Mega Man 1. Prologue: Foreboding Tides

Welcome to my second fan fic, Delusions of Grandeur.

This is intended to be a story that can be read by itself, but having knowledge of various Mega Man games, especially the ZX series is helpful, and this story assumes the events of my last story, The Fall of Mega Man occurred.

For those of you who already read the prologue, I have made some changes to it.

Our tale begins with the secret ending to Mega Man ZX Advent, but goes into more detail and expands upon it.

And for ZX veterans, you might highly disagree with which ones I decided where model ZX's and model A's chosen ones, but there is very good reason for doing so, which will probably explained at the end of this saga and the beginning of Saga 6.

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Saga 2: Delusions of Grandeur  
Prologue: Foreboding Tides  
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"Hhmmm..."

A large man by the name of Master Thomas, was standing there, quite annoyed. Master Thomas was quite tall, with red hair, a large blue robe with white collar and shoulder cloth. His facial hair was in such a way that he resembled a lion, which made him make look that much more intimidating and scruffy. A fly was buzzing around him, and irritating the living hell out of him.

"Quite bothersome... That needs to stop..."

The large fellow reached into the air, and easily swatted the fly with his hands with great accuracy. Though he was originally human, like his peer in the Sage Trinity, Master Mikhail, and the former Sage Trinity member turned traitor/madman, Master Albert, Thomas was living in a robotic body, which extended his life span by centuries.

"Finally. I wish they would hurry repairing the outer walls."

At a nearby computer terminal, Master Mikhail was typing away like a mad man, doing his best to quickly retrieve the last mission report from Grey. Master Mikhail looked about as old as he really was, a small man who was hunched over. The entire top half of his face was covered in a rather strange visor-like device, which almost looked like night goggles. Grey was a reploid who had been working for the Sage Council and the Hunters Guild at the same time. Grey was a very powerful person, who had acquired the power of bio-metal Model A. Model A was a small device that was sentient and alive, and allowed Grey to transform into a powerful warrior.

Grey and Model A had recently defeated a one Master Albert, who had been hell bent on destroying everyone on Earth, had fancied himself a god, thinking that 'this world needs to be reset'. Albert had managed to control a very powerful BioMetal called Model W, of which it's various pieces formed together to form Ouroboros, a massive flying fortress/monstrosity. Albert had hoped to use his own powers combined with Ouroboros to achieve his goals.

But, along with Vent, a male human who controlled BioMetal Models Z and X, and a couple of squads of soldiers Master Thomas had sent, and a few Hunter Guild and Guardian troops, Grey had managed to defeat Albert and Ouroboros went crashing into the ocean. Early reports from the Hunter Guild and Thomas's own troops indicated that all of the soldiers got off safely on the Guardian's Head Quarters ship, along with an unconscious Grey and Model A. However, there were reports that four other BioMetal users, Atlas, Thetis, Siarnaq, and Aeolus had appeared, and there fate was unknown. Also what was unknown was the fate of Model Z, who stayed behind to paralyze the four while Vent and model X went to save Grey.

Master Mikhail was about as frustrated with the computer systems as Thomas was with wall damage and buzzing insects. A week had passed since the fall of Ouroboros, and now the report had just made it into government computer systems. A while back, Siarnaq, with Model P, had invaded the main government building where Thomas, Albert, and Mikhail had usually spent most of their time at, and had caused severe damage. However, before he could attempt to assassinate the Sage Trinity, Grey and Model A had shown up and drove him away. Mikhail began to speak, for the first time in hours.

"Sigh, until CPU bays three through nine repaired, the network is going be very slow. But I have the mission report from Grey. It's rather extensive and detailed, I must say."

"Let me see them..." Thomas was rather eager to see what Grey had sent.

For the better part of an hour, Mikhail and Thomas were going through the report, reviewing every detail. Once they were done reading, they put away the data tablets they were reading from. A lot of the information was quite shocking, especially the things that Albert had blurted out during his final moments.

"To bring new life into the world, eh?"

Thomas was thinking about all that had happened up to this point, and was looking very contemplative. Mikhail was thinking the same things, but for different reasons and with a different perspective. Mikhail added his own thoughts on the subject.

"In the last mission report... Albert said some rather outrageous things."

From here on, the conversation began to take a very dark tone.

"Mikhail... Do you think it presumptuous for us to give birth to new life?"

This line of thinking caught Mikhail completely off guard. What was Thomas thinking? Mikhail suddenly had a very bad feeling in his gut.

"How absurd... Thomas, you couldn't possibly hold fast to such foolish imaginings."

Thomas began to speak in a rather rough and demeaning tone.

"There are laws that give equality to humans and reploids, correct? Don't you remember? Those were passed because Albert and I agreed on them!"

"W-What are you saying?"

"Give humans robotic bodies, and give reploids mortality. So, where do you think the Human bodies for the reploids are? What do you think happened to the original reploid data from before we gave them mortality?"

Mikhail then noticed multiple incoming teleportations into the room. Before him appeared Thetis, Siarnaq, Atlas, and Aeolus. Mikhail's sensor set then alerted him to something very strange. Before, reports had stated that Albert had reprogrammed the bio-metals to where there personalities were repressed, and the human and reploid hosts were in complete control.

But what Mikhail saw now... this was different. The bio-metals and there hosts were exerting their own influences and personality simultaneously. Not only that, but it appeared the bio-metals personality and that of their hosts were twisting together, forming something else. Mikhail didn't know what, and he was almost scared shit-less.

Mikhail had been confused as to what Thomas was blabbering about, but now he was trembling after he realized what he was saying.

"Thomas... you...!"

Thomas had a dark scowl on his face, and angrily replied.

"Albert was wrong, so I helped the hunters. But I do think he was right about ONE thing. This world needs to be reset."

Thomas raised his hand, about to order the four to restrain Mikhail. However, things did not go as intended. The eyes of the four began to glow a gold color. A rather dark aura of energy began to rise from Thomas, and was leaving him rapidly. Mikhail watched as Thomas began to blabber random nonsense.

"What? Why is that? It's not good? Awakening? I don't understand! My thoughts, don't take them! What do you mean it is beyond your control and that you are sorry? AAAHHH!!!"

An electric spark cackled out of Thomas, and he collapsed to the floor. The other four that had teleported in earlier then teleported out. Mikhail was sitting there, scratching his head, utterly confused. Mikhail didn't care what just happened. Thomas was still both his peer and his friend. He bent down and began to shake Thomas until he awoke.

"Thomas, wake up!"

Master Thomas woke up and sat up. He held his head like it was in pain.

"I'm up, but where am I? Wait, I'm still here? I need to send reinforcements to Grey! If he doesn't take down Albert and those psuedoroids, the situation could get sticky, quickly! Um wait. Why was I sleeping on the floor? And what happened to the wall?"

Mikhail shook his head. He explained that Albert had fallen, and explained everything that happened.

"You don't remember? You sent several squads of troops and gave orders to the Hunters Guild in person to take down Ouroboros as a mission, which by the way, they are still waiting payment for."

Thomas looked confused and shook his head.

"Well, let's try something else. What is the last thing you DO remember?"

Thomas sat there and thought for a moment.

"Last thing I remember, Siarnaq was attacking here, the guards were getting slaughtered. Grey, who was equipped with Model A, came and defeated him. Grey came to us, we briefed Grey and Model A on the situation and talked with them, and gave them orders and help. About five minutes after he left, I don't remember anything after that. Well, except that shortly before you were yelling at me to wake up, I was having a weird dream."

