Well dang, this took a while. Sorry about the insane delay. I can't even blame anything else other than myself and my laziness for this. But, it's here now so be glad! But, first things first...
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN MEGAMAN BATTLE NETWORK! ALL RIGHTS GO TO CAPCOM! (While some OCs' names belong to Capcom, this AU version is mine, and all OCs are mine)
Now then, the long-awaited thrilling conclusion!
The battle exploded right at the start, with Zero and Zeta immediately clashing with their swords and engaging in a duel, with purple and green weaves of energy colliding with one another. Megaman struggled to resolve to shoot into the fray, afraid of hitting his ally in the process.
"C'mon Megaman!" Lan shouted in disdain, "Shoot!" Megaman's arm trembled with fear.
"But Lan," Megaman quaked fearfully, "I don't want to shoot Zero…"
"Megaman, don't worry about it!" Zeke shouted, half in irritation and half in impatience, "Do the best you can! We won't hold it against you." Megaman perked up, then sighed.
"Alright…" Megaman sighed, then refocused to take on the task at hand. He began by blasting orange energy packets into the fray with his MegaBuster. Zero, expecting the assault, spun his blade so the blasts hit his blade and not he himself. Zeta, on the other hand, was not so lucky. He got hit several times, and each time Zero took the advantage to score free blows. This went on for a minute or so, until Zeta figured out what was going on, and spun out of the way of a slash and surprisingly a blast as well, and jumped at Megaman with such speed, neither Megaman nor his NetOp could react to Zeta's attack: a charged sword slam right on Megaman's helmet. The attack had such a force that it drove Megaman into the floor, creating a crater his size swallowing him in it.
"Megaman!" Lan shouted for his Navi in deep concern. Zeta turned to parry a flurry of sword strikes from an irate Zero. "Okay, no more screwing around! M-Cannon! BattleChip in! Download!" Lan growled in anger and slapped in an M-Cannon BattleChip into his PET to send it to Megaman. Megaman's right arm formed into the red and yellow cannon, and Megaman instinctively got up, rather slowly, and sluggishly aimed at Zeta, who was in a sword lock with Zero, with Zeta's back to Megaman. Megaman seized the advantage and blasted Zeta several times with yellow bolts of energy. Zeta screamed in pain of the bolts striking him, while Zero took his moment of slight weakness and slashed at him in a powerful flurry of attacks, sending him to the side. Zero rushed to Megaman's side in concern.
"You alright?" Zero asked gruffly and shortly, putting his hand on Megaman's shoulder. Megaman heaved.
"Yeah…just didn't expect that…" he wheezed. At that moment, their crests began to glow, and a beam of light connected the two.
"Huh?!" both Lan and Zeke gawked, shocked at what was happening, but for different reasons.
"Is that…" Lan continued, "Double Soul?!" The moment was cut short when a bolt appeared between the two and Megaman turned away, his crest sparking with energy and he himself crying in pain.
In the background, Dr. Hikari was heard saying, "Megaman's DoubleSoul ability appears to want to assimilate new data that it can't support right now."
"Well, we'll just have to work around it then!" Lan said, determined as Zeta approached the Navi duo. "Megaman! Let's try something! DoubleSoul! Guts Soul chip in! Download!" And with that, Lan slammed the Guts Soul chip into his PET.
"Zero! Activating FormPower! Elec Form!" Zeke said complementary to Lan's call. Glad I was able to reprogram the PET to set FormPower built-in with Dr. Hikari's help, eliminating the need for the chip… Megaman quickly transformed into yellow and red armor, appearing like his friend Gutsman, but same physique as Megaman himself. Zero's armor turned yellow, his crystal and blade turning a deep blue and his ZeroSword became a LongSword version. Zeta was caught off-guard by the transformation, and was frozen by the sight, and could not defend himself from Megaman's new strong punches. Zero followed up by jumping over Megaman and delivering a strong electric slashes. Zeta screamed, defenseless against the sudden assault of strong attacks.
However, Zeta was able to recover from such an assault, and hatched his own. He charged his blade contemptuously, his crystal and eyes glowing purple with the blade, and the rest of his body turned pitch black, and charged at his opponents with such speed as if using an Area Steal or StepSword BattleChip, and slashed furiously at his opponents, causing a powerful shockwave that consisted of three main offshoots from the slash, sending his opponents flying, and cancelling their transformations. Zeta then laughed evilly as his body returned to its regular color scheme.
"Hah!" Zeta scoffed, "So, this is the best cyberspace has to offer for defense…pathetic!" Megaman and Zero slowly got up, severely shaken from the attack, Megaman more so and showing obvious signs of heavy damage.
