Mega man Battle Network: Virus mutations

Chapter 24: Means to an end part 3

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Sorry for the delay.



And remember to review!



~SDI

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*...traffic looks well considering the weather, and speaking of the weather we end our morning show with a quick look at the weather. The high pressure that moved in last night looks as if it will be hanging over us at least until tomorrow morning ,we also are seeing the first line of these storm squalls coming in from the east, brining in the heavy showers effecting most of our viewing area. You can see there’s a storm cell a little farther off over the ocean, it's a slow moving front so it'll take awhile to get here but you can expect too see showers for the rest of night. Your forecast for today, a big warm up into the high 60s, but again, expect strong showers. There's already a severe thunderstorm warning in effect for the following counties...*



The elevator drifted to a stop and Tadashi watched the doors anxiously, trying his best to hide his tension from Megaman standing beside him. It probably was because he was nervous, but it was an eternity, it seemed, until he heard the small sound of a bell and watched the doors roll open. He breathed a sigh of relief at their safe passage and quickly stepped out, only to be barred access into the production wing by a pair of very sturdy looking doors. He shifted his glasses and tried the handle, even if he did know it wouldn't work already, then looked around inquisitively. “Blues, are you there?”



“Yeah.” A voice radiated from some peripheral place. “Hold on, I'm opening it now.”



Megaman looked around uneasily at the small space between the elevator and the door, he wasn't claustrophobic though he couldn't help being uncomfortable, with this door currently impassable and their only way back through an elevator. There was something unsettling about that, considering Zero might become inclined to infect whatever system was keeping it active. “Are you going to have to do this with every door?”



“Actually, this is the only one that's locked.” Blues told him.



Tadashi and Megaman glanced at each other with shared perplexity, Megaman could only offer a shrug. “That's...odd.”



“Alright, I got it.” Blues said, the sound of his voice was followed by a loud click and the once impassable doors slid open into darkness.



The elevator doors rolled closed and the light it offered was taken away. “Blues, you think you can do something about these lights?” Tadashi asked, it would be hard to find his way around if he couldn't see his hands in front of his face.



“Oh, sorry about that.” Blues apologized. With a resounding buzz, bright florescent lights flickered to life, revealing the clean white floors and hard white walls. There was an eerie silence that followed, nothing like the other floors, not even the murmur machinery could be heard, it was lifeless.



Before them lay a familiar forked path, multiple doors down each one of them. “Blues, which way is the production room?” Tadashi asked.



“Last door down the right side. But it's just machines, you'd have better luck trying the other side if your looking for the systems that control it.”



“Is the fuse box in there?”



“I don't know where it is, you'll have to find that one for yourself.” Blues told them regretfully. “Sorry.”



Tadashi rubbed the back of his neck and surveyed both paths with uncertainty, “I guess I'll take the left side then.”



“Alright.” Megaman nodded, with one reaffirming glance back he began descending the right corridor while Tadashi took the remainder.



! - ! - !



“They really are unlocked.” Tadashi curiously noted that fact as he pushed open the only door on the left side of his assigned corridor. There only two rooms here, two doors opposite each other, and it was beginning to look familiar to him. It wasn't long before he realized this entire area was a mirror to the other production wing that he nearly was incinerated in on the other side of the building. Judging by the fireball that had chased after him and Megaman within the confines of the service elevator shaft, all 3 levels of that production wing had been thoroughly destroyed, which was why this one felt so strange.



This was an incubation room. The floors shifted from hard, cold tile to hard, cold steel, red lights illuminated the room in an ethereal glow, the purpose for this type of light Tadashi did not know. The most distinguishing feature had to be the two rows of capsule like tanks, connected to the ceiling and to the floor by odd mounts, filled with the infamous green preserving fluid. There were 8 in all, but there was one in particular that was important, and when Tadashi saw it he forgot about everything he was supposed to be doing. There he was, Zero, in the center of tank number 7, curled into a small ball, his head lifted slightly and his eyes open, completely unaffected by the liquid. His gaze contentiously scanned the room outside the tank and quickly found the new object in the room, in an instant their eyes locked. Brown eyes watching in an astounded, uncertain gaze, racing with thoughts and questioning, while blue eyes behind a distorted green tent watched impartially, emptily, not holding a semblance of emotion, they seemed sleepy and detached in fact, as if they were a moment away from drifting closed and in to unconsciousness.



