Mega man Battle Network: Virus mutations

Chapter 22: Means to an end part 1

*The same line of fronts from yesterday is still hanging around folks, it's moving really slowly, and it's losing strength so the winds wont be the strong and neither will the wind. Temperatures will remain in the upper 40s for the rest of the night. But be warned, there's a high pressure front that's going to come through very soon. The good news is that we're going to warm up, the bad news is that with this spring warm up comes strong spring showers. You can see the severe weather watch boxes far off over the ocean to the east, we can expect the warm water to strengthen those storms by the time it reaches land fall. It should be here by the 6am morning report so tune in for late breaking coverage. What I can tell you now is to expect heavy precipitation, high winds, and thunder-- Yes I said thunder, this new line of storms and be expected to reach...*


Lan's soft, peaceful face cringed and contorted into a pained one, the boy shifted underneath the covers unconsciously, suddenly feeling as if he was on fire. The discomfort began to wake him and he pried the covers off of himself before falling back asleep. But he still remained in an uneasy state of semiconscious, a nauseous stirring in his stomach haunted him and his breath began to grow labored. Sweat began to seep, and subtle pounding began to pulse in his head. “Uh...Oh great...” He mumbled weakly, immediately he wrapped his arms around his stomach and rolled on to his side, he lungs burned, grown more intense with each breath. His ears were greeted with the sound of heavy rainfall pounding against the hospital window, completely over powering the faint sound of Megaman's breathing.

Suddenly he felt his stomach churn and suddenly he couldn't breath, his eyes shot open wide to the blue light and the watery shadows of water cascading down the walls. He tried to cough and felt a thick liquid agitating his inwards almost like a strong itch. He sat up right and immediately sprang out of the bed, bolting through the hazy blue night into the bathroom and plunged his head over the sink. For what seemed like the longest time he stood there, coughing a violent string of watery coughs as quietly as he could manage. It was a full minute before the surging expulsions ceased, Lan felt a wetness dripping down his chin and he wiped it away, finding smeared blood across his palm and splatter in the sink. The world tilted and spun before his eyes, he felt as if he'd been spinning and had been brought to an abrupt stop “...” He was speechless, looking over it with a silent awe, not yet afraid but knowing deeply that something was wrong.

He washed out the sink quickly and trudged back to the bed with silent steps, pausing to glance at the clock. 1:30 am. He sat down on the edge of the bed and paused there, staring at the wall, listening to the rain that came harder then he'd ever heard it. He didn't normally do this, for a moment he wondered why he stopped like this and didn't feel the urge to move. His chin itched with residual feelings of blood and touched the spot to find nothing there. His head still throbbed behind the bandages and his body felt overheated. 'Hot...' He thought vaguely to himself. Slowly but surely unwanted feelings began to creep on to him. He started to feel afraid, lonely even, and when he felt this way he thought of Enzan and his loneliness

“Lan...” Megaman's voice called out weakly.

“Huh?” Lan almost expected his voice to come.

“Are you ok?”

“Yeah...I guess...”

Megaman's locked, tight muscles began to loosen and slowly he was able to move again once his body recalibrated, one of many problems, a lot of his settings seemed to reset when he slept, leaving it hard to move when he woke up. He stretched his legs out and rolled over towards Lan, staring at his back without speaking, he was afraid. There was nothing for him to say, he knew what all of Lan's responses would be, what he'd say, how he'd say it, he understood it all. He understood Lan's fear, his uncertainty, there was nothing more to say at this point.

Lan didn't speak either, he wasn't sure how long he sat there, staring at that wall with the familiar reflection of rain. He stayed like that until he no longer felt the desire to do so anymore, but by then a half an hour had passed and he could no longer go back to sleep either. He stood up and stretched his hands above his head, “Man I wanna get out of here. I'm sick of this room.” He sighed. “Now I know what Enzan feels like. I wish I could just go somewhere.”

“At 4 in the morning?” Megaman smiled with a small amusement..

“I don't even care anymore, with all this stuff they're putting in me all I do is sleep.” Lan lifted his arm and looked down at the tap still penetrating his veins, awaiting whatever IV his doctor thought to place into him next. “I feel like I'm just losing time, what's the point of anything if your just gonna sleep all time?”

“There are worse things.” Megaman told him, “You could not wake up at all.”

“Hn, I guess.” Lan increasingly began to realize his own mortality, a part of him he was never aware existed. He had never thought he could die, and when he did think about death he thought of it as something in a far distant future, something impossible. But now he felt as if it was staring him in the face and he didn't know how to respond, it was something too astounding to believe, but he couldn't deny it either. “I keep sleeping and sleeping, and eventually I'm not going to wake up.” And then he said it, but it wasn't like he thought it would be, it wasn't a monumental event with high emotions and tears running down. It was merely a calm admittance, something he could say again easily, something he believed.

“Lan, don't say things like that.”

“Why not, it's true you know.”

Megaman sat up, his knees drawn up and his tall form a bit restricted in the bed. “It *will* be true of you keep talking like that, if you believe it Lan.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Lan rested his hands behind his head and paced around the dark room familiarly. “I'm just sick of laying around doing nothing you know. I might as well be dead if I live like this.” The rain made an erratic rhythm against the window, a hypnotic blur sheeted over the glass, thunder rolled and lighting flashed with a distant radiance, illuminating the room in a quick flood of light before leaving it dim again.

