Dr. Light was known as having an…attachment to his creations and robots in general. More so than others in his field."

So were they a family or not? From what X saw, both humans and machines were partaking in the festivities. So naturally, he set his sights on Rock (or was it just Mega Man since he was reformatted?), who was trying to sneak one of the colorful screws on his plate, but the other helper robot lightly smacked his wrist to make him drop it.

X chuckled at the robot's look: disappointment with a tiny bit of scorn. It wasn't malicious, though. It was getting late, so perhaps he would have to stop soon, but X was curious about something. "What's the name of the robot this footage came from?" the blue machine asked Fujiwara.

"From what I saw, she's registered as DLN 03."

"Did she have a name?" X asked. DLN 03? That couldn't be all.

Wasn't he satisfied with that answer? Fujiwara pondered all that was going on, observing the robot's reactions to what he was watching. "Roll." he told X. "Her designation is Roll."

June 13th 21XX

Perhaps it was too soon to get his hopes up, but things had been looking up since the conversation X and Fujiwara had. The blue robot had been given a fully furnished room with books, a television, a desk, and the capsule that had originally been put in. Cain was quite pleased with this development, though the paleobotanist knew that the Japanese man was only doing this because he was getting something out of it.

Regardless, Cain knew well that he was stuck in this situation with X. The least he could do was make sure Light's creation was taken care of. Cain found that, despite his already present wealth of knowledge (a benefit of being a machine, the old man assumed), he still found activities such as reading and watching television stimulating. Something that Fujiwara took note of, and immediately exposed him to a plethora of media. Cain saw it as unnecessary, but as the Asian man had told him before, Cain was the one who found X. Fujiwara would be the one to use this robot to his full potential.

Though what kind of potential is that? And for whom will it serve?

Recently, Dr. Cain had introduced the blue robot to some science fiction, specifically a series that was one of his favorites. "So, Frank Herbert wrote this series in 1965?" X questioned, holding a physical copy of the first series of the Dune Chronicles. "That's…that's an entire two centries ago!" X exclaimed. "Something that old is still so well regarded?"

Cain chuckled. "Indeed. Everything from Shakespeare to Homer and the ancient Greek dramas has admirers. Even now. In fact," he said. "One of my favorite pieces of literature came before literature even was what it is now. Dr. Light programmed you with the knowledge of the Epic of Gilgamesh, right?"

"Of course," X replied. He went back to the book, having a question that related more to his current reality than it did the book. "There's a certain mention of how what are called 'thinking machines' are banned," he said. "But machines are still very present here. So why is there a limit to a machine's AI?"

Cain froze. "X…"

"Dr. Fujiwara keeps telling me it doesn't matter, but if I'm," the blue robot paused. "If I'm, well, not supposed to exist, then why is that?" he asked. "Why are there only mechaniloids and no one else, well, like me?" he set the book down on the desk. "Please. Let me at least know this. I can't go on not barely knowing anything around me."

The older man sighed, rubbing his bearded chin. He knew well that X had such a question on his mind (despite Fujiwara still addressing it as a CPU) for some time, yet it was a complicated issue. Fujiwara didn't think it was a good idea, yet Cain knew that it was because the man wanted to be in control of everything. Though even he had to admit that he was somewhat apprehensive to tell X the reason why he was "illegal".

"Well…" Cain pondered whether or not he was going to do this. Did he trust X with such information? Could he trust X with such information? "It's a long and sorted history." he was taking a gamble, he knew it. But X deserved to know the truth, as he would expect the same courtesy in return. "And no one is entirely sure of what happened, but the incident occurred a few years before Dr. Light's death." he then bit his lip. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to-"

"It's fine." X said. "Just go on. No one's sure of what happened?" he questioned, eager to get back on the subject. If not just to get his mind off his creator.

Cain continued. "But it had to do with the disappearance of Dr. Wily."

"Dr. Wily disappeared?" X asked. "What happened?"

"They never found a body, but it was suspected that he was murdered."

Cain observed X's reaction. This would be a moment of truth. "Murdered!? By a robot?!" X exclaimed, clearly shocked.

