Author's Note: Well, back from the long Christmas holidays. Now with no stress and a fresh idea of X in my mind, I'm ready to write again. I may be a bit rusty, but I have a feeling I can pick up the slack soon. Remember, I'm a novice at this writing stuff, so no MSTing me to death...I don't think I could handle it :D Ah, who am I kidding? MSTings are fun! Seriously though, the series is kinda going as fast as it ever will, so hopefully it's fast enough for you.

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   "We must never cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time." - TS Eliot.

Aldayr Excavation Site
Antarctic Circle
November 5th, 2093
The Present

   The harsh cold winds stung Anyi's cheeks. She had just left the jet behind, but even now, the dense mist covered it from sight. She was on a very flat, icy surface which glimmered brightly below what sunrays could get through the fog. Looking up ahead of her, Zero and X were walking together, side by side. Anyi could only dream of what their relationship is like, having been through the Reploid Wars. They seemed to be very good friends; Anyi hoped that one day she would be friends with them as well. As it was, she was just kind of their resident mechanic who did work for them. She then realized that X and Zero were still wearing light clothing; X was in his white cotton dress shirt with light blue jeans and Zero was in his red silk v-shirt with black dress pants. Anyi began to feel silly wearing all the thermal hides she had on.

   X and Zero both had the same build, in fact their bodies also looked fairly similar except for the hair. Perhaps they were brothers, Anyi didn't really know. She did know X's blue eyes with his long deep-blue hair over his shoulder when she was fixing the neck wound.

   'Wait, why did I think of that?' thought Anyi to herself.

   "Welcome to the Antartica! Land of the Cold, Frozen, and Dead," yelled a gruffy, yet whiny voice from out of the mist.

   Anyi looked up ahead to see a faint figure near the fading X and Zero. 'Oops, left behind!' she thought as she broke into a run. She nearly slipped a few times trying to catch up. Now next to X, she could clearly see the short, gruffy man wearing the same amount of clothing as she was. This man had a scruffy beard and was nearly completely bald.

   "Hello, I'm Dr. Anyi Solieu," said Anyi automatically.

   "Eh. Who are these two and what's with the light clothing?" asked the man slowly.

   "Oh! This is X and Zero, they are interested in the contents of the laboratory," replied Anyi.

   "That doesn't answer...--What are they?" asked the man with a hard look on his face.

   "We are androids," answered X, "so we do not require clothing to regulate temperature."

   "Whatever. Dr. Solieu, I assume they are yours?" asked the man.

   "Huh? No, they have free will! X and Zero are not reploids, they are androids!"

   "Great. They better not lose it in my area. Dr. Solieu I expect you keep those things close at hand, and I will be restricting access without armed supervision."

   Zero's eyes began to narrow, but X nudged him in the shoulder to stop. Anyi noticed it and started getting nervous. When the man turned around to walk away, everyone followed him into the mist.

   Unfortunately, the man had a point.

   Everytime a reploid was created in order to have free will, their naneural nets degraded until they lost all sanity and self-awareness. They turned into basic killing machines. Anyi remembered reading about it a long time ago in class. There were many reploids created which duplicated X's design, but they all lost their sanity within just a few short years. The only ones who seemed to survive this horrible problem were Zero and X. She was certain there was a reploid who managed to live through the epidemic, but she couldn't recall the name. Nevertheless, that was why the scientific community gave up on trying to duplicate the naneural net. Until they could find some way to avoid the naneural degradation, it was illegal to attempt any duplication of free will.

   Now, here was this man who had probably heard about this from the news. Because of this epidemic, humankind placed itself further above machines, causing a lot of hatred and fear across all three planets. The worse part is that no one cared about the Maverick Hunters during the Reploid wars, just because it was kept outside of the human community. If anything, it outraged humans even further, to the point of being against the side that X and Zero were on.

   'That must really hurt' thought Anyi.

