A/N: And now at last, with the status of the longest story yet (for now), this epic tale finally reaches it's end. Feel free to speculate on anything I've left unexplained and such, but mostly just enjoy, of course.

The scene was tense. Lan and the past Chaud stood watching as ProtoMan waited in the strange Vision Burst of Echo Ridge. Their MegaMan, not the past one, appeared in the area, complete with the Orb in one hand.
"A bold plan," he told them. "It almost worked too. But no matter. MegaMan will be returning any moment now after the warning I gave him. Right about... now."
MegaMan came through the link again, this time the one that had appeared to jack out.
"Who are you?" he asked, eyes narrowed with suspicion. "Who are you really, and what are you doing?"
ProtoMan hesitated. "Chaud?" he asked, keeping the act up.
The real Chaud turned to Lan.
"We can drop the pretence," Lan told him. "No doubt MegaMan has told... MegaMan something."
"Lan?" the past MegaMan asked incredulously.
"It's not me," his Lan said.
"Of course it's not you," Lan said absently.
"Then who are you?"
"I'm you, just not you. ProtoMan, was their any word of what happened to the others?"
"Nothing," ProtoMan replied. "The last I got was the message telling him he'd made arrangements."
"Oh yes," the future MegaMan smirked. "Your friends. What do you suppose is delaying them?"
"What did you do to them?"
"Me? I'm shocked at you, Lan. How could you suspect me of doing anything to them?"
"What happened?" he insisted.
"Oh, I imagine they met their demise by the hand of an old friend of ours. NebulaGrey is quite hungry, as I recall. Was," he corrected himself. "Though I imagine he'll be along shortly looking for another snack."
"ProtoMan, get out of there – quickly!"
"Something's blocking me, Lan. The only way out is through them."
"And they don't look like they're about to let us leave."
ProtoMan backed away uneasily. "I can't fight them, Lan. He'd be too much for me alone."
"We don't have to do it for long. Just enough to get you out of there."
"Easier said than done," he muttered, noting both of them make ready for a fight. "If I do anything to the past one..."
"We may have no choice. Can you reach Cache?"
"Not with these two on my back."
"I'll try and get in touch with them. Hold out as long as you can."
"Let us help," Chaud broke in.
"Absolutely not. If something happens to your ProtoMan, it could change everything for the worse."
ProtoMan blocked a barrage of attacks from the future MegaMan, while the past one remained to guard the link back to the normal net. Though he stood up well, he still took damage and couldn't hold out indefinitely.
"Lan," he said suddenly. "What colour are MegaMan's eyes meant to be?"
"Is this really the time to be asking?"
"Don't be tiresome."
"They're green, why?"
"The eyes on our one aren't. They're red."
"Red? But what would cause that?"
As if to answer, the past MegaMan announced, "Someone's coming through the link – several of them!"
Angel and Wolf were first to emerge, both breathing hard as if they'd been running hard. Cache flickered into appearance beside them as ClockMan also emerged from the link. MegaMan backed away from them apprehensively, looking to his future self.
He and ProtoMan broke off their fight to watch as they stood clear of the link and watched as another Navi appeared.
It was Bass, and it looked like he was in what could only be described as an inarticulate rage.
"Impossible!" MegaMan breathed, looking suddenly afraid.
"You... you..." Bass started, then discarded any semblance of self control and launched himself at MegaMan. ProtoMan hastily got clear, joining his friends.
"Just what happened to you lot?" he asked.
"Bass duped us," Wolf explained. "When he realised he was going to lose the Orb, he set a trap on it for MegaMan."
"When he retrieved it, it activated," Angel continued. "Since it used the Orb's power and wasn't dependant on Bass, it worked even then, dumping MegaMan into Bass' program, and loading Bass into his own. Then it created NebulaGrey as a distraction for us, so we wouldn't notice."
"That's why!" Lan almost shouted. "MegaMan's eyes are red because it's Bass there."
"I guess that explains why Bass' eyes seemed green," Angel murmured to Wolf.
The past MegaMan looked to each of them in turn, shaking his head.
"I'm confused. Who are all of you, and what are you talking about?"
"It hasn't happened yet," ClockMan told him. "You've got it all to come. We'd better keep from saying too much," he told the others.
"Yeah, but who are you all?"
"You'll met us all in time."
The real MegaMan used Bass' own abilities against their former own with a rage that made him almost more dangerous than he had been with his own.
Finally, he sent Bass tumbling to the ground, groaning. MegaMan hurried over, held the arm with the Orb to the ground, and seized it for himself. There was an awful tearing sound as ownership passed from one to the other.
Bass looked even more afraid when he realised he'd lost the Orb yet again.
"Cache," MegaMan snapped in Bass' voice. "Did you make the preparations?"
"Of course."
"Then get out of here. All of you except my past self. And Lan, get the past ProtoMan here, now."
"You heard him," Lan nudged Chaud again as he pulled ProtoMan out. This lost them their view of the scene, restored only when the past ProtoMan reached the area. Only three remained now, Bass now apparently in his own body once more, the past MegaMan and the future MegaMan.
Bass looked in part afraid, in part irritated. He seemed to be contained by some kind of barrier MegaMan had created.
"What now?" Lan asked him.
"I'm going to get you and Bass back to your own time, sort out the timeline, then I'll be along to join you." He turned to his past self and ProtoMan. "As soon as I'm done with that, you two are going to go up to Vista Point up there and retrieve the Orb the way you were meant to."
