Chapter ten:
For fifteen years Matt and Near worked on the project in secret and have made a lot of progress on it.
They do their best to keep this project from Mello… Until…
Mello has recently gotten really sick and has been resting quite a bit at the lab where he first collapsed. He insisted that he needed rest but Matt and Near are worried about him.
Near opens the door to the room that they made to let Mello rest. He heads inside and goes over to the bed looking at the other.
Mello weakly looks to him. "Hey." He croaks out.
"Hey." Near greets back.
"I think that I'll be gone soon." Mello admits. "A little early than I had hoped to be."
Near looks sadly at the other. "You'll need to trust me then." He informs him.
"I do." Mello assures him.
"I'll be back." Near leaves the room only to come back with a clear mask and a small slightly see through blue ball attached to it. He puts it over Mello's mouth and nose then squeezes the ball sending special sleeping gas to the other to breath in.
Mello is soon asleep and Near removes the mask.
"It's time." Near says then he rolls the bed over to the secret project room where Matt is waiting. "Ready?" He asks.
Matt nods.
The two of them get Mello onto the chair in the middle of the room and they know that it's time to set to work. They had gotten information from doctors about where the illness would attack the most to Mello. They came up a plan around that.
"Let's do this." Near says and they get to work knowing that they'll need to be careful if they don't want to lose their friend.
Matt settles at a nearby computer as Near works on doing what they need to do. He quickly types on the keyboard checking a whole bunch of stuff. "Life still stable." He reports. "All programs are ready to be inserted."
"Good." Near nods and gets the arm on. "Keep watching the life." He says. "I'm gonna start getting the stuff deeper."
"Okay." Matt agrees.
They continue to work until finally it is completed; Near especially has quite a bit of blood on him.
"Okay." Near says as Matt comes over. "Time to see if this worked." He presses a switch as the two hope that it goes alright… They will lose him if it doesn't…. Luckily Mello gasps his eyes shooting open.
He pants slightly then looks to his two friends who look happy that he's okay. He feels stronger and he sits up on his own. "What happened?" He questions.
"A secret project." Near explains. "Something that me and Matt call a terminator."
"I came up with that!" Matt says grinning like a goof.
"We took what your illness was affecting most and changed it into robotic parts. You can't really tell the difference by looking." Near explains and Matt brings over a mirror.
Mello blinks and he agrees that you can't tell that he has robotic parts now. "You two are amazing!" His eyes shine in happiness. He jumps up and hugs Near spinning him around. "You guys did it!" He then places Near on the ground again in which they look at each others eyes.
With a soft smile each they lean in kissing each other gently as their eyes flutter shut glad that the other feels the same.
Matt's eyes widen and he flinches. "That's should be me." He growls to himself watching the two. "Then I'll make it me." He adds again to himself.
The next day Matt invites Mello to the room again.
Mello has been working on learning what he can do and learning to control it. "So what is it that you wanted to do?" He asks glancing to Matt as they walk further into the room.
"It's just to check and possibly do a few updates as needed. We want to make sure that you stay in working order." Matt says.
Mello nods and settles in the chair again.
Matt sets Mello's mode to sleep which is a little thing they added just in case they need to do anything to fix or upgrade Mello. He makes sure that Mello is out before smirking. "It must be done." He says to himself and he begins working on the other hacking into his system to change things. He finishes and looks to Mello. "Now you're mine. You have the easiest task. Destroying the future. Destroying Near." He boots Mello back up.
Mello's eyes snap open with a gasp then he gets up from the chair and heads off with an obvious goal.
"I'm sure you'll be able to handle it." Matt says smirking to himself. "And yeah I won't be able to change your system like that again but it'll be worth it." He goes to follow but stays out of sight.
Mello approaches Near who turns to him.
Near is about to ask Mello something when he realizes that something is wrong.
Mello's hand changes to his gun and he aims it at Near.
Near looks down to it then closes his eyes for a moment before opening them and looking up to meet Mello's eyes. He doesn't show fear the entire time. "Mello." He says watching the other. "This isn't you. I know that you wouldn't do this." He says keeping his gaze with Mello locked. He steps to the side just before a shot is fired causing it to miss only to hit a wall leaving it with a burned hole there now. "Come back to me." He moves a step closer to Mello as Mello watches. "I know that you are still there." He says refusing to look anywhere but Mello's eyes.
Mello's arm and gun shiver a little so Near takes yet another step closer. He brings his arm around and aims his gun once again at Near.
Near continues to seem unfazed. "Mello." He reaches his hands out towards the other even as he hears the gun charging another attack. "Please come back to me."