AUTHOR'S NOTES: So I was stuck at school for 3 hours because my class was cancelled because the lecturer was sick, yet I had to stay for 3 hours...school rules. I spent the first two hours dealing with some stuff I usually do at home, but when I finished all that, I was left with one more hour. And then I wrote this out of boredom and because the idea recently popped in my head. I could've continued PMGR, but i um couldn't log in to FFN at school.

This isn't set in the same timeline as Paint My Goodbye Red. The Axl in here is a different Axl, and the Lumine here is a different Lumine. I have two parallel timelines, so...yeah. PMGR's Axl is created by Rosa Wily and White Light. TViYH's Axl is...well, you'll find out. Anyways, TViYH is a bunch of one-shots. I'll update it whenever I please, whenever I have more scene ideas with them. Both timelines' stories are all finished, but PMGR remains a higher priority.

The Voice in Your Heart
Page 1: Second First Meeting

"Hey."

A voice inside his head made Axl jump from his bed.

"What-that voice...Lumine?" he screamed in his mind, not wanting anyone else in the Maverick Hunter medbay to know of his predicament...not yet.

"Yes, it's me. Don't be afraid. Okay, I know it may be a little toooooo much to ask, considering that the whole situation is kind of freaky." Lumine tried to reassure him.

"What the flying fuck? Get out of my head, you parasite!" Axl shot back. "If you plan on taking over my body, I'm alerting the whole goddamn Hunter Base, and no one's gonna stop me!"

Lumine groaned. "I knew it was too much to ask, but can you at least listen to me? You're the one in the position of power between the two of us, so I'd be a dumbass for messing with you. And you know I'm not."

"Okay...I'll give you that much." Axl responded, having calmed down. Lumine sure is unexpectedly chatty, if not dorky, he thought. A far cry from the darkly charismatic, "cool" mastermind of the New-Gen rebellion. But then again, someone like him has to be. He's appeared in talks before, he has to have at least a convincing public persona, or charisma. It's probably why he managed to convince him. "But no," Axl assured himself, "I'm not going to fall into any of his traps."

"No traps, no nothing, just honesty, my friend." Lumine responded to Axl's thoughts, which he can read due to being in his head. "Let's say we make a deal? I've always wanted to live free. My job sucked. The Jakob Project wasn't kind to its robotic employees. Either way, you're not interested in a sob story, so let me cut to the chase here. You let me stay in your head, and over time my powers will rub off on you. I won't try to take over your body. I'm not interested in your life or your job, nor starting another rebellion. You can trust me on that." he explained.

"You don't seem keen on giving me the privacy to think to myself." Axl sniped at him.

"I can give you that, if you'd like." Lumine answered. "If you're interested in more of the perks of this deal, I can function as a second perspective if you feel like you need someone to confide in. And if you're unlucky enough to be knocked unconscious, I can become a second consciousness that can help you accomplish the tasks you have at hand. Like if you're tired from doing assignments or something, you can go snooze and entrust your quest to me. And most of all, if you're lonely, I can always talk to you without you needing to open your mouth. I also have a variety of skills you can use, such as computer hacking."

"That...oddly sounds like a job application." Axl blurted out. "You sound like a marketer, or a salesman." he chuckled to himself.

"It's second nature to me." Lumine said. He would've grinned-or made Axl grin, if he had taken control of his motor functions to express himself. But instead of that, he chose to express his goodwill by not touching Axl's functions.

"So that's what I get if I say yes." Axl remarked. "And if I say no?"

"You are free to erase me from existence." Lumine answered. "Right now I am in your body, which is currently one hundred percent under your control. If you want me gone, just delete my data. But I'll tell you that it's an irreversible decision."

"Heh...alright, you sound oddly convincing." Axl accepted. "Alright, I'll take the deal. Even though the only real contact we had was trying to kill each other just a few weeks ago, for some reason I can trust you. But I have one condition before I truly accept it."

"What is it?" Lumine asked.

"Tell me...why are you doing this?" Axl asked back.