Master Mikhail was intrigued.

"Interesting. So I guess something was controlling you and/or acting in your stead for the rest of that time. But tell me, what was the dream about?"

Thomas sook his head, still in disbelief over that insane dream.

"It was strange. I was floating in a world full of swirling color. Before me appeared what I believe to be an old fashioned reploid, probably from the 21XX era. Body color scheme was mostly dark purple and white, and it had an unusual chest crystal. It glowed rather brightly, and it was hexagon shaped. Looked like a woman, but spoke and acted like a male. Light purple hair, what I at first thought were headphones of some kind. And those eyes... creepy."

**"**What do you mean?

**"**They were three different shades of orange. This reploid didn't say much, except that it was tired of an evil human interfering with his ideals. Something about reseting this world, only certain humans and reploids would be allowed to live, all else must perish. It was pure insanity. Then a weird light appeared above the reploid. The reploid then exclaimed 'shit!' and then said 'it's beyond my control, I have no choice.' It seemed like he was talking to someone, but I could not hear the other person. Your better at historical data than I am Mikhail. I suspect this might be a real reploid from the past. Mind checking on that for me?"

Mikhail smiled. Thomas was back to his old self, at least mostly. But Thomas was right, whatever had been using him for the past few weeks was something different all right, and he needed to find out what.

**"**Yeah... computer systems should be fully operational by now. Meantime, maybe you should pay a personal visit to the Hunters and pay them what is owed. Here's the bill."

Mikhail handed Thomas a PDA with some figures on it.

**"**Geez, they didn't ask much for this one, though that makes sense. Well, off to the accounting department I go."

Mikhail went into his personal library. In it sat many books and computer terminals, holding quite a lot of information. Mikhail prided himself on being the self-proclaimed greatest historian in the modern world. He sat down at a terminal that held historical data for the 21XX era, seemed like the best place to start.

--

Several hours passed, and Mikhail finally found it. Mikhail spoke outloud to no one in particular.

**"**Well, this is the only exact match I can find. Quite a doozie this is. However, this brings up more questions than answers, since he is dead. Not only that... Oh crap... wait a minute..."

Mikhail walked up to the main room and found Thomas walking out, about to head for the teleportation terminal, and stopped him for a second.

"Thomas, I found it, it was the only match I can find. Here's the data."

Thomas looked at what Mikhail handed him. The information and the pictures associated with it were definitely the one in his dream.

"Sigh, that's it alright. But that's quite unbelievable. That reploid is long dead. Not only that, but now that I think about it, I had dreaming parameters disabled when I am resting. Something is not right about all this, even more so than is apparent right now."

"Your telling me! What this all means... I don't know... But when you go to the Hunters camp, I think there is someone you need to bring back here that we should really speak to..."

---

Meanwhile, in an unknown location.

The reploid that had appeared in Thomas's dream stood before two humans. The world they stood in was not real, rather is was a graphical simulation, since both the reploid and one of the humans no longer had a physical body to speak of.

The first human looked very young, approximately 25 years old. He had salt and pepper colored hair, and a large, well kept mustache. He had a grin that was more evil than the reploid had ever seen. The other human was chained to a wall. This one looked extremely deformed, bits of metal and flesh barely clung to each other. The reploid began to speak.

"You know you will fail right? You also know if I ever find a way to break free, I will kill you and continue what I started centuries ago."

"Please. Like I care. You and this reject will never break free. I will succeed, and this world will belong to me. Your ideals of evolution are no better than that idealist dreamer Sigma. And captain fugly here failed in life, because he couldn't control his hatred or his greed. The only useful thing he ever did was the creation of Ragnarok, and the positive consequences of which were an accident."

The human that was chained to the 'wall' began laughing hysterically.

"HA HA HA! Your the reject. Your basically a shitty copy of a poor excuse for a human being! You just awoke five years ago, and now you expect me to be your pawn? You are out of your damn mind! Not only that, but what happens when the real you comes back?"

The younger human had a look of pure rage on his face.

"Bah. Me being a fake my ass. I'm the real article, and the one you think is the genuine is dead. His mind was destroyed along with Sigma's when the Mother Elf was used in the Elf Wars. I will take this world, it will belong to me! Too bad Serpent was such a useless servant, but no matter, I will simply do things myself. Albert was the only complication to occur in my plans, but no matter, his creation of Model W and the Ouroboros will only accelerate my plans. Isn't that right, Dr. Weil?"

The chained human merely grunted in return.

"Yes, you are brilliant, to a limited extent. And it seems your soul makes the perfect catalyst for the Maverick Virus. You Dr. Weil, the only human to be infected by the virus, your human soul, combined with the remaining fragments of Sigma's soul, is what created this Model W, born from your hate infused into the remains of Ragnaorok. That is the only reason I saved your soul from the destruction of Ouroboros."

Dr. Weil closed his eyes and went to sleep. He had enough of this mad man's tirades. The young man merely whistled and began talking to himself outloud.

"Once I gain enough energy to meet the power requirements for my device, victory is assured, no matter what. Which is where you come in handy, Lumine."

The reploid had a look of defeat. Lumine could not figure a way to put a stop to this. Lumine was aware of what his ultimate plans were, and in Lumine's mind, this was the worst possible outcome. If this young human succeeded, destiny would be set in stone, till the end of time. Progress would stop. Evolution would stop. The best Lumine could think of was to try to convince the human that this was a bad idea.

"So, what if your plan goes off without a hitch. Arn't you worried that you will be erased from existence?"

"No, you can stop with the psycho babble. I have calculated this to an extreme. Now, it is time for you to sleep as well."

The holographic simulation ended. The young man walked out of the soul projection room he had himself created, and walked out into a lab. He looked in a corner on the far side of the room, and smiled. In a glass case that surrounded an electromagnetic prison, was bio-metal Model Z.

"Heh heh, I will find a use for you soon. And maybe I can even restore your memories... all of them."

------  
End of Prologue


	2. Chapter 1: Ain't life just funny?

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Saga 2: Delusions of Grandeur  
Chapter 1: Ain't life just funny?  
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The young man with the salt-n-pepper hair was typing away on a console, seemingly frustrated.

"Hhmm... reprogramming the very essence of Model W just to suit my temporary needs just isn't worth it. However... unlike these other "biometals," this Model W just doesn't have any suitable matches that I can find after hacking the Coalition Government's database. Looks like Albert didn't make any specific matches... This could be problematic."

The human was pouring through data files. He then noticed something strange.

"WAIT! That might work... not a bio-match per se, but, Model W could be tricked thanks to that wonderful DNA... Yes yes... that will probably work..."

-----

Miles away from The Sage Trinity's throne room, the celebrations at the Hunter's Guild camp had only died down days ago. Things were a bit calmer now. Grey and Vent were still getting the celebrity treatment however. They were the heroes that brought an end to Albert's madness. But even heroes need some rest and relaxation.

In Grey's living quarters, Grey and Vent were sitting idly in chairs, letting the day pass by, thinking about events, Vent thinking about all that had happened between the time he originally found Model X and the fall of Ouroboros, Grey still was having a hard time accepting that he was a backup copy of Albert, who by sheer coincidence managed to develop his own soul and personality.