“Lan...” Megaman held his head down and stared at his lap in a sullen silence, a sadness came over him, he couldn't hide from the reality of this especially if Lan didn't. He sat there at 4 in the morning contemplating the possibility of Lan's death and how real it was, it was something he didn't think he could...could....

“Megaman?” Lan halted where he stood and looked back at the former navi with a suspicious curiosity. He saw the blank stare in his eyes and his body locked in place and knew immediately something was wrong. “Megaman?” Lan waved a hand in front of his face with no response. He clinched Megaman's shoulders with a pang of fear shooting through him and shook him, no response. “Megaman, come on, talk to me...” He pleaded, feeling his heartbeat start to grow faster and the itch of sweat seeping from his skin. “Megaman...” Fear flooded him with an overwhelming volume, he wanted to cry and scream and shake Megaman with all of his strength, but he swallowed and forced himself to stay calm, repeating over and over that Megaman would come out of it, he always did.

Megaman's head slowly raised almost as if to acknowledge Lan but his eyes didn't change, they were vacant and Lan felt as if Megaman was seeing right through him. It gave Lan an eerie pause, and he could only stare in bewilderment. “Mega...?”

The life returned to his eyes and his pupils dilated, Megaman took in a deep, gasping breath with sharp coughs as if he'd been drowning in the sea and fell on to his back, clinching his chest.

“Megaman? Are you alright?”

“...Yeah...yeah.” Megaman nodded instinctively, the answer came second nature to him without thought.

“What happened?” Lan climbed on to the bed and on top of Megaman, studying him closely, touching and prodding every thing he could in his own examination .

“I don't know...” Megaman shook his head, staring up at the ceiling with his chest expanding and contracting rapidly. It wasn't blank for him this time, he had know recollection of what happened in the world around him but he hadn't been blank. It was as if all of the previous times that he'd blanked out he was suppose to be seeing something, suppose to be feeling something only it was just out of reach. This time it came on him like a sudden surge, it was overcome by a strong needing feeling, his entire body felt as if it was in pain and yearned organically for something. It couldn't be denied, and he stopped, froze, captured in it's wake. His eyes filled with hallucinogenic images, rapid and fading,, unclear and alluring to whatever it was his being was crying out for. It was as if an arm or a leg was severed and the wound was bleeding and covered in an agonizing pain that engulfed his entire body, only it was all in his head, some untangle and unreachable wound screaming to be healed. “I was seeing things, I don't know what they were...”

! - ! - !

Blues held on tightly to the warm body pressed against his chest, most of the discomfort and awkwardness had faded away as he slept. Only now did it begin to feel completely right, the idea of what he was doing had settled in his mind and he had accepted it. A part of him was starting to recede and he was beginning to accept how aesthetic the feeling of Zero in his arms was, how strongly he wanted to hold on, the comfort that arose inside of him by keeping him close, the intense notions in his mind that coveted Zero in his entirely. He felt as though he had not slept, that he had closed his eyes and reopened them to find hours had passed by in a single blink, and now he lay awake wondering, pondering, accepting...

Blues closed his eyes and laid his head down against Zero's shoulders, his arms tightening their grip around the half navi's bare torso. He couldn't fight against it, he could merely acknowledge it and try to find some way to accept it.

He liked the frustrating bastard.

This person that drove him to the end of his wits, that wore his patience down, that frustrated and enthralled him, that at times made him feel like laughing and other times screaming. This person who he wanted to hug and strangle, that made him want to beat him to a bloody pulp and instilled in him the desire to protect him from everything that could hurt him, even himself. He wanted to push him away and save him from himself, he loved him and hated him at the same time. There was an upheaval inside of him, this strange part of him that seemed to come out of an indefinite dormancy and it liked Zero so strongly it scared him. But there was the part of him that was always there, creating an awkward, discouraging feeling that he shouldn't have, not for him of all people.

He had been scared, in a way he'd never been in all of his life, something so strong it made him doubt that he'd ever known true fear at all. Maybe that was all that really mattered in the end, those feelings that were so intense it was futile to try and dissuade himself from them. Those were the only ones, he knew in some deep unconscious place with in himself, that were important.

He just wished it wasn't so damn hard.

Zero shifted around softly in Blues' arms, a subtitle motion that Blues hardly noticed and immediately dismissed, he was even grateful for it, it reminded him that he was still alive. Blues lay in silence, unable and and not completely willing to fall back asleep, when Zero shifted again, the half-navi's arms pressed against Blues' and his fingers gripped Blues' hands a little tighter. Blues peeked at him and wondered vaguely if the equivocally restless Zero was starting to grow uncomfortable in having held this position for so long. 15 minutes later Zero's peaceful face cringed into something of frustration and he moved as if he was going to roll over, but just as soon he was at peace again. Blues opened one eye and began to wonder if it was alright to let him sleep now when he'd never slept in his life. Another interval of 15 minutes passed and Zero grunted, his body tense, and did roll over this time, burying his face into Blues' chest. Blues didn't close his eyes this time, his absentminded curiosity began to grow into an uncertainty. He waited and Zero shifted again, the cringe on his face was more intense, he tossed from side to side a few times before he became still again.

Blues was about to intervene but Zero opened hie eyes before Blues could decide how he should do it. Blues found himself staring into Zero's sleepy blue eyes and became like a dear captured in some enthralling fear under the glare of head lights. “...Z...Zero...” He was suddenly speaking like a confused child and wanted to kick himself for being this nervous, embarrassed because of his close proximity. It wasn't something he was used too. “What? What is it?”