"Megaman!" Lan shouted in deep concern, "You have to jack out!"
"And leave Zero to fend…for himself?" Megaman wheezed.
"It's better than losing a friend," Zero said firmly, "Save yourself." Megaman reluctantly complied and jacked out of the system. Zeta chuckled sinisterly.
"Now it's only you and me…weakling…" Zeta said with contempt dripping from his words.
"No…" Zero corrected coldly, with a steady, disgusted, and equally as cold glare, "It's just me…and the shadow of my past…" Zero dashed at him suddenly, with an icy death glare, as he raised his arms for an attack. As if on cue, Zeke immediately downloaded to Zero a FireBlade and AquaBlade BattleChips, so that Zeta was nearly caught off-guard by the sudden duel-wielding attacks, which Zero had expected. Swordplay ensued like the NetOps have never seen, as Zero attempted to gain the upper hand through sheer speed. Much to his dismay, however, his attacks got caught in a sword lock. One in which, if Zero gave, he would be overcome by an overhead strike; if he tried to move it in a direction where he could escape, Zeta would compensate for the move and keep the lock exactly where it is. The stakes raise even more once Zeta's black aura returned, drenching his entire body, while his crystal, eyes, and sword gave of a venomous, murderous, and amethyst glow.
"You should not have charged at me like that," Zeta coolly ridiculed his doppelganger, "Now you're trapped, and you can't get out." Zero trembled both in fear and in anger that he had allowed himself to fall into such a trap. "Therefore," Zeta continued, "I'll finish you now, and then I shall become a NetGod!" He laughed insanely as he prepared to unleash the same attack that forced Megaman to jack out. Zero's memories flooded into his mind, feeling himself fall into the murky depths of helplessness, and uselessness. It seemed as if he could not outrun his origins, an evil Darkloid bent on destruction. This effectively meant that all of what Iris did to get Zero out of that lifestyle, was for naught. He wanted to cry, as a fear set in that he'll never see Iris again, whom he had fought so hard for to see again. Zeta began to initiate the attack, by turning the orientation of his blade, in respect to Zero's, to horizontal, and began the slash to delete .
"IRIS!" he suddenly bellowed out a singular, heartfelt, desperate, sob, and at the same time, a bright white light enveloped him, causing Zeta's attack to be split into two large jets of destructive energy.
"H-Huh?!" Zeke stammered, as he stared in awe of what he was seeing on the screen of his PET, "another FormPower?!" he gasped as he read what was on his screen, and read it, "…OriginForm?!" When the energy faded, Zero's appearance shocked everyone except Zeta. If there was a term called 'light shadow', Zero's appearance would describe it perfectly, as his body was a much more brighter toned version of Zeta's, with his yellow accentuations now white, like Zeta's accentuations. The stark difference between the two was that now Zero's crystal, eyes, and sword all became a bright, valiant, opal blue. Zeta grimaced at what he was looking at as the effects of his attack wore off from his body.
"What's with you?! You should be deleted and gone!" he protested, but was silenced with the pointing of Zero's blade at him.
"I won't be deleted that easily," Zero declared, his words carried with arctic conviction, "If you deleted me here, everything that I, no, Iris had done to get me to this point would have meant nothing. I cannot allow that to happen! Neither can I allow myself to be deleted before I reunite with her!"
"Such meaningless words…come at me then!" Zeta challenged. Zero just tightened his brows.
"You didn't even have to tell me once," he said flatly, as he dashed at him once more, and engaged swordplay that matched Zeta's every move. Quickly losing patience, Zeta jumps back and prepares his ProgramAdance-tier attack once more. Zero, however, had other ideas. As soon as the dark doppelganger launched his attack, Zeke downloaded an AreaSteal BattleChip to Zero as if their minds were in sync, knowing exactly what the Navi needed to succeed, in that precise instant. Zeta was astonished that his target was gone, as the black aura faded from him.
"You coward! Where did you go?!" he bellowed, seething with impatience, rage, and fatigue. He wanted this to be over, and fast. Now since he's spending more energy than anticipated. Then, he notices a faint hum of something being charged, one prelude to an attack. A cold, gruff voice chimes behind him.
"I feel sorry about your cooldown phase," Zeta's opponent stated and slammed Zeta with a charged saber attack with the force equal that of a 120 kilogram weighted hammer, which sends Zeta crashing into a nearby wall. Zeta comes out battered and miffed, with data disintegrating from his body.
"You will…be deleted…" he wheezed, "I can still—" he was cut off by a familiar black armored fist that punched through the crest on his chest, causing him to scream from the utter shock that the pain brought. A dark laughter was heard from behind Zeta.