Model X and Model A were off in a corner floating around, having a chat.

"Hey Model X, what do you think happened to Model Z?"

"Honestly, I don't know. He promised he would survive and return to us, and he has never broken his word."

The two beings were silent for a moment.

"So, Model A, have you and Grey decided your future? You know, work with the Guardians, work directly for the Sage Council..."

"Nah nah, we decided were gonna live our life as hunters. After all, they are the ones that rescued the both us, and we owe them a lot. Besides, best to stick with what's familiar and such..."

The two bio-metals turned to Vent as he began to speak.

"Hey guys, would you mind keeping it down? Were trying to rest here."

Grey had both of his eyes closed, but opened them and gave Vent a weird stare.

"Vent, let em be, once you leave, they probably won't be able to chat like that for awhile anyway. Speaking of which, why are you still here? Don't you need to report back to the Guardians?"

Vent merely stretched his hand in front of his mouth and yawned at an absurd volume.

"Nope. Commander Prairie gave me a two week vacation, and was not optional. Apparently she thinks I need to relax or some such. Anyway, five days to go before I'm even allowed to report back in."

The two bio-metals merely smirked at that. However, Grey's face had saddened, as his thoughts about what he was originally supposed to be and what the future would hold for him. Every time he tried to push it aside, the thoughts merely became stronger.

"Hey Grey, what are you stressing about?" Vent asked inquisitively.

"Nothing... It's just... I was originally just a backup plan for Albert. That was to be my destiny. But I fought to take my destiny back, and to change it. But what now? What's gonna happen? Can I really stay with the Hunters Guild forever? Or will destiny decide what happens to me? If so, what?..."

Vent looked solemnly at Grey and sighed.

"To be honest kid, I'm not so sure there is even such a thing as fate or destiny anymore... I think it's nothing but a combination of determination, actions of those with that determination, and random luck."

Model A laughed for a moment and replied to that.

"Luck? I don't think luck has anything to do with it at all."

Vent waved Model A off.

"Well, let me tell you a little story of a while ago, in my early teenage years."

--

(Vent has a little flashback, and acts as a narrator. He uses model X to stream certain images and information as a hologram.)

"A long time ago, I was just your average teenage boy. Or I may have still technically been a child back then, I don't remember. When I was really young, a pseudoroid named Purprill led a small group of Mavericks and attacked the Circus where me and my mother were at. So much chaos and destruction occurred, but the end result was clear. Many lives were lost, including my mother's, and I never was able to find my dad. I'm still pretty sure he is dead."

"And all I can think is that if we had gone to the museum instead, she would still be alive. But it doesn't end there."

"Shortly after, I met one of my closest friends. Her name was Aile. She was a girl about my age, and her parents were also killed in the Maverick raid at the Circus. For years we hung out together. But as we were growing up, we both found that we needed a job, an income, something to support us. An acquaintance of ours, his name was Giro, offered us both a job as delivery boy/girl."

"However, when we got there, apparently Giro's financial situation had changed. He said he no longer could afford to hire both of us, only one of us, but hadn't decided which. Apparently, we were both just as qualified. Aile and I suggested a coin flip."

"So then we flipped a really old keepsake American quarter that Aile had gotten from her parents, a currency coin from centuries past. I called heads, and sure enough, I got it. And I was hired on to Giro express. Sadly, I haven't seen Aile since then."

"A few weeks later, I was supposed to transport an unknown object to the Guardian's. What that object really was, was Model X. Due to unforeseen circumstances of that day, I ended up being Model X's bio-match, and we have been together ever since. But, how different could history have been if I had called tails, or if that one coin flip had landed as tails. You can't call that anything other than luck."

(The flash back ends)

--

Grey and the two bio-metals all had been listening to the story intently. Grey now understood what Vent was saying about luck versus destiny. Model A just kept thinking that the holographic picture of Aile was cute as hell. Model X had something completely different on his mind.

"Wait, Vent, I ended up with you because of a COIN FLIP? That is... weird..."

Vent and Grey just started bursting out laughing.

----

Master Thomas had successfully arrived at the transerver in Hunters Camp. He was greeted by the teleporters clerk.

"Welcome back sir. What brings you here today?"

"Well, two things. First off, our financial department is back on full track, so I am here to pay the promised amounts to the soldiers involved. Unfortunately, our long range wireless systems are on the fritz, so I came to deliver the credits myself. You mind distributing these?"

Thomas handed the clerk a small electronic device used for currency transfer.

"No problem sir, I'm sure the hunters will be quite happy with this amount. Come to think of it, it's more than we asked for. But uh... you said you were here for another reason?"

"Yes, I heard Vent was still here, I would like to speak to him and Grey."

The clerk gave Thomas directions to Grey's living quarters.

---

The buzzer system for Grey's room went off. Grey turned his head to the door.

"Who's there?"

"It's Master Thomas, mind if I come in?"

"Sure, no problem, it's unlocked."

Thomas walked in the room. Model A recognized him immediately.

"Hey Master Thomas, what brings you here? And please, sit down will ya?"

Thomas found what looked to be a comfortable couch and parked himself on it.

"Sorry to be so abrupt, but Grey, Vent, I have a favor to ask of the both of you. Mind coming with me back to Legion headquarters? Something disturbing has happened... Mikhail thinks we should get your opinion on the situation. Can you spare the better part of a day?"

Vent and Grey looked at each other and shrugged.

"Sure thing, I'll just send a communication to the Guardian's about my whereabouts, but man, Prairie is not gonna be happy about me doing business related stuff on vacation." Vent answered.

Thomas nodded his head.

"Alright then. I will await you at this camps transerver, and then we will be off."

--

About ten minutes later, Vent had contacted Guardian Headquarters ship, and got an earful for it. Vent and Grey then walked outside, with Model A and Model X in tow. As they walked through the camp, they got various greetings from the hunters. They continued to stroll through the street, when a young woman, who appeared to be slightly older than Vent, came running through town like mad.

"Woot! That job cleaning up the Maverick's in those old ruins had one hell of a pay out. Time to collect the reward!" Yelled the young woman.

She was not exactly paying attention to where she was going. She bumped into Vent and knocked him to the ground. She turned around and began to apologize.

"Sorry, such a good day, guess I was kind of out of it. HEY! Your Vent and Grey right? I heard how you guys took down Albert. Good job! Anyways, gotta go!"

She continued to run down the street to the pay clerk's office. Vent had a weird expression on his face.

"Whoa, who was that?"

Grey saw Vent's face and smirked.

"You like her or something?"

Vent's face went kinda red.

"Well, that's Ashe. She headed the hunter team that took Model A from the Raiders. Weird, now that I think about it, she did it with quite a success, but unfortunately she was rather sad that day. She only got half the reward since she couldn't turn in the Model A herself. She took some injuries from Prometheus while acquiring Model A, and was in the medical room for a few days."

Model A swiveled in mid-air and looked at Grey.

"Oh, she was the one? Wow, you never told me that. I'll have to thank her one day for her bravery."

The four of them continued to the transerver room, where they were greeted by on the on duty clerk and Master Thomas. Vent and Grey, along with Model A, Model X, and Thomas used the transerver and appeared directly in the throne room. When they arrived, Master Mikhail greeted them.

"Hello Grey, Vent. Thank you for coming. Thomas, I did some more poking around in the historical data, and things only get weirder."

Grey didn't like not knowing what he was talking about.

