Wilhelmina Returns!

Will

Unh…wha…am I dead?

Would my head really hurt this much if I was dead? I can't feel anything else…

Plip.

Huh? Water?

Plip.

Either I'm under a leak in the roof and it's raining, or somebody's crying all over me.

With that little revelation, the rest of my senses slowly started coming back on. And sure enough, I felt – sort of – that I was in somebody's arms, and I could hear sobbing. It sounded male, so it wasn't Avatar.

Lan? Chaud? I know two people it absolutely couldn't be: my dad, and Raika.

Well, I won't know until I open my eyes.

Slowly, I pried one eye open. My vision through that eye blurred and cleared.

And I couldn't believe it: it was Raika! Awful hat and all!

For a second, all I could do was lay there and stare at him. Then I reached up slowly, grabbed his hat, and started drying his tears. "It's a good thing this isn't Sharo," – was I saying this out loud? I could barely hear myself! – "Or your tears would freeze."

Somebody behind Raika gasped, and then started cracking up. Probably Lan. Raika's head jerked up, and he stopped crying for a minute, just staring at me as I let my hand fall back onto my chest.

The look on his face was shocked. I figured I might as well break it to them. "I'm sorry: I lost my Crest of Duo. I wasn't fast enough to hold out…"

Then Raika used some barracks-language I hadn't realized he even knew, that added up to "Who cares about the end of the world?" and pulled me against his chest in a hug!

That got me opening my other eye, which was a good thing, because I didn't believe what I was seeing behind his back.

Lan was just standing there staring at the two of us, and Chaud was laughing! He was laughing with his entire body! I'd never seen Chaud in convulsions before!

"Um…" Okay, I knew they were going to hear this one, "…did everyone go crazy while I was dead?"

Then Lan started laughing.

I heard Avatar behind me. "So. Do you remember who you are?"

I started twisting a little, trying to look over my shoulder. Trying to move just reminded my body how tired it was; tired and sore.

As soon as Raika figured out what I wanted, though, he loosened his grip so that I could turn easier. I swiveled around and looked at her. She looked like she was considering my remembering to be too good to be true.

I thought for a minute. Then I looked around at all my friends and grinned. "My name is Wilhelmina."

Raika started crying again, and the boys started cheering.

"Okay," I rolled out of Raika's lap, "time to get up." I started putting weight on my ankles…

…And fell back down with a hiss.

Raika started trying valiantly to recover, and went over to my feet. "What's wrong?"

"My ankle…I think I twisted it when I fell."

"Fell?" Lan looked up at the catwalk with its gaping hole, as Raika started carefully removing the glorified boots that used to be my roller blades. "From up there? How'd you survive?"

"Luck, and my faithful roller blades."

"What's left of them," Chaud added, staring at one of them. (Raika had thrown that practically right at his feet.)

"What can I say? They're old." Then I hissed again as Raika gently gripped each ankle, checking their condition.

"Your left ankle's twisted, and your right's only sprained. Either way, you shouldn't try to walk."

Avatar picked me up. "Good to have you back, Little Sister."

I grinned at her. "Good to be back, Big Sister."

Lan walked up next to Avatar as we went back to the truck. "So do you remember what happened while you had amnesia?"

"Uh…" I cocked my head. "Not very well. I remember today clearly, but everything before it is a little hazy. I remember information clearly, though. Hence the reason I know about Duo."

"It looks like you'll be sitting out the rest of saving humanity," Famous told me.

"Sit it out?" I tried to sit up in Avatar's arms. "No way! Get me some hospital tape and I'll be back in it! I've got to see this to its end!"

And Avatar laughed. "She's back to normal!"

Anyways, they really did keep me out of one incident: Dark Megaman's deletion. But when parts of the world started disappearing, I taped up my ankles and went straight to Doctor Hikari. "Avatar and I need a Synchro Chip."

"Will, you're not fit enough for this!"

"Sir, I would like this to be the last time I do anything purely reckless." I somehow managed to sound dead-serious with that sentence, which was a good thing, because I truly did mean it.

Doctor Hikari studied me for a long time. Then he pointed me into the box, tossing me a chip. "Only if it works, Will."

"Will," Avatar called up to me, "your current state will slow you down; you realize that, right?"

"Yeah, but with your already-enhanced speed, it won't be too noticeable. You're not having second thoughts, are you?"

"No; I want to do this, and I know you feel like you have to. Just curious, though, why do you feel like you have to?"

"At the risk of sounding completely cheesy," I looked at my PET while the Dimensional Box was activated, "it's because if everything goes south, I want to be by Raika's side."

"Thought so; and I can't blame you, considering I'm thinking of Searchman."

"Enough chitchat," Doctor Hikari called to us through the radio, "It's make or break time."

"Right!" I slammed the chip in, speaking the words I'd been longing to say for months, even when I couldn't remember that I wanted to say them. "Synchro Chip in and download!"