by: Vema
I found him in Al's Wait 'N Eat a few seconds after the ruined wedding, disguised as a numeral. Even through the smoke and the haze in the air, I saw Seven's startled look, his nervous fidgeting and finger tapping. I suppose Al's was too slow for him because soon he stood and left, and I quickly followed at a discreet distance.
A few blocks away, he turned into an alley and stopped. "I know you're there, Guardian," said the high voice loudly.
I advanced until we were only a few meters apart. The seven's body began to glow and twist and soon Megabyte was in his usual form, standing nearly three heads above me. "So, what do we do now?" he said, crossing his arms.
"Now?" I looked at his claws, absently feeling my forearm to reassure myself that Glitch was there. "Put your claws away, Megabyte. I'm not here to fight."
"I wish I could, Guardian." He held his hands up and pointed to the base of his talons, scar tissue easily visible.
So much degradation… Certainly he found somewhere to stay in the Web…? "Oh, I see. Well…you have two options, really. We can send you to a breakdown chamber…or Phong can give you an icon. Apparently he figured out how Hex was changed into a Sprite, and now we can do it for you, if you want."
He was silent for a moment, his face expressionless. For a brief, hopeful nano, I thought he was going to agree to change his code.
"Sprite?" he said, smiling cruelly. "Me? Please, Guardian. Let's not deceive ourselves. I had a hard enough time with Sprite to Sprite relations when I was pretending to be you, so I find it extremely hard to believe I could do it on a constant basis."
I looked down, holding back the desire to object for the time being. "So…the breakdown chamber, then. Just one more thing, Megabyte. Why did you do it?"
"You already asked me that, Guardian. It told you-"
"Yeah, I know, it amused you. But that can't be it. Why me?"
Megabyte seemed to list slightly to the right, and I shook my head. There he was, standing perfectly tall. I must have imagined it. "What better way to gain my revenge than to make the boy and his sister trust me? I do believe he will never be able to forget this." He smiled.
"Vengeance is one thing, but why did you choose me instead of Matrix?"
"*That* would have been redundant." He gestured slightly. "Personally, I don't think his fish would have fallen for it as easily."
I scowled.
"No offense meant, but it was quite easy to slither into Dot's bed."
I felt my face flushing with rage and jealousy. "She would never have let you if-"
"Merely a figure of speech, of course."
The feelings slowly faded, leaving a slight color to my cheeks. "Of course." I took a moment to compose myself. "Well, I'll accompany you to the PO, where you can spend a few seconds in a cell and think over which of those two options you want."
"I'm afraid not."
"Good. You know, you may change your mind abou- what?"
He leaned against the wall to his left, coolly looking into my eyes. "You see Bob, I lack the desire and skill to want to become a Sprite, and the regret to simply allow myself to be led docilely to the deletion chamber." He examined his claws slightly. "It seems that one of us will have to die here."
I felt the bile rising in my throat as he straightened again, eyes glowing brightly. As he launched himself towards me, I raised my left arm, a motion that was now reflex. "Glitch, energy shield!" Megabyte ricocheted off the shield and landed two meters away. Before I had time to shout a command, he hit me, nearly knocking me out of the alleyway. I lifted my arm at him, and Glitch automatically blasted him with a bolt of energy.
He hit the back wall, though in the darkness I couldn't tell whether he was okay or not. I waited for him to make another move, but he didn't. I quietly walked to the back of the alley, eyes adjusting the relative amount of light.
He was slumped limply against the wall, a hand on his stomach. A pipe lay next to the other hand, shiny with some wetness, and dark energy flowed down to pool below him. His eyes stared straight ahead, unfocused.
"Megabyte?" I said quietly, kneeling beside him.
"I was right again, I see."
"Stay here, I'll go get help."
"No, Guardian, it is useless." He was flickering in and out in random meter now, and his eyes turned to look into mine. He must have been lower on energy than I'd thought. "Do you know what it's like to be a virus, Guardian? Perhaps you got a taste of it when no one wanted to be around you this minute."
I didn't know what to say to that. I hadn't really thought about it that way. It was all I could do not to flinch when he reached his hand up to grip one of mine, and even that small effort caused him to fade more.
"I just…didn't want to be alone anymore," he said quietly, the exertion obvious in his tone. "Can you understand that, Bob? You have friends and admiration in this system. You have a glorious woman who loves you and a home where you're always welcome, and you don't even have to infect anything."
"All Sprites can have that, Megabyte. You didn't have to do this."
"It was necessary." His arm fell away and his eyes went blank again, the light in them fading. The last time he spoke, his voice was small and quiet, nothing like the strong viral overlord I'd seen before. "Because, you see, Bob… I don't want to just be any Sprite." Immediately following his words, his eyes went black. His body fragmented, leaving nothing behind to suggest that he had been there but a puddle of energy.
I sat for a while and stared at where he had been, processing his last words before standing up Picking up the broken pipe, I turned it slowly over in my hand, ignoring the dark stains it left. It was over now, and at least he was at rest, and he had gotten there on his own terms.
~Fin