Chapter Text
(Ninety Years after Sixth War, Ten till Advent of Seventh)
Communities and colonies and cities all the world over knew they ask for him and he’d come in a heartbeat, doing whatever he could despite his time constraints and base of operations being moved to Arcadia City thanks to the Space Feds being back and continually causing trouble.
Such as them trying to repeal reploid rights laws that were passed in their absence. For obvious reasons, this wasn’t going over very well with reploid-kind, and surprisingly enough the humans that had been left behind as well. Apparently the work both species had put into rebuilding the world after Eurasia’s Fall had endeared reploids to most humans on-planet at the time, and the on-planet humans were surprisingly protective of their resident species.
That one recent court case had been a joy to watch as the human judge completely knocked the Space Fed’s case out of the court without any chance to appeal. The looks on the Space Fed’s faces had been glorious, but the tensions still brewed under the surface, as they always did.
One such tension was between the humans who had stayed and the ones who had come back. Though the idea to remove people from their homes had ultimately failed thanks to the political pressure exerted by the Hunters and other organizations, people were still angry about the attempt, and that wasn’t discussing the people who had their homes taken from them before the Space Feds were stopped. There was very much an “us-versus-them” mentality, and X feared fights and perhaps a human war would break out eventually if something wasn’t done.
Then there was the fact that there hadn’t been a Maverick War in almost a century, so the Space Feds were getting the idea that Earth was somehow “safe”, despite the fact that the Virus hadn’t been cured yet. They were trying to send signals out into space to bring others “home”, as they called it, declaring it as such. Nobody really wanted more Space Feds on-planet, so this was understandably something that no one wanted to happen, so there was an ongoing battle trying to stop them from sending out signals or blocking the signals if sent.
Then there were the people who wanted to go back to space, and the on-planet humans that thought that if they got into the Space Fed’s good graces they would be able to go, too, and….
On and on and on.
In short, it was a political mess and X and Signas had to help deal with it because X was the Father of All Reploids and Signas was the Commander of the Hunters. It took up so much time and energy.
It almost made X want to be a Hunter again; at least then he could refuse to do politics since he was dealing with the “Maverick Scourge”....
So really, requests like this were a nice break, and X tended to enjoy them, even if they were getting to be rarer nowadays since the world had pretty much recovered from Eurasia’s Fall, though there was still clean up to do in more remote areas.
Although….
“You can’t be serious,” X deadpanned. “I get that I’m short. But really?” He gestured towards the very human-sized housing.
The leader of the Athens colony had the grace to look abashed. “This is the first time we’re offering human housing, and you are very short for a reploid, Dr. Hikari….” he stammered from his very normal height of 7’0.
And that was the low end of the normal spectrum of height for reploids! For all of Dr. Light’s brilliance, he couldn’t have foreseen how tall reploids were typically built. X sure wish he could’ve though—even Zero was above 6 feet!
X sighed. The troubles and perils of a below-average height android.
“I’ll walk through the apartments and make sure the doorknobs are placed correctly,” he said.
“And the cabinets? Oh, and the shelving and—”
“Yes, I’ll do all of them,” X reiterated patiently, then paused. A young boy with auburn hair walked by, and something about him…..
“Who’s that?” X asked curiously.
Akelen—for that was the leader of the Athens colony’s name—blinked. “Ah, a visitor from the Siberia region! Doesn’t remember anything, unfortunately. Name’s Alexei, I believe.”
X tracked the boy as he walked down the street. “I didn’t believe child unit reploids were made anymore.” Something about odd predilections in other people, and concerns for the reploid as they grew got them to the idea to be banned—it was harder to make a child unit reploid fit their mental age, which could be damaging to the reploid over all. Being treated like a child when you were truly over fifty years old was hard, or so some older models said, and shifting your consciousness to another, older looking body always had risks. Production of child unit reploids stopped pretty soon after the…..second or third war. Probably the third. That sounded right. That would have been…..over eighty years ago by now?
Dr. Cain would’ve known. X felt a pang of pain at the thought, accompanied with a sense of nostalgia. It’d been a long time since he’d thought of the doctor who’d raised him.
The ban did face some backlash, as it was easier and overall healthier for a newbuilt’s unique sense of mind and self to grow if they were in a child-sized reploid body at first, but given all the difficulties after childhood the backlash soon died down.
And so—children-model reploids weren’t made anymore. Any new reploid was built into an adult body, oftentimes already with a unique purpose already attached. This led to less reploid self-exploration, and some difficult childhood years, but overall the system worked well enough. It was seen as yet another difference between them and humans.
So to see a reploid child unit that was actually a child….
Akelen frowned. “Alexi’s a reploid? I thought he was human.”
X blinked. “You can’t tell?” Reploids were generally able to recognize other reploids just by how different they were to humans, from their weight to gait and their unique biometric signature.
Although…now that he studied—Alexei, was it?—it was hard to tell. His biometric signature was just similar enough to a human’s to fool anyone not paying attention and then probably beyond that, and with the way he stepped lightly down the streets he seemed have the appropriate weight for a human child, but X had the odd impression that there was something else going on….
Akelen studied Alexei with a frown. “I guess I can see it. But if he is a reploid—” and his tone indicated doubt— “he’d be pretty new. Even with his amnesia, he couldn’t have been made more than a few years ago.”
Fair point. Amnesiac people and reploids might have no memories, but their mind still retained the form and structure of their age, so adults still acted like adults, and children still acted like children, memories or not.
“Alexei’s a child in every sense of the word,” Akelen said. “Very mature for one, but a child nonetheless.”