"Master Mikhail, what's going on? What are we here for? Master Thomas said something weird happened and you wanted to talk to us?"

Vent chuckled.

"Now Grey, you shouldn't be rude."

"It's alright. However... this is quite important. Have yall noticed how there only seems to be small amounts of Mavericks left, but no matter how much we hunt them down, there seems to be more small groups of them that keep popping up?"

Everyone else in the room nodded in agreement.

"Well, simply, I originally though that Serpent and Albert had made so many Maverick's with Model W that it would simply take a while to find em all. However, two things have come up. First off, I studied a few of the mavericks that were in decent physical condition after they were killed, and found something weird. As far as I can tell, these reploids, along with a few humans with extremely high prosthetic to living tissue ratios, didn't seem to have been influenced by Model W at all."

"Most of them were either mavericks of their own free will, or were being influenced by something I have never seen before. At first, I thought this might have been some randomly produced virus that managed to spread. At least until yesterday. Thomas, do you mind if I..."

Thomas sighed, but nodded his head. Thomas and Mikhail explained everything that had happened to Thomas the day before, including the memory loss. They also went over the historical data of the reploid that had appeared before Thomas in his dreams. Model X spoke up.

"Lumine... Why does that sound more familiar than it should?"

Model A also had that feeling.

"No kidding Model X, I feel it too, like I should be more familiar with this Lumine."

But no one had an answer. Thomas began to speak again.

"Well, we don't know exactly what's going on, but if all these incidents are connected, we need to find the source of what's going on. Vent, would you mind relaying the information given in this conversation to your commander?"

"Sure, no problem."

On a nearby computer console, a loud, constant chirping could be heard. Mikhail walked to the console.

"What on Earth could that be? It's only supposed to off in emergen..."

Mikhail froze for a second as he read the distress beacon.

"What the? Can't be... Grey, Vent, Thomas, get over here now!"

The three of them walked hurriedly to where Mikhail was.

"It's a distress call from the hunters camp! They are under attack! Legion scanners are picking up four Bio-Metals users, along with over 200 low level mavericks! You two have got to get there now!"

Vent, Grey, and their bio-metals made a mad dash for the transerver system on the lower floor, and immediately teleported to hunters camp.

---

Upon arrival, Vent and Grey immediately headed outside. It looked like a war zone. Various Hunter's Guild members were exchanging gunfire with a small army of mavericks, who were rapidly closing the frontline. Behind the maverick army were Thetis, Siarnaq, Atlas, and Aeolus, who were standing, giving orders to the troops. Atlas got bored and decided to join the fray. She rushed in, cannons blazing. She tore a hole through the hunters forward defense line, and the maverick army poured through it, and started attacking their back line. Siarnaq slipped into the fray, but didn't fight, he was moving around, like he was searching for something.

The hunters fought as hard as they could, and were managing to pick off a few of the mavericks, but the mavericks in turn were slaughtering the hunters in the dozens. Scorch marks and dead bodies lay everywhere. Vent and Grey saw what was going on, and immediately merged with their bio-metals.

"MEGA MERGE!" They cried in unison.

Grey immediately began to lock on to a large number of targets and opened fire. Vent charged up his buster, and shot a line through the maverick forces, and began to charge at Thetis and Aeolus.

Meanwhile, Siarnaq, with Model P, found what he was looking for. On top of a building, Ashe was using a type-499 Coalition Army sniper rifle. She had been having much luck with said weapon, as she was picking off mavericks left and right. She then saw Aeolus and Thetis, and decided to go after the leaders. She was just getting a steady bead on Aeolus's forehead, when something unexpected happened.

A metal shuriken rose from the ground and sliced the rifle's barrel right off. Ashe quickly stood up, sensed someone coming at her, dodged the figure and shot her pistol at the unknown enemy. However, Siarnaq turned into a shadow and reappeared a few feet in the other direction.

"REACTION TIME AND AIMING CAPABILITY, UNEXPECTED. HUMAN WITH REFLEXES ON PAR WITH ATLAS, UNUSUAL. BEGINNING RETRIEVAL."

Siarnaq disappeared and reappeared behind Ashe, put his left hand on Ashe's mouth, and quickly put two fingers on his right hand into her neck, rendering her unconscious. He then picked her up, and summoned a shielding wall of shuriken. He then jumped down to ground level, and began to run back towards Thetis and Aeolus. Atlas saw Siarnaq.

"Well crap, he's finished already. Damn it, I wasn't done yet."

Atlas followed Siarnaq, but ran backwards, popping off shots at the remnants of the hunters, and managed to kill a few more. Aeolus and Thetis were blocking attacks from Vent when Siarnaq and and Atlas arrived. Atlas fired a barrage of large energy shots at Vent, who had no choice but to dodge.

"TARGET ACQUIRED. MISSION COMPLETE. RECOMMENDATION: WITHDRAW."

Thetis face-palmed himself.

"Geez, he still talks like a monotone computer. You would think after Model P's personality blended with his, that woulda changed. Guess I didn't realize how much those two are alike."

Aeolus called out to to Atlas and Thetis.

"Siarnaq is correct, we are leaving."

Vent looked on, and saw what Siarnaq was holding.

"Wait isn't that..."

Thetis, Siarnaq, Atlas, and Aeolus, nicknamed by some in the coalition army as "The Big Four," teleported away, with Ashe in tow.

Grey caught up with Vent. He saw who Siarnaq was holding, just as he disappeared.

"You have got to be kidding me. They killed all those people to capture one girl? Who the hell is their boss? Why would any person do such a thing?"

"I don't know Grey... I don't know..."

------  
End of Chapter 1


	3. Chapter 2: Corrupted Destiny

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Saga 2: Delusions of Grandeur  
Chapter 2: Corrupted Destiny

-----------

"Sir, we are back."

Aeolus dragged the body of Ashe behind him, and had the other members of the Big Four in tow. The young man turned around and his eyes were full of rage.

"You damned idiot! She's valuable, unlike yourselves, don't break her! Anyways, put her in the stasis chamber over there."

Atlas wanted to say something, but for some reason didn't want to say it out loud. However, Thetis and his bio-metal had no issue with doing so.

"Sir, aren't you going to get to work on her immediately?! We need that power as soon as possible, the longer we wait, the more chances for things to go wrong... Between the Hunters, the Guardian's, and... that other you..."

Aeolus then spoke up with a thought that had been on his mind.

"Speaking of which, I like to acknowledge people by name, but have no idea what we should call you. Calling you Dr. Wily wouldn't be correct, now would it?"

The young man face-palmed himself. This is a topic of conversation he never liked in the slightest.

"You will simply call me master!"

Siarnaq's bio-metal, Model P spoke up.

"MASTER IS CORRECT. SUBJECT IS EXTREMELY OFF TOPIC REGARDING OUR CURRENT PRIORITIES. HOWEVER, LIKELYHOOD OF GOING OFF TOPIC AGAIN IS HIGH. RECOMMENDATION, GIVE HIM A NICK NAME. I SUGGEST DWII."

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement. DWII, as he would now be called, whether he liked it or not, wiped some sweat off his forehead.

"Well then, can we concentrate on more important matters now?"

The Big Four silently nodded their heads.

"Anyways, yes that girls'... development... it's important, but there's one task I would like to take care of first. Simply, I believe I have found the..." DWII sighed heavily. "The other me. I have reason to believe he is hiding in the subconscious of this man."

