Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Oh, yeah. One more thing. What do you think is wrong if somebody keeps having memory glitches?” Axl asked lightly. “Ya know, like he’s just walking and all of a sudden it’s like he’s a newbuilt.”

“Hm.” Carta propped his fingers together, leaning forward on his massive body, and swept his chipped ears a few degrees higher. “There are a number of possibilities. Is this Reploid an older model?”

“Nah, I don’t think so. He seems pretty cutting-edge,” he added with an inward glint of mirth.

“Ah, that narrows it down. Does this Reploid experience any other problems? Dizzer, perhaps, or a speech impediment?”

“Nope.”

For a moment Carta sat, thinking it over as he hummed to himself. Finally he lifted his head and gave the verdict. “I can only come to two conclusions. If the Reploid displayed irregular tendencies, then memories issues could stem from internal damage or viral infection. However, if the Reploid is healthy in all other respects, temporary amnesia indicates some kind of initiation error. You see, a Reploid is very similar to a human being in this as well. If a baby is born improperly, it will experience problems for the rest of its life. If a Reploid undergoes a slovenly primary boot-up, it could also experience problems as the system tries to reset itself.”

“Gotcha.” Axl rocked on the balls of his feet, mulling this information over. “Hey, I promise this is the last question, but this bad boot-up stuff…does it screw with anything else? I mean, could it get worse?”

“I think not. Indeed, if this Reploid is as…cutting-edge…as you claim, then I suspect that, given time, the error will rectify itself.”

Axl grinned. “Glad to hear it, doc. Thanks.” So he wasn’t really broken. A great load was taken off his mind with Carta’s words.

“Take care of yourself, Axl. Avoid unnecessary strain and artificial sensory input until your memory recovers.”

He stopped short, myriad cover-ups running through his mind, and turned back to face Carta with a casual, bemused smile. “Who said I was the guy glitching out?”

Carta huffed, which might amount to a laugh for him. “You come to me for wisdom and are surprised when I display it? It is plain enough that you were the Reploid you referred to.”

“Geez…what, have I come asking about this before?” he asked sheepishly.

“No. you may put your mind at ease in that respect. I know because I can see what people truly mean to say.” He lifted his head, gray hollows that should have been eyes seeming to stare dully through Axl’s frame. “I cannot see the way you do, the way I once could, but I no longer need to. I see you.”

He was quiet for a while, then chuckled. “Welp, guess I’m busted.” Awkwardness hung around his shoulders, dragging down the relief he’d experienced, and he started to leave.

“Axl…a word.”

“I’m all yours, doc.”

“Do not attempt to deceive me. Even in a mild lie.” There was an icy, dangerous undertone to his voice, and for the first time Axl wondered exactly what that ponderous body was capable of. “I absolve your misdirection, but do not do it again. There is enough deception in the world to last a hundred years without us adding to it.”

He nodded soberly. “I won’t. Y…you got my word on that.”

Carta kept his empty gaze on the young Reploid a moment longer, then bowed his head again, going silent. Axl turned and left, soundless as a cat.

Chapter Text

That was just the first time it happened.

Axl shoved the rusty door open with his full weight and almost fell when it swung open. White snow threatened to cover his vision entirely but he gritted his teeth and somehow stayed upright. They were coming for him. He HAD to stay upright. Axl couldn't recall WHO was anymore -- the memory kept sparking out into a painful void -- but the sense of urgency remained, driving him on.

He took a sharp turn through the nearest door. A small locker room with a door at the end, long unused. Safer here. He could hide for a bit, then go to find.......to find....

A sudden tic pulled on Axl's face, contorting hard enough to really hurt. His systems were overheating. Maybe stressing so hard was a bad idea. But how could he NOT be stressed when he'd been fragging SHOT--

Wait, that was it! Axl leaned against the wall behind a locker and looked cautiously down at the pain that suddenly registered in his shoulder. It was laid open to the framework, armor and synthflesh blasted all to hell. Axl bit back a whimper. How could he have forgotten being shot? That was a big deal, right?

