(This is the sequel to Accel World: Arrival of the Red Hero. So if you haven't read that yet, I would advise reading that first, although this story provides background information on the first story if you haven't read it. This version will include characters/events from the MMZX series since I ended the last one with the ending of the MMZ series.)

Days after the crash of Ragnarok

"How did you survive?" I asked Lan.

I found Lan in a hospital a few days after Ragnarok was destroyed and Weil was gone. Although the entire space station blew up along with Lan, he looked very healthy. Even with Zero's body armor helping him survive the explosion, he surely couldn't have survived the impact with Earth.

"To be honest, I thought I was going to die after crash landing. I could barely move my limbs!" he said. "After I struggled for a few moments, I equipped the Dark Elf believing it was the Disaster Armor and it healed me."

"That's it?" I asked, appalled.

"Yeah. After that, I just woke up here."

That was intriguing. He equipped the Dark Elf, yet he doesn't seem to be very different. Perhaps the Dark Elf only affected Zero, the entity that resided in Lan's Neuro Linker. But Zero was gone now, so that could be another reason why Lan appears to be healthy and normal. After the defeat of Weil, I programmed it so that the carriers of the Legendary Heroes will no longer be using them in the Brain Burst program, as well as the uninstallation of the Brain Burst program just in case the Heroes' souls were embedded into the souls of the carriers.

"Can I check your Neuro Linker? I want to make sure that everything's in order," I asked.

"Of course."

I pulled out a cable and connected the ends to our Neuro Linkers. If Kuroyukihime saw us right now, I was sure she would beat me to a pulp! She was in a different hospital right now, still recovering from the car crash weeks before the Ragnarok incident.

I opened a few windows and looked through Lan's Brain Burst folder, which still existed to my surprise. I looked for the modified file that I placed into there and couldn't find it, which was very strange. I modified the .dat files Vent and his friends had stored in their Neuro Linkers to ensure that they couldn't abuse the power of the Legendary Heroes. But Lan's Zero data is gone. Where could it have gone?

"Is something wrong?" Lan asked, concerned.

"Your Brain Burst folder is still here for some reason," I answered.

"Strange. Didn't you program it to uninstall after the defeat of Weil?"

"Yes. But you still have it. There's also a data file that was transferred here from Kuroyukihime's Neuro Linker when she gave you the Brain Burst program that's missing."

"Strange. Maybe it moved to another location?"

I began to look through the files that were in the Brain Burst program. After several minutes, I couldn't find anything unusual. The file no longer existed. Maybe it was erased along with Weil? Or maybe Zero merged his own consciousness with Lan's and that's why the .dat file isn't there anymore?

"Maybe it'll reappear. Wait a day or two," Lan suggested.

"Alright. I'll be back later, then."

"Yeah. It was good seeing you!" he said with a warm smile.

I smiled back and left his room. Kuroyukihime was certainly right about one thing that pertained to Lan; he had a smile that could light up your day and make you happy again. I couldn't help but think about what an amazing person he was. He was able to defeat Dr. Weil merged with the Ragnarok core and survive the crash, and remain happy while others around him felt down.

I followed his advice and came back to his room the next day.

"Are you his girlfriend?" one of the nurses asked me.

"U-Uhm, no. Not at all!" I nervously said.

Why was it so hard for to me say no? After all, I was comfortable around him and his actual girlfriend, Kuroyukihime.

"Hey Ciel. Welcome back," he said, smiling again.

"Hello. How are you feeling?" I asked.

"The same. I want to get out of here. I don't even know why I'm in here in the first place! There's nothing wrong with me."

"You might have internal injuries due to the fall. Just rest easy, alright? You'll get to see Kuroyukihime soon."

I cabled with him again and looked through his files once more and found the file I was looking for. But how did it reappear?

"Lan, did anything strange happen last night?" I asked.

"Hmm…" he thought. "I had a bad dream. It was the same one after I received my Brain Burst form Kuroyukihime."

"I see."

So Lan was reborn as the Red Hero again? I had to make sure myself.

"Burst Link!" I said.

I opened the matching list and looked for 'Red Hero', which should be easy since we were the only Burst Linkers in the hospital. However, the only name that showed up was 'Cobalt Warrior'. Either this was Lan's new duel avatar or there was another Burst Linker in the hospital's network. There was only one way to find out, so I pressed the name and challenged him or her to a duel.

The world burned away and was replaced by the End of the Century stage. The hospital turned into a malicious form and spikes grew on the walls and the windows were replaced with rusted bars. I transformed into my 'duel avatar' that resembled Zero. I looked at the duel avatar that was being formed in front of me and noticed the features of Zero: the long hair, the correct body proportions, and the helmet shape. Sure enough, that was Zero. But why was he named Cobalt Warrior?

I opened up his stats and saw that his W/L was nonexistent and that he was level one. Why was he reset back to square one?