“!” Tadashi quickly spurred himself out of his seemingly entranced state and began looking around frantically for some type of control device, a terminal, something. Behind tank number 7 he saw a small counter, and a single computer terminal sitting behind it. 'Is it too late?' Tadashi slipped beyond the tank, shuttering as he felt Zero's eyes watching him until he moved out of his line of sight. He turned on the monitor and he was met with a program that seemed to be controlling and monitoring this incubation process. “Damn...” Tadashi came to the immediate realization that it was infected, the picture blurred, wavered and distorted at erratic intervals, but he could still make out the contents. It was the status for all of the tanks, and of course his eyes were drawn to no 7. 'I'm too late...' He realized, a nervousness quelling in his stomach with a nauseating tightness. Among all of the unrelated stats he saw one ominous line of text. Incubation status 99 percent.



“There has to be something I can do...” He began searching, for any file left that he could access in the production room, and too his surprise he was able to reach the network drive in question, even more surprising, from an infected computer. “This doesn't make any sense, why can I do this?” He mumbled to himself. He hadn't forgotten what he set out to do, the logs he was looking for, and he began probing every file he came across, searching for the inevitable records that had to exist. Until he hit a single folder and was immediately barred off by a mass of corrupted, infected data. “?” He came across others like it several more times until he finally paused in his search to look at the drive as a whole. What he discovered was even stranger. The drive was infected of course, but only in patches, only certain files and programs, all of them pertaining to the incubation stage Zero was currently in. The strangest thing had to be that the infections were self contained, not being held back by a quarantine or mindlessly replicating. “What in the world...Why is it leaving all of these key files alone? Why isn't it simply spreading?” Tadashi wondered.



He glanced over his shoulder questioningly at Zero as if he’d fined his answers there, ended up with an idea...”I wonder...” He opened up a search program for a single file, Zero.201102.exe. If he was wrong, the file would be in some transitional volume until the incubation process was over. No such luck, unfortunately he was right, and he found Zero in a different place, stuck right in the center of the automated process that controlled everything from the door locks to the lights for this wing. “Isn't that where Blues' is?” Was his first thought. The second was “Wait...if Zero is there...then how can he be here too?”



Trojan... “Of course!” Tadashi said with a sudden realization. “Your controlling the 201102 virus aren't you?” Tadashi looked back over his shoulder and spoke to Zero as if he would respond. He began to feel sorry for Zero, all of those times Zero had been so afraid he’d infect something and that he would set something horrific in motion when all the time Zero had the power to control it and had never known. “It's all remote, that's how your in two places at once?” So the question was it seemed, was what exactly was going in to this body? Was he simply controlling it from the system, or was he really in the body and controlling the system.



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Megaman pushed open the first door down his path and scanned over the room with sharp quick glances, it appeared to be just a break room and he knew he wouldn't find what he was looking for here. He pulled the door shut behind him and moved with quick steps to the room opposite it, pushing it open, finding the light switch, and peering inside with the same scrutiny as the room before it. There was a large terminal that, from the look of it, most likely controlled the production process, screens mounted all around most likely linked cameras in the next room. There was still no luck, and with a sigh he moved on to the last pathway, a set of steel doors barred with warnings.



With curiosity leading him, Megaman pried open the weighted door and slipped into the deep darkness on the other side, “I guess Zero wouldn't need light would he...” He shuttered when he heard the door slam shut behind him, sealing off the light from the hallway. “I can't see a thing...” Megaman slowly moved backwards, feeling out with his hands blindly until they came in contact with a hard, concrete wall, then he felt around along it until he felt a row of light switches and pushed them all up.



With a resoundingly loud string of clicks, the lights hanging 3 stories up on the ceiling flooded the room with an abundance of light. “Whoa...” Megaman looked upward in astonishment at the massive machine in front of him, the entire structure had to be 3 near stories itself, and it was a disorganized mass with no symmetry to it. It was hard to describe, the best that could be said was it wasn't just one large device, but many different ones conjoined together. He couldn't identify any of it except for a large tank embedded who knew how deep in the floor containing large volumes of the thick green preservation liquid.



There wasn't much room, only a thin path stretching the length of the room and groups of stairs to reach different machines. “It's gotta be around here somewhere.” Luckily for Megaman what he searched for wasn't hard to spot, at the end of the left side was a steel box mounted on the wall.