Zero's eyelids fell to oscitant slits and he opened his mouth wide in sloppy yawn. “Huh?” Having just waken his drowsy consciousness was obvious to what Blues meant, and it was clear to anyone that would that he hadn't been ready to retreat from his sleep.

“Are you alright?”

Zero yawned again and nodded, prying his eyes open to a half-lidded state. “Yeah... I guess. I wasn't ready to get up but...yeah, sure.” He felt a frustration and a vague understanding of why Blues was always so angry in the morning, though that didn't explain the rest of the day. He closed his eyes and laid his head against Blue's chest, attempting to reclaim the comforts of sleeping in the navi's arms. But his attempt was thwarted by something he couldn't fully explain. “Can I...stay like this a little longer?” Zero inquired with an uncharacteristic timidness, fearing rejection strongly enough to simply abandon asking at all but wanting it strongly enough to attempt it anyway.

Blues closed his eyes indifferently and made no attempts to deny him, inside he preferred it even.

Zero nodded gratefully even if Blues had missed it and closed his eyes soon after. He came closer then he had last time, his entire being almost diluted into the warmth and he was on the edge of losing consciousness. It came suddenly, washing over him hard and strong like a bout of nausea inducing vomit. There was this immense irritation, he felt uncomfortable in his own skin as if it was a tight outfit that was close to ripping. His calm mind was suddenly flooded with a million and one random thoughts, individual voices all conveying something different all at once and he couldn't stop it. “Un...” he grunted, shifting around in a fruitless bid to get comfortable again, the random clutter in his mind wasn't something he even noticed at first, he kept moving around in hopes of finding an body arrangement that wasn't so unbearable.

But it started to ware on him.

The million voices conveying a million thoughts, ideas, hopes, fears, feelings, all blending into a chaotic mess proved to be the true source of discomfort. He couldn't concentrate, he couldn't hear himself think, he just wanted it to be quiet!

“Zero?” Blues withdrew his arms from Zero and sat upright, “What is it?”

Then all at once his body felt right and his mind was calm again, like shadows dispelling at the flick of a light switch. He was sure that was the cause of his sleeplessness. “I don't know...” Zero lifted one hand to his forehead and sat up beside Blues, reassessing himself. He was still in his pants, his chest and his feet were bare, he found his chest armor, his helmet, and his boots in a neat pile nearby his sword . His items were half jumbled in with Blues' helmet, chest armor and boots, he couldn't seem to locate Blues' sword. “I just started feeling really funny, I couldn't get comfortable and I couldn't think or anything.”

It was nearly 5 am now.

“Is it...over? Are you ok now?” Blues asked, knowing there was only one predictable thing about Zero's chronic problems, they all passed eventually.

Zero nodded. He didn't say anything after that, he sat with his arms resting on his knees and staring idle at the ground, Blues congruently didn't speak, feeling throughly uncomfortable acting this way, being close to Zero in this way, it felt strange. Zero contemplated himself in silence, wondering the wages of his life now with the addition of yesterday's events. He felt a dread, waiting for a pain he knew would come made him anxious and tense, he began to wish that whatever was going to happen to him would just happen so it could be over with. With every breath he felt as if he was getting closer to that pain he knew would come, it was taunting him, holding it in front of his face, feeding it too him just enough to instill a fear of it in him... So, he thought to himself, was it worth it? Should he still be alive? He felt guilt as if he had indulged in something, life, and he shouldn't have, it was reminiscent to waking up the morning after you've just had sex and knowing immediately that you shouldn't have, that you had screwed up royally. Damnit...should he be alive? Should he have just have died and avoided the mess he felt deeply in his soul was about to descend upon him like darkness at night? “Somethings happening to me.” Zero finally spoke, his voice weak and distracted.

Blues lifted his head and looked over at Zero, he'd begun to lose himself in his own devices and hadn't expected or particularly appreciated being roused from them. “What?” He inquired with a half attentive voice, still staring down off to the side.

“It just.. feels like somethings gonna happen to me now, or real soon.” He sighed. Zero scratched his ear and dropped his hand back into place, pausing to look up at Blues with the childish eyes of a younger sibling before casting his head down out of sight. He no longer felt a shame around Blues about himself, all that remained was the sullen disgrace he felt for simply being, and that was not so great that he could not handle it as long as he had Blues. “I don't know, I just wonder if I should have just died yesterday.” He said, his voice holding a thoughtfulness, he was struggling to gain some kind of understanding, stumbling for some answer.

Blues again was amazed at the calm humility in Zero's voice. He sharply lifted his fist and pounded in the back of Zero's head with a hard blow, hearing the satisfying cry of pain following. “Dumbass! Of course not!” He shouted, folding his arms in a new state of aggravation, he regretted being interrupted from his thoughts. “What did I tell you about saying things like that, your the only person who would talk like this.”

Zero rubbed the back of his head and whined softly. “But I really mean it~!”

“That's why you shouldn't talk.” Blues retorted callously, 'Idiot.'

Zero glared up at him, but eventually relented, he didn't feel much like a fight. Another silence descended over them and Blues returned to his thoughts, Zero his own. No, maybe it wouldn't have been better to die, he thought with a faint smile, then Blues would be mad at him.

