Mega man Battle Network: Virus mutations

Chapter 10: You

‘… … …’

‘… … … … ..’

‘…? … .’

‘?’

‘!’

‘!’

Enzan’s mind slowly drifted back in to reality, he was barley aware that he was awake, or alive for that matter. As his senses started returned to him the first thing Enzan was actually aware of was the pain. His whole body hurt, from the throbbing aching of his arms and legs to the pounding of his head, to the piercing pain of his eyes and hair. The only thing that could come close to even being realized beside it was how hot he felt.

'Oh god it hurts...damn, my body...' A black humor came over him, even though he was barely able to think yet. 'At lest, I know I'm...still alive.' Alive...Alive...memories of what happened came flooding back to him, and with that... 'Lan! Is...Is Lan ok?'

That thought was the only thing that gave him the will to resist drifting back into the pulling grasp of unconsciousness that held him. Enzan stirred, causing the pain to temporally intensify, and slowly opened his eyes. At first all he saw was a white blur, but with a strained squint everything cleared, revealing white tiles and bright florescent lights. Pain came when he did that, forcing him to shut them again. From what he saw, it could only mean that he must be... ’In the hospital?…What happened?’

'Huh?' Enzan heard a soft breathing sound nearby, it took his fragmented mind a moment to realize that it wasn’t his own. 'Is it...Is it..?' The small hope of what he thought the sorce was motivated him to sit up. He tried to at lest. 'Oww...' the pain was too much...so he decided to do it all at once. With a swift movement he forced himself up right, wincing in pain and bitting down hard on his bottom lip to keep from screaming.

It was worth it when he saw Lan sitting in a chair next to him, he was sleeping with his head laid down on the side of the bed by his leg. 'He's...He's alright.' He couldn't measure how relieved he was right now, it really made his injuries worth it.

Speaking of injuries, his forehead was tightly bandaged with white cloth to seal the stitched lacerations in various places in the area encompassed. A series of smaller bandages lined his cheeks to cover smaller cuts, burns and scrapes. '...' Enzan looked over himself to see the rest of his body and why it hurt so much. His left wrist was set in a cast up to the elbow, and a his whole chest was covered in bandages, wrapped around his torso and shoulders thick enough to be a shirt. The rest were just cuts and bruises, nothing really beyond that. It hurt like hell though, especially his head which seemed to be pounding in a time with his racing heartbeat. What was easily the second most uncomfortable thing was all of the cords and Ivs he was hooked up to, not to mention this tube down his throat.

He was tempted to wake Lan up and ask him what happened, but he after a moment of silent contemplation he decided to wait. Lan looked like he needed all of the rest he could get, and he was tired himself, and hurt. Enzan laid back, closing his eyes.

After a few moments it became apparent that he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep, possibly because of the pounding headache among other things, it seemed to be the worst pain. '...He's alright.' There was a feeling of relief that came over him again, knowing that these injuries weren't in vain. He didn't really know why he did it, it was strictly an impulse.

He knew the explosion was about to happen, logically aware of where it would happen by a simple process of thought. Only Lan hadn't been so attentive “Damnit Lan, you never think.” Enzan snorted, Lan never really seemed to think logically, just on his own little thought that everything would work out. Enzan didn't have the luxury of being so liberal, he was bound by careful planing where Lan could take a big risk and hoped it worked out.

Somehow, Enzan admired that freedom of thought Lan had, whether it be by stupidity or confidence.

Anyway, he could see what was about to happen and Lan had no idea. There was no way he could warn Lan in time, he couldn't speak fast enough, nor could Lan understand fast speech even if he could. Enzan surprised himself, his body just moved on it's own with listening to his mind, which had been screaming not to do what it doing.

None of that he remembered, the only thing he did remember was that he tried to protect Lan, and this must have been the end result. “Why...Why did I do it?” Enzan sighed at how uncomfortably hot he was, how he couldn't even wipe the sweat from his forehead because it hurt to much to lift his arm.

It didn't matter why, he did it and despite being unhappy with Lan's obliviousness, he was glade he did. The suffering was worth it. “Damnit Lan.” Enzan smiled, “Your such an idiot.”

! - ! - !

Lan woke up about as quickly as he fell asleep, as soon as some consciousness came he wasted no time lifting his head as if by inane instinct. He slowly rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand while a completely wide awake Enzan quickly closed his before Lan could notice.