Hmmm. “Is anyone looking after him?” X asked.
Akelen shook his head. “He just appeared one day in the community a few months back.”
X stared at him, dumbfounded.
“It’s not our fault! The boy’s flighty and it’s not like any of us are human so we just left out food and water?”
Like he was a stray cat or dog?!
His expression must’ve given him away. “Dr. Hikari, you must understand everyone’s a bit busy building at the moment—”
X stopped him. “I do,” he reassured him. “Just….” he glanced over to where Alexei went. “I wonder if he wants to make any extra money?”
~~~
The boy padded behind him, suspicious but willing to follow X throughout the apartments.
“I just need to help you test cabinets and door knobs and you’ll give me some zenny?” Alexei asked in disbelief. “That’s it?”
X smiled at him. “Yes,” he reaffirmed, gently reaching up and opening one cabinet with little trouble, taking care not to add too much stress on the wood.
Alexei continued to watch him from the corner of his eye but he began to help as well, opening up drawers and closing them, mimicking X’s care in testing them.
“Why did they ask you to do this? Aren’t you a super-smart doctor or something?” Alexei asked, still suspicious.
“I wouldn’t call myself super-smart,” X hedged. “But they asked me to do this because of my height.”
Alexei paused. “But aren’t you normal sized?” He asked, confused.
X wanted to crow with delight. See, someone gets it! “For a human, yes. For a reploid, no.”
Alexei frowned. “That’s dumb. Why aren’t they asking you to do something cooler?”
X laughed. “This is what they needed, so this is what I’m doing. I don’t like standing on ceremony.”
“Huh.”
They continued to work through the apartments, with Alexei asking questions every so often.
Some of them were natural.
“Wait, why are door knobs placed like this?”
“Because humans like them at a certain height.”
Some were funnier…..
“What’s this for?”
“It’s an oven, it’s used to bake food.”
“Like cake?!”
“Yes, like cake.”
“Dooooo you think we could use the oven real quick? I don’t think they’ll ever know…”
“Nice try.”
“Awww!”
….while others were a little bit concerning.
“Wait, so reploids can eat human food?”
“Yes—though we process it a bit differently and it doesn’t give us as much energy like Elec-cans do.”
“Wait, so I could’ve eaten the food the reploids left out for me?!”
“Yes? But then how do you know what cake tastes like? .…don’t answer that.”
Alexei's stomach gurgled later into the testing, and X took pity on him. “I’ll treat you to a meal,” he promised. “After we finish this last one, alright?”
Alexei brightened. “Really?” Then he narrowed his eyes. “You’re not trying to knock me out and steal me for parts or something, are you?”
X choked on a laugh. “No!”
“Well…okay, but if I see any sign of danger at all I’m out!”
“Will do,” X said, his lips twitching.
They left the apartment complex in good spirits, having finished their work.
“Here’s the report,” X told Akelen, handing him a stack of paper with his notes on it.
“Paper?” Akelen said in disbelief.
“What’s paper?” Alexei said, popping up behind them.
“It’s a material manufactured in thin sheets from the pulp of wood or other fibrous substances,” X said. “Humans used it for centuries to write things down, among other things.”
“And it’s not normally used now since we have technology,” Akelen said, still in disbelief.
“I’m old-fashioned,” X said, shrugging his shoulders.
“Where did you even get this?!”
X simply smiled.
Meanwhile, Alexei poked at the paper stack. “How do you even write on this?” He asked X. “You can’t use a stylus, right?”
“Well, you do use a stylus, just not the one you’re used to. It’s a type of stylus with a marking substance in it, so when you press the stylus—typically a pen or pencil—it makes marks on the paper.”
“Cool. Can we go eat now?”
X choked on another bark of laughter—he’d been laughing a lot today—and nodded. “Sure, follow me.” They then left Akelen behind, scratching his head at the paper in his hands.
Once they arrived, Alexei then proceeded to prove his youth and ate X out of at least six month’s worth of SA-Rank Hunter pay.
Of course, he could more than spare the money, but….
Verdigris. How long had it been since the boy’d eaten? Young reploids tended to eat a lot due to the newness of their systems and growing emotional matrix. Over time, their bodies figured out the most efficient ways to get and store energy and their emotional matrix would stop developing, leading to a need for less food, but even for a young reploid this was….
X raised an eyebrow at the many, many stacked plates. “Remind me to take you to a place called a buffet,” he said, amused, and ignoring his own stacked plates.
(X ate a lot on principle when he actually went out to eat—you never knew when you could eat this much again, after all. Although most human restaurants had gotten better at serving reploids, X didn't like to do it very much since he didn’t actually need the food to get energy like humans did. So when he did do it, he liked to make it count. Even still, his appetite couldn’t match Alexei’s.)
“Wassabuffet?” Alexei asked around his mouthful.
“A place where you can eat as much as you can once you pay an entrance fee.”
Alexei swallowed his bite. “That sounds great!” He enthused. “Can we go to one?” He pulled a plate of scrambled eggs close to him and began to chow down.
“Ah....they might not let reploids in, though,” X said, frowning, putting down his fork. Buffets were the exception to the rule of human restaurants letting reploids in, since they banned reploids wholesale after…..was the general ban before or after he and Zero literally ate their way through Abel City’s buffet joints after the Second War? That had been a fun day. They’d cleaned out like….what, six buffets between them? Dr. Cain had laughed himself sick, until he’d gotten the bill.
Probably after, then, and the ban probably still stood because of him and Zero. Oops.