His smile was short lived, the 15 minute recession ended and his skin suddenly as if it had been put on backwards, a torrent of clutter poured into his mind from some invisible flood gate. Every word was his own undeniably, but where and why they were all coming at once was yet to be discovered. Zero could barely sit still, he became fearful an anxious, trying to think but not able to hear his own thoughts over his thoughts. He looked up at Blues who wasn't paying attention and immediately decided to remain quiet, not to tell him anything or give him cause for worry, the part of his mind that acted without thinking, that constantly hinted and suggested drove him now. He sat and fidgeted and trembled until it passed and his skin felt right and he could think coherently again, then he sat and trembled silently.

He couldn't take much more of this.

'?' Blues flinched and looked down with a start when he felt Zero wrap his arms around his waist and lay his head in his lap, completely unaware that he had moved at all until he felt him. This was not something he could get used to. He looked over Zero suspiciously, though with Zero's face pressing into his stomach he couldn't draw much. “What's wrong with you?” He asked expectantly.

Zero didn't respond immediately, and when he did his voice was soft and shy, unsure.“I...just wanna go back to sleep.”

This proved to be a facade.

There was no longer any sleep to be had, only phases of torturous horror and the dread of that horror. This, however, was not something he wanted Blues knowing, he no longer wished to burden him with problems he could do nothing about. He sensed his fate the first time he opened his eyes and looked up at Lan, maybe it was coming to pass, for real this time. “I'm tired...I'm just really tired.”

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

This had not been a pleasant past few hours to say the least..

A few hours prior Lan had watched Megaman become little more then a blank slate while he hallucinated. It certainly wasn't the last time he'd watched it, over that time span he watched Megaman was pelted by an onslaught of problems, glitches that seemed to come one after another with little time in-between. First he began convulsing, and it ceased quickly. Then his vision became blurry and the world seemed to tilt at such an incline Megaman feared he'd fall out of the bed. At that point Lan was distressed and had suggested a few things. All of which Megaman refused, wanting only to sleep. This continued for a good deal of time, far too long for Lan to handle.

“Mega!” Lan grabbed Megaman's arm and pulled him upright onto the bed, deciding that he could no longer stay idle and that he would do something about this whether Megaman liked it or not. “Come on, get up.” Megaman didn't immediately fall backwards on to the bed again as Lan expected he would by the look of him, the former navi sat up, leaning forward loosely, inches from losing what little balance was keeping him from falling flat on his face. But his face was blank, half lidded eyes stared outward with a wanton gaze, he was unresponsive, for all Lan knew Megaman didn't know he was there anymore. But Lan was certain he was finally awake this time, or else he wouldn't have made it this far.

This conscious, however, was not one at all, a pseudo consciousness. Lan ended up trying to get him to respond for about a minute before he regained himself. Megaman looked over at Lan with a slow stirring, he could see the desperation, the fear in his eyes, but for some reason his mind was too hazy to comprehend why let alone act on it. He felt cloudy, heavy, the world seemed dull to him, with little distinction, everything seemed to run and blur together “Huh...?”

“Megaman!” Lan grasped Megaman's shoulders and shook him forcefully, hoping to jar him out of this. “Come on, wake up! Can't you see there's something wrong with you?”

Megaman closed his eyes, his words were slurred and slow, and his voice was faltering. “I'm fine...I'll just... sleep it off...”

Lan had never seen a person so bound in lethargy, Megaman didn't even know what was happening to him. Though in all fairness, Lan didn't know what was happening to Megaman either. There was only one thing Lan could do at this point, call the only person who could possibly handle this. 'My dad has to know something by now...' He hoped a desperation, feeling as he'd been blind to a timer contentiously counting down, and now all a sudden time had run out and now he in a scrambling panic.

Megaman began falling backwards, null energy, little awareness. “Mega!” Lan yanked him back upright. “Alright, no more, Come on.” Lan slipped Megaman's arm over his shoulder and dragged him out of bed, he was thankful that Megaman had enough presence of mind to put his feet down but even then a good portion of his weight was leaning on a not nearly as strong Lan. “Man your heavy, Wake up!” Lan cried, but to no avail, Megaman was barely moving as it was.

Lan dragged him along a few steps, forcing him to come along, when he realized Megaman didn't have any clothing on beyond a pair of boxers. The urge to scream at that point was tempting, it might even wake up Megaman, but he doubted it and it would only draw unneeded attention.

No screaming.

He pulled Megaman over to the side of the bed and attempted to set him down softly but in the end he merely dropped him. “What's wrong with you?” Lan didn't get any resistance here, he easily slipped Megaman's pants on, then held him upright while he pulled Megaman's arms into his shirt one by one, then pulled it down over his head and the rest of his torso.

He was scared. No, He was terrified. He wanted to yell in frustration, he wanted to cry in a sullen sense of futility.

“Don't give up yet Mega.” Lan half whispered, he wrapped his arms around Megaman's waist and began pulling him up. And just as soon it seemed another glitch took hold. Megaman spasmed sharply, his entire body began trembling, Lan could hear his breathing grow heavy and slow. He couldn't hold on to him and was forced to drop him again. “No, no, no!” Lan pressed his hands against Megaman's chest and held him down to keep from sliding on to the floor. “Why does this keep happening?! Are your systems freezing or something?”

Lan could do nothing but hold on to him until the convulsions ceased, and Megaman wasn't any more lucid for the trembling. Lan wasted no time, he pulled Megaman on to his feet and held on to him tightly, thankful he still was awake enough to move a little. He felt strongly that he had to go right now, despite the fact that he was nauseous, and the medicine he was given made him drowsy, or his lungs ached with a hot, throbbing pain, burning with each breath.

