Actions

Work Header

A Tragic Fire

Summary:

As a kid, X.Borg's life had been uprooted by the explosion caused by the Eruditio. Despite the new body they gave him, he refused to start anew. Is there really space for a new beginning? Even with those that burned him?

By MGL Writer Haru04

Work Text:

X-Borg stared at the evening sky, full of stars, while he laid down uncomfortably on a pile of broken and burnt parts of machinery.

"I guess I'm glad I have a body like this." He clicked his tongue, "At the very least, I won't have to deal with diseases and stuff while living in this dump."

X-Borg sighed and gave himself a small slap in the face and for a moment, he looked like he was going to burst into tears.

"I mean... this was my village, after all." 

The soothing night sky dotted with heavenly lights with a bright full moon of the center was not much help in calming X-Borg down when he remembered what happened back then.


"Emergency procedures, initiate."

The young X-Borg listened to faint voices while his consciousness was only as big as a small marble, big enough to exist, but too small to do anything.

"Life signals are quickly depleting."

For a moment, X-Borg wondered what was happening and what led him to this state, but, as people say, "When you're going to die, your life flashes before your eyes.", he remembered what did happen.

"Mom, what are we having for lunch?" A young boy who went inside his house just after playing outside with his friends chirped to his mother, already at the kitchen, working on their lunch.

"It's a surprise!" The young boy's mother said cheerfully.

"Ehh... Fine. Hahaha, I'll go take a bath then, Mom."

"You should, or else you won't be able to eat anything."

"Ahaha, fine fine. I'll be done just in time for lunch!"

However, just as he was about to enter the bathroom, he noticed that something was wrong with the air.

"Mom, something smells funny-" The young boy quickly went back to the living room and just as he peeked outside his window, a great explosion occurred.

The children who were his playmates, he saw getting devoured by a roaring fire that replaced the air. He heard them scream, only for a short time before their voices were replaced by a  deafening silence and his mother, unaware of what was happening but quick to react, ran to the boy and quickly covered him with her own body, just a split second before the fire reached their house and, ultimately, them.

The young boy heard his mother scream in pain, right before an excruciating heat scorched his back and enveloped his whole body.

"That... was me." X-Borg told himself in his thoughts before he passed out.

"Did we save him?"

"I hope so. His vitals are now stable. He might wake up soon."

Again, X-Borg heard faint voices but this time, he felt like he wasn't so small and insignificant.

The boy tried to move his fingers and they moved to his will, however, something felt missing and unnatural, as if his fingers lost the sense of touch and they weren't as sensitive as he ought them to be.

"He's now showing signs of life. This makes the operation a success." An old-ish male voice said.

"Yes. At least, we were able to save someone..."

X-Borg forced his eyes open, quickly straining his weakened body and leading him to see only black for a few moments before he was able to have stable sight of his surroundings.

"W-... What happened?" His voice came off as weak and it trailed off, however, the people surrounding him were quite attentive as they quickly reacted to his voice and turned to give attention to the young boy.

"First of all, we are very sorry." A female in a white lab gown approached him and said so in a sorrowful manner.

This answer angered the weakened X-Borg and gave him an adrenaline rush which resulted to his following statements and questions being relatively forceful.

"Tell me, what happened?" He asked again, yet, this time, his voice was clear.

"An experiment of ours, Eruditio's, came to fail a few moments just after we activated it and it resulted to a drastic gas explosion that, sadly, reached your village... and killed everyone. Except you."

X-Borg's eyes widened in horror.

"You're the people who killed everyone?!!" Forcing his whole body to move, he was able to stand up from his bed and was now prepared to fight the people surrounding him, his hands clenched.

Until, he saw what became of his body, the reason of why moving his fingers earlier felt unnatural.

"...what happened to me-..."

His once human body was now only partly made up of flesh and blood, as his chest down to his upper stomach was now made up of metal.

He slowly turned to look at his hands and they too, had been replaced by cold steel and several metal plates placed together to look like hands... up to his arms.

"I'm..."

"You're alive." The old-ish male voice he heard earlier finished his sentence.

"No..."

"Just be grateful, young boy. You've come to live, even if you're the only survivor."

"No-... No, no, no, no, NOOOOO!!!"

Words that were meant to comfort and sooth one's self, X-Borg received from the people surrounding him, but he didn't take any of it.


"Ah... Yes. It was all their fault." X-Borg sighed and started thrashing the technological wastes around him, kicking and punching them with his robotic limbs until he found the deed tiresome, only after a while.

Now sitting solemnly on top of a robotic crane placed on where his house used to be in, he covered his eyes and laid himself down the cold steel.

"I'm tired."

A single drop of tear dripped down his cheek and fell on top of worn metal before he fell asleep.


X-Borg woke up to harsh sunlight and severe heat that multiplied itself by heating up the once cold pieces of failed and obsolete technological equipment around him.

"This... has really become a dump, hasn't it?"

Just then, he heard the whirring sound of a high speed mechanical engine rushing towards him and as he turned around, a dark-skinned boy who was about the same age as him went down from a space-age looking motorcycle.

"Good morning. The name's Bruno and I'm one of Eruditio's top defenders."

"Did you just say you're from Eruditi-" 

X-Borg growled, but his sentence was cut short as he looked at Bruno's body who was also almost mechanical everywhere, even more mechanical than X-Borg's own body.

"Yes, I did. Nice to meet you, X-Borg."

"You're like me..."

"Yes, I am... and I was saved, too, by Eruditio's scientists."

"They didn't save me-"

"I know what happened... So, please, let us make it up to you."

X-Borg didn't respond.

But he thought that, maybe... just maybe, things might go alright this time.

Series this work belongs to: