Some Author's Notes: This idea came from a daydream I had a while back and then after seeing a pic on DeviantArt, I realized that I HAD to at least write the first chapter. The idea came from Bass going head-to-head with Zero and so I blended him into the MMZ timeline.

I guess a few things should be said ahead of time. One, I don't plan to keep the story canon, it'd be impossible, what with Bass in it and everything. Two, I'm fully aware that it seems ridiculously cruel to put Bass against a reploid, but I keep in mind that Bass and Zero are both technically powered by the same energy source AND unlike Zero…who seemed to forget he could do it, Bass still has the ability to copy enemy data.

Other things of note: Elpizo is already in charge of the Resistance, Phantom will not blow himself up, Roll's design comes from Megaman 8, and my ideas are heavily influenced by MMC, MMX, MMZ, MML, and MMBN.

Other than that, the only other thing I have to say is to enjoy the story, it'll make Bass happy, and you do want him happy, right?

Pesky Disclaimer: I don't own Bass or any character present, those are all Capcom.

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Desolation, that described the desert that stretched into an endless sea. There was nothing here, at least that's what everyone had believed.

It had been recent, a sandstorm. Its fierce winds had uncovered a treasure trove of history that had been thought lost to the ages.

Several Pantheon units, proud to be modeled after their master, X, stood with a few scientists, reploids, but scientists nonetheless. They were excited, proud to be chosen by Master X for such a crucial mission. This was a chance to go down in history, the first beings to step foot in the legendary Wily Castle after more than two hundred years. The chance to find elusive records of lost information alone was savory, but the immortality that comes with being mentioned as the first reploids to step foot in Wily's lab, to perhaps even see some of his creations, their distant ancestors, that was the true source of their elation.

In fact, the only one that wasn't happy about the situation was one Fighting Fefnir. He had been selected to oversee the safety of the scientists and to command the Pantheon unit, which in a place as ancient as this, meant he had to sit around and do absolutely nothing. It was annoying to him. Considering research wasn't his thing, he had absolutely nothing to do except pray that Zero showed up.

"Now THAT would be fun," he thought to himself as the scientists began running their instruments over the ruined castle. He would have loved to meet Zero in battle again. He was the only true challenge that the ridiculous resistance offered. Just thinking about going against that legendary red reploid sent shivers of excitement of Fefnir's spine. He clenched his fist with a smirk, making a silent pledge to himself that he'd face Zero again, preferably soon.

"Lord Fefnir!" One of the scientists said, breaking his train of thought. Fefnir groaned and turned to the man, saying, "What is it?" "We…we've detected an energy signature! It was brief, but very powerful!" Fefnir's eyes perked at the news and another scientist spoke up. "We have two energy signatures inside! One of them is very strong, it's…it's actually overshadowing the second one!"

Perhaps things wouldn't be quite so boring after all. With a grin on his face, Fefnir gave his orders. "Alright! Pantheon units 2 and 3, you sweep the perimeter. Unit 4, stay with the scientists. Any of them gets hurt, you'll deal with me and my knuckle buster! Unit 1! You're with me!"

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Inside the castle, its main chamber, destruction and decay had been visiting. The spacious, two-story room had once been supported by grandiose columns, supporting an ornate ceiling above a marble floor with a pair of twisted staircases leading the balcony that overlooked the entire room. Now, consoles destroyed, walls crumbling, columns toppled, and ceiling cracked, it was a shell of its former, glorious self.

Suddenly, a flash of light, a burst of purple energy in the shape of an orb jumped into existence, expelling two occupants that fell out of it and slid to the floor. Then as fast as it appeared, it vanished.

"Bass…" said the weak voice of Roll, the girl currently held tight in the arms of a Gospel Boosted Bass. "Ngh…" he grunted as he came to. His mind returning to him, he quickly barked, "Get off me!" and pushed the girl off, hard to the ground. She yelped, falling on her butt and quickly shot, "HEY! Haven't you ever heard of a gentle touch?!" "Haven't you ever heard of personal space," he countered.