Alexei wilted. “Why not?” He whined, taking another stack of pancakes to task.
“Since we eat a lot more than humans do to get the same amount of energy,” X said. “And since it’s not necessary for us to eat human food, most think it’s not a good idea for us to waste something that humans actually need.”
Alexei frowned. “I could’ve used some when I was here…” he grumbled.
Perfect. X pounced on it. “Why are you here?” He asked. “You’re very welcome, according to Akelen, but who’s taking care of you?”
Alexei looked affronted. “I don’t need anyone to take care of me!” He said. “Since I can take care of myself!”
X blankly looked between the stacks of empty plates and the still eating child. “Right.”
"Hey! This is ‘cause I’m hungry, you know!” Alexei protested around some steak. “Sides, now that I know I can eat human food I won’t get hungry again!”
“Really.” X gave him a stern look. Alexei wilted, but bounced back, nodding.
“The community feeds me! They’re always asking after me!”
Hmmm. X eyed him. Despite the boy’s appetite, he did seem to be fine enough. His clothes were used, but of good material, and he did seem legitimately content enough, if a bit paranoid.
Still.
“Promise?” X probed. It wasn’t like he could personally keep an eye on the boy, after all—too busy with the Space Feds. He’d just keep an eye on him via Akelen.
His cheeks bulging like a chipmunk’s, Alexei grinned and gave him two thumbs up.
This was the best he was going to get, wasn’t he. Oh well. “Be more careful about eating,” he advised. “Make sure you eat regularly, got it?”
X got up. He couldn’t stay away from Arcadia City for very long nowadays, since the Space Feds were always up to something.
Alexei blinked. “Wait, where’re you going?”
X smiled. “To pay. Eat as much as you like, alright? My treat. it’ll get charged to my account.”
He beamed. “Thanks! You’re a pretty stand-up guy, Doc!”
That’s a new nickname. X smiled. “Take care of yourself,” he said gently, mentally reminding himself to make sure the community kept a better eye on the child. It wasn’t every day you found an actual reploid child after all.
But it wasn’t like he’d see the boy again. He was in the Athens Colony, and X was in Arcadia City. X could keep an eye on him from afar, and perhaps pay for a thing or two since he had extra money, but that would be the extent of it. X nodded to himself, and left the restaurant, and colony after having a stern conversation with Akelen.
The Athens Colony was as safe and as peaceful as it could be, and the people were kind. Alexei would be fine.
~~~
(Ninety-Five Years After End of Sixth War, Five till Advent of Seventh)
X dodged a bullet, ducking and hiding behind a stone pillar, cursing himself for being out this late at night and in this part of the city. Look where it got him!
“Come out, come out little doctor~!” The maverick sang gleefully.
Rust and verdigris!
X had never expected his secret identity to be a target—Dr. Hikari was universally liked and helpful, but maybe that was why Sigma had targeted him….?
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Of course it was why Sigma was targeting him, why was he fooling himself.
X hissed through his teeth as he continued to dodge, forcibly shutting down his combat subroutines unrelated to dodging. Dr. Hikari couldn’t fight. This was well-known. If he suddenly pulled out his buster—Mega Man X’s buster, no less—his cover would be blown. Even if he killed the Maverick before anyone else saw, the virus would still know, and Sigma would subsequently start targeting both identities.
BANG!
X barely dodged a blast that took down a pillar in the abandoned warehouse, ducking into the shadows, dulling down the gleam of his eyes so as to hide himself completely.
Rust. And. Verdigris!
The maverick stalked around, his eyes wild as he tried to track his quarry. “Awww, don’t you want to play, Doctor~?”
No thank you, Sigma. That is you in there, I know it is, despite you trying to act otherwise….of course, it isn’t you-you, but you-the-virus whispering into the ear of that poor reploid, but still.
Argh, he could call the Hunters, but Signas would send Zero and if Zero found out about this X would never live this down.
He could try to keep on running, but this maverick had some sort of tracking ability. X could probably thwart it, but then the maverick would be loose on the streets to take innocent life.
Unacceptable.
As long as the maverick was focused on him, he wasn’t targeting anything else.
There wasn’t a choice.
X hated that with a burning passion but it did make things easier. With a silent churr his right hand shifted into its buster form for the first time in almost a century.
It was still as pristine as the last time he used it, because his system maintenance would allow for no less. No rust was ever allowed to form on any of his interior weapon systems; they would remain perfect until he needed them, and would be repaired until they were perfect again if damaged. X himself couldn’t change this—Dr. Light had actually locked this feature, so that it was a permanent part of his daily energy usage. Even when his systems slowly grew more efficient and the energy need was lessened, the same amount of energy was still sent and the leftover energy was used to slowly improve his buster overtime.
(There were moments when X wondered about this. Dr. Light had simply wanted him to be, to be able to choose what he wanted…and yet, the weapon maintenance system was completely locked to him. Was Dr. Light simply a concerned father, wanting to make sure that X could always defend himself? Had….Dr. Light been forced to do the same to Rock? Force him to maintain his weapons, and in his experience with his older brother made sure the younger brother couldn’t neglect his weaponry despite his free will, or was there something else going on? X was never sure. He couldn’t be sure, and all he knew was that no matter what he wanted, his weapons were always ready for battle. Always.)
“Come out, come out wherever you are, Doctor Hikari~!” The maverick laughed.
X powered up his buster silently. This maverick was pretty weak—one good shot was all it would take. He was probably sent after the Doctor Hikari because it was assumed that he couldn’t fight, and so a stronger maverick wasn’t needed.
