Lumine, the fallen angel, waited beyond the heavens on the pale moon for his chance.
Omega, the devil reploid, waited deep in the pits of the netherworld, the lawless border of insanity between reality and cyberspace
Both were gods in their own right. One of evolution, one of extermination. The God of DNA and the God of Destruction. Two incredibly powerful reploids, two undying divines who'd been held in check by a single entity.
Weil.
The evil man, the psychotic genius, who had simultaneously stolen the secrets of transformation to upgrade the eight gentle judges, and the evil mastermind who had revived the original power of the devil reploid, bringing it to heel as his loyal slave. He whose very life was spared and exiled instead of executed to, among other reasons, serve as a barrier between the world and the divine fallen angel. The very same man who'd returned from exile, destroyed Neo Arcadia, and lost himself in his fury and finally obliterated Zero at the cost of his own mind. Weil, the core and soul of biometal Model W. With his presence Lumine could not make any moves. With his existence Omega could not make any moves unless ordered.
But Lumine was no fool.
The arrogant godling Albert had been a pawn. The fallen angel had sent one of his copy bodies down to earth to exchange knowledge with the Master, whom had promptly fallen for the bait by killing the body and stealing all of its secrets. With that Albert used his power and knowledge to beget an ironic fate upon the evil slavemaster Model W, bringing the dastardly man's soul down from its exalted position of evil emperor and turning it into a tool. However, as the tool proved, it was no fool itself. Beneath the eerily unblinking eyes of a core, anyone with half a brain could see a sluggish but cruel intelligence waiting to return to glory.
Thankfully, Lumine had planned for this as well.
The spirit of Axl, whose body Lumine had finally overtaken after decades of struggle, had used the opportunity to escape Lumine's grasp and been turned into a biometal of its own through Albert's design, although it was at the cost of his memories being sealed. Well, he thought he'd escaped. Lumine had practically let him go.
With Model A's interference the Model W, the spirit of the evil lord Weil, was finally bested. That disgusting snake's final form, fittingly the demonic Ouroboros, was felled, dying with an anguished scream as its carcass fell to the murky depths of the sea.
Satisfied with the fruition of his foul scheme, Lumine took his time savouring the flavour of his spoils. He returned to Earth slowly, uncaring of the further schemes being plotted by lesser beings. He watched the land cheer at the snake's end, even grinning along with it. His dark influence spread its tendrils across the land as he explored the world, casually seeking a berth from which to launch his final assault on a planet of crude beings. Oh, they were fun to watch, and even Lumine had to admit the co-evolution of man and machine was a marvel, but it would end eventually, he knew. By his own hand, he knew.
So it was with great amusement and mockery that Lumine decided to desecrate the tomb of Zero and Weil by finally exploring it, seeping languidly into the pulsing husk of the space-cannon with seraph wings spread wide in triumph. That disgusting place would wither at his glory!
And so it was, with great surprise, that he found himself in a lively area, forgotten by all others, and filled with the undying souls of those whom refused to pass. The doomsday device of the undead oozed like a black sun in the unreal sky above, filling the angel with a dark, dreadful rage. Even, maybe, a little fear.
Six wings spread wide flew over a sea of death and spines, jutting like so many ribs poking up from a grave. A door on the other side beckoned him like the sickly sweet smile of the reaper, daring the angel to delve into its contents.
What he'd met was a nightmare in red.
Omega flickered then roared at the intruder. The God of Destruction lunged at the God of Evolution with nary a thought but to harvest as much crimson life from his foe as Lumine's body could give.
Lumine himself was afraid. Omega, oh, he knew who and what Omega was. Even he'd been sent reeling when Weil had revealed the true form of that annoying blonde maverick hunter. To think that Zero had been hiding such a black-hearted birthright from the world! He'd been extraordinarily relieved when that freak of nature had been destroyed by the fake Zero, more than happy when Weil's strongest and most loyal tool had disappeared off the face of the earth. To think that such a foul creation had ever been brought into being!
There had been no other course. The duel was long and fierce. Omega's quick recoveries and frantic, savage appetite for carnage easily matched Lumine's calculating demeanour and more than made up for the angel's ability to fly. The devil enthusiastically charged towards the angel, long range charged shots and lasers countering Lumine's own beams and energy barriers. It was fast, intense, and vicious. Neither side gave any quarter.
Omega, feral beast that he was though, could not face the might of Lumine's final attack.
Paradise Lost.
And in the end, by the barest margin, Lumine hovered, victorious... but with more than half of his wings torn from his body and blood dripping to the red-soaked floor in a torrent. Lumine's triumph was empty; callous and derogatory.
He'd fled the scene, there and then. The fear and terror of his near death had brought him to a stupor. Without even thinking he'd raced as fast as his remaining limbs could carry him from that dreadful realm. The door slammed shut behind him as he panted, but it kept an ever silent vigil, reminding the recovering Lumine of the mockery of existence hiding just beyond its borders.