After the white transformation sequence finished, the former Red Hero finally showed himself. Although, as his name implied, he was no longer the Red Hero. He was now the Blue Hero, the name for Vent's duel avatar, except that Lan's name was generated by the Brain Burst program rather than the data file itself. His base color was blue, but everything else stayed the same. His golden hair, his golden rings around his wrists and legs, and his pitch-black eyes.

"Lan?" I called out.

"Ciel? You were the one who challenged me?" he asked.

"I wanted to see for myself if you were still able to fight."

Lan took a look at himself and seemed shocked. It seems that he didn't expect to see himself as a Blue Hero, since he was so used to seeing himself as a red one.

"What happened to the Red Hero? Why am I the Cobalt Warrior now? And why do I look like Zero if my name is different?"

"I have a few guesses." I said, thinking as I spoke. "The creator of Brain Burst saw that you cheated the system and reset you completely, or Zero merged with you somehow and you've become a balanced version of him suitable for Brain Burst."

"Merged? His consciousness merged with mine?" he asked, surprised.

"It sounds weird, but it sounds like the only possibility. Have you tried speaking to him recently? Or has he spoken to you?"

"No…"

We sat in silence, pondering about the possibilities. I opened up a few windows on my HUD and opened up my modding kit for Brain Burst. I looked through Lan's status and analyzed him, hoping to find some clues. Nothing out of the ordinary popped up and he seemed like a completely normal Burst Linker. If he were someone like the late Omega, his status would be unstable and my analyzer would pick up the abnormalities. But Lan doesn't have anything wrong with him.

I walked over to him and touched his shoulder and to my surprise, I felt heat radiating from his body, just like before. He was truly the perfect cross between a man and a machine. I glanced at his eyes and stared deeply into his pitch-black eyes. What happened to Zero? I wanted to avoid giving anyone the power of the Legendary Heroes, no matter what kind of person they were. I couldn't trust anyone with that power.

"Hold on one moment," I said quietly.

"Hmm?"

"Fortitude Creed!" I commanded.

There was no response from Lan. He stared at me with a blank expression and tilted his head to the side, wondering if I was going crazy.

But before I could say anything else, my vision went black and I fell to the ground. I reappeared in Zero's resting place, where he often took me to speak with him. He was always restrained by those wires, armless and helpless. If I wanted to, I could destroy him when he was in that state. That's probably what he wanted me to do all this time to prevent the recent events from happening.

"Hello Ciel," he said calmly, opening his eyes.

"Zero…" I breathed.

"Why did you wake me? The world doesn't need me anymore. Let me rest in peace now in the mind of my successor."

"Lan… He's your successor?"

"Yes."

I walked over to where he rested and gently touched his hair. Although his hair always looked frail and disgusting in this state, it always felt comforting.

"What if the world needs you again?" I asked.

"I'll know. After all, I'm one with Lan."

"I see…" I murmured. I didn't want Lan to use him again.

"This is for the best."

"I know. I'll… I'll miss you," I choked out.

"Why would you miss someone like me?" he chuckled.

I couldn't respond. I moved closer and hugged his restrained and damaged body, bidding him one last farewell. He closed his eyes once more and I left his resting place.

Although I told Lan Dr. Weil created Zero and I had created X and the Four Guardians, this wasn't true. Dr. Weil created Omega to start his operation of ruling the world, so I stopped him by recreating the Legendary Hero X with his original data that I had found. It was a rather large data file for some strange reason, and I figured out why once Vent distributed his Brain Burst program to his friends. That single data file contained the Four Guardians' data files as well.

Returning to Zero, I also found his data file, but it was full of viruses. I sent him to Dr. Weil for him to analyze it for me before I knew he had planned to rule the world with Omega. I believed he was doing the same research as me, hoping to advance humanity further. But we all know how that turned out.

Dr. Weil probably removed the God of Destruction portion of Zero's data and moved it into Omega, creating the ultimate weapon. Zero came back to me clean, and I found that I was able to talk to him when I kept him in my Neuro Linker. I got to know him and eventually grew close to him. Until he went berserk with that Dark Elf inside of him. I was crushed when I learned that X and his friends killed Zero. Of course, I knew they had no choice. I think Zero wanted to be destroyed all along because of that God of Destruction that resided in his body.

But I continued to keep him alive. Zero, X, and the Four Guardians were as human as Lan and I. I couldn't bear to end their lives in any way.

I opened my eyes and found myself lying down on top of the rooftop of the hospital building in the End of the Century stage. I looked to my side and found Lan right next to me with his eyes closed and smiling. He looked like a calmer and laid-back version of Zero. I sat up, which caused him to open his eyes.

"Well? How did it go?" he asked.

"Zero's going to be sleeping until the world needs him again," I answered, holding back tears.

"Ahh. That'll be a while."

"Yeah."

We stayed right next to each other for a while in silence, staring up at the red sky. I guess until Zero woke up again, which would probably be never, I would have to put up with his successor. I wonder though, why did Zero choose him? I figure I'd find out in time. Until then, I'll have to continue to preserve the peace Lan's managed to establish.