Megaman took a single step, and felt as if he'd just fallen head first into a deep, dark void. '!!' Megaman's eyes lost their focus and the world swirled blurred into an inconceivable mess, suddenly he saw some inconceivable, large, object rising upward from below and rushing towards his face. “What's..happening to--” He felt a hard impact slamming into his entire body and he found himself staring at the ground. His head was spinning, he didn't know which side was up. “No, no, no.” He moaned weakly, “Not now! Not now!”



He had to that box.



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“Your here somewhere...” Blues grunted, looking up uneasily at the red sky that seemed to be in a slow, constant decent with a silent terror. Surrounded by the creeping red fog that how some how stopped in it's tracks and loomed on both sides him, striking a dreadful anxiety in at the very thought it could begin moving again and block his path, or worse. In some places the blood red, silent force was so far away that he could barely see it on the horizon, in others so much had been infected that he could barely find a path to squeeze through. As terrifying as this road was, Blues wouldn't allow himself to be detoured. “Just come out.”



He never imagined he'd go through so much so much trouble for Zero's sake.



That bastard, Blues could feel a violent surge of anger rising in him, Zero was in for the beating of his life, he wasn't going to take it easy on him this time.



He was furious, he didn't feel sad, or worried anymore, if he did they had long since been consumed by the burning anger having been what ignited the blaze in the first place. “Fucking bastard.” Blues half shouted, his eyes narrowed dangerously when a burst of static appeared before him and a ghost darted towards him, slashing. Blues leapt forward and easily rolled underneath it's blade, fluidly rising to his feet and dashed forward. He still didn't quite figure out what those things were. “What are you doing, hiding?!” Blues shouted in frustration.



And almost as if responding to his call, (probably not considering Zero wasn't exactly as responsive as he used to be), Zero was behind him using a completely inane stealth that nearly caught Blues off guard. Blues paused, as angry as he was, and stood there, studying Zero hopefully. One look in his eyes and he could tell he wasn't there, this wasn't Zero, this thing wasn't even alive as far as he could tell, going about whatever it's intention was with a cold, calculated precision, reflexively taking action against anything, such as Blues, as though it was simply another obstruction. His eyes didn't even focus on him, they were always looking past him at something Blues couldn't see. Blues sighed and raised his sword, “I wish I knew what your always looking at...”



Zero bolted forward with a definite persistence in his movements, just as he dawned on Blues he lifted his sword above his head and slashed down on him hard. Blues lifted his sword and easily blocked, lifting his foot and sending a sharp kick to Zero's abdomen. Zero's hand darted down and caught his leg before he could make contact, then with a sharp jerk Zero tossed Blues into the air.



There were a few helpless, weightless, voiding seconds of tension as his body moved through the air, all he could do was tense and brace himself dreadfully. “!!” Blues landed on his back hard and slid along the ground at a speed that made the friction feel like fire on his skin. 'Where he hell did that strength come from!' Blues, with a tight grip on the hilt, plunged his sword into the ground and came to a quick stop. “!” The second he saw Zero's fist strike the ground Blues pulled his sword out and rolled hastily to the side, slipping out of the range of a geyser of white energy that erupted from his previous spot. Blues jumped on to his feet just in time to intercept an attacking Zero, blocking his thrusting sword and with a swipe hard enough to knock Zero's guard off balance then sent a hard punch to Zero's face, causing the virus to stumble backwards.



Even then Zero's eyes never changed, even in pain they still peering right through Blues as if he wasn't there. “That look creeps me out you know that?” He said with a small laugh at the turmoil going around inside his head. It hurt. Blues couldn't believe it, it actually hurt to see Zero like this. It felt strange, foreign and frightful now that the light and childish energy had left his and hadn’t been replaced with anything.



Zero recovered himself and sprang into the air, reversing his grip on the weapon and stabbing it downward on to Blues with his quick decent. The navi wasn't fast enough to evade or defend, the blade slashed down across his body and Zero landed on one knee before the newly stunned Blues. Returning his hold on the blade to normal, Zero rose with a fierce uppercut, slashing Blues with enough force to lift his body off the ground a over a foot and throw him backwards. Zero finished by stomping down hard on the ground, and a line of successive geysers slammed into Blues before he could touch the ground, his fall was prolonged as the geysers slammed into him from bellow carried him back farther and farther with each strike until he'd been hit by 5 of them and he finally fell. “Unnn....” Blues cringed in pain, clinching his chest tightly trying to keep from screaming.