"No one could confirm it, but that was what was believed at the time." the human admitted. "There were rumors from how one of his machines killed him to Mega Man actually being the one to do the deed."

"But he couldn't! No machine could!" X protested. "The First Law forbids it!"

Cain was trying to process if he had just heard right. "So, you have regard for the Laws."

"Well…yes! Of course!" X answered. "Robots can't harm human beings! They created us!"

The paleobotanist was surprised to hear this from the machine. True, he would've expected some sort of protest from how he reacted from hearing of the supossed murder by a robot, but hearing him so adamant about how he viewed the Three Laws of Robotics.

"So, you have regard for the Laws?" Cain questioned.

"Of course I do," X told him. "I mean, one of the few things I can remember right now is Dr. Light telling them to me." there were also some sparse memories of him being told of humans.

"Humans are great! True, they're different from us, but I've got plenty of human friends!"

"Yeah! Kalinka's my best friend!"

"I won't do it," X said. "I promise." his voice began to sound a little nervous. "I mean it. I won't." he couldn't afford to go back in the dark again. Not when he was so close to possibly seeing what was outside of this lab."

Cain analyzed the robot's words and actions, knowing why he was so anxious about being sealed away again. But, even now, that fear still held such a tight grip on him? Cain set it in his mind to discuss with Fujiwara later.

"What happened to the rest of Light's robots? And the Robot Masters? Where are they?"

Cain shook his head. "No one knows."

Later

"His reaction to mental stimulation is incredible!" Dr. Fujiwara exclaimed, presenting the various CPU scans he had to Dr. Cain. "He seems to have grown fond of superhero programs. Why that is, I've yet to understand."

"Perhaps Light just made him with the same heroic spirit as Mega Man?" Cain theorized. "In a sense, X could be considered his brother."

"Don't give me any of that relation nonsense." the Japanese scientist groaned. "I have to put up with that robot thinking that. I don't need someone else doing it too." True, he had left the issue alone just to get X to be more compliant, but as long as Fujiwara got his data, that was all that mattered in the end.

Especially if he was truly ready to move onto the next phase of his plan.

"What are you thinking, Sho?" Cain asked, seeing that the man was up to something.

"I have a question to ask him."

The Next Day

Once again, X had been summoned by Fujiwara, yet the fact Cain was here eased his tension somewhat. Entering through the automated door, the blue robot saw the two men standing a short distance away as if they had been waiting for him.

"You wanted to see me, Doctor?" X asked Fujiwara. It felt odd to call someone other than Light "Doctor,", but he learned quickly that the Asian man was someone that demanded respect. Especially if he was the one currently "living" in the man's lab.

"Yes, X." Fujiwara began. "I…still want to make up for how I've treated you over the past few weeks." he said.

Cain grimaced. You're lying through your teeth! Yet he didn't mention a word of it, if not just for X's sake.

"And, well, I've been looking over your CPU scans, as well as analyzed your reactions to various mental stimulation. And,"

"That said," Cain interrupted. He was tired of hearing talk of data and analyzing. But still, what he had to say related to Fujiwara's research on the blue robot. "We've both noticed that you never really interact with the mechaniloids."

X shifted. "Yeah, I'll admit, I don't," he confessed. "They…I mean, it's part of their programming, but they're not really ones for conversation."

"Exactly." Fujiwara answered. "And given that," Cain cleared his throat, silently reminding the Japanese native not to speak of science. "Given that they don't have as complex an AI as you have, you two don't connect."

X had to admit that Fujiwara was right. True, he had tried, yet any mechaniloid he had managed to get ahold of and tried to start a conversation with them. But they either barely said anything or nothing at all. Indeed, while they were fellow machines like him, they weren't like him.

There wasn't anyone like him. Not anymore.

"So, we've decided that we're going to give you someone like yourself." Fujiwara told X.

The blue robot's green eyes widened. "You mean…"

Cain nodded. "We're going to give you a friend."

Note: If anyone's read the previous version of this fic (at least, what I was trying to do), you may know who this "friend" is going to be. If not, then I won't spoil it for you.

With that said, thank you for reading! If you enjoyed it, review and give your input! If you see any errors I missed, let me know!