! - ! - !
! - ! - !

He knew something was wrong the moment he woke up, before he opened his eyes, before he gained a sense of himself. Blues supposed he'd known even while he was still asleep, at some point in the early mornings after he manged to lose consciousness he'd lost a certain warmth, and the comfort of holding something tightly that he'd never experienced before that time. Maybe it was because he'd gone so long with out it that it was so easy not to notice when it was gone, used to the empty sensation. Blues opened his eyes, first staring outward with a bewildered expression. “Wha...?” Blues sat upright, looking around with a growing anxiousness, where was he? Where was Zero?

The first thing he noticed was that Zero's things were gone, his boots, his armor, his helmet, and every trace of him with it. Blues could derive that at lest Zero was in a clear state of mind when he crept off, only he didn't know why, or where too. “What the hell...” He climbed to his feet and looked around again, as if maybe a second examination would yield results the first hadn't.

It didn't.

And a million things ran through his mind in a horrid dread, he was too worried, to afraid, he shouldn't have been. Maybe there was nothing wrong, maybe he was blowing this out of portion, he should just calm down.

Blues, however, was cursed with knowing Zero better then he would have liked too. Maybe if he hadn't he could have fooled himself and have been rid of this worry, but alas he couldn't. He knew Zero had been a great distance away from alright when he saw him last, he wouldn't have left like this, not normally he wouldn't have. Was he in some type of trouble, was he afraid of something?

Blues waited impatiently for a few moments, hoping that Zero might return on his own, but he didn't. Blues began searching every where, every inch of every space he could reach, but he didn't find anything. He scrutinized the smaller details and hoped to find a trace or some type of trail, but at that point he had already known inside of himself that there was none to be found.

Eventually he returned to the control room, seeking out Enzan who was still submerged in a mountain of work. “Blues? Where were you? I haven't seen a trace of you since the day before yesterday.”

“Have you seen Zero?” He asked.

Enzan shook his head. “No, I haven't seen him either.” The boy remembered Tadashi telling him that he was on his way here. “Wasn't he with you?”

“He was.” Blues' worry doubled, he grew unbearably anxious. “I have to find him right now.”

Enzan looked at him questioningly, wondering what had gotten him so roused. “Calm down,he probably went back to Tadashi or something.”

Again, Blues knew Zero. He wouldn't have gone anywhere near Tadashi in the state he was in, either in the spirit of shame that made the thought of Tadashi seeing him unbearable, or the constant fear that he stood a greater risk of infecting something. “He couldn't be there.”

“How do you know?”

Blues was becoming frustrated stopping to explain everything, he was wasting time! “It doesn't matter, I just have to find him right now.”

Enzan was bewildered by the sudden reemergence of Blues in such a state, immediately wanting to know what had caused him to be this frantic, why was he so fixated on finding Zero. “Yeah, ok.”

! - ! -!

“Is there anything you can do?” Lan stood anxiously against the wall, his form tense as if he was ready to react to something, leaning forward anticipating, hoping, fearing all at once. Wishing there was something he could do to help, to contribute.
His father's office, and also laboratory, was covered in machines, devices, objects that Lan knew nothing about but it gave a cold, professional, knowledgeable atmosphere, just being here made him feel as if there was no doubt everyone of Megaman's problems could be fixed. As naive as that was.

There were no windows, making the room seem as though it was in some isolated place underground but the rain could be heard and low rumbles of thunder along with it. The building seemed vacant and empty, there were no sounds of people, it was devoid of life, making Lan keenly aware of how early his father got to work. 5:30 every morning and today was no different. This laboratory wasn't Tadashi's exclusively, in truth he shared it with 3 others, in practice it was vacant, it was an unspoken but naturally acquired knowledge among Tadashi's co-workers that this was his lab. Megaman was laid out on a screening table, an improvement as far as the part of him still conscious was concerned, leds connected to points on his face and bare chest and connected by white wires to a monitor. Not much had changed between when he'd been forced out of bed by Lan and now, he was still impossibly lethargic and plagued with malfunctions constantly.

“Well...” Tadashi leaned over a counter top, his eyes glued to the screen of a computer, one of many. “Right now I'm not sure, I don't even know what's wrong with him yet.”

Lan took in a deep breath and leaned back against the wall, watching silently with an anxious curiosity. He studied every one of his father's movements, tried to identify every object he picked up and interpret every expression on his father's face. He wished he could have understood everything that was happening, maybe then he wouldn't have felt this unbearable tension, maybe then he could be as calm as his father always was. He was calm, that was good right? It would have been bad if he was anything else, maybe he was so calm because he was on to something, maybe he knew what to do? Or maybe it meant nothing at all, maybe it was just Tadashi being Tadashi. 'What was that thing in his hand? What was he gonna do with it? He's sticking it someplace...Megaman's neck? Why is he doing that? Doesn't Megaman feel that? Didn't it hurt? It seems like something like that would hurt, that has to hurt. That would wake me up. I can't ever seem to wake up in the morning, I always over sleep. Megaman never oversleeps. He always wakes me up. He's always on time. He's like an alarm clock. My alarm clock broke a long time ago. I hit it too hard and it cracked. Maybe Megaman got hit. Oh man! Something inside him must have cracked and broke or something. My Dad's gonna have to cut him open or something like that. Isn't there another way!? No, he has to. What if he can't find what's broken? Does that mean Megaman won't wake up. Is he gonna go into a coma? People who gone into comas always die. Megaman's gonna-'

“Lan.”