He never knew Zero had so much power, he never thought he was so strong. “I'll admit...” Blues called out, listening to Zero's quick footsteps racing towards him. “You hit pretty hard.” Blues took in a deep breath, then with one quick motion he rolled onto his stomach and threw his foot back, kicking the approaching Zero in the legs and sending the virus stumbling to the ground beside him. “But not hard enough!” Blues growled furiously as he jumped on top of Zero, gripping his neck tightly with one hand in a strangle hold and pounding into him with hard punches with the other. “Snap out of it you little bastard!” He yelled. He was fully intent on beating him back into coherency.



He got about 5 hits in when he felt hot, streaks of electricity burning up from Zero's body and into him. “!!” Blues hastily fell off and rolled out of range, reclaiming his sword on the way.



For a brief second he found himself flat on his back, staring up at the red sky slowly descending on him, and he suddenly felt the overwhelming urge to laugh, for no conceivable reason. Blues climbed to his feet, a small smirk on his face. “Your not gonna say anything to me are you?” He said out loud, watching Zero intently. He could remember very clearly all of those times where he thought Zero was incapable of shutting up, like a child in need of constant stimulation. Now he couldn't get him to look at him strait let alone speak. It was funny in a horrible way.



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Tadashi printed out the logs for Megaman's processing, a formidable 20 pages long, and stacked them all together neatly. Had he had the time he had the time, or had the circumstances not been so unique he would have stopped to look at them. Instead he merely turned around and stared at Zero floating in that tank ominously, folding the bulk of papers in half and slipping them in the back of the waistband of his pants. “Zero...I'm so sorry...” He said aloud. He'd tried so hard to think of a way to make this right, to find the cause of this. He'd promised Zero that he would find away to fix this. And now things are so out of control...he couldn't help but think of how Zero's last sane thoughts must have been how he’d been right in the end, how guilty and tormented he must have been. Tadashi slowly readjusted his glass, and took paced steps around to the front of the tank and into Zero's line of sight, still thinking, still trying to contemplate some way at the very lest stop it.



He could still remember the time Zero had said he didn't want a body, that it would be too much trouble...”I promised you that we could fix this...maybe if I had had more time.” Tadashi sighed, clinching his eyes shut and pounding his head against the glass in frustration. It was very thick glass. “I'm sorry.” He had to apologize again, this time for the thoughts he was thinking. He apologized for contemplating what he might have to do to him, even by thinking the very thought that they might actually have to destroy Zero he felt immensely guilty, as if he was betraying him. “How can I possibly stop it now?” Tadashi took another look around the room, though with more depth than the last, in the end he came up with no fuse box. But what good would it do at this point?



There was suddenly a loud beep and the glow of the red light and the illumination of the monitor all went dormant, '!' Tadashi flinched at first, before he realized what had just happened. “Megaman must have found it.”...He should have been relieved, but he was unsettled by the fact that he could still see. There was a small glow coming from the single active tank, a light somewhere underneath the fluid illuminating the entire inside of the capsule. He also realized that the loud beep he heard wasn't related to the sudden power failure when he saw Zero slowly uncurl and stretch out to full length, floating limply, almost lifelessly. He began to float to the top, but a flurry of bubbles poured out of his mouth and began to drift back down towards the bottom. His eyes suddenly sharpened and his body became ridged, both arms drew back and he punched the tank, sending a spray of glass pelting into Tadashi followed by a geyser of the green fluid. “!!” With one arm blocking his face he managed to stumble back out of the way before he was drenched in it.



Even as the thick liquid pooled around his feet in the dimly lit darkness and he shook the glass off of him, discovering new cuts, he still wasn't afraid. He wasn't even nervous, he was in a void, frozen in emptiness between anxiousness and fear. He couldn't even draw up the will to make a move, he couldn't contemplate what move he would make even if he was sure of himself. He watched as Zero landed almost gracefully at the bottom of the tank, his armor and his skin dripping wet. He was sluggish at first in his movements, steeping out of the tank in a slow, stiff manner, and stumbling forward.



“!!” Tadashi's instincts took over at that moment, he immediately ran forward and grabbed him before he fell face first into the ground. “Zero!” He pulled him up strait, and quite late, realized what he was doing. “Hey Zero! Can you hear me, are you there?” Zero lifted his head and looked at him with a blank, sleepy stare, he didn't speak. He used Tadashi as a crutch and lifted himself up to full height, and to the man's surprise the virus was taller then he was. He was sure that if Zero was back to normal he would have a field day with this, the thought only saddened him more. Tadashi felt Zero's slackened body tense and he immediately stepped back out of reach, watching cautiously from a barely visible section of the room. 'Is he...'