Lan looked up at Enzan with cleared vision, he couldn't help but sigh when he saw that he still hadn’t awaken. “Enzan... It’s been 5 day already, I’m worried about you.” Lan dropped his head sadly, while Enzan’s eyes almost shot open when he heard how long he'd been out but managed not to move.

Lan seemed to be getting frustrated at something that was unchangeably out of his control.“God Enzan, you haven’t even moved!” He was angry at himself, for not seeing it coming, for not being able to stop Enzan from doing what he did. “Why did you have to cover me? Why did you have to protect me?...This is all my fault.”

Lan dropped his head back down on the bed into his arms, staring at Enzan this time.

Though he couldn’t see it, he felt Lan’s eyes on him, giving him an almost piercing feeling.

“I wonder if you can hear me…” Lan rubbed the back of his head nervously though he knew there was nothing there to be embarrassed at. “I so sorry Enzan, you had to protect me and this is what happened to you. Why... am I so weak that you had to protect me?”

Enzan had never heard Lan sound this way, so depressed... so self loathing. He wanted to open his eyes just to make him feel better. But yet he still waited.

“Well Blues is worried about you, he didn’t say it, but you could tell. It’s actually kinda funny, you should see it.” Lan laughed a little to himself, forcing away the impending sense of depression hanging over him as best as he could. “Megaman, Blues, and Zero beat that virus that was in your system, I'm sure you'd be happy about that…” Lan became quiet when he thought about it, as if he was unsure about something he wanted to say next. “I though Zero was done for, but he’s ok. You should meet him. I guess you can't do that unconscious.”

Lan was silent again, not speaking for a long while. Enzan could feel Lan's despair. “I'm sorry... I'm sorry.” Lan buried his head into his arms, feeling on coming tears blurring his vision.

Enzan was really starting to feel bad about this, he wasn’t sure what he was hoping to hear from Lan. But he didn’t want to make him worry like this, not make him feel this bad. '...Lan...'

He couldn't take it, finally it had become too much and he stopped laying idly by. He opened his eyes and placed his hands behind him to push himself up, he moved slowly, groans of pain forcing themselves out audibly despite trying to repress them. The reaction was truly worth the wait, he watched Lan’s teary eyes grow wide in something completely indescribable and a surprised gasp escaped from his mouth as it fell open. “E-Enzan!”

With tears falling from his eyes, Lan dived on to the bed and wrapped his arms around Enzan's waist in a tight hug. An overwhelming sense of joy and relief flooded him, forcing more tears to stream from the happy eyes. “Ow! Ow! What the hell?” Enzan shouted. He slowly lifted his hands on to Lan's head and tried his best to push him off, when he did this a sharp pain immediately forced him to stop. So in defeat he let them fall back to his side, enduring the nearly equal pain that came from Lan diving into his lap.

“I was sooo worried about you!” He cried, burring his head into Enzan's stomach. He was so happy that he almost didn't hear Enzan's cries for him to move. Lan finally let go, and with little leverage besides Enzan he started sliding on to the pillow underneath Enzan. “This is really comfortable.” Lan joked.

With a sharp roll of his eyes Enzan decided to give another try at pushing him away. “...Ow.” The pain that came made him think twice about it, with a sigh and an annoyed groan he gave up again.

By then Lan was just saying there to taunt him, he looked up at him with a sheepish grin, tears fading. “Heh Heh.”

“What happened to me?” Enzan asked.

Lan lifted his head out of Enzan's lap and looked up at him questioningly, pausing to rub his cheeks. “You don’t remember?” Enzan only shook his head. “What do you remember?”

Enzan's eyes averted toward the ceiling with thought. “Well…I remember that we came out of the holding rooms….and the capsules in the next room were starting to catch on fire. After we left that room... I don't remember anything really.” Just a blur and the scares that remained.

“Those capsules exploded and everything blew up. You pushed me out of the way and protected me but... you got knocked out.” Lan shifted his eyes away, looking a bit calmer... “So I tried to carry you to the emergency exit, we almost made it too…”

Enzan looked at for a second, at first trying a second time to remember any of this. Still he only drew a blank. “What do you mean we almost made it?”