Lan flinched ,Tadashi's voice jarring him from his contemplations. He lifted his head, his eyes wide and attentive in hopes of learning more about Megaman. “What?”

The man lifted his hand to his face and adjusted his glasses, “You should go back to the hospital, I can handle it from here and I'll let you know when I find something out.”

“Well how long will that take?” The hospital was not where he wanted to be, he wanted too, no, he needed to stay here with Megaman. He felt as though those ominous feelings he'd been having that instilled an uneasy fear in his consciousness for so long, were finally culminating.

“I don't know.”

Lan shook his head adamantly, his anxiousness prevailing in an abundance of energy that poured into his every word and movement.“I can't leave.” He spoke louder then he had intended too.

“Lan this isn't up for discussion.” Tadashi said, making it clear he meant it. He'd deemed some time ago that Lan was not fit to be out of bed let alone out of the hospital all together 'I can teach you caution, but I can't make you safe I suppose.'

“I can't dad.” Lan pleaded. “Megaman...he might-”

Tadashi picked up a chart from the counter and began scanning over it, it's contents were unknown to Lan. “Megaman will be fine, don't worry about him. You, on the other hand, should be worried about yourself.”

Lan felt an aggravation rising inside of him, he felt as if he'd come against a wall and a frustrated anger burned in him like a new flame. “A few hours outside the hospital won't kill me!” Lan shouted. “What does it matter, it's not like they're doing anything for me! I'll be fine but Megaman wont!”

Tadashi wasn't thrilled that Lan was screaming at him, but he couldn't say he didn't understand why. His first impulse was to confine him to the hospital room, but he hadn't step foot out of the room in a week anyway, even after Enzan left. Tadashi certainly couldn't watch Lan, and his son was one of the more impulsive adolescences he had known. The feelings of futility in even being there, not to mention whatever distractions frequently came along would have been enough to make him sneak out long ago had Megaman not been there. And now his best friend was lying here in a suddenly horrible condition...”Fine, an hour or two and that's it, I mean it.” Tadashi spoke with an even stiffer voice, leaving no room for any negotiation.

“Yeah, yeah, sure.” Lan nodded, readily agreeing and knowing this was an unusual lapse in his usually inflexible father, he would accept it for now and and could only hope to gain some leverage later.

Tadashi set the chart down and leaned back against the desk, the room became silent and Tadashi thought deeply. The silence lasted for 5 minutes strait, Lan was amazed that Tadashi could stand still and think for so long without becoming restless as he had. “You said these malfunction happened close together? How close?”

“I don't know, like 10-15 minutes apart.” Lan shrugged.

“Hmm...”

A short string of beeps sounded in a loud, high pitched burst. Tadashi watched Megaman cringe at the noise and roll over on his side, unaware that there was anything in the outside world besides noise. Then he instinctively turned to his computer.

Lan leaned forward with an indefinable curiosity. “What?”

“It's Enzan...” Tadashi struck a button and an image of Enzan and Eltgo's island control room appeared on the screen. “Enzan? What is it?”

“We need to know if you've seen Zero.” He said, rather calmly.

Tadashi shook his head, then glanced at Lan who did the same. “We haven't seen him, wasn't he with you?”

“He *was* with me.” Blues interjected, abruptly and impatiently. “He disappeared a few hours ago.”

“I'm sure he's alright.” Tadashi told him, he would have asked Megaman but he got the strong feeling that it would do no good. Call it a hunch.

“No, he's not.” Blues protested, though it wasn't exactly clear to everyone else why.

“Why are you so worried, he disappears all the time.”

“He's not alright, we have to find him!” Blues growled.

“What's the problem?”

His anxiousness translated into anger and before he knew it he was shouting. “He died last night! That's the problem! He died last night and he wasn't ok this morning! A person doesn't just disappear after that and everything's ok.”

Tadashi felt his heart jump with a startled shock and he nearly froze in awe. He became immediately attentive. “Wait, died?”

“What do you mean died! Someone just doesn't die!” Lan exclaimed in a horrid fear that made him feel a sudden chill.

“Well Zero's not exactly a regular someone.” Blues snorted.

“Why didn't you-”

“I wasn't exactly in a place that I could easily get out of.”

Tadashi readjusted his glasses and stared upward thoughtfully. “You said he wasn't doing to well this morning, how was he, could he move on his own?”

“Well, after he regained consciousness after dying and all, he fell asleep. And every 15 minutes he would start shifting around, he told me he couldn't think and he felt strongly uncomfortable. Then he started talking darker then he usually does. Just like he did before...” Blues' voice trailed off, but he immediately forced himself back into focus. “For all I know he might be dying again.”

Tadashi looked over at Lan curiously, and Lan looked up at him with the same thought, then the man looked back at Megaman as if he had just realized he was missing something of paramount importance. “You said 15 minutes right?”

“Yeah, why?” Blues asked, recognizing the inquisitional key of his voice and immediately hoped this conformation would lead to Zero.

“That's odd, because we're having a similar problem with Megaman.”

“You think it's connected?” Enzan asked.