Bully for Sigma.
Of course, once he fired the shot, Sigma would know and would subsequently send stronger ones after him.
And once that happened his nice secret identity would be toast. Eventually, anyway.
But, again, there was no other choice.
X steadied himself, raised his buster, and—
Bang bang bang!!!
Through sheer willpower, X managed not to fire his built-up blast as a figure came through the window and shot the maverick down.
Asimov, what?
X gaped as the figure twirled his guns in a sort of victory pose.
Who?!
His hand reformed itself.
The figure then turned directly to where X was, and waved. “Heya Doc!”
The clouds covering the moon left, leaving the moonlight to shine directly on the figure.
The child-sized figure. The one that Akelen had casually told him that had left the colony months ago.
“Alexei?!”
~~~
“So.” X said, firmly clunking down a mug of hot chocolate in front of the boy, who was sitting at his apartment counter and beginning to look increasingly nervous. Good. “What are you doing in Arcadia City?”
And not the Athens Colony, where it was very, very safe?
“I got a job!” Alexei said, smiling nervously.
“A job,” X repeated blandly. “And it leads you to kill…mavericks?” His tone was deceptively mild.
“Not really!” Alexei protested, waving his hands a little. “I just work for an organization that…um….helps people out!”
“Really.”
Alexei squeaked. “Yes really please don’t kill me, Doc!”
X narrowed his eyes, but sighed. “I wish you had told me you had moved here,” he scolded. “I could’ve helped, you know.”
“I know, I know!” Alexei said. “But you’ve helped me so much already, and I didn’t want to bother you!”
X frowned. “I’ve barely helped you at all,” he said.
Alexei gave him a flat look. “Doc, I know you were paying for all the food I ate when I lived in Athens,” he said. “Akelen told me you footed the bill for all of it. Every single thing I ate. Doc, I ate a lot.”
“Well, it still wouldn’t have been a bother,” X said. “And you’re young. Your body is figuring itself out, and I have plenty of zenny to spare.”
Alexei groaned. “Doc, I must’ve cost you thousands.”
“And?” X said calmly.
Alexei gaped.
X raised an eyebrow. “You needed the food. I don’t mind helping people out who need it, and children shouldn’t need to worry about things like that anyway.”
Alexei’s ears reddened, and he turned away. “I’m not a child,” he grumbled with his cheeks puffed out.
X sipped his hot chocolate, and nudged Alexei’s own mug forward. Alexei continued to pout, but brightened once he took his first sip.
“This is really good! Thanks, Doc!”
X smiled. “You’re welcome.”
They both sipped on their hot chocolate for a while. X waited until Alexei seemed calmer before starting up the conversation again.
“What were you doing out there, then?” He asked calmly. “Out that late at night, and taking on a maverick.”
Alexei laughed. “Well,” he said, scratching his head. “I was in the area—I was doing a delivery for my job, and I noticed you out! I wanted to say hi, but you walk really really fast—”
Yes, because I was in a dangerous area in my civilian persona at night.
“—and I lost you for a bit, but when I found you again a maverick had you! So I swooped in and—” he made finger pistols. “Bang bang, you know?”
X’s eye twitched. “Alexei. Why didn’t you call the Hunters?”
Alexei gave him a confused look. “Call the Hunters? Why would I do that? I had it handled!”
There are so many things wrong with that statement.
“Because it’s their job.” X said, point-blank. “You could’ve gotten in trouble if a Hunter caught you! And what if you missed, or your bullets weren’t strong enough to take the maverick out?”
“You could just say thank you, you know,” Alexei grumbled.
X’s lips tightened. “Alexei. I appreciate you getting me out of such a tight spot, but not at such a high risk to yourself.”
“I knew my bullets weren’t going to miss, okay?!” Alexei said loudly. “I’m a good shot! And—I’ve had to defend myself before,” he muttered. “I knew that the maverick was going to go down in a couple shots, ‘cause I’ve….done it before.”
X sat back, dumbfounded. “Before? Where have the Hunters been in this?”
Alexei shook his head. “Since the Space Feds came back Mavs have been popping up more and more often, and with X still retired the Hunters have been spread really thin. Mavs think they can push people around! Well, not when I’m here!” He said proudly.
“Alexei….” What to say to this child, to make him stop? Could X even stop him? Should he? It was perfectly legal for anyone to carry weapons, after all—more than legal, it was highly recommended—and self-defense was perfectly legal, and his pistols looked to be very high-quality….
Wait, no, down this path lay the way to the legal gray area and vigilantism.
“Don’t worry, Doc,” Alexei reassured him, his eyes fiery. “I’m always really careful and the group I work for is the best! They help keep me safe and up to par!”
X studied him. He really did seem happy, and he was clearly better fed and better cared-for by this group he worked for than back at the Athens Colony. Alexei also clearly loved what he was doing, and….
Well. X could understand wanting to be in the field you loved.
“Just be careful,” X sighed. “I won’t report you—” even though he should, as a Hunter who was technically only on vacation “—but please, please don’t go looking for fights.”
“You sound kinda like Red, my boss,” Alexei snickered, before grinning at him. “I promise that I won’t ever go into a fight that I don’t believe in!”
X stared at him. “That’s not what I asked for at all!”
Alexei laughed. “Don’t worry so much, Doc! I’ve got this!” He looked down at his empty mug. “More, please?”
He just couldn’t with this reckless little moron.
“Sure,” X sighed, giving up, and that was the end of that.