"I did say…that I had my own reasons for fighting…" the familiar yet mysterious being said darkly and mischievously as the arm was brought up to Zeta's face, grabbing the lightening crystal and began a horrifying process that only one Navi would be capable of. The crystal glowed yellow as the data breaking off of Zeta turned yellow and started to swirl into the being's hand. Zero just watched, petrified at what was taking place, as from his doppelganger's hands and feet, began to turn into a sifting cloud of yellow to be absorbed data, Zeta screaming at the top of his voice that would allow, as his body was absorbed into the hand of his deleter. When Zeta had completed his disintegration and absorption into the mysterious hand, the identity was revealed.
"Bass?!" Zero shouted in awe and in fear as he readied his blade, still in his OriginForm. Bass, still sans cloak, simply laughed and stood to his full height, lowering his arm. "What's the meaning of this?!"
"It is true that I wanted to save the cyberworld from that lunatic," Bass replied, "after all, if this were to go, so would I. It was for my self-defense, but then I saw how powerful he was, and I am an opportunist. By absorbing his power…" a dark aura began to surround him, "…I am able to become even stronger…a being even Megaman can't defeat!" Bass laughed as he made a portal for him to jump through.
"Wait!" Zero called to him, but it was useless. Bass was gone, along with his weakened doppelganger. In the real world, the NetOps and scientist both were utterly shocked and confused at the same time about what had just transpired.
"Well… At least it's over…I think…" Lan managed to mumble.
"…Why do you act like this is nothing new?" Zeke forced his words out of his mouth, shocked, confused, horrified, and a mix of other emotions fired with his words.
"Call it…" Lan answered, "Bass's special ability… He's able to absorb viruses and Navis alike…"
"I wonder if he can handle such an amount of DarkPower…" Zeke mumbled to himself.
"I wouldn't worry about him," Lan said deceptively cheerfully, "he tends to stay quiet for the most part." Though, Megaman and I would have to have a serious overhaul in order to keep pace with what we just saw…
"Well, at least the immediate threat is gone…" Zeke stated to himself, more so to convince himself than anyone else in the room, "Jack out, Zero." He heard an "Understood" from his PET as Zero jacked out of the system, returning to his normal color scheme. Just then, Lan's PET bleeped loudly, with an incoming call from a certain stripe-haired rival. Lan quickly answers the call.
"Yeah?" was all he could get in before he was cut off.
"We have contact," was all that was said before the call was discontinued. Those words held weight for Zeke, he nearly froze up as Lan turned to his father, had strangely been silent for the entire time.
"Lan, send Zeke Chaud's location, I'd like for you and Megaman to stay here. I want to take a look at him, and try to see what his DoubleSoul program wanted to assimilate," the scientist instructed.
"Right, Dad," Lan complied and sent Zeke the location and directions via E-mail, "There you go Zeke. Get going!"
"R-Right…" Zeke choked and dashed off in a huge hurry, not wanting to waste any time, no longer willing to sit still and keep the one he loved waiting any longer.
When he reached Chaud at some sort of airport, he realized that no one other than Chaud was there. He began to second guess if Chaud really meant what he said.
"Where's Lan?" the stoic NetBattler asked sharply.
"He's being detained with Dr. Hikari…" Zeke managed a sophisticated reply, "Megaman sustained heavy damage due to an anomaly with his DoubleSoul program…" He wanted to demand bitterly where Irene was, but he hesitated, the frigid look in his acquaintance's eyes told him that he already knew.
"I see," Chaud said, understanding Zeke's words, and motioned to someone behind him to come forward. It was the blond haired guy in the picture, Alex, except looking less like he was tossed into a gutter. As soon as Alex arrived, Chaud left.
"Hey man, long time no see!" the man greeted his old friend cheerfully, though like Lan earlier, Alex seemed to be trying to hide depression in his voice.
"Yo," Zeke replied, and grabbed his hand in a strong handshake, "We need to hang out more." Alex simply laughed the comment off.
"I know who you wanna see," Alex admitted with resignation to Zeke's desires, and said, "C'mon, you can come out now." On cue, the same purple clad girl from Zeke's pictures, also cleaned up, ran up to him. She put her hands behind her back, and smiled cutely at him.
"Hey Zeke…" she said, with unspeakable relief in her voice, which caused Zeke's eyes to water and his face to turn pink, "it's been a while…hasn't it?"
Aww! Check that out! Someone demanded to see Irene, so I made this a bit longer to include such a scene to end it off. Ain't this just picture perfect? Am I done? NO! Not quite, but this is where the story ends, buuut... Up next: Epilogue! Reunions, confessions, and double-dating!