“Well, those capsules were blowing up, and fire was coming at me from behind. It was actually good luck that it happened because there was no way I could have out run the fire with you on my back.” Lan rubbed his head again with an embarrassed smile. “I wasn't strong enough.”

“What happened?”

“The floor collapsed, that’s how I got this.” Lan pointed to the bandage around his head , Enzan didn't seem to notice it before. “And how you got that.” Lan tapped the front of to Enzan’s chest just beside his chest.

Enzan nodded in understanding, unusually attentive. “So, what happened next?”

“I (with you I mean,) climbed up out of the hole-”

“You did that with me on your back?”

“Yeah.”

“But I thought you weren't strong enough?”

“I didn’t know I could do it, must have been adrenalin or something. But I couldn’t go all the way up, because when I got to the top…almost half of the island fell off, it was insane.”

Enzan just felt his headache double.“What do you mean fell off?”

“It blew up and fell in to the water. I had to swim up the hole, but I was getting pressed down by the ceiling. I was lucky my dad and Megaman found me, they pulled us out….and I kinda blacked out after that.”

Enzan sat silently for a moment, and though he'd just heard his island was now only half or possibly fully sunk, his mind could only think of one thing. “You saved me?”

“Well, you saved me really. If you hadn’t had covered me from that explosion…Thank you.” Lan told him gratefully.

“No.” Enzan denied. “I wouldn’t have made it if you hadn’t have saved me. Thank you Lan.”

Lan had never heard Enzan sound so oddly nice, let alone thank him for something. “Uh? Are you alright?” Lan asked, waving a hand in front of his face.

Enzan looked away with a sharp snort. “That's a stupid question.”

That was all the answer he need.“Yeah, your fine.”

“Would you mind moving now?”

Lan had just remembered he was laying next to Enzan, by then he completely forgot why. “Oh, Sorry.” Lan obediently lifted himself off the bed, returning to the chair beside his bed.

“So what exactly is wrong with me?” Enzan asked.

“Can’t you tell? What hurts?” Lan was surprisingly blunt.

“Everything hurts.” Enzan shot back.

“Then your in the right place.”

! - ! - !

“How are you doing?”

Megaman was plugged in to his old PET where Zero was currently residing, it wasn't like he had any other place to go. After the Virus had been destroyed, the link between them inanely started deleting his data along with it's. Luckily it wasn’t doing it all at once so there was time to save himself, with a big part of his data missing, he’s body had no choice but to mutate, for the second time. He didn’t change in appearance but his data had changed in some way.

Basically, the initial program that was the ‘201102’ virus completed itself. At first it was just changed data one in to meaningless code that the computer couldn't understand so it all became 0, now it could change data back, if the right zero divide network software was installed, putting an end to the ’201102’ virus.

Zero had effectively severed his ties with the virus and saved himself from deletion. Which of course made him weak while his data recovered, it did it on it's own. It proved that he still was a virus since data around him was infected, changed and complied to reform the lost parts of himself. For the first few days he couldn’t even move.

“I can move again, that’s good.” Zero said contently, it was the first time he was awake long enough to be coherent in 5 days.

“So does all of this mean your not a virus not anymore?” Megaman asked. He sat down next to Zero, crossing his legs and folding his arms comfortably.

Zero laid on his back and continued to stare up at the ceiling, just because he could move didn't mean it was easy. “I...I don't know, I can still do all of the things from before, but I don't think a can undo it.” Zero didn't sound happy about it, becoming quiet at the thought.

! - ! - !

‘I wonder…What would have happened if I had stayed…What if this had worked…I would have liked to meet him…I guess, it just wasn’t meant to be… It doesn’t matter, I didn’t know who I was, how could I do anything in the future…Nah… I didn’t matter…Well…I guess this is it… Well Lan, thank you…and good luck. I did what I could, I hope it’s enough.’

! - ! - !

“I guess I’ll get to find out now…” Zero said to himself, smiling inwardly.

“What?”

“Nothing.”

! - ! - !

“How long have you been here? Enzan finally asked, they had been sitting in silence for a while now, Enzan had been thinking while Lan waited. Though he didn't know why anymore.

Lan lifted his hand to his chin and thought about it, he really hadn’t been keeping track. “Well, the whole time.” Lan said with a nod to be sure of himself.

