GCB Fanfics: The Fanfiction Project

Tryout Fic #7: BigE - Village Fic


There was a dark silence that surrounded the arena.

Night had fallen, and the match had long been over, but one blue robot still sat in the stands, head in his hands, replaying the day's events over and over in his circuits.

Zero is gone, a little voice inside him repeated. The reality of the situation was too harsh for Mega Man to deal with. Scorpion had shown no mercy in his battle, nothing resembling compassion--something even robots could feel. His thoughts meandered as he numbly watched the janitors mop up the oil that had spilled from Zero's decapit-

He buried his face again. He couldn't handle this pain.

He hadn't even met Zero until the contest started. Zero came from a dimension where he fought alongside a robot eerily similar to Mega Man, and Mega Man felt like he somehow knew Zero, though they'd never met. They became fast friends, and did everything together. In training, Zero was always happy and eager to point out flaws and limitations in Mega Man's attack programs, and multiple times Mega Man had even, to both their surprise, surpassed them. It was like Zero's presence was a booster. Zero was a robot too, albeit a far more advanced model than Mega Man, but he had seemed to surpass the limits of his programming, and Zero's courage and fortitude inspired Mega Man to go the distance and test the limits of Dr. Light's technology.

But now, Zero was gone...

There were timid footsteps echoing in the empty arena. Mega Man did not look up, though out of the corner of his eyes he saw something sit down next to him--a round, bright yellow ball. The ball sat for a little while, silent. Then it spoke.

"I guess I know how you feel."

Mega Man said nothing. His other friends at the contest had tried to convince him that they empathized with him, that they too felt pain at Zero's death, but he just couldn't listen to them at the moment. He was once human, and he had a heart, and it was broken.

The ball--Mega Man dimly recognized his name as Pac-Man--spoke again. Pac-Man's voice sounded scared, apprehensive. The longer he talked, however, the quicker his words came, like his speech was unleashing a dam of relief and powerful emotions.

"I fought Scorpion last year. I went in... overconfident. I was... well... full of myself. Really full of myself."

An image blearily appeared in Mega Man's memory banks of Pac-Man last year, clad in a fur coat, pulling up in a limo, drinking expensive wine. Another image soon appeared, of Pac-Man's charred, skinless body after less than ten seconds in the ring with Scorpion.

"I...," Pac-Man hesitated. "I... died. Scorpion... killed me. At the end of the tournament, they brought me back to life. The Committee, I mean. The guys in charge."

Mega Man remembered the rules of the tournament--to kill in the ring was strictly prohibited, punishable by prohibition from training or leaving the designated area. For some reason, the Committee refused to boot anyone out of the contest--yet. Pac-Man was the only contestant Scorpion had killed last year. This time, the ninja hadn't even waited until the later rounds to --

A torrent of emotion swept over Mega Man again, and he began to cry. As his tears fell, his thoughts lashed against him again. All these words, images that flashed before him--they offered no solace, no purpose save his mind's exposition. Zero was gone, and that was that.

"It's okay," Pac-Man muttered uncertainly. Mega Man barely heard him--all he wanted was to power down to turn off the pain. Pac-Man couldn't help him--he couldn't even last ten seconds in the ring against Scorpion before he was --

The full weight of the situation struck Mega Man like a cold slap to the face. Pac-Man had been killed by Scorpion last year, and here he was, talking to him, walking, breathing. "At the end of the tournament, they brought me back to life." The Committee would bring Zero back at the end of the tournament. They had to.

Mega Man stopped crying. He stared into the cool night sky, his face awash with tears, Pac-Man's stickly arm around his shoulder. He might not ever see Zero again, but at least the red robot would live on in his own dimension, to follow the path of the hero that he had chosen. In this way, Mega Man and Zero would still be friends, though they may never meet again. His heart filled with hopefulness and optimism for the future.

"Th-thanks," he said to Pac-Man. Pac-Man gave a lopsided grin. "Anything I can do to help," he said sincerely. Mega Man got up from the stands, and walked slowly back to his room. The pain was still there, but now it was not crushing him down. Now he could thrive off of it--train off of it--learn off of it. Zero, he thought, a smile creeping onto his face, wouldn't have had it any other way.

----

When he got back to his room, Pac-Man made to carefully bolt the fifteen locks on his door that he had purchased at Nook's shop. He had been living this way ever since his death last year, much to his family's dismay. For some reason, though, he felt no urge to fasten any but the bottom two locks.

Inside Pac-Man had festered terrible thoughts, apprehensions, and guilt. For a year he felt he had been unable to feel any joy, laugh at any humor, show any love. He had been growing distant from his wife, and his kids didn't admire him as much as they used to. It was like he'd lost himself.

Now, though, he felt... more free. He had found someone he felt he could talk to. As much as he loved his wife, she could not understand what he had been through. These people from other dimensions, they had experienced loss and pain and, in some cases, even their own deaths. When Pac-Man offered words of consolation to Mega Man, it was like he was talking to himself. He had barely spoken about his fight since it had happened. Now, it seemed like the burden was gone. Like he could... be Pac-Man again.

He got into bed and let sleep overtake him. For the first time in a year, Scorpion's skull was not a part of his dreams. Instead, he saw his family, laughing and playing...

Then a clown's face appeared.

Kefka.

Pac-Man awoke. He wouldn't let this new threat's looming presence destroy him, like Scorpion had done. Even though he might die again, he would come back a better man.




Today's Author: BigE
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