YES THE FINAL CHAPTER OF TIMEMAN. THANK GOD. FINALLY.

Once this is over with, I can get to writing Blind Panic, which everyone has probably been looking forward to. Well, I know I have, and there's that one reviewer who asked when I was gonna write the thing with the others finding out about ProtoMan being blind, so I guess that's two people?

Also technically three cus I know Cin is interested to see what I write for Blind Panic.

Anyway, I'll get to the chapter because I don't want it to end up as long as the previous one was.

I don't own MegaMan Battle Network/NT Warrior, on with the show!

OOOOOO

Unlike their previous jump, Chaud didn't find himself lying in an alley somewhere. He guessed maybe that one had something to do with the fact that he'd been entirely unwilling to activate the power block and it had exploded as a result or something, but this time around, he had allowed it to happen willingly - and therefore, when he and TimeMan came back to their own time, he wasn't lying on the ground.

He was, however, back in the research facility. Or more specifically, the lab they had travelled from originally.

Lan and Raika were in the exact same spots where they'd been before - in fact, it didn't look as if they'd moved an inch. Chaud wondered just how much time had passed since they'd vanished into the past.

And just as TimeMan had said, the power block was back into its original form, and it was in Chaud's arms again. He glanced down at it curiously, wondering just how much Darkloid energy and Cross Fusion energy still remained inside it.

"I have held up my end of the deal," TimeMan said. "Now, give it to me."

Chaud glanced up at him.

"Wait," Raika said, suddenly realising what was going on even if he didn't fully understand what had happened, "no, don't!"

"Don't give it to him!" Lan cried.

Chaud lifted the power block over his head.

TimeMan realised what he was about to do a split second before it actually happened, but he was too slow to stop Chaud from throwing the block onto the ground with so much force that it broke upon impact. He stomped on the remains, making absolutely certain that it could never be used again.

"You gave your word!" TimeMan bellowed, gathering his energy in his palms. "You gave me your sacred word! You swore upon the life of your mother!"

Chaud lifted his hand and put his fist against TimeMan's chest, right over his Darkloid factor emblem.

"My mother is dead," he said flatly.

He activated a Proto Sword and it went straight through TimeMan's body.

TimeMan had a moment to give Chaud a look of pure hatred before he was deleted entirely, and then the dimensional area he had created vanished along with him. It also made Chaud, Lan and Raika automatically Cross Out, so he left standing there with his fist pressed against air.

It took Chaud a while to realise he was still standing there in silence, but it was only when Raika appeared in front of him and gently took hold of his wrist to lower his arm that he came back to his senses.

"Chaud?" Raika asked.

And suddenly he was crying.

Maybe it was everything that had happened catching up to him, maybe it was finally getting rid of the Darkloid energy and the anger had burned inside him for the past day or so, but he just couldn't stop crying - and Raika reacted with surprise at first, but then he recovered and wrapped Chaud in his arms.

There was a hand on his side, and Chaud moved his head slightly, just enough to see Lan standing there with a concerned expression. Lan cautiously held out his other hand, silently asking if it would be alright, and when Chaud shakily nodded, he hugged Chaud as well.

For a few moments he was just sandwiched between them, and his only thought was how warm it was.

When it ended he was almost sorry, but he eventually calmed down and they both let him go, though reluctantly. ProtoMan was still oddly silent - Chaud spotted MegaMan and SearchMan exchanging glances and then they both disappeared into his PET, so at least they could check up on him. Other than that, and his still-shaky emotional state, things were sort of okay now.

"You okay now?" Lan asked him, still obviously worried.

Chaud looked at him, remembering the past Lan, and wondered if he could remember anything from then. But TimeMan had said that time would correct itself as soon as they left, which meant that the past versions of everyone had probably had their memories erased to fix anything that Chaud had broken.

He was glad he was back.

"I will be," Chaud quietly answered.

Meanwhile, Raika moved away to check out the remains of the power block. He crouched down and poked at it curiously, frowning, and then stood up and looked at Chaud.

"Why did you break it?" he asked mildly, making certain that his tone of voice couldn't be mistaken for an accusation.

"Darkloid energy," Chaud explained. "TimeMan activated it by pouring his energy into it, and it reacted with the energy from my Cross Fusion too. And . . . ProtoMan and I ended up absorbing half of the power block."

"And the Darkloid energy too?" Lan asked, horrified. He, like Chaud and ProtoMan, could remember that monster from the Darkloid Fusion.

Chaud looked at the ground at his feet and let his silence be his answer.

Lan made an odd jerking motion - like he wanted to hug Chaud again but had aborted the movement halfway through.

"It wasn't enough for that," Chaud said, knowing what he was thinking. "ProtoMan's the one who figured it out - we were . . . angrier than usual. Well, I was. ProtoMan was just annoyed a lot. I kept getting into arguments with my past self, and he kept having to break us up."

"You met your past self?" Raika asked.

Chaud nodded. "I hated him," he whispered. "I . . . I wanted to kill him. I could have, if ProtoMan hadn't forced me to Cross Fuse. He took control and made sure I couldn't hurt anyone. The Darkloid energy was making me go crazy. Making us go crazy."

"So, you broke the power block because of the Darkloid energy inside it."

"Yeah. I don't know if it could've been fixed. I don't really care. I just . . . I don't wanna see that thing ever again."

"We understand, you don't need to explain yourself," Raika told him gently.

"But you fixed it, in the end!" Lan exclaimed brightly, always the type to look on the bright side. "And you deleted TimeMan, so nothing like this can happen again. Hey, so, what were we like? How did we act? You know, our past selves."

"They didn't believe me when I told them I was from the future," Chaud replied, finally smiling. "Mind you, that was probably because I lied to them about what was going on before I actually told them the truth. They only believed me when I Crossed Out and showed them my real face. My past self said I was insane."

"You more or less are," Raika said bluntly, though good-naturedly. "But don't worry, we're all somewhat insane. We'd have to be, to get through half of what we've experienced."

"That's basically what I told them."

OOOOOO

And now, here we are, finally at the end of TimeMan! It was a long, long ride - well, it was for me anyway - but I finally got here.

Damn does it feel good. But anyway, have some crying Chaud and Raika and Lan being nice and huggy.

ProtoMan's fine by the way, he's just drained as hell. MegaMan and SearchMan are looking after him, so it's all good.

Now all I gotta do is proofread this 'part' and I can upload it for you guys to read!

Read and review!