“What? You’ve been here for 5 days?” Enzan couldn’t believe that Lan worried that much about him.

“Yeah, you saved me remember? It was the lest I could do.”

“But you where the one that… …” Enzan’s voice trailed off, it was no use, Lan had stayed because he wanted to. Not because he felt obligated to do so, Enzan could help but be grateful to him for that, forcing his mind not to try and justify any other meaning to it.

Lan noticed that Enzan was looking at him.“What?”

“Nothing.”

Lan sat back in the chair, letting out a relieved sigh, now that he was sure Enzan was alright he was finally able to relax. Now that he did, realized that he was still really tired. The boy let out a small yawn, folding his arms across his chest, lowering his head and slowly drifting to sleep.

“If your tired, you should go home.” Enzan said, placing his hands behind his head lazily as he sat back.

“Huh? Oh, are you sure?” Lan usually would have stayed, but he hadn’t got much sleep lately. His mind was saying no, but his body disagreed, and it was generally more persuasive.

“Yeah, go home.” To anyone else they way he said that would have sounded cold, it would have only served to make Lan laugh if he wasn’t so tired. “Lan?”

Lan decided to take a different position, resting his head on the side of the bed. “Never mind, I’ll just stay here.”

“Don’t you want to get some rest?”

“Too tired to move.”

Enzan only shook his head. “Whatever.”

Lan opened one eye and looked at him curiously, finally he dismissed it and closed his eyes.

! - ! - !

! - ! - !

Another hour had passed of unsuccessful attempts to fall asleep, Enzan had just given up. The headache was now down to a tolerable level do to some manner of pain killers. He'd been in this bed for 5 days and he felt like it, he would have settled just to walk around for a little while.

He couldn’t though, he felt like every bone in his body had been broken, he wasn't sure if they had been or not but walking was not a task he was up to right now. The pain wasn’t his main focus though, he had something in the back of his mind that was slowly making it’s way to the front.

At first it was not being able to remember the explosion, Enzan struggled to bring up that memory. The best he got was only bits in piece of it, mostly strong feelings he had felt at the time with images that came and faded so quick that he couldn't even remember he'd remembered them at all. He did, however, remember being worried and more anxious then he'd ever been in his life, and that was about it. Thinking about it now, he really couldn’t believe that he had protected Lan.

Now it was starting to come back to him, he couldn’t remember it clearly, but clear enough. The first thing that he noticed was there were a few other ways he could have done it. All of which would have resulted in both of them sustaining reasonable damage. Sure it would have hurt like hell for both of them, but neither one of them would have been unconscious.

Enzan wasn’t one to panic in a situation, he could have easily thought of something else to do quickly. But why didn’t he? It was like something was clouding his thought. Why did he sacrifice himself to save Lan from harm? That was the new question in his head that wouldn’t allow him to fall asleep. Not that answer was really that hard to figure out. ’Because he’s my...' At first he was reluctant to even think it, but he admitted it. 'He's my friend, I wanted to save him.’

He quickly shook his head after words, that wasn’t it. It didn’t even sound like him.

'I'm so tired...' Enzan’s eyes drifted away from the window, slowly surveying the room until they came to Lan. His head was wrapped lightly in his arms, he seemed to be having a good dream because he was smiling. When he found himself subconsciously admitting that Lan looked cute while was asleep.

That’s when the thought came to him, it wasn't anything he didn't already know, he liked Lan. He wasn’t sure how much though.

It wasn’t at all a surprise to him to him, he had always enjoyed Lan’s company on some level even when he was in the worst of moods. Even when they were fighting, no, especially when they were competing. But that would merit a friend at most, how had that that change to attraction?

'Strange...' Enzan sighed, now that he got the second question out of the way, it only seemed to bring up another question. This one couldn’t possibly leave any other questions behind it, that meant only one inquisition stood between him and sleep. Sleep! Blissful sleep.

He'd better get thinking.

Only after a few moment he realized... ‘This one’s harder then the other 2.' Enzan’s gaze was steady on Lan now, the careless look before had changed to one of concentration. That change could have happened anytime, and there was no way he could have determined that. Or at lest that’s what he told himself, and his mind seemed satisfied with his answer.

'God, Finally.' Enzan closed his eyes and contently found himself drifting out of conciseness with a clear head. 'Damn. I think to much...'