   "By the way, I'm Eugene Parker, one of the lead workers for this archaeological site. Us workers have dug up your laboratory and now all those scientist guys are checking it out, so you'll find them all at the site," said the scruffy man.

   ***

Aldayr Excavation Site
Antarctic Circle
November 5th, 2093
The Present

   Even though there wasn't as much mist at the site, X could make out a number of sturdy tents and a portable trailer which seemed to be a bar or a lounge. What really caught his eye though, was the number of blinking red lights which marked the site. X felt his anxiety building and took a glance at Zero. Zero smiled and motioned towards the marked site. Anyi ran past them with an excited scream of laughter. She turned around to face X, her face lit up in spite of the cold.

   "I can't believe it! It took such a long time to find it, but Dr. Caine's research has paid off!" began Anyi, "...It's too bad he never got to see the product of his work."

   "Well, now what do we do?" asked Zero.

   "We go inside our past and find out the truth," replied X.

   The three headed down the large cement stairs into the laboratory. X walked through the torn metal door first. What he saw wasn't pleasant. The walls were charred from their original bluish-grey and scorch marks covered the floor. The ceiling had caved in various places and many wires hung from the ceiling. It seemed that most of the scrap on the floor was actually the equipment that used to be housed in this place.

   "What the heck happened?" asked Zero.

   "...I don't know. At least, I don't think I do," replied X.

   "Oh no! How are we gonna find anything in this mess?" asked Anyi with a sigh of disappointment.

   The three continued walking, noticing a lot of blown-out panels and burnt circuitry. Up ahead, a few scientists had flashlights scanning a part of the wall.

   "Excuse me, but do you know what happened here?" asked Anyi.

   Two of the scientists turned around to face the trio coming up from behind. The middle one was pale and kind of thinly. Nevertheless, he seemed to have an aura of leadership.

   "I'm Dr. Aldayr, head of the dig," replied the frail man, "and this here is my assistant, Mr. Lee. We are simply looking at the only electrical circuits which were not so badly damaged in the explosion. We believe this section of the room was outside the blast radius."

   "...Have you found any bodies?" asked X.

   "There was a lot of scrap metal which seemed charred and blown to bits, so we doubt any of his work survived. Other than that, no human bodies have been discovered yet."

   X scanned the wall with an X-Ray and Elemental Analyzer. He noted that the filaments ran down into the floor and seemed bend around the middle of the room. He broke off from the group in order to follow any other circuits to a possible door or control panel. Zero turned around to see where he was going.

   "Hey X, what are you up to?" asked Zero.

   "Check it out on your scanners," replied X.

   Immediately Zero smiled and walked the same path that X took moments ago. Anyi raised an eyebrow and shrugged at the quizzical looks of the scientists. She followed behind Zero in order to catch up with X.

   Meanwhile, X was still looking at the various circuitry panels until it came to a stop behind the wall. There, the explosion seemed to have burned through the wall.

   "Ah shit, the wires have been burned through," said X in disgust.

   "Well, check to see if the filament was oxidized," suggested Zero.

   X raised his fist and exhaled very loudly into a martial arts stance. Suddenly, a blue blur shot out from X's body and the panel was instantly in X's retracted hand.

   "Hmm, it was weaker than I guessed," X thought out loud.

   Anyi raised both her eyebrows in surprise. She didn't even see his hand move. Zero answered Anyi's surprised look with a quiet laugh.

   "All right, now just cut off the oxidized ends," said Zero.

   X responded with a quick snap of the brittle wires.

   "Now heat the wires gently so that you can bend them and then twist them together."

   X held his hands on the wires and began to eject cool plasma which was spread across the bare copper. He was surprised that there was no silicon in the panel, however perhaps the circuitry was only for a button and not for anything complicated.

   "Alright, we found some of Dr. Light's old notes over here; some of them survived!" yelled a voice from across the laboratory.

   "Coming!" yelled Anyi enthusiastically as she jumped across the scrap piles.