She stayed quiet, much to his enjoyment, while he recollected his thoughts. "What was I doing? Oh right, Megaman…I was fighting Megaman…" his mind lost itself as he took in his surroundings. This couldn't be the same castle. He'd been down for a moment, but it was only a moment. Destruction and decay like this takes years, no, centuries.

He released his Gospel Boost fusion to produce a worn out Treble. "Search for something interesting, boy." Bass told his companion, who happily obliged, trotting off to inspect various piles of rubble in the room. Bass then turned his attention to Roll, saying, "Hey, Creampuff." Her cheeks puffed in anger, she turned to him and said, "My name is Roll!" "Yeah, whatever," he said with a wave of his hand. "Look, what's the last thing you remember?"

Roll brought a finger up to tap her cheek a few times while she thought about it. "You were fighting my brother," she began. "And I was winning," he added. "I tried to talk you out of it," she included. "Wily tried to get you to shut up by firing that stupid experimental laser cannon of his," Bass replied. "And you stopped fighting with Mega to save me," she finished with a smile on her face. "Yeah well," Bass started, fighting the urge to fall to embarrassment, "don't look too much into it," he added, "I just didn't need Wily wasting my time with crap like attacking Megaman's little sister." "TWIN sister," she corrected, getting an uninterested grunt in reply.

Treble soon returned from inspecting the room and shook its head, failing to find anything interesting in the rubble aside from…well…rubble. "I see," Bass said to himself, trying to lose himself in his thoughts, but the blonde machine next to him seemed intent on keeping him from peace of his own mind.

"What did that cannon do anyways?" she asked. It was a good question, considering Bass had failed in removing her from the path of the weapon and they'd both been hit. They should be dead, or at least severely injured, granted Bass took some damage, but for all Wily had been ranting about his latest creation, it should have done more. Bass silently cursed himself at the fact that he had been too bored to actually listen to Wily's explanation of the weapon, after all, he never paid attention to Wily's explanations.

"How should I know," he finally said. "I only go along with the plans to fight Megaman and wait for Wily's grand master plan to inevitably fail. I don't actually pay attention to what his worthless inventions actually do." "You don't have a lot of respect for him, do you?" She asked. "Why would I? I mean, considering, would you have respect for the man?" "Well…no…" she admitted before continuing, "But still, I'd think you would, I mean, he made you and everything." "That's about the only thing he's ever done right," Bass said, "and considering I can't beat that dweeb of a brother you have, apparently Wily fucked ME up too."

Bass turned his back to Roll, now angering himself over repeated failures at the hands of the Blue Bomber, the one person that his very existence was based upon. He was made for the sole purpose of destroying Megaman, yet time and time again, he lost, one way or another. It was frustrating to be inferior to anyone in his opinion. He was built to be the strongest Robot Master, built to surpass Megaman and any other challenger.

"Bass…I…" Roll began to say, reaching her hand out to console him. She hadn't meant to wound him, emotionally or otherwise, but apparently she struck a chord in him somewhere. She gingerly planted her hand on his shoulder, only to have him swat it away. "I don't need your pity," he said, whirling around to the girl and eyeing something. He held up his right arm, the hand transforming into his buster, and ordered, "Don't move."

Panic rushed through Roll's mind as she heard the faint charge of the buster and she shut her eyes in anticipation of Bass's attack. The buster fired, and she felt the shot whiz by her. She opened her eyes and saw a mechanical snake, writhing on the ground before it deactivated. She looked at it, it definitely didn't look like anything Wily had designed, then she looked back to Bass, a bit sheepishly. "You saved me again," she uttered.

"Like I said before," Bass said, "Don't look too much into it." After his comment, he winced in pain, electricity crackling off his buster. He grasped it with his left hand and winced a second time, positive that the damage required immediate attention. "Bass!" Roll said quickly, "You're injured," pointing out the obvious. "It's nothing," he lied, but she didn't buy it. She grabbed his right arm and inspected the buster. "What do you think you're doing," he asked, snatching his arm away, but to his surprise, she grabbed it again and replied, "Stop moving so I can see what's wrong."