~~~
(Ninety-Nine Years After End of Sixth War, Eve of the Seventh War; XX Hours till Advent of Seventh War)
X snorted as a knock on the door sounded. Every time. He went over to the door, and opened it a smidge to a familiar—if slightly aggravating—face.
“How is it you always know when I order Chinese takeout?” X asked, exasperated. Every time. How?
“I just know! Didja order my orange chicken?!”
X rolled his eyes fondly. “Yes. All three cartons of it, plus some white rice. Come in.”
“Yes!” Alexei pumped his fist and dashed in, straight to his seat. He actually wriggled on the seat as X pushed forward his cartons, and dived in as soon as X had his.
X rolled his eyes as Axl practically inhaled the first two cartons.
“ZisisthuhGUDstuff!” Axl said with his cheeks completely full.
“You could just order some yourself,” X said. “If you like it so much.”
Alexei grinned, and swallowed. “Nah, it doesn’t taste the same if you don’t order it!”
“If I don’t pay for it, you mean.”
“Hey! I’m a growing boy, Doc!”
“I thought you weren’t a child?”
Alexei froze. “Uh….I’m a teenager, now! Yeah, that sounds right!”
“Ah yes,” X said drily. “A teenager at ten years old, how incredible.”
Alexei bristled. “Hey, I’ve grown up way faster than the average!”
X considered him. “Perhaps,” he allowed. Reploid didn’t always follow human growth trends, after all, and Alexei probably fit the mental age of an early human teenager at fourteen or so.
“Hey….Doc?”
X blinked as he saw Alexei stop eating with his gaze on his food. “Can I ask a question?”
“I think you just did,” X said gently, smiling when Alexei snapped his head up to glare at him. “But go ahead.”
“Do you think Mega Man X ever regretted what he did? In the First War, I mean.”
X froze at the question. “What brought this on?” His mouth was suddenly dry, and he found it hard to vocalize his words.
Alexei frowned. “Nothing, just….I want to be like X and Zero, you know?” He smiled wistfully. “They’re my heroes. They’re so cool!”
X felt himself smile. “I’m glad you think so.” Zero, certainly, was cool. X? Not so much, but the kid didn’t need to know that.
Alexei rolled a chopstick in his fingers like it was a throwing knife. “But….” he seemed despondent. “What do you do if you find something really bad? Like, people you loved and trusted are into something, and you’re….not.”
“Is this about drugs and stimulants?” X asked, frowning. “I thought you already figured out that they’re a bad idea?”
“What? No, Doc! Well, yeah, but also no, you get me?”
X waved him on.
Alexei sighed. “I just….do you think he regretted it?” Alexei said quietly. “Mega Man X, I mean. The First War. The records say that he volunteered himself into the Hunters to support Zero, but also as a way to take down his family himself. Why would…someone do that?”
X’s lips opened, but nothing came out.
Alexei shifted restlessly in his seat. “It’s just….the records say Sigma was his foster-brother, one of the first created after Mega Man X was found. Why did he fight his brother? Didn’t it hurt? Why not let Zero handle it?”
X found his voice. “I believe,” he said quietly. “It had something to do with responsibility.”
Alexei looked at him sharply. X began to shift empty cartons away from the countertop. “I can’t entirely speak to his motivations, of course—” liar, liar, what would Dr. Light think “—but it was because they were family that he wanted to take them down himself. They were doing something wrong, harming innocents, and I believe that Mega Man X—” how odd, to refer to himself in the third person “—wanted to stop them because he loved them.” His voice cracked on the last words. “He loved them so much, and felt so betrayed..." X stopped, and began again, his voice very very low, “that he didn’t want to see them harm anyone else. That he felt responsible, for not catching his own family member’s fall, and wanted to be the one to bring them down, as a final act of mercy.”
He turned around abruptly, both to hide his face and to throw away the empty cartons. “But at that point,” he said, clearing his throat. “The Virus had them. They weren’t really them, not anymore.”
He felt Alexei’s gaze burning into him. “But they didn’t know it was a Virus, not then,” he said.
X turned around to face the boy’s gaze.
“Do you really think he did it because he loved them? Because he felt responsible?” Alexei said.
Sigma, before the days of the Virus, making Dr. Cain laugh so hard he went down to his knees. Sigma, leader of the Hunters, inspiring confidence wherever he went. Sigma, carefully pointing out a passage to X for clarification. Sigma, the son. Sigma, the warrior. Sigma, the brother.
“...yes.” It had been a long, long time since X had really, truly thought about the man Sigma used to be before the Virus and his own actions took him down such a dark, dark path.
“....thanks, Doc.” Alexei said, and there was something in his voice that wasn’t there before—a weight, a purpose, one that seemed to age the boy before his eyes. It alarmed X.
“Alexei? Is something the matter?”
The boy smiled and shook his head. “No, I just figured….” he trailed off. “You know when you know you gotta do something but you don’t want to do it cause it’s really, really hard and painful?”
X looked at him. He really, really looked, and overlaid with the boy was, oddly enough, the visage of an older Alexei, one that had the mein of a Maverick Hunter. ”I do. Alexei, are you in trouble?”
Again, he just grinned and shook his head. “Nothing you can help me with, Doc. Thanks for the meal.”
He got up out of his seat and went for the door, before stopping. “Oh, and, uh Doc? If you….you might not see me for a while, but….thank you. Oh, and thanks for the food!” With a cheerful salute, Alexei was out the door.
X blinked at the abrupt departure. “He didn’t finish his food,” he frowned. That wasn’t like him. X tapped his fingers on the countertop. Alexei was capable with those pistols of his—he’d seen them in action, more than once through the five years of them both here—but.