“Yes, infact I'm certain of it.” Tadashi's movements gained an authority at the certainty of his words, he seemed to have spawned a purpose and he acted on it hastily. “I always had a theory there was a correlation between what was happening to Megaman and what was happening to Zero.” Tadashi rolled Megaman onto his back and stretched him out on the table, gaining no resistance from him either way. He reconnected the cord to back of Megaman's neck that had become dislodged from it's port during Megaman's last movement.“It would make sense considering how Zero came to be.” It was disheartening to watch Megaman in this state, as if the life was seeping out of him before his eyes. He seemed to be in a constant state of fading, of drifting, though never reaching sleep, always semi-conscious, always partially awake.

“Do you have anyway to find him? Do you guys know where he might have gone?” Enzan asked.

Tadashi glanced over Lan who had nothing to offer up. Tadashi shook his head with discomfited response. “I'm afraid our means of finding him are no greater than yours...but Megaman might know away. If I can do something to get him to respond that is.”

“How long has he been like this?” Enzan asked.

“A few hours.” Lan said. Another anomaly shared between Megaman and Blues, this theory was becoming a self-assumed fact. “I guess they both started at the same time, that has to mean something right?”

“Yes.” Tadashi nodded.

“What's been happening to Megaman, maybe some of the things are the same with Zero.” Blues suggested

“Don't worry about the symptoms, those anomalies don't mean anything and I'd expect them to be different since Megaman and Zero are different. What *is* important is what exactly is causing them.” Tadashi explained. “Maybe if I can get Megaman to be somewhat lucid again he'll be able to shed some light on Zero's location.”

Lan shook his head, a little confused at what Tadashi meant. “But he's been with me this whole time, he doesn't know.”

Tadashi remembered and had meticulously documented what Megaman had described to him of his experiences during the fight with the '201102' virus. How he froze, how he felt an overwhelming, crushing emptiness, and that his body and mind cried out resoundingly that he was merely a severed piece and felt the immense will, desire, need to be whole again. “If the rest of my theory is correct then that wont be a problem.”

“Why don't you bring Megaman here then?” Enzan suggested. “This place may have a lot of damages and the systems aren't completely operational but there's a lot of tools here that were used to create that body, not to mention all of the developmental notes and research. I'd think it'd be much faster then trying to figure it out on your own.”

For some reason unknown to Tadashi, he suddenly remembered all of the things Zero said about him losing himself and doing something he feared horribly. He wondered what Zero was thinking at this moment. “Well...” '?' Tadashi became fully attentive again, his eyes focused on the monitor as the image of Enzan became blurry and overexposed, “Enzan?”

“Tad-...” Static soon followed, and the connection was lost.

Lan looked up at his father with a perplexed expression. “What? What happened?”

Tadashi leaned forward and peered silently for a moment. “...I don't know, whatever it was it's on their end.”

“We're gonna take Megaman there right?” Lan asked anticipatively. “It's worth a shot isn't it.”

“Yes it is, but your not going.”

“No Dad you can't-”

“Your not going Lan.” Tadashi said firmly.

“But Megaman-”

“Megaman will be fine.” Tadashi cut him off, making it clear that there would be no clemency on this time. “Your going back.”

! - ! - !

Enzan leaned forward in his chair, and stared at the screen, shifting through more settings, trying to figure out the reason for the sudden disruption and his inability to reconnect. His search yielded nothing. “What happened?”

“I don't know.” Blues said.

“I can't reconnect...” Enzan sat back in his chair with a growing frustration. “Looks like some type of interference,I don't know why, go see what you can find.”

“Yeah.”

It was a simple task, Blues knew his way around the system, or more accurately what was left of it, aptly. The control room's systems were what he knew most of all since this was where he spent most of the time, helping Enzan. Naturally he knew his way around the utilities from his experience before the string of catastrophic accidents that had left the island in this condition. He of course assumed this would take no longer then a few moments.

This prove to be untrue.

What he hadn't anticipated was that this disruption wasn't one of many minor technical difficulties that now plagued every system in the network. No, he found something quite unexpected.

The first thing that happened was an increasingly unstable connection with Enzan, static that grew stronger and louder as he progressed deeper. “Enzan, what is that?”

“I don't know.” Enzan was hard to hear over the static. “Are you ok?”

“There's nothing happening to me.” Blues looked around, trying to find something unusual, out of place, anything that could remotely cause a disruption. He could find nothing, but to his defense he didn't exactly know where to look. “I don't see anything either.”

“It gets worse the farther you go so you probably haven't reached it yet.” Enzan said. “You find it and you'll probably find what's causing the problem. It's up to you if you wanna keep going, might be dangerous.”

“I'll take my chances.”Blue didn't hesitate to move forward and out of communication's range, keeping his eyes open and attentive but his mind wandered.

What was he doing here?

Why was he doing *this*.

He was supposed to be looking for Zero. It was nearing 6 am he noticed, and he couldn't help thinking that this was the time Zero would have began his customary ritual of rude intrusion. He'd be standing over him with that childish grin, blue eyes bright and energetic that seemed perversely immune to the fatigue and lethargic ravages of the morning. Idiomatically spouting some aggravating nonsense that never ceased to annoy him. He wondered what could have been done to make the outcome of all of this different.. But it had only been a few hours, maybe he was getting a head of himself, he hoped he was getting ahead of himself.