DWII brought up the profile of a human he had recovered from Legion computers.

"Interesting choice. A man in a psychiatric ward. If he mumbles crazy things no one will notice, and there is heavy security there. But no matter. We will assault the ward, and bring him back alive if possible. However, if that is impossible and he tries to get away, he will be purged from existence. Time to test out my other new pet."

The face of Dr. Weil appeared on a nearby monitor.

"I seriously hope he gets away, and comes back to kill you. However, I will give you a warning as my first and last payment for you returning me from the brink of death at the fall of Ragnorok. Be careful, reinforcements may show up, assuming they know about this..."

DWII was scratching his head.

"What in hell are you talking about..."

A nearby text panel hummed to life, and data began to pour down the screen rapidly. DWII looked at the text with wide open eyes.

"That is... interesting... Assuming he isn't killed in the attack, we sure as hell could use that..."

Lumine had been silently watching the whole time. He saw his chance to change the situation. Lumine immediately began to hack the computer system he was trapped in. Meanwhile, DWII walked into another lab.

"Computer, open stasis pod number 6 and activate experimental Neoroid contained within."

The computer that controlled the stasis pod beeped in an unusual matter for a few seconds, then responded to DWII's command.

"Unable to immediately comply. Anomaly has occurred within subject. Quick diagnostic and calibration required. Subject will be operational in approximately forty five seconds."

DWII looked puzzled.

"Computer, what is the source and outcome of this anomaly? And is the brainwashing and restraint protocols working properly?"

The computer clicked loudly for a few moments, then responded.

"Brainwashing and restraint protocols have completely failed. Such protocols are only effective against those who resist. Subject is cooperating of her own free will. Anomaly is occurring due to ambition and strong force of will that is exceeding capacity of control systems. Several unknown errors have occurred during diagnostics. However, calibrations are complete. Proceed with activation of NeoRoid?"

The young scientist began to nibble on his right index finger, mulling over the information before him. On one hand, a free-willed human with that much power may be dangerous... on the other hand... He realized that if he cultivated her correctly, it would be his enemies that would be in danger. And if this one could be used in tandem with the Ashe woman he captured earlier... this test run was more important than ever.

"Yes, computer, bring Aile the Necrolord online."

"Confirmed, beginning startup procedures."

The mix of amniotic fluid and various industrial strength reploid lubricant used to create certain kinds of reploids that was contained within Aile's stasis pod began to compress and glow rather brightly. In one swift motion, the fluids rapidly decompressed and exploded, causing the pod door to shatter into tiny chunks. This was unexpected, but within DWII's acceptable parameters.

The new Neroroid opened her eyes. Various power supply cables began to uncouple from various parts of her body. Once that step was completed, she slowly began to walk out the chamber, and stepped into the room. This newly reborn human/reploid hybrid looked around the room with green eyes that were soft, yet also had a look of a very jaded soul. Unlike her younger self, she now sported blood red hair, which starkly were in contrast with her eyes. To say it looked weird was an understatement.

DWII was in shock and awe at what he created. He then turned his head away as he realized one thing he forgot to do before activating her.

"Damn it, I forgot to equip her with armor, arg!"

Aile also realized she was completely lacking clothes.

"Well, you may be an old man, but at least your not a pedophile." Aile said laughing.

"Jeez, I'm not THAT perverted... good lord... talk about centuries of age difference. Not into that kind of thing. Anyway, I know you have just awoken, but after I get you some clothes, I need to discuss with you your first mission."

Aile tilted her head to one side, though DWII did not see it.

"Already? Jeez, can't you let me have a few hours to adjust to this new body?"

"Yes yes child, I will give you that much. Anyway..." DWII whipped out a strange looking communication device. "Michael the Archroid, come down here."

A stream of light appeared next to DWII. The being that came in was a reploid with organic implants, pretty much the opposite of Aile. He was a slender being, and had a divine look that made him a complete oxymoron, especially considering who he worked for. He wore all white robes, and had what appeared to be small angelic wings coming out of his back. He finished his teleportation and looked around.

"Yes master... WHOA!" The Archroid turned his head rapidly. "Dear lord, Master, if you two are busy, I can come back another time... I'm not a voyeur..."

Aile and DWII both face-palmed themselves, and then DWII's voice got loud and angry.

"No you shit tard! I forgot to equip her with armor, and I haven't put automatic teleporters on the armor yet either. Now, go retrieve your new master her armor!"

Michael turned his head to Aile in shock, but was thinking well enough to only concentrate on her face.

"Wait, what did you say? My new master?"

This also caught Aile's attention.

"Huh? Since when am I a master?"

"Since now Aile. Ill explain that in just a second. Michael, get the damn armor!"

Michael now had a mischievous grin on his face.

"Aile is my master now? So I shouldn't follow any order of yours..."

"You damn reject, did I program your AI that badly? I'm still HER master..."

At this point, DWII was livid. He felt the strangely warm hand of Aile on his shoulder.

"Master, calm down, I can tell he is just jerking your chain. Michael, get me my clothing and armor, or you will be my first target practice when I fine tune my targeting abilities..."

The Archroids face turned even more white than than his armor and robes, and he immediately left to tend to his task. He returned shortly, and without looking directly at her, handed Aile her strange armor. Aile immediately put it on, and did diagnostics to make sure the armor and her own body were working in sync.

"You finally completed a given task, huzzah." DWII exclaimed to the Archroid, annoyed. "Now, get the other three down here."

Moments later, three more "Neoroids" teleported in. DWII looked at them.

"This is your new master that I spoke of. Introduce yourselves to her, NOW!"

The first one to introduce herself was a tall female human. Her attire was all crimson red and black, and had strange eyes that never stopped glowing. She also wielded a trident as her primary weapon.

"I am Dante the Abyssroid. Pleased to meet you."

Dante had a strange, quiet but powerful demeanor. Aile immediately began to like this one, much unlike Michael, who was mostly nonchalant and whimsical. Michael had no qualms about showing his displeasure at the existence of Dante.

"Jeez, you are like, the stereotype of pure evil. It's so corny, I don't think I will ever stop laughing..."

Aile pointed one of her new guns and got a target lock on his forehead.

"Remember what I said about target practice?"

Dante was a large smile on her face, that someone could make Michael stop talking. Michael got real silent real fast. Another Neoroid stepped up.

"Hello, I am Hakyoku, The Eleroid. I am at your beck and call."

Hakyoku was incredibly strange in appearance. A human with darkened skin tones, and a variety of color schemes colored his body. His helmet was spiky and flame colored, his arms were the color of hardened earth, his legs semi-transparent, and his torso had a deep blue color. The iris of his eyes were also never any particular color for more than two seconds, and constantly changed. He had the aura of one who was a powerful and loyal guardian.

The last Neoroid didn't introduce herself. Instead, she whipped out a pair of daggers and went charging at Aile. Michael sighed loudly.

"Kyouki, I would advise against that... then again you meeting someone clearly stronger than you should be funny..."

DWII looked on in amusement, as if he knew she would do that. She completely ignored Michael's warnings and did something one would never do with daggers, a double strait thrust. Aile easily sidestepped the attack, but noticed that the reploid girl disappeared. She reappeared above and behind, and slightly to the left of Aile. She went flying at a fast pace, and performed a single round slash with all her might.

