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The Dream Machine Chapter 9: Memories “So what is the problem at your lab? We were in such a rush I didn’t get to ask you until now.” X was driving a motorbike, with Dr. Sky sitting behind him. They were speaking through the intercom link between X and her environment suit helmet. “If it’s the worse case scenario, you’d find out eventually, so I might as well tell you now.” Dr. Sky apologized softly to Zero, and began to tell X about the machine and how Zero has been using it to communicate with Dr. Wily. X was very quite during the account. “Why didn’t he ask us for help?” X asked no one in particular. Even though Zero was a stranger to X, he understood the lone wolf attitude Zero often displayed during missions. “Is he okay?” “He seems fine for now. I have no idea what Wily is doing, but his hand is in it somewhere. Which is why I’m going back to take the machine apart piece by piece to find out. That leech! URGH!” Dr. Sky waved one of her fist in the air, then took several deep breaths. “Other than that, Zero’s been depressed.” “Depressed?” “About you.” Dr. Sky said matter-of-factly. “You did completely forget about him.” “Oh. I hadn’t realized it affected him that much.” “He’s also quite worried about you. He tells me you’ve been acting differently.” “Differently?” “Well, he told me about the time at the day care, how you suddenly zoned out and didn’t care about anyone at all.” “I don’t know what happened either. I think I was confused.” “Want to hear my theory?” “Please.” “People’s personalities are based on their past experiences. The more significant an event is, the more we rely on them for our judgment and reactions. This is all unsubstantiated, but maybe it’s that way with Reploids, too. Losing all your memory of Zero made you confused, probably because you were trying to recall something from your past with Zero as reference on what you should do or say at that point. It’s not just your memory that’s missing; a whole slice of your personality has gone along with it.” “Oh.” “What’s with the one word answers? Anyway, it’s not only for Zero’s sake you should get to the bottom of what’s wrong with your memory, but for your own sake as well.” Flashes of what he remembered from the Eurasia incident appeared before him. The most recurring memory was of something bright, warm… “A blue light.” X said. “I definitely remember a blue light.” “Could it be the same light I saw….” Before she could finish her thought, they had arrived at the lab. They decided to continue the conversation after they take care of the more immediate threat. Dr. Sky quickly took off the environment suit and lead X into the lab. She powered up the terminal and began typing on the keyboard. After a couple of minutes at the computer terminal, she sighed heavily. “It’s infected alright. Wily hid the traces very well. He seems to have been using something else in the lab to project some signal from this machine during the times Zero was using it.” Sky clenched her jaws. “I’m going to go get some tools, you should call Dr. Cain. If we’re going to beat Wily, I’m going to need his help.” Dr. Sky speed walked out of the lab. X was about to make the call to HQ when a voice interrupted. “I would hold off on the call for now, X.” “What?” X looked around the lab, but no one else was there. “I said I would hold off on the call for now, X.” It was a male voice. X concluded it was being broadcast from something in the lab. “You would do well to take my advice.” “Where are you, and what do you want?” “Step inside the recharge capsule.” “Wily?” X said, with a little bit more hatred than he cared to admit. “You’re about to be eradicated.” “I wouldn’t be so rude if I were you.” The largest screen flickered to life in the lab. It was an overhead shot, probably from a security camera, of the storage room. Dr. Sky was rummaging through some boxes. The sliding door slid shut on one side of the screen. Alarmed, Dr. Sky ran over and tried to open it, but it did not budge. “X! Can you hear me?!” Sky’s voice came over the speakers. “Hello? Anybody?!” She began pounding on the doors and calling out the names of the assistant bots, but the door remained shut. Her rising panic was clear even through the poor resolution of the video. X grunted and started for the door, before Wily stopped him again. “I wouldn’t do that either!” Looking back at the screen, X could see something was exploding in the store room. Dr. Sky yelled some choice words as she looked around for something to put out the sparks. She found extinguisher, and picked it up and aimed it at the electrical fire. “Next time,” Wily warned X gleefully, “It will be something larger that explodes. Now get in the capsule!” X thought over his options for a moment. He had no idea how deep Wily’s program was embedded in the hardware in the lab. Simply blowing up the monitor and computer that was in the lab