   X glanced back to see where Anyi went, but the dust quickly obscured his vision. X then turned his sight toward Zero who was rather impatient.

   "X, any more heat and you're gonna have very shiny fingers when the copper solidifies on your hands," said Zero quietly.

   X turned his gaze back down towards his hands where he was still heating the wires. Immediately he disconnected.

   "Damnit, sorry about that."

   "Boy, someone is easily distracted. Then again, you've been like that for quite some time. Starting to feel senility setting in?" asked Zero with a smirk.

   "Very funny...What's next?" asked X lightly.

   "Simple, just twist them together and send an electrical pulse across the system by crossing the wires in your arm. I suggest you take it off first."

   "...Okay, you're the expert on this stuff," and with that, X twisted the wires. He then used his right hand and twisted a strip of metal across his fore-arm. There was a large clicking sound and the exhaust from the pressure of his arm cleaned some of the dust off the wall. X twisted his left arm off his body and took out some of his own wires which were primarily only used in the tertiary systems, as his main system was much more complex and powerful.

   "Alright, don't send too much electricity or you'll fry the system," said Zero calmly.

   An electrical gurgle was heard and immediately X felt a small rumble. Quickly re-attaching his arm, he turned around to face the sound. The floor in the middle began to open slowly, but then a rusting sound took over and it began to slow down to a complete stop.

   "Hmmm, well we definitely found something important," said Zero bluntly.

   X jumped over a scrap pile to get a closer look at the new slit which formed across the center of the laboratory. Zero came up from behind and jumped down through the hole into the darkness. He heard Zero hit the ground with a roll. X used nightvision to see where Zero had disappeared to, finding nothing. X shrugged and jumped down the hole after him.

   ***

Aldayr Excavation Site - Dr. Light's Office
Antarctic Circle
November 5th, 2093
The Present

   "This is simply amazing!" exclaimed Anyi as she went through the half-burned folders. She was surprised to find anything kept on paper, figuring that any information would have been kept on DVDs, which were the disk storage devices back in those days. Perhaps Dr. Light felt more comfortable keeping everything written down. In any case, it was difficult to read and was made even more illegible by the scorch marks across the folders.

   "Look for DVD cases in some of the other cabinets, perhaps he did keep something on disk after all," said Dr. Aldayr to the other scientists.

   Anyi found herself walking on hundreds of glass shards. The windows which separated this office from the main laboratory were completely destroyed. There were a few more rooms which connected to the main lab area, but they seemed to be for monitoring only. With how high the ceiling was in the lab, it was more like a gym.

   "I'm surprised that nobody found this place earlier," remarked Anyi.

   "Well, if you saw how much ice was here when we first got to this place, you would have wondered if these were the right co-ordinates, just as we did," replied Mr. Lee.

   "I wonder how the heck it got from Cluster One to this place," pondered Anyi.

   "That's why we're here. What was your name again?" asked Mr. Lee.

   "Oh! I'm sorry, I was so excited before that I forgot to give you one. I'm Dr. Anyi Solieu," replied Anyi.

   "You mean THE Dr. Solieu, the theorist behind Solieu Fields!?" Mr. Lee said ecstatically.

   Anyi blushed. 'I guess my thesis has got around' thought Anyi in embarrassement.

   "Um...Yeah, that's me," replied Anyi.

   "Wow! What are you doing here now?"

   Meanwhile the other scientists gathered around to see if it truly was Dr. Solieu. A lot of them were happy to meet her. Anyi giggled from all the attention. She became a respected scientist ever since her work on new teleportation theory.

   "Well, I'm here to help out X and Zero with Dr. Caine's research. He died before he managed to publish any findings. I want to prove that free will is possible for all reploids," said Anyi.

   A lot of the scientists gasped at the technological taboo. Dr. Aldayr turned around and motioned for everyone to get back to work. Anyi went back to sorting through the legible papers.

   "So you stopped working on the Higg's problem?" asked Mr. Lee.