However, Aile's perception and reaction time were too much. Aile quickly took a few steps backwards, and rammed her fist into Kyouki's stomach. The girl hunched over Aile's fist in a U shape.

"Wow, she's good."

Aile threw the girl back to where she first started. Aile smiled.

"Mind retrying your introduction?"

The girl took her right arm and placed it horizontally across her stomach and bowed. Kyouki was rather ordinary in appearance, except for the various scars and unusual attire she wore. Among her scars, the most pronounced were two jagged lines that ran down the left side of her face.

"You definitely have my respect. Hey Wily wannabe, you did a good job with this one. Anyways, my name is Kyouki, the Madroid. So, when do we get to fight real opponents?"

DWII spoke up.

"Actually, in a few hours Kyouki." DWII turned towards Aile. "Aile, these four are both your bodyguards and the generals of your army. They may sound similar to information I programmed into you regarding that Ashe woman and the four bio-metal users, but there will be differences."

"Michael and Kyouki are reploids, Dante and Hakyoku are humans. They represent an idea that I stole from Master Thomas when that damned Lumine decided to go do shit on his own possessed the bastard. In this day and age, humans and reploids are indistinguishable from one another, save for an orange triangle on a reploids forehead."

"Speaking of which, computer, where is Lumine? I thought I told him to be here for this.."

"Lumine will be in a data recovery drive for the next few hours. Lumine attempted to hack the data systems and escape from the LAN. Lumine's core data was partially corrupted in the attempt."

"Idiot. Told him he could not escape. Oh well, but anyways. You Aile, along with these four, are completely different. You may have been born as humans or reploids, but unlike people these days, who simply have modified data or artificial parts that make up a relatively low percentage of there body, or the case of some, reploids and humans who use bio-metals, the five of you are truly half reploid and half human, with all the advantages of both and almost none of the disadvantages."

"Also, since I didn't use whole idea of bio-metals that Ciel, Albert, and Serpent came up with, there will be no personality conflicts, and DEFINITELY no schizophrenia, that won't be an issue. Your group will act independently of the bio-metal user group, but both groups will serve under me. DO YALL UNDERSTAND?"

Aile and her subordinates nodded.

"Good. Now then..."

DWII showed the information for the assault he was planning to Aile. They spent the next half hour planning and debating certain tactics and plans.

"Now then, teleporting yall directly in would be too much of a hassle, since I do plan to lend you a small army, and if they put up anti-teleportation shielding before everyone arrives, we could be in deep shit. That, and you said you needed a few hours to adjust and fine tune your body. So, the five of you will hoof it. Once you arrive, place this amplifier beacon, and we will be able to easily teleport the rest of the army in. NOW GO!"

The five of them took their leave and began their long trek to the Coalition National Psychiatric Ward.

DWII began to have a flashback.

"Pure dumb luck that I found that girl. The clerical office she worked at was attacked by a group of mavericks, and when I found her, I saw the potential in her, the potential to become my greatest tool. To this day, I still wonder who controlled that maverick army though. Lumine and Weil were under a tight leash by that time, Wily was in no position to control them, and they were not under the influence of Serpent or Albert... who then..."

----

As Aile and her cohorts were running along to their destination, she slowly was thinking to herself.

"Wily, you promised me... please, please, do not fail me..."

----

Lumine was floating along in cyberspace, floating from one network to another, trying to find his intended target.

"Hhmmmm... I hope I can find them soon enough. Seems like that cheap Wily imitation must have fallen for the dummy program. How convenient. Well then..."

----

DWII was constantly talking to himself.

"Too much shit to do, so little time. At least the Aile project is complete. Project W and Project Supremacy are still in the works, and I can't even work on Supremacy until Lumine recovers from his mistake. Damn. I guess that gives me a little time to work on Wily's bastard child."

DWII walked back into the room that had Model Z. In a nearby stasis chamber that been previously empty, was a reploid.

"That has got to be one of the strangest coincidences in all of history. Model Z's best bio match. Looks so much like Zero in his golden days. Stupid name though, seriously, who named him Girouette? Well, at least it turned out to be a good idea to test the Necro Man technology before installing it into Aile. But I still have to work on Model Z's memories." DWII sighed loudly.

----

Grey and Vent were aboard the floating Guardian Base. They had just got done briefing Prairie, the current Guardian Commander, of the situations that occurred with the Sage Trinity and the attack on the Hunters Guild Camp.

"That is, a lot to take in. Hhmmm..." Prairie was doing her best to analyze the situation and plan the next course of action.

At a nearby console sat a the communications officer on duty. She looked at her monitor and gasped loudly.

"Commander Prairie, someone has hacked their way into the communication system. I can't stop it... but it's weird, the signatures are somewhat similar to that of a cyber elf. Not only that, but they arn;t trying to cause any damage. They're trying to simultaneously open a video comm link with both us and the Sage Trinity's throne room."

Prairie looked towards the comm officer.

"Allow that person to open the comm link with us."

"Understood, communication open in three seconds..."

On the largest monitor in the command room, appeared the face of Lumine.

"Vent, isn't that..." Grey wondered out loud.

Lumine began to speak.

"Hello, we need to have a little chat. I will try to make this as brief as possible. I only have little over an hour..."

------  
End of Chapter 2


	4. Chapter 3: Revelations

-----------  
Saga 2: Delusions of Grandeur  
Chapter 3: Revelations  
-----------

Prairie, Vent, and Grey were staring at the monitor in utter disbelief. Grey shook it off. Model A floated up closer to the monitor and spoke to the reploid on the screen.

"You, your Lumine. Why do I know you? Wait, never mind that. Why are you here?"

Lumine merely shrugged.

"I told you, we need to have a little chat. A very powerful human is about to set into motion plans, plans that once complete, would ensure his domination over the world for eternity. If you want any more details, you will open the communication line with Master Mikhail and Master Thomas. A three way call, if you will."

Prairie nodded to the comm officer, and a second simultaneous communication line was opened with the Sage Trinity throne room. Mikhail and Thomas beheld what appeared on their monitor, and Thomas had his eyes wide open. The phantom of his dreams, the one who haunted his fragmented memories, was just sitting there with a strange smile.

"You! What did you do to me! What the hell do you want?"

Lumine chuckled for a moment, then calmed down and began to speak calmly.

"It matters not what I want, at least not anymore. My plans have failed for the final time, and that strange green orb has abandoned me, saying my ideals didn't match his."

The people aboard the guardian base looked at each other, wondering if Lumine had gone completely insane and retarded.

"But enough of that, what I am here for is to forewarn you and to give out a few vital bits of information. The things I have to say are important to all of you, at one point or another. First off, a little back history is required."

Lumine pointed at Model X and Model A.

"Do you know who you two truly are?"

X and A looked at each other, not knowing how to respond. Prairie on the other hand, knew exactly what to say.

"Lumine was it? We have located your data, and I do not appreciate this long, drawn out psycho babble. Get on with it, or I'll have your existence purged. Do you understand?"

Lumine laughed, and replied.

"You wouldn't dare. After all, without me, an evil mad man who wants to turn himself into a true god and rule this world forever may actually succeed. Do you understand? Do I have your attention?"

Everyone one else attending grew silent.

"Good. Now then, Master Mikhail, I will be using your help to explain much of this, while I merely fill in certain unknown details. You are after all, the great historian. Now Model X and A, it is time for you to figure out who you really are. To put simply, those bio-metals you reside in are merely shells infused with highly modified Force Metal."

