Bass shows up on day seven. Mimic hadn't been expecting him - he only visits so he can play Skyrim, and he usually tells Mimic when he'll be coming by next so she can have the game up and running for him.
However strange it is to see him in the white PET next to Arcadia, he's a welcome distraction from the monotony of the prison-cottage. And Mimic's extremely grateful she spends most of her time sulking in the room she's staying in, because she has no idea how she would manage to explain Bass's sudden appearance to Manabe.
"Where the hell have you been the last week?" Bass demands, without even saying hello. Then again, he never says hello anyway, so this is normal for him. "I went into your computer five days ago and you didn't have that damn game running for me. You weren't even in that sleeping-room of yours!"
"It's called a bedroom," Arcadia corrects him, but Bass ignores him.
"We've been locked up," Mimic replies to Bass. Her voice is a little hoarse and weak because she hasn't used it for almost an entire week, but at least she can get the words out.
"Locked up?" Bass looks almost offended at that. "What, did you get arrested or something?"
"No, we're at a safe house under the protection of the Net Police," Arcadia explains. "Nebula tried to kidnap Chaud again, so they made us come here to keep him out of Nebula's hands. We've been locked in here ever since." Arcadia's expression falls into a scowl for a brief moment. "And we don't like it."
"I didn't ask," Bass retorts bluntly. He turns back to Mimic, not seeing Arcadia rolling his eyes. "So, what, you can't go back to your house?"
Mimic shakes her head. Bass somehow looks even more offended, as if the idea of her being locked up is so absurd that he can't react any other way.
"That's stupid," he declares. "You humans don't know how to deal with these things. Just delete the idiots trying to kidnap you and be done with it, honestly. Damn idiots . . ."
"If it were that simple, we'd have done it by now," Arcadia replies dryly. "But we have no idea where Dr. Regal is, so we can't attack him even if we could leave."
"That's even dumber than-"
Bass cuts himself off when Arcadia suddenly gets an email. There's no alert on the white PET, so this email must have been sent directly to Arcadia - though Mimic can't imagine how the email got approved. With Manabe keeping her prisoner like this, she's pretty sure the woman would definitely not approve any messages.
"It's from MegaMan," Arcadia says, looking surprised. "And . . . there's no note from Manabe attached to it."
What the hell? Mimic blinks. But all the emails approved by Manabe have notes on them . . .
That means this one wasn't approved by her, Chaud says.
How the hell did it get through, then?
"It was sent directly to me, rather than the PET," Arcadia replies. "I think . . . I think it's only the PET's messages that're being monitored. Anything sent to me doesn't have those restrictions, so I get messages immediately."
Kind of like how Arcadia sent that message directly to MegaMan rather than Lan's PET, when Mimic and Raoul were setting up that prank to teach Lan a lesson in humility. If this message is from MegaMan, he must be doing the same thing here - but the question is whether or not MegaMan is doing this with Lan's knowledge and approval.
"Are you going to read it, or just stare at it all day?" Bass snaps impatiently.
Arcadia blinks at him, then opens the email. He reads through it, stiffening as he gets to the end. The feathers on his wings are trembling faintly with barely-suppressed excitement.
"What is it?" Mimic asks.
Arcadia looks up at her with wide eyes. "MegaMan says they're going to be dealing with Dark ProtoMan today," he says.
A jolt of shock and anticipation runs through Mimic's body.
"There's a list of instructions," Arcadia goes on, giving the email a quick glance. "A time, and a location, along with a map. And at the bottom . . . it says 'from MegaMan and Lan'." He looks back up at Mimic. "There's only one reason they would send this to us."
Mimic nods. "They know we'd wanna be there," she murmurs. "So they're giving us the chance."
"Chaud," Arcadia says, holding up the email so Mimic can see it, "can you memorise this? I'm going to have to delete every trace of it, so MegaMan and Lan don't get in trouble."
Of course, just give me a few moments, Chaud replies. Mimic concentrates on the contents of the email - the map especially - so he can memorise it easily. After a few quiet moments, Chaud speaks up again. I've got it.