"Why don't I just leave the Orb alone?"
"This won't have happened otherwise, which means I won't have stopped it, and you'll have no reason not to. That causes a paradox, which is bad. Just go and take it."
"Can you really affect the past, MegaMan?" Chaud asked him.
"Through the Orb, and as long as I'm still here, of course."
"Then why not eliminate the chances of a paradox, and alter everyone's memory so me, Lan – the past Lan – and so on won't remember this?"
"I never thought of that. I guess you're smarter than you look."
"Hey!"
"He's just teasing you, Chaud," Lan told him.
"Alright," MegaMan said then. "Here goes. I'm putting everyone back when they belong, then we'll sort out memories."
MegaMan hid himself on top of a building in Echo Ridge and watched as his past self and the past ProtoMan went through just as he remembered, no longer aware of what had just happened. He followed them up to the platform where Geo was, and kept a close eye on them as they left. There was someone he wanted to see.
Geo handed the orb, and the two left. His past self was, of course, knocked unconscious as he took his place as an unwilling God and reality changed. Geo didn't move from his stargazing. Someone had to show up soon to tell him to go to his past self to explain.
He was starting to worry as no one arrived, then realized who it would have been. He created himself a robe like the one Bass normally wore to conceal who he was, then met Geo.
"Who're you?" Geo asked when Mega finally got him to look.
"That's not important. You need to go to MegaMan and explain what's happened to him."
"And what has happened to him?"
"He now has the whole world in his hand, literally. He can't go back there, because he doesn't exist in that altered reality, and he'll have to influence it through the Orb. If he can make them realize his existance and enough about him, reality will reset back to normal again. Think you can remember all that?"
"We'll explain it, but who are you?"
"I already told you, not important. Keep an eye on him. One of you, anyway. I've already stayed past my due time."
"Wait!" Geo called after him as he used the Orb to return to his own time, appearing before Lan and Chaud. Cache and ClockMan were, of course, nowhere to be seen. Wolf, Angel and ProtoMan were waiting, watching from their respective PETs. Lan had both Wolf's and Angel's ones.
"Well?" Chaud asked.
"It's all sorted. By the way... keep thinking of those good ideas." Chaud looked puzzled, but he said no more.
"What now then?" Lan asked him.
"Now I have to decide what I'm going to do with this." MegaMan answered, holding up the Orb. "Not to mention this reality."

He was back in Lan's room, in his PET once more.
With a sense of Deja vu, he asked, "Lan? Lan, are you alright?"
He looked disoriented, but answered, "Huh? Yeah, what happened?"
"Just a bug where we were, that's all. I got out just in time. I hope ProtoMan did too."
"He'll be fine. He's been through worse."
"Could we check up on him all the same? I'd like to be sure, just in case it was worse than I thought."
"But MegaMan, that means I have to see Chaud."
"So? Try being nice to him for a change. I'm sure he'll be nice back if you're nice to him."
"As if!" he snorted
"Just give it a try, Lan. What harm can it do?"
"Oh, alright then. Just once, and if you're wrong..."
"He won't be. C'mon, we better get going."
"What's this we? I'm the one who has to go."
"Stop complaining," he sighed. Lan was back to his normal stubborn self.
Just as he had been after the first time reality reset, Chaud was in the command room at SciLab, and looked up as they entered.
"I'm sorry, Lan. I don't know what's happened to MegaMan."
"That's alright. He got out safely," he answered, showing the PET.
"Glad to hear it. What did you want?"
"We thought we'd stop by see if ProtoMan was alright too."
"Of course he is. He's been through worse."
"Told you so," Lan told MegaMan.
"What happened to that Orb?" ProtoMan asked, appearing on a nearby monitor.
"It vanished when I got back," MegaMan answered.
"Strange. Chaud and I found some odd data in that area that got attached to me on the way back. He can't identify it."
"Could it be a Navi?"
"I suggested that too," ProtoMan replied blandly, "But he doesn't seem to agree with me."
"You've got no evidence it could be, ProtoMan," Chaud sighed, rolling his eyes.
"You haven't even tried it to see if it could be," ProtoMan protested. "Besides, MegaMan thinks it is too, doesn't that even merit trying it just to see if we're right?"
Chaud rounded on him, "Why do you think it's a Navi?"
"It's just a hunch I've got. Something tells me there's a Navi in it."
"MegaMan's hunches are usually pretty reliable," Lan told Chaud. "Maybe it's worth trying it?"
"Alright! I'll give it a go."
"Finally," ProtoMan murmured, winking at MegaMan out of Lan and Chaud's sight. MegaMan returned it with a grin.
"There's too much here for a Navi," Chaud told them.
"Maybe there's more than one," MegaMan suggested.
Chaud gave him an icy look, but turned back to the data and continued to work. Another screen nearby flickered into life, and two figures appeared on it.
"Hello again MegaMan," one growled. "I guess it worked, then?"
"I have no idea what you're talking about," MegaMan answered with a completely straight face. As all eyes turned to look at him, ProtoMan leaned into sight on their screen and whispered something to them before he returned.
The second figured nodded as he leaned back, winking at him, then said, "He did say he wouldn't remember us, Wolf. Or did you forget again?"
"What do you mean, again, Angel? When did I ever forget anything?"