won’t necessarily stop Wily from harming Sky. “That’s a good boy…” Wily cooed as X stepped into the capsule. “Now, let’s go down memory lane…” ------------------ “Stupid door! Evariste!” Dr. Sky yelled out to her assistant bots. “Garrett? Emma?” She had managed to put out the electrical fire, and nothing else in the room seems to be of immediate danger, so she shouldn’t have been so worried. By now, she could hear some of the other assistant bots on the other side of the door, pounding on it to open it. Unfortunately, the assistant bots were each quite small in size, so she wasn’t sure how well they would fare against two inch thick steel. She studied the door again; the sliding mechanism was on the other side. An idea hit Dr. Sky like lighting. “Garrett, is that you?” She heard some affirmative beeping from the other side. “Great, you go find two others, and go to my room to get the blue tool box. Go get Emma, too, she’s good with wiring.” By giving the assistant bots orders from the other side, she managed to lead them through overriding the sliding mechanism. It took several wrong turns and over half an hour, but finally she was free. “Thanks!” She quickly smiled at the assistants, who seemed to be beeping proudly at their success. “Now, have you seen X?” The assistants suddenly stopped beeping and ran down the hallway. Dr. Sky followed. Why hadn’t X come to get her? He should have noticed by now that she was missing. Unless something happened to him too… The assistant bots lead her back to the lab, where she found X resting inside the modified recharge capsule. Her heart sank. It was highly improbable that X would decide by himself to get inside. She glanced around to see no one else was around, then sprinted towards X. “X!” Dr. Sky shook X furiously. “Wake up! What happened?” X did not respond. Dr. Sky went over to the data panel and brought up the session history. The machine had been activated. It’s got to be that Dr. Wily! Dr. Sky thought angrily as she skimmed the command lines. He knew all my pass codes, which meant he was monitoring the systems before I even activated the machine! “Ugh.” X was starting to wake up, so Dr. Sky abandoned the terminal and rushed by X’s side. “Dr. Sky?” “What happened here?!” With great effort—since X was very heavy—Dr. Sky helped X get out of the capsule. X was very disoriented, so Dr. Sky set him down to sit on the floor, kneeling down herself so she would be at eyelevel with him. “Why were you using the machine?” It was then that X snapped back into focus. “I remember.” X declared. “About Zero.” “From the machine?” Dr. Sky looked at X, then back at the machine. “I remember!” X said happily, and wrapped both arms around Dr. Sky in an embrace. “It’s great! I remember! I remember!” X kept repeating that sentence for probably half a minute. After getting over the shock, Dr. Sky didn’t feel like it was her place to ruin the moment, so she returned the hug. Finally X let go of Dr. Sky, and rubbed away something from his eyes. “I’m glad you finally remember about Zero, but something strange just happened here. Why were you in the capsule? Did you already call Maverick Hunter HQ?” X got up from the ground and tilted his head in thought. A second later, he let out an anguished cry and clutched his head with both hands. “X…” Dr. Sky started to reach out towards X, but thought the better of it and started to innocently back away towards the door. Since Dr. Wily’s program activated the dream cycle, there was no telling what he did to X, or what X was about to do now. X curled into a ball on the floor and then let out a series of gasps and screams. As X’s condition continued to deteriorate, Dr. Sky didn’t see the need for appearances anymore, so she turned around broke into a full scaled sprint towards the exit. She only managed to take three steps before she heard the sound of metallic footsteps coming after her. One step after that, she felt X’s arm wrap around her waist, her feet lifted off the ground, and she started to fly in the opposite direction. There was a sick thud when she hit the wall on the opposite side of the room. Her body hit the wall with such force that she literally bounced off and fell face first in the ground. X approached Dr. Sky’s body while several assistant bots huddled in the corner. X noted the blood on the wall, and looked down at Dr. Sky, who still hadn’t moved. He placed a finger on her neck and waited for ten seconds. “She’s dead.” He told someone, and started to move away from the body. “Should I get rid of the little ones too?” X turned and started to approach the assistant bots. “No?” He turned for the door, very casually. “What is your next order? Yes.” When X finally left the lab, the assistant bots gathered around Dr. Sky’s body, which was now in a large pool of blood, and started to whimper. They tried to wake her up, despite their knowledge that she was already dead. Fan Fiction - Top |