Zero's eye turned towards him in a sharp, distinct cut and a newly lucid focus, a simple glance dashed what ounce of optimistic hope Tadashi had let himself have. The virus moved in a lose, relaxed manner, walking casually as Zero would, with a bit of speed to his step, a habit due to Zero's usual impatience. But that's where the similarity's between this Zero and the half virus that preceded him ended. This Zero moved with an impeccable homing, visibly focused on one thing where the prior Zero would have simply seen listless and absentminded. These eyes didn't hold a semblance of the life they once did. “I don't suppose your in there somewhere are you Zero?” Tadashi called out, feeling almost obligated to at this point though holding no hope that it would work. Zero moved towards him at a pace that was intimidating, and if that was the aim of these sharp cut movements they certainly was working. “I thought so...” Tadashi waited anticipatively, trying to contemplate his next move.



About half way Zero suddenly darted forward in a burst of speed that nearly made Tadashi flinch, the man however reacted, not to gracefully stumbling to the side and just barely feeling a rush of air as Zero's fist graced past his head. ‘!’ Tadashi strafed backwards evasively just as Zero reached out for him, but he lacked the speed and agility of Zero and the virus lunged outward with one long stride and seized Tadashi by the neck. “!!” Zero wrapped both hands around his neck and easily lifted him off the ground, it was clear that Zero had none of the initial defects Megaman had suffered from. Tadashi’s eyes grew wide and his hands shot up to Zero’s arms, futilely attempting to pry them away. The urge to panic was overwhelming, he nearly gave in to the fear that slowly consuming his consciousness when his windpipe was squeezed shut. “Z-…Ze…ro…” He coughed out weakly, expelling his last bit of air, and for nothing it seemed, his words were to no avail.



Silently cursing himself for having to do this, Tadashi’s hands reached out and grasped Zero’s head, then he drew his knees up and sent a hard kick strait in to Zero’s face. “!!” Just as soon the grip around Tadashi’s neck fell away and he fell roughly to the ground while Zero stumbled backwards. “Un…” Tadashi grasped his neck nursingly, coughing and gasping for lost air. He forced his eyes open and lifted his head, expecting Zero to dash at him with that superior speed and attack. ‘?’ “Zero?” Zero instead was still, clinching his head, his cold face now twisted in pain, his legs trembling. ‘What in the world?…Maybe he’s…’ Tadashi merely stared, standing cautiously idle with uncertainty. “Zero? Are you…alright?” He got no response, making him wearier. But the moment he saw Zero’s legs give way, he was unable to stand idle any longer and immediately raced towards him, throwing his arms around him and catching him before he crashed face first into the ground. “Zero! Hey Zero! Can you hear me?”



No response came this time as well. Zero rested weakly on his knees with Tadashi’s support, his entire body trembling, still clinching his head with some unknown pain.



! - ! - !



Blues took a few stumbling step backwards before he was able to catch himself, his breathing was labored with strain, his entire torso ached from bruising impacts and one arm remained hugged tightly against the armor every second 2 hands weren’t required to be in use. His sword hung loosely at his side in a tight grip, and he stood ever tense as he tried to reclaim his lost stamina.



Zero staggered and fell to his knees, his only sounds were that of his harsh, ragged breaths. He had undoubtedly greater physical power, and a bountiful energy of unknown origin, for all Blues knew he’d always had it. But Blues had two things over Zero, agility and stamina. Zero was tired and he had run out of that bountiful, Blues could see it, in fact he was surprised it hadn’t run out sooner the way he was using it. Blues would be sure to take advantage of it. With a loud grunt he bolted forward towards Zero, his sword dragging along the ground at his side.



Zero lifted his hands and the air around him began to waver as if a stream of burning hot air was venting up from underneath him. The thick red fog that had enveloped so much of this system began streaming towards him, into his body in a loud and furious rush. ‘He’s using the data he’s already infected…’ Blues realized, thinking seriously about stopping in his tracks at the moment. ‘But what is he gonna do with-‘ An immense wave of red shot out of Zero a blinding speed, destroying the very ground it traveled on, in the brief second Blues had to look at it he could only relate it to lighting, red lighting. “!!” Blues dived to the side and the wave roared past him with a gush of hot air that whipped his body and baked his skin. Blues rolled onto his feet with an agile fluidity and bolted across the last few feet of the divide before Zero had a chance to recover. “This is for trying to kill me!” He shouted, stepping up on Zero’s shoulder and sending a hard kick to Zero’s head with all of his strength, one that didn’t fail to knock Zero on to his back and daze him, nearly knocking him unconscious.