   "Uh yeah, but I'm well versed in the problem and was planning on working at it the same time as helping out my friend X. I heard that Dr. Caine died and I was a research assistant with him one time. I felt I should carry on his work, but also I'm very fond of machines."

   "Hmmm, that attitude has been dying as of late," Mr. Lee pointed out.

   "...Yeah, I guess so," said Anyi, "Oh, now here is something!"

   Anyi found the original technical schematics of Megaman X, perfectly untouched. She also managed to find a technical layout of the laboratory. Mr. Lee looked over her shoulder in awe.

   "Wow, those are complete technical schematics on the androids! That could be very useful, seeing how hard it is to determine their complete nature. Maybe Dr. Light left some notes on duplicating his work!" he exclaimed.

   "Yeah, also this technical layout should help us find something, but it's too dark in here," said Anyi.

   Dr. Aldayr turned and whistled in appreciation at their findings. He handed a flashlight to Anyi.

   "Here, that should help," said the frail man.

   "Look here," Anyi pointed to the main lab area on the map, "it says that the capsules are beneath the floor. We should definitely find something there!"

   "Well let's go check it out," Mr. Lee responded.

   Anyi went off first towards the main lab area, followed by all the other scientists, some of them admiring her. Anyi was starting to get annoyed at all the extra attention. The theory was fairly important, she supposed, but it's not like she completed the entire thesis properly. However Dr. Caine insisted on taking it. She was surprised that it was even published in the USE journals. Then again, not a lot was happening in science these days, considering the economic problems on Earth. Right now, Venus was the place to be for technological advancement. The UN Terran government was hoping for a big breakthrough which would bring back a lot of the population to Earth, which was standing at a paltry two billion people.

   'I guess I just came up with the right idea at the right time' thought Anyi to herself.

   Still, she was certain it wasn't the theory that the scientists were respectful of. It was her age. She hadn't spent fourty years in research, in fact she was one of the youngest doctors on the planet. Either way, the pairs of eyes at her back, 'and probably other assets come to think of it,' Anyi concluded, were beginning to bother her.

   Anyi jumped over the last scrap pile and nearly fell into the hole which greeted her feet. Anyi screamed and fell forward, managing to jump over the hole at the last second and roll on the other side.

   "Watch your step, there's a big hole right here!" exclaimed Anyi. The scientists stopped at the top of the last scrap pile and looked down.

   "You okay up there!?" came a voice from down the hole.

   "Huh? X! What are you doing down there?" asked Anyi.

   "Come down and I'll show you! It's a 6.71 meter drop!" replied X.

   "That's crazy! I'm not doing that!" yelled Anyi back down the hole.

   "Don't worry, I'm right here. I'll catch you!"

   Anyi thought about it. He was an android and they don't make many mistakes. Still, six and a half meters was a long drop.

   "...I don't know X, that's a little too far for my sound mind," said Anyi quietly.

   "What? Try to keep it above 4 decibels so I can hear it!" came the voice from below.

   Anyi smiled at that comment. Somehow she felt reassured by X's technical behaviour, making her feel a little more comfortable.

   "Okay, here I come!" yelled Anyi as she jumped and screamed by reflex. The scream was cut short when X jumped up and caught her in his arms. He came back down to the ground in a kneeling position, with a metallic thud. He immediately stood up with Anyi across his arms.

   "...Nice catch," said Anyi, still a little dizzy from the experience. Anyi looked up at X, who seemed rather distant. 'I wonder what's wrong with him?' thought Anyi. Of course, she knew that X always seemed kind of distracted. She remembered he said it was because he didn't like turning on primary systems if he could avoid it.

   "...Uh, X? You know she can probably walk by herself," came Zero's voice out of the darkness.

   Anyi could see that the comment startled X and he put her down immediately. Anyi stood up and brushed the dust off her shoulders. She took a look around before realizing that she couldn't see anything except the darkish grey figure of X. She checked herself for the flashlight she got from Dr. Aldayr in the office and turned it on.