Axl's head snapped up. Something -- someone was outside the door. He heard the creaking, and deliberate footsteps. Panic overshadowed all other thought. THEY were after him even now! 

Clutching his broken shoulder with one hand, he hurried out of his hiding place and through the door on the far side of the room. It led to a set of stairs winding down to more storage levels below. The perfect maze to lose whoever was hunting him.

Hunting. Something in the word scratched at his brain. It clicked when he was halfway down the stairwell. Hunter. That was it! He was running from the Maverick Hunters! Cain, his memory was a mess. What was up with that? Damage? Or just a bad data package?

Not that he had time to run diagnostics. Running footsteps and muffled, echoing voices boomed out above him. Axl reached the bottom of the stairs and backed against the wall, scanning for a hiding place. His vision kept whiting out, scrambling other senses into a useless blur. 

A large mechanical door was half-open, and Axl was drawn to it. He slipped into the darkness and made his way to the back, through the maze of crates amd boxes. Soon, the noise outside stopped. He was safe. Axl gasped in relief, finally starting to cool down. Frag, how high had he overheated? Way too high to be safe, that was for sure. Because now he was starting to remember where he was headed.

"Carta!" Axl shot to his feet as the pieces fell into place. This was Carta's storeroom. That meant his other room was....right across from him! The young prototype smiled in relief. Of course, he was headed to Carta for repairs after getting jumped by some Hunters. He chuckled quietly to himself as he got on his way. "Man, Carta, you're not gonna believe the brain fart I just had! I forgot - I forgot I was gonna drop by on my way over!" 

He went through the hallway and felt for a familiar light switch at the end. "Crazy right? I mean it hasn't happened in a while though, so it's not too bad...." One light buzzed to sickly-orange light, and Axl's voice trailed off.

This....had to be just another visual glitch, right?

"Carta?"

The place was a mess. Not just organized-messy like the doc had it normally, it was a wreck. Abandoned. Fire damage was obvious in the corner, and dust covered everything. Axl's movement startled up a nest of some vermin that scuttled out of sight. He watched with numb shock, his headache starting to come back. "But....but Carta hated critters in his space...."

He wandered, lost in a place that just a few days ago was as familiar to him as Red Alert's bunker, and static filled his audio feed as he realized way too much time had passed to be possible.

Years had passed. Decades, maybe.

"What the....huh? I don't -- ow! I don't understand..." he sat down heavily. Overwhelmed by his broken shoulder and broken reality.

"Carta....? Wh-why did I......"

"He's in here somewhere." Two Maverick Hunters were on Axl's trail. They'd gone after him as soon as he started running, but unfortunately the kid left them in the dust. They saw him enter the decrepit bunker and followed quickly.

"Alright, we can find him. This place is ancient, the other exits are long gone." 

"That's what I'm worried about, Zero. It's dangerous and he's already injured." X said as he pushed the rusty door open. He looked at the lockers leaning precariously and the ceiling that had long ago given up the fight. "We need to find him before he panics and sends some wall crashing down."

"We should split up. It's a better chance of stopping him if we come from different sides." Zero suggested. X agreed. "Okay, let's-"

As if on cue, the sound of thudding footsteps was heard from a few rooms away. It was echoing, and hard to follow with all the lead rubble interfering with scanning.

X searched the upstairs rooms while Zero headed down the rickety stairs to the lowest level. 

Axl had no idea how long he'd been sitting in the doorway when he heard sounds behind him. It was Zero, approaching slowly as if expecting Axl to take off running again. "Hey. You alright?"

".....fine." Axl stood up, eyes on the floor as he held his shoulder together. "Sorry about that."

"Forget it, let's get you back to base for repairs." Zero brushed the incident off. The kid had obviously been through some scrap, and Zero wasn't about to push it. Axl was grateful for that as they headed back upstairs. He wasn't sure how to explain it in a way that wasn't completely Maverick. 

X, more concerned and less tactful, tried to get answers out of him on the ride back to base. 

"Seriously, I don't know. I thought...I thought I was looking for somebody." Axl lowered his eyelids halfway, going into power-save mode. "I don't really want to talk about it." 

Finally X left him alone.