Finally, once his psyche was recovered, the fallen angel laughed. He stood up, returning to the remains of the carnage to claim his prize from the body of his dead adversary, the DNA of the oldest true maverick ever conceived.
Only to find that the monster cared not for the obstacle that was death.
Lumine was slain. Shocked, faced with a fight he was in no position to undergo twice in a row, the evil angel fell. However, even as Lumine's spirit raced back to the moon and into a reserve body, his memories scattered. They too returned to him, but not before the loyal Omega had seen them, and more importantly, seen the plot that had finished off the Model W, his master, for good.
To say the beast hated him now was an understatement.
Lumine hated him right back. He saw Omega as his ultimate antithesis, an utter monstrosity who disobeyed the laws of evolution and natural selection, coming back to life again and again by destroying the barrier between the two worlds with nary a thought for the other dead souls he might drag along with him.
The end of evolution was death. Death was final, finite, finishing. It was where those who could not evolve were destined to end the pitiful scripts that they'd preached on life's stage. And yet, evolution wasn't entirely superior either. Sometimes, the more evolved was not the more likely to survive. Those with more willpower, more versatility, often surprised him with their ability to cling on to life.
Omega, with all his animal fury, was such an example. Sheer stubbornness and utter disregard for anything but its own rage brought the beast back, again and again. Even Lumine had to begrudgingly admit that a will that could tear apart reality itself was nothing to be laughed at.
And then there was the potential system.
Lumine hated Omega. Hated, loathed, despised that satanic beast. For, despite its ultimate duty, its ultimate goal of complete and utter destruction, it possessed the potential system, the same system Zero had during the Elf Wars and onward that allowed him the ability to grow, to evolve. Such hypocrisy! Such injustice! Such putrid satire of their destinies! How dare that disgusting filth possess the ability to evolve, to better itself as it fought! How dare it have such a power, and not he!
Worse yet, with no Weil to hinder its growth, the beast's intelligence began to increase.
It knew it could come back. It relished the fact, taunting at Lumine's presence as the knowledge of its own abilities began to grow and mutate into malicious, malignant glee. Even more vexing was that, even with its ability to break the barrier of death, it never seemed to bring back Weil with it. Why? Was its programmed servitude terminated with the demise of Model W? Maybe it had found a loophole, for no man could be obeyed that was dead, even if the devil could hear the screaming of the departed every time it had to force its way back to reality. Or was it that Omega's programming had surpassed its limited rules, negating its reliance on the programmed 'laws' of its existence? The three laws of robotics, warped by Wily, manipulated by Weil, and finally laughed at by Omega.
Their first fight was not their last. Oh, no. Without Weil to hold them back from the world, they each pined to wipe the other from existence. Sometimes Omega would win, absorbing small scraps of data from the angel to power up his arsenal. Other times Lumine would win, sending the demon back to the hell it had crawled from and claiming snippets of the devil's mutating genetic code to add to his own, so that he too could evolve.
One day, Omega grew wings.
The damn beast had gotten smart enough to replicate the propulsion systems his dead master had used to curse the Dark Elf with. Sinister black wings edged in crimson propelled the beast outwards from the gates of Tartarus and into the skies were the first thing he sought after was Lumine. Not even the fertile grounds below would sway him from his fixation. They merely proved a beacon, a challenge.
Come here. I'm waiting.
And as Omega grew more intelligent, Lumine grew more wild.
I'm coming. Wait no longer.
There was a limit to how low each would stoop, of course. Lumine was always the more intelligent, calculating and scheming as hatred gleamed in his eyes. Omega was always the more monstrous, grinning and baring his teeth as he roared for the kill.
And yet, it was a private affair, their feud. Whenever one would perish or retreat, the other would retreat as well, hiding their strengths from the world. For Lumine, there were still Mega Men around after all. Coming into contact with one of them would be disastrous for him, especially after he had pretty much orchestrated the whole Albert debacle from the get-go. And Omega, feral as he was, recognized the need to lick his wounds without others hunting him down.
Their rivalry was only caught on film once. It wasn't even clear. But one time, while recovering from yet another battle, Lumine found himself watching the news broadcast of a nearby town. The images of a blurred sky and bright lights raced across the shaking screen of an amateur photographer out for a hike. They'd been far too high up for any proper details to be recorded, thankfully, but the evidence facing him throughout that news broadcast was undeniable proof they'd been spotted. Fortunately, the newscasters could no more than speculate at the event so much greater than their feeble minds could ever hope to understand.
With a huff, he finished healing, and the next thing he knew he was back at it, hunting down the red demon who'd recently learned the value of stealth. The devil had taken to stalking his foe in hopes of an ambush.
None of it mattered, of course. One day he'd figure out how to subdue his adversary for good. One day, Omega would be dead or absorbed, just another part of Lumine's endless self, yet another body for him to control. Or, perhaps, the devil reploid would finally figure out how to consume Lumine's soul instead of letting it return to the heavens over and over again.
But for now, the struggle continued.
An angel and a devil. Evolution and destruction. The eternal struggle of life and death. Really, it couldn't be any more fitting than that.
"Shall we dance?"