“Ow…”



Blues flinched when he heard Zero’s voice, he immediately turned around “Z-Zero?” Blues dropped his sword and ran back to the navi.



Zero clinched his face and rolled over on to his side “Ow…Damnit!” Zero shouted. Then, much to Blues’ bewilderment, Zero erupted into laughter, trying once to remove his hands from his face but the pain was too great and he immediately replaced them. “You don’t pull any punches do you?” He said, finding humor in the furry of Blues last attack. He wasn’t surprised, where Megaman might have been inclined to take it easy out of guilt and concern, Blues simply grew angry and fought harder then he would have a normal adversary. ”Is it just me or do you hit everybody this hard?” He found enough humor to entice another bout of laughter.



Blues folded his arms and looked away, completely confused. “What the hell are you laughing at, you just got your ass kicked.”



“I needed it, don’t you think?” Zero removed one hand from his face and planted it behind him as he sat up. This wasn’t a particularly jovial situation, and normally he wouldn’t have been in such a mood, but that laugh had given him something he needed. He felt in oddly high sprits now, ready to accept his inevitable fate with more peace then he’d ever had, now that Blues was with him. “I’m glad you stopped me…I was in that room with Tadashi about to do God knows what.”



“What?” Blues knelt down beside him, “What do you mean?”



“I’m sure you know.” Zero said.



“You have a body? But…But how could you be hear if-“



Zero tapped his temple with his idle hand, drawing attention to his face obscured by his pressed hand. “Wireless remember….it’s really strange, It’s like I’m doing two things at once…It’s really…dangerous.”



“But that doesn’t make any sense.” Blues protested, trying desperately to understand as quickly as possible. “How can anything I do to you here effect you there?”



“I’m connected here and there.” Zero explained, “One of them is just a projection, either I’m really here and projecting myself there, or I’m in the body and projecting myself here.” Zero shrugged. “Maybe this is the one projecting, I mean, the body’s just a means to get off the island, with the firewall slowing me down and you guys cutting off the power. Good job on that by the way, I had no where else to go.”



“How do you know all of this? The last time I talked to you you were completely clueless.” Blues asked. He reached out and took hold of Zero’s hand, slowly prying it away from his face, hearing Zero hiss softly in pain. The light skin was tainted with blue blood, oozing from a gash just above his left eye. He felt guilty now, for causing such a wound, now that Zero was himself again…at lest…temporally. Blues slowly began wiping away the thick liquid with his forearm, before it seeped into Zero’s eyes.



Zero smiled softly. “I don’t know, It’s just that I see things so much more clearly now. It’s starting to even feel natural now…being like that…It doesn’t even hurt anymore.” Zero let Blues continue for much longer then he intended, enjoying the small, though a bit painful action simply because it came from Blues, the stoic navi who was normally so reserved with his personal space, and contact. ”That’s not the point.” Zero pushed Blues’ arm away and clamped his hand over the gash again. “The point is that this is your chance. If you kill me now, you can stop all of this.”



“You’re a little bastard, you know that right.” Blues immediately stated. “Maybe if you weren’t so fixed on dieing you wouldn’t be like this! Your not even trying to fight it!” Blues shouted, every bit of his resentment in his voice.



Zero lowered his head and looked away shamefully. “I…I can’t…”



“You have to! I mean come on, something in you responds, because you always come back if I hit you hard enough!” Blues said reverently, trying desperately to convince Zero to have the same hope he did. Because then maybe he’d stop talking like this, and if he kept thinking in this way maybe he’d ward away whatever change caused him to lose himself.



Zero felt depressed again, resenting Blues again, resenting seeing Blues trying to hard on his behalf, and knowing it was futile. Why didn’t he just stop? Why didn’t he just give up, why didn’t he just listen! If there was a way to fight it then he would have found it by now. It was impossible for him, because those altered thoughts that drifted into his head, that compelled his actions, that changed his personality, they as undeniably his own, they were as real as Lan was or as the feel of Blues’ touch, or even his own heartbeat. There’s no way to fight that. “Blues.”