Bass blinked and made a noise of discontent, but didn't resist as the girl looked over the damage to his buster. "I'm going to need some tools," she said, "I don't think I can fix it completely without a bit of help, but I can probably get a few shots out of it." "Alright, fine," he replied, "I guess I can take us to a repair bay. That and we can figure out what's going on here."

They nodded to each other and Bass waved for Treble to follow, to which his mechanical wolf complied. They left the ruined room and walked down an equally destroyed hallway, the destruction and decay a constant reminder to them that something unusual has happened.

They reached the repair bay Bass mentioned and he had to force the door open, fighting against decades of rust and decay. Part of him even wondered if the tools would be in a useable condition and as Roll made him sit down on a bench and she dug out some tools and went to work, his question was apparently answered.

He watched her as she went to work, eventually commenting, "I didn't think you'd be able to do stuff like this." "I picked it up from Dr. Light," she said humbly, "I can't do it as well as him, but I'm good for field repairs." He chuckled and said, "Well I guess that's why Megaman brings you along everywhere. Here I thought he was just horribly irresponsible, what with the leading you into dangerous situations. " "Actually, I sneak along," she said with a mischievous smile. Bass couldn't help it, he burst out laughing.

"What?" she asked as he roared with laughter. "Nothing, nothing," he said and she patted him on the buster with, "There, that should do it for now. Don't go too crazy with it." He nodded her and gave her a thank you, but it was clear to see he wasn't too sincere. He stood up and prepared to leave the room, but stopped when he heard footsteps.

He placed himself against the wall and eased to the open door, waving Treble down when he heard a low growl from his companion, saying, "Easy boy, let's see what's going on first." Taking a slight glance outside, he saw five robots. Their design reminded him of Megaman and it set him boiling. Now robots were modeling themselves after that blue freak?

Without thinking, Bass stepped out into the hallway and shouted, "HEY! Just what do you think you're doing?" They looked at each other, then back to Bass. They stood silent for a moment, then opened fire. "Damn," he uttered as he slid back into the room.

"What did you do!?" Roll asked, confusion and fear on her face as the hail of weapons fire poured down the hall. "I just asked a freakin' question," he answered as the shots pelted the nearby wall, sending sparks in frenzied directions. "This is getting lame," Bass muttered as the shots died down. "Heh, finally," he said as he barrel rolled into the open, letting buster shots fly with precision accuracy, each shot hitting its target. Each of the offending attacker's collapsed, heads no longer present, and Bass let out a low whistle. "They might be creepy clones of the blue dweeb, but they sure aren't built as sturdy as him…"

Hearing the silence, Roll quietly poked her head out to see the situation, and sensing calm, came out and inspected Bass's handiwork with just a bit of contempt. "Did you HAVE to kill them all?" Bass scoffed and replied, "Look, they were shooting at us!" "They were shooting at YOU!" Roll countered. "Hey, they were trespassing, they got what they deserved!"

They would have argued for a bit longer, but Roll took a good look at one of the strange machines. "It…sorta looks like my brother," "Yeah, I thought so too, made him easier to shoot." Bass smirked at the end of his comment and Roll looked away, arms crossed, cheeks puffed out. Bass didn't mind, it was silence, gave him some time to think.

"Place still has power," he thought, "Wily's panic room should still be in tact, that's what it's there for anyways, to…be there…"

Without warning, Bass took off on his way, making Roll jump as she and Treble quickly followed in line with the Robot Master.

After a while, they had arrived at a wall and Bass had stopped. Before Roll could even ask what they were doing, Bass slammed his fist to the wall and a door whirred sickly, years of wear giving way to its basic function and the wall parted, revealing a short hallway and another, fresher, heavily reinforced door. Bass typed in a password on the adjacent keypad and the door opened, relinquishing its secret, Wily's panic room.