If there truly was something chasing him, or he was chasing something….
X looked towards the door. No. No, surely it wasn’t that serious. The organization Alexei worked for seemed to like him very much judging from his stories of them, and would help Alexei out if he’d gotten himself into something too unsavory.
Surely it’d be fine….
~~~
(SEVENTH WAR: START)
~~~
X scowled as the picture of the boy the Hunters had picked up popped up on his screen. “Axl’s your name, huh?” He muttered, sheer betrayal lancing through him.
Assassin. Mercenary. Vigilante.
Child. Glutton. Jokester.
Which one is your real face?
According to Zero, he wanted to join the Hunters. X twitched at the idea of Alexei joining so young, and with so much to lose.
(It reminded X far too much of himself, and of Zero, in the early days. There was a mirror, a dark mirror being thrown up here and X wasn’t fond of it.)
Plus, Alexei—er, Axl—would probably drive any senior Hunters mad during training days. It’d have to be himself or Zero, or both, and—
Axl wasn’t going to join the Hunters why was he going down this thought process.
But if he did....
X closed his window on the computer with slightly more force than necessary.
No. Axl wasn’t going to join the Hunters. At least, not until X was very, very sure of which version of the boy was the real one.
~~~
(Late Seventh War)
(“So he really tried to save them?” X asked Alia to the side, quietly. She nodded, serious. X bit his lip. Axl’s actions during the War were reckless, but….he couldn’t deny that his heart was in the right place.
X looked down to his hand. Was his? Being so hard on a child, who only wanted to help?
What was he supposed to do? Fight? But he didn’t want more violence.
But…
He could help. He should be helping. He knew it, he felt it. His busters thrummed under his hands, ready for deployment. The Hunters needed his help. The Space Feds were prowling, the Mavericks growing bolder, and the death tolls were mounting.
Axl had been proving himself true. He’d been proving himself an uncomfortable mirror, and perhaps….
Perhaps this mirror wouldn’t end up so similar, if Axl had the support X had needed when he was his age. And perhaps…it was time X did something.
(And for the first time in a century, his core began to pulse in the rhythm that Dr. Light had given to him—the rhythm he had given to Rock.)
He opened a private comms line with Signas.
“Commander,” he said formally in the first time in decades. He could hear Signas’s sharp little intake. “This is X. I’m coming off of retirement.”
“...it’s about time, X. What are you going to do?”
“Let me tell Zero,” X said. “I’ll get you all information on the Red Alert base, and join in for the last battle.”
“Sounds good. I’ll see you in a few days, then.”
“Agreed,” X said, and cut the line.)
~~~
(Before the Siege of the Crimson Palace)
X frowned, and shifted papers around on his desk—physical papers, at that. A rarity, an oddity in this world of digital dominance. But for the Hunters, paper transferral of secrets was the rule; it couldn’t be hacked, after all.
One, two, three, four, five….X stopped counting. So many high-powered Mavericks? One after the other?
They all knew who it was. The question was, of course, where he was hiding. And how.
He picked one up, and studied it.
Where was the Red Alert base….?
Knowing what little he did of Red and what he knew of Axl’s habits, it shouldn’t be so—
….ah.
Then he got a ping on his internal radio lines.
His private internal radio lines, the ones that were intrinsically connected to the Lights, Wileys, Cossacks, and Lalindes. (They’d never been able to test the last two, since it appeared that no one from those families were left.)
These radio lines were unhackable, and had to be given out for access use every time he wanted someone else to be able to contact him this way. Once upon a very long time ago, they’d (meaning X) tried to add the Cains to it permanently, to have their family also been interwoven with the other Great Families, but X had never been able to figure out how—the coding was too complex, and he had a suspicion it morphed and changed every second to remain impenetrable—and after Sigma launched the First War….
Some things came first.
He’d once asked Signas if he’d wanted access after the Fifth War, though, and he’d gotten a firm no.
(“No,” Signas said eventually. The look in his eyes was far, far away.
He tapped his fingers and, smiling, gazed at X. “If we Cainbots were meant to share the comm lines that only the robots with such background share, it would’ve happened by now.”
“That’s not true!” X said, aghast. “Dr. Cain’s work is—”
“Not on the level of the Greats.” Signas refuted calmly. His eyes crinkled. “And your systems know that.”
X shook his head. “Once we figure it out—”
“No, X,” Signas said fondly, but firmly. “You Lights and Wilys keep your secrets. And your destinies; I think we Cainbots—” Here he faltered, for there was no Cainbot left besides himself. Iris and Colonel and even the kind civilian Parse had long since passed. Sigma, for obvious reasons, didn’t count. Then he rallied. “We will fade into history, and likely into obscurity, for our destiny is neither so great or grand as yours.”
And no matter how X tried to argue, debate, or change his mind, Signas remained firm.)
To this day, this was one of the few debates that X could count on his hand that he had lost entirely.
There was only one person who would—and could—use them, and frankly X was surprised it had taken him this long into the War, though X and Zero didn’t especially like using the internal radio lines. Despite how the communications on the lines couldn’t be overheard by anyone not on them, making them perfect for secret conversations and delicate information, using the internal lines was…..it was odd. They felt echoey, and very, very empty. They had to speak very softly to make sure they didn’t overpower the other (the radio lines were sensitive, as if meant for some other, quieter form of communication), and they took up much more energy than regular radio lines that could be used elsewhere, which is why they didn’t use them during peacetime.
But during war? All bets were off.
:Zero?: He pinged back.