Blues glared at Zero with a furry in his eyes, his body so taunt with anger that he trembled. ”Fuck!” He yelled, pounding his fist into the ground. Damn! Why did it have to be like this?! Why did he have to grow to feel so much for Zero if it would end like this? Not only was he being forced to lose him but…he might actually have to kill him? Why! Why did Zero have to be this way! Why couldn’t he fight it! There had to be a way to stop this! “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Now he was just being naïve. And he hated Zero all the more for making him feel this desperation. He hated Zero for being the way he was, he hated Zero for prying his way into his soul and making him feel as though it were impossible to live with out him. Damnit! Why-



‘?’ He felt warm arms wrap around his shoulders, he lifted his head and found himself face to face with Zero, close enough to feel his intense body heat radiating off of him, looking into timid blue eyes and a mournful expression. The sight of it was enough to make Blues tilt his head away and avert his eyes to the ground, damnit, he hated that look.



“Thanks anyway.” Zero smiled weakly, his eyes slowly drifting closed, then he leaned forward and pressed his lips against Blues. Just one last time he wanted to feel this, the swelling of affection, of warmth that made his heart pound and his stomach weak, quaking like fear.



Blues’ anger faded almost immediately, his eyes trembled behind closed lids as he kissed back. He could laugh at himself right now for a badly he wanted to keep him here, even more how badly he wanted this to last as long as possible. He blamed Zero for this, for making him feel this way. He’d never imagined he’d act like this over anyone, he never thought he’d let himself, he thought it was stupid, and he certainly felt out of his element, for Zero of all people.



Zero slowly pulled back and paused, debating with himself visibly before finally allowing himself to rest his head on Blues’ shoulder. “You gotta do it.” He said softly. “I could go at any minute…”



Blues wrapped his arms around Zero’s back and held him tightly, almost as if to keep him from leaving. “I…can’t…”



“Yeah you can, I know you can.” Zero told him, “Now that I have a body you and Megaman have to do it.”



“No…there’s gotta be a way to help you, you just have to give us time.” Blues said.



“Heh.” Blues slowly slipped out of Blue’s grasp and stood, placing his hand back on the cut above his eye just as it began to seep again. “I know you guys can, and I know you won’t let me down.” He said, his wings unraveling and appearing at his back.



“Hey wait! Where are you going?”



“Well your obviously aren’t gonna do it right now.” Zero said, imagining how hard it must be for Blues, that he probably need some time to accept it.



“How…can you just talk about it like that?” Blues asked solemnly. “Do you even realize what your asking me to do? Aren’t you scared, do you even care?”



“Well…” Zero’s voice trailed off. Maybe Blues was right, maybe he was speaking of this in a callous manner, as if it wasn’t important. But it was still hard for him to believe that anyone could feel deeply about him when he could feel nothing for himself but resentment. He would have killed himself if given the chance, but some new force seemed to bar him from that action now, all he could do was rely on them. “Yeah, at first I was scared, but eventually…” Zero shrugged. “You come to a point where you accept it, you’re even at peace with it. I mean come on, if you posed a threat like I do, what would you do?”



“…”



“Yeah.” Blues nodded, then he turned around and with one flap of his wings he pushed off in the air and quickly disappeared.



! - ! - !



Tadashi wasn’t exactly sure what he should have done at this moment. Zero was laying on the ground before him, cradling his head, submersed in an unknown pain, and not once had he responded. Should he get out of here like his instincts told him, but he’d then be leaving Zero alone to let him escape or do who knew what. Should he stay and risk another attack?



He couldn’t seem to decide.



When he realized he wasn’t moving anyway in his indecision he decided he would stay as long as he could, it wouldn’t have felt right if he’d decided differently, simply leaving Zero alone like that would have felt traitorous. So he stayed, using the opportunity to, at the very least, study Zero. He noted some key differences in Zero’s body then he found in Megaman during his initial study. Zero’s muscles didn’t hold the stiffness and tension Megaman’s had, there was more flexibility, greater ranger of motion, an no repository trouble, and he could tell from the single attempt to strangle him Zero had made that the virus had no problem with strength. “Hmm…” Tadashi sat in a dry corner of the room, his arms resting against his legs and his eyes fixed on Zero, watching him through the ambient light at the bottom of the tanks that seemed to remain active through some emergency power source.



Tadashi removed the logs for Megaman’s processing from where they sat in his waist band, utilizing the light while it remained. ‘The emergency power used to sustain the incubators…they must controlled from bellow with all the other fuse boxes. If the incubator is still working, the servers must be on as well…so I guess just turning the power off is useless.’ Tadashi sighed, mainly because he hadn’t realized this before. “Enzan…” He immediately grew worried, withdrawing his cell from his pocket hopefully, much to his surprise he was getting a signal, which meant Zero wasn’t in the area. He called Enzan. “Enzan? Are you alright?” He heard the familiar sound of water sloshing.