In the event of a dire emergency where Megaman or any untold force had Wily cornered and he didn't have the luxury of escape, Wily could run to this room. The panic room was a well-maintained, miniature command room. It was capable of numerous functions, no less being the full control of security systems, and Bass was quick to activate the security cameras.

One-by-one, multiple television screens gave their various views of the area and the trio were bathed in the view of age and desolation while others didn't turn on at all. "What happened to everything?" Roll asked, but Bass was too into his own world of thought to pay her any mind. He sat in a large chair in front of a console and let his hands fly over the keyboard. "Come on," he muttered, "Connect already…" CONNECTION FAILED flared on the console and he growled and tried again.

CONNECTION FAILED

Once more…

CONNECTION FAILED

Restraining himself from smashing the console, Bass sighed heavily and looked away. "Stupid piece of crap, can't even log on to the damn internet, ugh, why'd Wily even put that stupid satellite in orbit anyways?" "Maybe the satellite isn't in orbit anymore…"

Bass looked to Roll and said, "What?" "Everything looks so old and decayed, maybe…maybe the satellite just fell out of orbit…" "Damn it, do you realize how long that would take? We'd have to be so far in the future that it's not even funny!" Roll dropped her eyes to the floor and trailed her foot, saying, "Maybe…we are in the future…" This elicited a groan from Bass and a slight whine from Treble, but it gave Bass an idea.

"Considering that the panic room's antennae is still functional, if we try a little search, we can find another satellite and use that instead!" His hands were a flurry over the keyboard as he heard Roll mutter, "Maybe we're all that's left, what if there isn't anyone else here in the whole world?" "Stop being depressing, you're much better when you smile."

Roll cracked a smile at his comment and he rolled his eyes and went back to work. The origin of his comment wasn't sympathy, he'd just rather do without a complaining, depressing companion, even if they were the only ones left in the whole planet.

CONNECTION ACHIEVED

"Perfect," he said with glee as he did his best to find any information to help the situation, locations, events, dates, anything. That's when his jaw dropped and he fell out of the chair. "What's wrong?" Asked a concerned Roll as Treble stepped up to his master. Roll eyed the console's monitor and gasped.

Today's date, as far as they had known it, was May 6, 20XX.

The date was May 6, 22XX.

"No way, no freakin' way!" Bass stood up and put his hands to his head, pulled off his helmet, and tossed it down in anger, exposing short, white hair. "There's just no freaking way we were blasted into the future! How the hell does a damn disintegrator laser send you into the future!"

Roll furrowed her brow and replied, "Bass, energy can't be created or destroyed…there's no such thing as a disintegrator laser…Wily's laser didn't zap us into nothingness, it zapped us into the future…way…WAY into the future…" "Damn it! When I get my hands on Wily's neck, I'll wring it until his head falls off! YOU HEAR ME OLD MAN!? I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" "Bass, calm down, relax," Roll said soothingly. "Let's just…try to find out more of our situation."

They sat and read on anything they could find. Strangely, there was no information from their timeline, so they didn't know what happened to Megaman, Dr. Wily, Dr. Light, none of them. What they did find, however, was just as interesting.

The invention of Reploids, the Maverick Wars, the Eurasia colony crash, the Elf Wars, the Maverick leader Sigma who apparently didn't know how to stay dead, the legendary Reploid Zero, the prototype Axl, and the most amazing of all, the great war hero, Megaman X.

"So he started calling himself X?" Bass asked, "What, he think that makes him sound cooler or something? Bah…" Rolled ignored him and read up on all of Megaman X's accomplishments, and was astounded. "He's…incredible, amazing, wow…I thought Megaman was good before, but…he's so…so…just wow…"

"What are you blathering on about," Bass chided as he looked over the information. Even he whistled in surprise. Numerous Maverick uprisings, countless showdowns with Sigma, even defeating the Reploid Zero. Single-handedly ending the Maverick Wars and starting the Elf Wars at about the same time. He was even the base for every single Reploid on the planet…which…made little sense to Bass. If Megaman was FIRST, how come he was apparently advanced enough to defeat any enemy that came his way? Was Dr. Light really THAT good of a scientist?