:’Bout time you responded: Came the gruff reply.
:Is something wrong?:
Zero paused. :Not yet.:
X waited. Zero took his time with his words, and lo, after some time of silence, Zero elaborated.
:It’s about the kid.:
He stiffened. :What about Axl?: he said carefully. There was no other kid Zero would speak about, after all.
:He’s…: Zero sighed. :X. You have to come back.:
Anger flared, then profound tiredness, coupled with a tinge of shame. :Why.: X said. He’d never expected this. Out of all the people over the years between the Sixth and Seventh Wars, Zero hadn’t made a peep about X’s retirement since that one conversation over a century ago. Instead, he’d just raised an eyebrow and said he’d come back, confident as ever. What did it mean, now, that the confidence was broken?
:The kid.: Zero said simply.
:He isn’t fit or ready to be a Hunter.: X said reflexively, before wincing. Axl would be a good one, and they both knew it, but—
:Alright, what is it with you?: Zero snapped. :You seen what I have! He works hard, he’s got the right attitude, I don’t know why you—:
Despite not being in-person, X waved his arm in the air to stop his best friend in his tracks, coupled with a snapped :He isn’t fit because he’s a child, Zero! The Hunters are not a fit organization for a teenage reploid, if he even counts as a teenager by our standards! You and I both know that! It would be better for him to officially join when he's older mentally, and not a teenager!:
Axl would be a good Hunter, yes, but not before he grew up some outside the organization.
X and Zero’d barely been teenagers themselves when the first War hit—children, truthfully, and while their individual involvement had been necessary, X wouldn’t wish his childhood on anyone else. Even if he knew less than he’d like about the Classical Robot Era, he did instinctively know this: if the Robot Masters had been around at the time of the First Maverick War, they’d have been appalled at the fact that newbuilts had been forced to take so much onto their shoulders.
(Though X couldn’t know this, his instinct was correct. The Robot Masters had all collectively agreed that it had been bad enough the one time, and they had all promised that it would never ever happen again, especially not to their vulnerable youngest brothers who lay dormant in their pods, awaiting their awakening. But fate isn’t kind to kinder promises, and especially not to those whose destinies weigh greater than themselves.)
:I agree with you, but there’s no choice now.: Zero said bitterly.
X halted, dread pooling near his core. :What do you mean?: He asked, his mind already turning towards the problem. What could it be? The Space Feds and his less than perfect past? No, the Hunters had successfully dealt with that before. A family member? But wait, Axl had no memories and now no family thanks to the nature of the ongoing Seventh War, so that couldn’t be it.
(In the back of his mind, X wondered if Red Alert had even counted as a family, then quickly discarded the thought. Axl wouldn’t have been so desperate if they hadn’t been family.)
It would have to be a situation so severe, so unprecedented, that would somehow contribute to the Maverick Wars’ overall end, a situation that would force the Hunters’ hands while simultaneously tying them. But what sort of thing would—
:He’s immune, X.:
His eyes widened. Oh. Oh. Yeah, yeah, that would do it, wouldn't it.
:How? Axl’s young, who was his maker?: But even as he asked it he knew it was a rabbit hole. Of course the Hunters didn’t know, couldn’t know, what with Axl’s memories deleted, which had probably been the action of the creator themself. No past, no leads—a literal ghost in the wind.
:If we knew it wouldn’t be a problem!: Zero snapped, confirming X’s realization. :We can’t let him go, since the Feds want him-—or will want him, once it gets out. And it will, you know that.:
X frowned tersely. :I do.: The Space Feds had an awful way of ferreting out the Hunters' secrets, seemingly turning to espionage in their desperation to claw back to power.
:If Axl leaves us or isn’t allowed in….: He didn’t need to say anything more; X more than got the picture he was painting.
Axl was immune. That was—that was momentous. A third immune reploid, one that could possibly bring a cure. The Feds in general would jump on it. If they could create a cure, it would catapult them back to power.
(X’s systems were barely understood by himself, and no one else could study them, while Zero’s systems were a mystery to all involved, included Zero. But all agreed that their systems provided immunity in a different way, though no one knew how, or even why. With a third immune system, there was a chance that a cure could be found.)
For a normal, innocent reploid, the whole experience would be awful, but alright in the end. The Feds wouldn’t be able to do much in the shadows, and the media would eat them up alive if anything happened to him.
But Axl wasn’t innocent. He was a child, true, but he was a child that had acted as Red Alert’s top assassin for a few years. He had no citizenship to any country. He had no past, no family connections, and no memories of his past. To top it all off, he was a child, ready to be molded and shaped by the people around him. He would be so, so easy to disappear it wasn’t even funny. If Axl ever left the Hunters, he’d be snapped up by the Feds as a way to grab power via “cleaning up our streets”. No question asked.
And then Axl’d disappear into the shadows to be torn apart for a cure, and death would be the kind end. The one he would get if he were lucky.
If he weren’t, well…..
He was immune. That was enough good luck to fill a dozen lifetimes, and life had to even itself out somehow.
:You’re sure he’s immune?: X said.
:Positive: Zero replied grimly. :Took him on multiple high-level missions during this War—:
:Zero!: X snapped, as if he hadn’t seen him do it. :That was dangerous!:
Zero waved him off. :The kid wanted to put down his family himself, something I know you can relate to.:
X winced.