“Yeah, I’m fine.” Enzan said. “I’m a little lost, but it’s just about a strait shot through this place so if I shut down every fuse box I come across then I’ll get there… eventually. I should be there soon, since the elevators still working I’ll meet you. How’s it going.”



“Well…” Tadashi lifted his head from the papers and glanced at Zero. “I was too late, by the time Megaman and I reached the production room there was really nothing we could have done.”



“So Zero has a body? Where is he?”



“Right in front of me, he passed out, I think it was Blues’ doing.”



Tadashi could practically see Enzan smiling in his mind. “Is that so.”



“I’m not sure how long it’ll last but I might be able to come up with something, if there was some way to get the logs from Zero’s production.”



“If you can get some of the back up power to just about any terminal in that wing before I shut it down you might have a shot, do you want me to hold off?”



“Nah, it shouldn’t take that long.”



“Good luck.” With that the call ended.



Tadashi folded the logs he already had and replaced them in his waist band under his shirt, since they wouldn’t fit in his pocket and would be safer there anyway. ‘I better work fast…’ Tadashi thought to himself, pushing himself off the wall and climbing to his feet…’Lan…’ Tadashi sighed and rubbed the back of his neck, his son would want to know everything that’s happening. So his next call was to Lan’s hospital room. “Lan?”



“Dad?” Lan’s initially sleepy voice quickly perked into anticipation. “What’s going on, I couldn’t find you. How’s Megaman?” The speed of his words were a clear indication of just how anxious he was.



“Megaman’s fine for the moment.” Tadashi said. “But Zero…”



Lan’s tone grew quiet and solemn, though a bit expectant. He must have known, he must have anticipated it, or maybe he gathered as much from the sound of his voice. “Did you find him?”



“Well yes, it’s all a long story and I’ll explain later, but the point is that Zero, at lest the one we know, might be gone. And also, he has a body.”



“A what…But how….no, what does that mean?”



“I don’t know exactly what he’s trying to do.”



“Is there a way to save him?” Lan asked hopefully.



“I’m working on it now, I just needed to tell you.” Tadashi said. “So how are you doing?”



“Well…I don’t exactly know Dad.” Lan said with uncertainly. “They made something that might make me better, but they don’t know what else it’ll do to me. I guess it really doesn’t matter, what ever happens it’ll be better then a lung transplant.”



“A-a what?!”



“Oh, yeah, they said I might need a lung transplant because all the damage. But don’t worry about that. What’s more important is that you bring Enzan back with you, I think he needs this more then I do.” Lan said, concern tenting his voice. “I guess you can replace lungs, but you can’t switch legs.”



“Hmm…” Tadashi looked up thoughtfully, “Don’t worry, I-“ Abruptly and unexpectedly his call dropped and the signal completely depleted. ‘?’ “What?” Before Tadashi had a chance to inquire what was happening he heard Zero move and his attention was immediately drawn to the virus with a flinch.



Zero sat upright with a start, his eyes prying open as he quickly climbed to his feet. “Tadashi?” Though he could barely see him, when he noticed the man he couldn’t help but freeze for a single, timid moment.



“Zero?” Tadashi didn’t know if he was more startled or ecstatic. The feeling was short lived when Zero turned and took of in the darkness. “Hey! Hey wait!” Tadashi immediately ran after him only to run painfully into a slammed shut and barred off door. “Zero!” He yelled, pounding on the door, trying to force it open.



“I’m sorry Tadashi, but you can’t come after me.” Zero called out to the other side. “I’ll just hurt you.”



“I can help you! Just let me-“



“You can’t help me.” Zero cut him off sorrowfully. “There’s not gonna be enough left of me to help in a minute, there’s only one thing you can do for me now.”



“You don’t know that Zero!” Tadashi protested. “You’re here, your talking to me right now, that’s proof.”



“Thank you for trying…but…” Zero’s voice trailed off for a moment, but he spoke again soon enough. “I’m sure you found something to use against me in all that research, You have to use it.”



“Don’t give up so easily Zero.” Tadashi pleaded. “I wont…”



“Tadashi…”



After that there was no more response, he was gone. “Damnit…Zero.”



! - ! - !