   "There we go, now I can finally see something!" said Anyi.

   "Hey X, come take a look at this monitor!" came Zero's voice again. Anyi shone her light in the direction and saw the reflections from his silk shirt as well as a large monitor behind him. She used the light to see the rest of the room. There seemed to be five mechanical launchpads or ejectors of some sort in the floor, with three capsules near the back wall. Perhaps there was originally eight capsules, but then where did the other five go?

   "Hmm, apparently these capsules are outfitted to be launched into space as satellites with degrading orbits," said Zero, who was using the interface on the monitor.

   "You mean that the system is still working down here?" asked X.

   "Yeah, it didn't get caught in the explosion and seems to have it's own power source. I think it's some sort of escape area. Yet, the circuitry is divided up so that there are three circuit panels for capsules in sets of three, with two being installed in the last panel. For some reason, the first panel is damaged so that the first three wouldn't launch."

   "So did the panel get caught in the explosion?" asked Anyi.

   "No, I don't think the explosion affected anything down here," replied Zero.

   "Just what the heck happened here?" said X quietly.

   Anyi brought her flashlight up across the capsules. The first one was empty, but the second one was smashed with the glass being all around the capsules.

   "Huh? Something broke out of the capsule!" exclaimed Anyi.

   "What, how do you figure?" asked Zero who quickly turned around to see the damaged capsule.

   "Well, the glass is around the outside, so somebody must have broke it from inside the capsule!"

   "...You're right. That means that someone was in there and managed to break out," deduced X.

   "What the heck is going on? I think that a battle destroyed this entire lab!"

   "...I think so too, but I don't remember anything," said X.

   "Maybe it's because you aren't Rock like our original speculation..." answered Zero.

   With that, Zero went up to a panel behind the third capsule.

   "Use your X-ray, X. It's not sealed with lead like the rest of them," said Zero.

   X used it and immediately gasped in astonishment.

   "I guess Dr. Caine was always right about me not being an upgrade of Rock...although why do I have such strange memories about my past?" whispered X.

   Both X and Zero went up to the panel and took it out of the wall. There in the small compartment was a skeleton, nearly completely smashed. Dried brownish stains covered the floor and the stench of iron and blood fled from the small hole. Next to the skeleton was a blue scrap of metal with a face plastered across a couple of bolts. The rest of the head was blown off with charred remains. The power core was completely obliterated. Anyi dropped her flashlight in horror.

   "I think it's safe to assume that something really bad happened here, and the good guys lost," said Zero quietly.

   "...Th-that's me? Or is it Rock--What's going..."

   X's face was covered with pain. He dropped to his knees and began to cry. Anyi wasn't certain what to do, she was scared, but this must have been especially horrid to X who couldn't have been expecting what he found today. She slowly picked up the flashlight and went over to X.

   "...X, I'm sorry that your past isn't what you wanted. I really wish things didn't...turn out this--" she stopped abruptly and knelt down to help X off the floor. Her flashlight picked up a reflection from inside the last capsule. She realized that the glass was fogged up, unlike the other ones. Zero came over to help her with X so that she could go take a look at the capsule. Rubbing the fog away from the glass, she was certain that what she saw was impossible.

   "X...I think I found something that could really help you with the happier part of your past," Anyi said slowly.

   X looked up at Anyi and walked over next to the capsule with Zero. That's when he saw one of the few things that could make him stop crying.

   It was the face of a young woman.

   ***

   Author's Comment: Well, I've gone and done it. I'm certain many Pro-Rock and Anti-X fans have just clicked close on their browser to never see my series ever again. It's too bad, but I assure you that if you keep reading you will find my reasons. I am not Pro-anything ( I am rather indifferent to X all together ), but I thought I had an interesting story to tell. Hopefully you enjoyed this latest instalment of the X series or else...I dunno why you'd still be reading it. Well, see you next week: same X-time, same X-channel!

Michael Raymond Vendittelli (LimousineDriver)