"Your souls were pulled from the abyss of the cyber world, that which engulfs the souls of many fallen reploids, and on rare occasions, humans. The two of you were formally known as X and Axl. Mikhail, I need to reorganize my data so I can explain this faster, so meantime, explain to them who X and Axl are, hhhmmm? And while your at it, throw in Zero too, since that was the original name of Model Z."

Master Mikhail looked at Lumine with a dropped jaw.

"None of what you said makes a damn lick of sense!"

Lumine shrugged.

"Well, you better tell them about those three anyway, since the rest of what I will be telling you will make less sense. So start from the beginning until I tell you to stop."

Mikhail wanted to say something, but opted not to do so, and instead began bringing up files of the 20XX era.

" clears throat Ahem. Well, Ill give the abridged version. A long time ago, there were two scientists, one was named Dr. Wily, the other was Dr. Light. They were the first ones to create sentient robots. To cut to the chase, Dr. Wily ended up trying to take over the world many times, but each time was stopped by Dr. Light's strongest robot, Mega Man."

"Eventually, an apocalyptic battle occurred between the two scientists and a third scientist of unknown intentions by the name of Dr. Cossack. This battle resulted in the deaths of the three doctors, along with Mega Man, Bass, and most of the worlds most powerful and intelligent robots. Shortly after, the creation of intelligent robots was banned by every nation in the world."

Lumine interjected.

"I'm not too informed of the events of that era, but I do have one detail that will become important later on. Before Dr. Wily was killed, two things happened. He created a clone body that he did not successfully transfer into, and he did transfer himself into a computer system of unknown type. Master Mikhail, please continue."

"Before Dr. Light was killed, he had completed one final robot. A robot with the abilities of completely free will, and was more powerful than any robot before him. His name was X. Immediately upon creation he was sealed for a time of thirty years. However, his capsule was not actually discovered until 100 years after his sealing, the human who found him was a man named Dr. Cain."

"Dr. Cain took the designs of X, and though not perfectly, did manage to make more robots like him. These robots were dubbed reploids. The first reploid Cain made was a reploid named Sigma."

Everyone standing in the control room of the Guardian HQ ship shivered. There was barely a human or reploid alive that did not at least vaguely know who Sigma was. His legacy, along with the Maverick Virus, is one of the few things of the 22nd century that was well recorded in history books. Something then popped into Grey's mind.

"So wait, every reploid in history, is based on X's designs to some extent or another?"

Lumine answered coldly to this one.

"With the exception of Zero and Omega, as far as I know, that is correct. Mikhail, continue please."

"Once again, I will give an abridged version. Sigma became the leader of the Maverick Hunters, a group under the command of the government, and consisted almost entirely of reploids, and there sole purpose was to eradicate and otherwise deal with mavericks. X and Zero soon joined this organization. However, not too long after that, Sigma went insane and rebelled against humanity. He tried many times to bring the world under his control. He was stopped every time by X, Zero, and the Maverick Hunters."

"Many years into the battle, a group to rival the Maverick Hunters rose. They were called Red Alert, but they were not officially sponsored by the human government. At first, there existence was tolerated due to the work they did, but soon the Maverick Hunters were ordered to terminate them as if they were mavericks, due mostly to the fact that Red Alert began conducting other operations, including assassinations. What wasn't known at the time was that Sigma was manipulating there leader, Red."

"About this time, a prototype reploid named Axl defected from Red Alert and sought asylum with the hunters. Records show that Axl was not trusted at first, but was eventually allowed into the Maverick Hunters. Axl had an ability that was unique at that time, the ability to transform, and assume the appearances, and in most cases powers, of any other reploid he had DNA information for. Come to think of it, it was incredibly similar to your abilities Model A."

Model A was silent. He could not think of anything to say. He was just plain dumbfounded.

"Surviving records shows that Axl was considered to be one of the four greatest Maverick Hunters of all time, along with X, Zero, and Vile. Vile was a powerful A class hunter, though some suspected him to be actually S class. However, for unknown reasons he had betrayed the hunters and joined Sigma's army. What is strange though is that the records of what happened to Axl and Vile after the Elf Wars started are completely missing."

Everyone took a moment to digest what had been said so far. This time, master Thomas spoke up.

"That's nice and all, but can you give us more details about Lumine and this Zero person?"

Lumine chirped up.

"I'm done reorganizing my data, and I would probably be more qualified to answer those. Zero... he is one of the most mysterious beings to ever exist. I do know a few things about him though, including something that only me and his creator knows. Simply put, Zero was the final creation of Dr. Wily. Zero, like X, had been sealed, and woke up a little bit after X did. I do suspect he had a part in the final war between the three doctors in the 21st century, but I can't confirm that. When Zero awoke, he had mindlessly attacked several groups of Maverick Hunters and slaughtered them. Sigma went in to deal with Zero himself. Sigma barely won, and ordered Zero to be brought to the repair center and studied. For unknown reasons, when Zero was reactivated, he had completely lost his memory, had no signs of being a Maverick, and was quite good. He soon joined the Maverick Hunters. The rest is pretty well known history up until the Elf Wars."

"As for myself, once upon a time, I was the project head of the Jakob Elevator."

Prairie perked up at that.

"YOU!? You were in charge of the Jakob Elevators construction?"

"Indeed I was. But, I was not content. Even with humanities coming newfound ability to more easily travel into space, I thought humanity and reploids were evolving much too slowly. So, I set into motion plans to vastly speed up that evolution. Years before that, I was working for a human corporation which tasked me with an important project. The creation of a reploid with the ability to use DNA to copy and transform into whatever he or she wished."

"Apparently, a reploid scientist named Gate was also working on such data, but never completed it, as he suddenly left said corporation to pursue how own goals, which involved the creation of something called Nightmare Zero. Gate was defeated by X. However, the leftover data fell into the hands of his previous employer, and they had me finish the project. This resulted in the creation of Axl. However, Axl did not agree with the companies plans at all, and escaped. It turned out that at some point he joined Red Alert. According to data confiscated from the Red Alert after its fall, Axl had no memories of anything before about 2 weeks before joining Red Alert."

"After Red Alert fell, Axl was officially a member of the Maverick Hunters, and I found it impossible to use him in my plans. So instead, I created new copy-chip reploids, and began my plans. Most of humanity, save for the best and brightest, and all reploids save for ones with copy chip technology, would be wiped out. With the help of Vile, I manipulated Sigma into taking the credit for all my wrong doings, and apparently Sigma started carrying out his own plans."

"Thanks to Zero, X, and Axl, I finally managed to get Sigma killed, permanently. But then the three of them attacked me. I thought I was powerful enough to defeat them, but that wasn't meant to be. But, before I was killed and pulled into the abyss of cyber space, I left Axl one final present. Smashing his head crystal, I left him a part of my soul, and some virus data. Axl, to be precise, was an incomplete prototype. The plans I had for him, the things I left in him, were meant to change him in two ways. First, he would gradually be improved until he realized his full potential, and was on par with fully developed copy-chip reploids. The second was to corrupt his mind and make him the new avatar that would carry out my plans."

"Though he did gradually become more powerful, his mind was never altered or influenced, for reasons that I still don't know to this day. But apparently, that chunk of my soul remained with him even when he died and was pulled into cyber space, and even when Albert pulled Axl's soul into bio metal Model A."