:I allowed it; Kid’s skills are no joke. Red Alert knew what it was doing with him, though he still has a way to go, of course. He kept up with me, though.:
:I thought that was a rumor.: X frowned. He'd seen Axl training and going on lower-stakes missions, but he hadn't actually seen some of the higher-stakes missions with Zero or read the reports yet. That implied quite the high level of skill, and a high level of sophistication to his body to the point that they must know—or have known of—Axl’s creator. There were very, very few roboticists capable of making reploids on X and Zero’s level, after all—if any, with Dr. Cain being decades dead.
:No. But I took him on a few missions, and X…..when I checked his viral levels after—and these are raging virus areas I’m talking, here—they were zero. Even after so many…::
:Which leads us to one conclusion.: X finished tiredly. :He’s immune.:
:He’s immune, and a target because of it.: Zero agreed.
:Does he know?:
:Don’t know. He probably does, but with the stress of having to kill all his former family members he’s likely refused to acknowledge it.:
Made sense. :And after the War is over it’ll come up. And you need my help with…..?: X trailed off. What did Zero need his help with?
Zero sighed, long and loud. :X. I can’t force you to do anything you don’t want to do. Never could, you stubborn Lightbot.: X could practically hear his smirk.
:Right back at you, Wilybot.: He retorted.
:But the kid needs all the protection he can get. One of us won’t be enough this time. It won’t be like Anthem or any of the other kids with shady pasts we took under our wings during the previous Wars.:
:Plus….:
:Sigma’s back?: X said wearily.
:Yeah.:
Incredible. What a surprise. X owed himself a drink. :Any sign of Vile?:
:No, thank Asimov—I don’t think I could take another fight with that trigger-happy bot of a bolt without actually losing my mind.:
:Not while you’re dealing with one of your own?: X said wryly.
:Hey.:
:I’ve had my own adventures with Axl, Zero.: X said, his mouth twitching. :Crack shot but you can’t say he isn’t trigger-happy.:
:Wait, when did—nevermind. But no, no Vile. Just Sigma, and you know that’s bad enough.: Zero’s voice lowered. :I’m not asking you to come back. Just…think about it.:
X’s eyes fell on his stack of papers. The casualty reports. The detailed damages. The reports on Zero and Axl’s bravery. His hands opened and closed.
What had he been doing, all on his own?
He helped to build this apartment, and many like it. He helped so many to rebuild. But the rebuilding would’ve happened anyway, with or without him.
But there were lives he could’ve saved, if he hadn’t drowned under his despair.
Axl and Zero put him to shame. They’d never faltered on their paths, and remained steady through it all.
He was already coming back, but—this was a reminder. A reminder to never again stray.
:Here.: He sent the location of the Crimson Palace to Zero. :I’ll meet you there on the Hunt tomorrow.:
:Wait, X, you’re—?!:
:Already was going to. Signas already knows. Meet you there, old friend.:
A flash of a grin, one so strong and bright that X could swear he felt Zero’s sheer exuberance as his own. :Well well well, good to have you back, X! Took you long enough!:
X smiled. :Only a century.: he agreed, and cut the connection. He then sighed. Well, at least it wasn’t boring, as Zero might say.
He blinked. Rust and verdigris, had Zero made their luck worse by saying that twenty years ago? He was going to kill him—!
~~~
(EPILOGUE)
(A Few Months After the Seventh War)
“Thanks so much for agreeing to train me!” Axl said as they finished up a session. X and Zero shared a look. Axl only thanked them like that—when it wasn’t warranted—when he wanted something.
“It’s cause no one else wanted to touch you with a nine foot pole, you hyper moron,” Zero said.
“Nah, they’re just jealous of my skills!” Axl said cheerfully, then stopped. “Uh, guys?”
X raised an eyebrow. “Yes?”
Axl scuffed his foot on the ground. “So I know I’m on probation and all and shouldn’t leave the base but there’s this friend of mine I really need to see!” he rushed on. “He’s probably super worriedandI’mworriedthat—”
“Slow down, kid,” Zero said. “Are you on helium again?”
Axl shot him an exasperated look. “I’ve never been on helium!”
“Really?” Zero snickered.
“Focus,” X chided. “Who’s the person you want to visit? You’re not a prisoner, Axl.” Not that you believe that, but it really is for your own safety, since once the Feds find out about your immunity…. “Though if it’s a person involved in the underground, I don’t know if we can do that just yet.”
“It’s the Doc,” Axl said cheerfully, obliviously. “He’s been a really good friend as far back as I can remember, and I think you and he’d get on really well, X. You guys are really similar.”
X froze. Oh no.
Zero blinked. “The…Doc?” He said. “Who’s the Doc?”
Axl blinked. “Oh! Dr. Xavier Hikari! We’re friends! Do you know him?”
Zero made a strangled sound in the back of his throat. “Dr. Hikari? Yeah, I might know him.” He said, his voice strangely high and his shoulders shaking as he fought to hold back his laughter. “Do you know him, X?” He said, his eyes bright.
Why were they best friends, again? Then memories of them fighting back to back, Zero sacrificing himself over and over again, and X always keeping a spot open for Zero no matter how deadly the sacrifice reared their head, and X remembered.
X sighed. “Axl, have you ever seen me with my helmet off?”
Axl blinked. “Uh, no?”
“Yes you have,” X said patiently, and took off his helmet.
Axl blinked, and blinked some more, before a mortified red blush spread over his cheeks and neck. “DR. HIKARI?!” He screeched. “YOU’RE MEGA MAN X?!”
Zero lost it, laughing so hard he was bent over double.
“Yes, Alexei,” X deadpanned, then smiled. An architect, a politician, a traveler, a son, a brother, a warrior. A protector, a fighter. A friend. “That’s me.”