And like something out a dream he saw him, and it immediately became some horrendous nightmare that played out helplessly before his eyes. “Z-Zero?!” Blues choked out, he froze in a captivated awe, staring. Zero stood before him in a weak, sweaty mass, the odd blue blood trickling down from under his helmet. He leaned against one of two large tunnel like structures, the only two remaining working lines that connected outside of the control room, his arms hugged his body tightly and he lurched forward only inches from falling. He heaved with gasping breaths as if he was being strangled. He shook, his body withering in pain. “Zero!” Blues bolted forward as fast as he could towards the ailing half navi.

Zero's eyes widened in fear as if he saw something hideous happening before his eyes. “No! Stop! Stop! Don't come any closer!” He yelled with a louder voice Blues had imagined he could.

Blues came to an abrupt stop, a surge of anxious energy running through him like electricity urging him to keep moving. “Zero, what's wrong with you? What happened to you?”

“I...” Zero clinched his eyes shut and fell back completely on to the line. He didn't have the capability or capability to explain it, the pain jarred his mind and his senses were slowly being phased out, he couldn't utter anything beyond an inarticulate- “It hurts.”

Blues bolted forward again and Zero flinched as if being suddenly attacked. “No! Stop! Please don't!” Zero pleaded franticly. “Blues don't!”

“What the hell!” Blues forced himself to stop again, only a few feet away from him. He wished so badly he could just reach out and grab him. “What! Tell me something! What happen to you, why did you leave?!”

“I had too...”Zero forced out. Then the tremors convulsing through his body became sharp spasms and he keeled forward, hands on his knees and couched violently. He spewed up more blue blood on to the floor with the most atrocious sounds that had ever reached Blues' ears. Zero immediately lifted his head, blood sliding down his lips, with a pleadingly halting gaze. “I didn't want to...I tried...” Zero's face began to twinge and tears began to roll down his cheek, converging on his chin with the blood. “I tried. I tried my damnedest to fight it but I couldn't. There was no way to fight it, there was nothing to fight...I can't fight myself.” He sobbed.

Blues' eyes narrowed and he could longer stand here and watch this. Determined that this would be his last stopping point he ran forward towards Zero.

“NO STOP!!”

! - ! - !

“What the hell?!” Enzan lept upward more quickly then he had been able too in weeks, adrenaline surged through him, staring down at the computer terminal in a startled fear. The screen flickered and began faltering, going blank as if it had cut off then flaring with every color it could produce in an erratic malfunction. Just barely he could see beyond all of it in split second glances, it was unmistakable, '201102'

'It's infected? But how!?” Enzan lept on to the desk in the reach of the back of the terminal, he began yanking out any cord he saw, instinctively fearing it's spread. “No! It can't be!” This was not something this place could take right now!

! - ! -!

It happened so fast that Blues barely realized what was happening, he got no more then a few stops before he saw Zero leap out at him at such a frightening pace he appeared to be gliding on air, sword drawn back. For a split second he realized he could see through the body of Zero darting towards him, like a ghost reaching out to cease him. Beyond that he could see Zero, again, still lurching forward in pain. Zero slashed across his chest with a swift blow, knocking him backwards before disappearing in a blur of static. “!!” Blues was so startled that he couldn't gather the reflexes to catch himself, he fell backwards, staring confoundedly at Zero. “Z-Zero? What was-”

“...” Zero coughed again in a spray of blood, his eyes became incognizant. Like a burning wick reaching it's end, his senses became overwhelmed, static filled his vision, he couldn't hear anything, not his thoughts, not his breaths, not his pulse, only static. The world drifted away from him, everything felt so distant... Zero slipped down silently to his knees, his eyes falling closed, his arms falling weakly from around his torso, and fell to the ground.

“Zero!” Blues scrambled to his feet and ran with all of his might in an uncoordinated dash. “Zero!” He nearly fell trying to reach him, stumbling in the last inches and coming so close to the ground he could feel the heat of his skin under his finger tips. But he didn't, a sudden eruption of what seemed to be an energy burst in an explosion of blinding white. Before Zero knew it he was struck with a strong, burning impact that swept him backwards like a strong wind. He crashed to the ground in a rough trail, immediately his eyes shot open and he lifted his head in a frantic and startled attempt to figure out what had just happened. For his speed he caught a quick glimpse of Zero leaping into the air, both pairs of wings stretched to full span, before disappearing before his eyes by means of speed or otherwise. “Zero!!”

What had just happened? A question that rung in his mind an echo devoid of a response. Blues climbed to his feet, looking around reverently in fear for the once again missing half-navi. What had just happened? What was it he was struck by? What was that spiriting force that had cut him? What was that force that repelled him? The thought came into his mind hot and dry, was this it? Had he just watched Zero... become what he always feared?

“B-....wh-...can...ou...r...e...?”

Blues was snapped out of his horrified reverence by the garbled voice obstructed by vicious. “Enzan?”

The second time around the static was starting to clear like gray clouds before the sun swept away by the winds. “Blues, can you hear me? Are you alright?”

“...” Blues couldn't even respond to that, he felt frozen, bound by something, in shock. “Yeah...”

“I guess you found it. What was causing the interference?” Enzan asked.

Bringing Blues to another realization. “It was him.” He said, his voice still in awe though only from this new enlightenment. It solidified the thought in his mind, a lamented confirmation. “It was Zero, he was causing it.”

“But your alright? So that's not it?”

“What are you talking about?”

“The system, the computer I'm on has just been infected. Get out of there right now!”

! - ! - !
! - ! - !