"Fortunately for me, Grey escaped from Albert's lab, and this Ashe woman recovered Model A. While Model A was being used by Grey, I simply waited. I wasn't sure what I was waiting for. Then I found it. Grey and Model A defeated that shadow using bio metal, Siarnaq I believe, and went to speak with the Sage Trinity. It was there I saw Thomas, and I realized I could use him, if I could properly infect him, so I did. I transferred that chunk of my soul from Model A to Thomas, and then using it as a beacon, pulled the rest of my soul from cyber space into Thomas's subconscious."

Everyone was dead silent. Grey and Vent looked confused as hell. Model X and Model A were looking puzzled, wondering how much of this could be true, considering that they don't remember any of it. Prairie was in deep thought, Mikhail was exhausted, and Thomas had a look of pure anger on his face.

"Much happened between the Elf wars and present, though most of that I don't have time for, and it's mostly irrelevant. Though Prairie, or should I say, Alouette..."

Prairie snapped.

"MY NAME IS PRAIRIE. I have not gone by Alouette in a long time, that name is dead to me, so be respectful."

"Ok ok, I understand, but point is, I would be very careful if I were you. This mad man I spoke of will most likely be targeting you personally, for the purpose of your capture, If I understood his intentions correctly."

"What the hell do you mean by that?"

"Remember way back when you were much younger, when you, your late human sister Ciel, and Zero were fighting against a human named Weil?"

Prairie frowned at that, and slowly nodded her head.

"The mad man has captured the soul of Weil, and Weil told him something interesting about you and Ciel. Apparently for starters, despite you being a reploid and Ciel being a human, the two of you are biologically related, which should be impossible for reploids and humans of that era. Secondly, as to who Ciels', and possibly your parents could be, Weil NEVER found who your parents could be, Your DNA did not match any known human or reploid. And lastly, Weil did some investigations on you, and found something rather strange."

"Until about two months before the two of you defected to the resistance against Neo Arcadia, Neo-Arcadian's database had no record of you existing, at all, On top of that, extremely weak temporal anomalies had been detected in Ciel. Simply, the two of you simply just appeared into existence one day. This mad man that holds Weil prisoner wants to find you, study you, and run you through experiments."

"So like I said, watch your back. Anyways, enough back story, time to focus on the present."

Model X and Model A spoke in unison.

"It's about time!"

"Yes well. Remember that clone of Wily I spoke of? Though Wily didn't successfully transfer his soul, he did transfer all of his memories and a few other things. That very clone is the mad man I spoke of. When Wily's fortress was destroyed, the clone was in a capsule, awaiting soul transfer. Somehow, the clone's capsule survived the destruction around it. Apparently, after being neglected for so long, the clone developed a soul of its own, but retained the memories, skills, and other things Wily had. And now he is fully awake, and planning something huge."

"But before he proceeds with his operations, he has a few other things he plans on taking care of first. In a few hours, he will be carrying out an assault on this mental institution."

Lumine made data appear on the screen regarding the psychiatric hospital in question, including the data on the intended target.

"DWII, as the clone has now been named, intends to capture or kill this man. DWII believes that the soul of the original Dr. Wily is hiding in his subconscious. I think DWII is just delusional and paranoid, but since he believes it to be, he will carry out this assault."

Master Thomas spoke up.

"And we should care... why?"

"Well, theres one reason you all should care, and two reasons why Vent boy here should care as well. First off,? By some trickery of data manipulation, Lumine made it seem like his face was looking at Vent. ?Vent, the very person who is leading this assault, I believe she is a friend of yours. Aile, I think it was."

Vent looked very angry.

"Your lying!"

"No Vent, unless DWII is deceiving me as well, it's the truth. And I suspect you are about to get angrier with me. After all, the man DWII plans to capture or kill is your father..."

Vent turned to Prairie.

"Delete him, now! This lying bastard needs to go..."

Model X spoke to Vent.

"Vent, calm down."

Lumine chuckled.

"Oh yes, you definitely need to calm down. It's not like you can delete me anyway. Most of my core is still in DWII's LAN. Hell, if you could kill me, I would be endlessly glad, as without me, that crazy man can't succeed, and I would be finally be free. And you definitely need to prevent your father's capture, because if DWII is successful, his plans are much more likely to succeed."

Mikhail was getting impatient.

"What are his plans, pray tell?"

"Well, to be blunt, time travel."

Everyone spoke up at once.

"WHAT?!"

Lumine waited for them to calm down, then continued.

"Quite simply, DWII knows that if he tries to take over the world right now, there is a risk of being defeated. But what if he took a small army, and all the technology of this day and age, and went back to say, the 21st or 22nd century? What would happen? Simple, he would take over this world by storm, and no one could lift a finger to stop him. Which is why if you get the chance before he succeeds, kill me."

Thomas asked Lumine a question.

"Tell me, how would your death affect anything?"

"Well, to cause him and his army, and computers containing data on all the technology he has acquired, to travel that far back in time, would require insane amounts of energy. At first, he was clueless on how to generate that much power. Then he found me, and apparently found just what that idea is. Do yall know what cyberelves are?"

Prairie knew first hand exactly what they were.

"Small beings, similar to human ghosts, usually the souls of dead reploids. They exist in the abyss of cyber-space, but either naturally or artificially, can be brought into the real world. They often have powers that humans and reploids can use. Serpent also once used a large number of them as a power source in a power plant, and used there collective fear to power Model W."

Lumine smiled.

"My my, you are quite correct. But the kind of power needed here, would require cyberelves in the billions. And he simply isn't patient to kill that many reploids, or even artificially enchanced humans for that matter, and collecting them would just be a pain in the ass for him."

"Which is where I come in, because of my extensive knowledge of copy chip technology. Imagine, the copy chip can make a reploid transform into anything. Well, now imagine if that technology was modified to forcibly transform reploids and humans into living cyberelves on a large scale. Not only would this make them easier to harvest, but since there actually still alive and not just remnants of fallen souls, the power output is approximately 10 times greater."

Master Mikhail, Master Thomas, and everyone aboard Guardian HQ was outright shocked.

"That's just... evil... sick... wrong! We have got to stop them!" Was Model A's angry reply

"Well then, you better start with the assault on the asylum, and unfortunately, I'm out of time, but I would hurry, I approximate that the asylum will be attacked in about 30 minutes..."

Lumine disappeared from the monitors.

The Sage Council and the Guardians immediately began to make plans and send troops to defend the medical ward, and to retrieve Vent's father.

---

Aile and her merry band of killers were almost to the coordinates of the assault.

Michael was quite joyous.

"Lookie, were almost there! Fun time! Weee!"

Kyouki was rather annoyed at Michael.

"Michael, if you don't shut the hell up, I will stab you in your fucking head and make sure your speech functions never work again. This also applies if you get in my way in battle, understand?"

Michael waved Kyouki off.

"Blah blah, I got ya, don't get so worked up."

Meanwhile, Aile was thinking to herself.

"Wily better know what he's doing..."

---

DWII clapped his hands together.

"VOILA!"

Giro awoke and sat straight up. He then merged with Model Z.

"Model Z, do you remember? Everything?"

Giro shook his head, Model Z also acknowledged.

"Good, go back up Aile. I suddenly have a very bad feeling..."

------  
End of Chapter 3 


End file.

Mega Man, Sci-Fi