"I just want to live free. Like I said, the Jakob Project wasn't kind to its robotic employees, least of all me. Didn't expect that, huh? You'd think the manager would have more perks, but no. Everyone was treated equally poorly. That was why we rebelled. But we're not humans. We're reploids. So we didn't have some kind of work union to confide in. Rebellion was our only choice. I didn't exactly live a long, fulfilling life. I was like Rapunzel back then...except there was no prince. Just a tower.

Anyways, you might be confused why I choose to live free...in your head. Well, I won't be telling you to do what I want to do. I just want to continue living without all those responsibilities. And most of all, without the perpetual loneliness that plagued me while I was cooped up in my workshop." Lumine explained. "And...pardon me, you seem pretty lonely yourself."

"You...did you just read my fucking thoughts on..." Axl growled in his head.

"Look, integration into your head also means that I had to perceive all your memories. I didn't exactly go out of my way to read through your whole life story like a biographical novel." Lumine explained himself. "But I can say we have a few things in common."

Axl bit his lip. He always wanted someone to notice how lonely he feels. Ever since a certain incident while he was still a Red Alert member, loneliness had plagued him. And now, it hurt even more. Even though he's hanging out with X and Zero, he's always stuck in the position of the "friend who walks behind them". X and Zero had been around for way longer than him, and their relationship is older than Axl himself. They can never like him the same way they like each other, or the same way he likes them. Yet he continues to pine for more acknowledgement from them, even though all signs point to "No, it's impossible."

"I want someone just for me" was a thought that Axl constantly repeats to himself, something he subtly expresses, something he wants someone to notice. But why, of all people, Lumine? And why like this? When he's in his head, forced to read through his memories? Is he not good enough for someone to notice his thoughts when he's consciously expressing them?

"Axl?" Lumine softly spoke from inside his head, interrupting his thoughts, and preventing him from spiraling deeper into negativity. "It's okay. I'm here. You won't be alone anymore."

Lumine's voice sounded reassuring. He wanted to cling to it, to believe his words. Yet the last time he believed those words, it all ended in shattered hopes and expectations.

"It'll be okay." Lumine continued to speak gently to him.

"No. Red said that. X and Zero said that. And then Red left me. X and Zero were never truly there, and I was just a third wheel..." Axl thought.

"What the fuck do you know?" Axl growled in his head, tears streaming down his face. "You know nothing."

"I'm always bad at social situations..." he thought. "Great, now I'm going to piss him off...brilliant first impression there."

"Then we'll just get to know each other." Lumine replied, his tone vivacious to balance out Axl's anger.

Axl's eyes widened. For some reason, Lumine's presence in his head calms him down, and he had successfully convinced him every time. Is he this vulnerable to manipulation? Is it because of his loneliness? His desperation for "someone just for him"? Is it Lumine's cunning? Or is it his sincerity?

He wants to believe that it is indeed sincerity. He really does.

"For starters," Lumine interrupted Axl's thoughts again. "I don't think you like the sound of my current name, and I don't think the world does either. So I'll need a new identity..."

"Why are you asking me? That's your name, not mine." Axl responded.

"If I had known, I wouldn't have asked you-oh! Your serial number. It's Delta-X-1, right?" Lumine asked. "I came after you, even though Laurentia Myst never really gave me a number. I suppose we're brothers."

"Brothers?" Axl blurted out. "Ugh."

"What?" Lumine asked, confused. "What's so bad? You still hate me?"

"The last time I had a sibling before you came along, it turned out shitty. Hell, you and me, we tried to kill each other...ah, nevermind. Bad flashbacks, that's all. But it still hurts. Sibling relationships don't exactly sound like sunshine and rainbows to me." Axl answered.

"Well, whoever that person before me was, it's definitely not me. But still, let's get along. I think I'll call myself Epsilon now." Lumine-now Epsilon, announced.

"Alright...I just need to get used to it." Axl remarked.

"Hey...is it fine if I start calling you Delta?" Epsilon requested.

"Isn't it too early for pet names?" Axl commented.

"I see it as my acknowledgement that you're my older brother." Epsilon explained.

"Alright...at least you acknowledged that." Axl-Delta chuckled to himself.

"Let's get along...Delta."