What unsettled the Robot Master, however, was that there was absolutely no mention of him whatsoever, and only a brief mention of Dr. Wily, as if they were a mere stepping stone in history. That was just a tad bit more than annoying. Bass would have kept looking, but Treble barked at something on the security monitors.

"What is it boy?" Bass asked as Treble merely looked up at a particular monitor revealing a white and red Reploid with golden horns affixed to his helmet and what looked like a powerful weapon, some type of pair of jaws over a long distance weapon.

"Who is that?" Roll asked. "Let's find out…" Bass said as he went back to his console. "Fighting Fefnir, one of the four guardians of Master X…wait…Master X?" A new direction in mind, Bass did his research on X, leading to the founding of Neo Arcadia. It was around here that he reached problems.

WARNING! ILLEGAL CONNECTION! TERMINATING IMMEDIATELY!

"Shit," Bass shouted as his connection died. He pounded the console to no avail and sighed. "Well at least we got SOME information and…" His eyes trailed to the security monitors, "By the look of things, our friend Fefnir has help with him, so let's try to get out of here, it's only a matter of time before they find this room if someone traced the connection, and I'd rather not get in a firefight in such close quarters." Roll nodded and said, "Does this room have an escape route?" "Nope, Wily's mind works weird. In emergencies, he thinks of escape or hiding, not both. Come on, if we're lucky, we'll avoid any unnecessary encounters. Normally I wouldn't mind a good fight, but with my buster not exactly 100 percent, I'd rather not push things."

Roll nodded in understanding, and before they left, Bass retrieved his helmet and activated a killswitch that fried all remaining information in the system and even took out the main power, the entire building now only loosely illuminated by red emergency lights that barely provided any vision.

As he led Roll down the hallway, Treble dutifully following, he reminded himself that what he did was merely protocol in the event that the base was infested with intruders. Not to mention, if the system was still in any type of shape, it'd have information on himself. In a world where he didn't exist, as much as that pissed him off, it was better for him to stay non-existent than it was to reveal himself to potential enemies.

Lucky for Bass, his superb navigation of the base, even without power, was far greater than any knowledge the intruders had and he made it to the exit rather easily. After that, it was just the simple task of walking through the door and into freedom. A stalwart breath and he pushed the door open and walked into the bright unknown.

Desert. Sand as far as the eye could see. A broken down Wily Castle crawling with enemies didn't seem quite so bad…it's a good thing robots didn't REQUIRE eating, it just helped replenish lost energy.

"Where are we gonna go?" Roll whispered. "Don't know. Maybe we'll try to find that Neo Arcadia…" The sound of weapons cocking, however, made Bass reevaluate his plan. To his left, several of the Megaman clones had their weapons trained on him. To his right, even more. From the right, that reploid he'd seen on the camera, Fefnir, walked into view and pushed his way to the front with a few scientists.

"The power source, it's one of these two," one of the scientists said with the other two nodding in agreement. "Now…" Fefnir said, "You," pointing to Roll, "Don't look like you're made for combat, but you," pointing to Bass, "Even if your design's a bit retro, you look like you can fight." He raised his fist to the air and shouted, "How about it, want a go with Fighting Fefnir?"

Bass, a bit reluctant to fight as he didn't know how many shots he had in his buster before it went out on him again, still smirked and said, "Do I have a choice?" Fefnir returned the smirk and waved to his troops, "Pantheons, stand back, he's mine."

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Ending Notes: I figured this would be a good enough place to end the first chapter, tell me what you think! For those who follow my writing, by now, you should be able to tell that Bass is my absolute favorite character. As should be the way of the author, as long as at least ONE person out there is interested in the story, I'll keep writing, so as long as it makes just ONE review, I'll keep writing, so please, don't hold back, tell me what you think, give me suggestions, give me complaints, it doesn't matter!