Arcadia nods and uses his Holy Fire to burn the email out of existence. He pauses when the white fire fades, then glances at Bass with an almost-hopeful expression.
"Do you want to help us get ProtoMan back?" he asks carefully.
Bass, predictably, scoffs at the question. "Why the hell should I be bothered?" he answers. "I don't care about that cat, or you or your human. I just come to you so I can play that stupid game of yours."
If it's so stupid, Mimic thinks, why do you keep coming back to play it so much?
Arcadia doesn't look offended at Bass's refusal to help. Mimic isn't really that surprised either, and neither is Chaud - this is Bass they're trying to ask for help, after all. He may listen to them more willingly when he's playing Skyrim, but outside of that, he still pretty much just tolerates them. And technically he's never met ProtoMan, he'd only attacked him when ProtoMan was going Poltergeist on the Gospel beast, which . . . kind of doesn't really count. They can't really expect Bass to help save a Navi he hasn't met properly.
"I'll check on you in a few days," Bass says abruptly. "You'd better be in your sleeping-room by the time I come back."
"It's a bedroom," Arcadia calls, as Bass vanishes from the white PET. Arcadia sighs, then turns back to Mimic. "I know all three of us are in agreement, but how are we even going to get out of here?"
He has a point, Chaud admits reluctantly. You can't just walk up to Manabe and ask nicely.
Mimic narrows her eyes for a few moments, considering her options.
If she tries to set foot outside, the sensors will immediately go off. She knows that much from when she'd tried to open the window on the first day, and the alarm had started screaming, bringing Manabe and the Net Police officer in the prison-cottage running. The absolute second Mimic tries to escape, she'll get caught.
But maybe that's the key here. Suppose she doesn't try to escape? Not right away, anyway.
You have an idea? Chaud asks, sensing her shift in mood through their connection.
Oh, definitely. And I think we're gonna enjoy this, Mimic replies, smirking.
The sensor alarm screams, bringing Manabe and the officer running into the room in mere moments. They both seem fairly panicked, especially when they see that the room is empty, and the only evidence of anyone being in here is the wide-open window - the cause of the sensor alarm going off so suddenly.
"Dammit," Manabe curses, turning on her heels and marching out of the room. She takes out her PET as she goes. "Officers, be on the lookout - Chaud has escaped through the window and is likely on the run. Sweep the area. Find him and bring him back immediately."
Her voice gets fainter as she and the officer leave.
Mimic waits another few heartbeats before crawling out from under the bed, smugly triumphant at getting her idea to work - but she can't let herself celebrate just yet, because although the first part went smoothly enough, she still needs to get out of the prison-cottage.
She creeps through the prison-cottage, keeping low to the ground - and walking on all fours to avoid making any noise that could alert anyone in the prison-cottage. She doesn't wander around on all fours that often, because it doesn't feel natural as a human, but it's definitely useful for when she's sneaking around or needs an extra burst of speed.
She sees Manabe outside, with her back to the prison-cottage as she speaks urgently into her PET. She's talking to Kifune; Mimic can hear his shocked voice as Manabe reports that Mimic has escaped. The Net Police officer who was stationed in the house is stomping around in the forest with the other four officers, giving away their locations easily thanks to Mimic's sensitive hearing.
That porch is the only entrance and exit, Chaud reminds her. Unless you feel like going back to that room and taking your chances with the window?
No, Mimic decides, after listening hard for a moment. I can hear one of the officers walking near it. We'd get spotted immediately if I went that way.
Kifune shouldn't be able to see you if you sneak around Manabe's back, Chaud says, as Mimic begins to creep up to the porch. And Manabe will be too focused on thinking you've already escaped to realise you're escaping right now.
Mimic nods. That's exactly what her idea was based on - misdirection. Let Manabe think one thing is happening, when in reality, it's something else entirely. Mimic's pretty sure this is a common trick for magicians, but she's borrowing it for her own tricks this time.
She sneaks around Manabe's back, as Chaud suggested. The woman doesn't see her at all, too intent on Kifune and her misconception that Mimic has already escaped. Kifune also doesn't see her, because the PET is angled wrong and he's focusing on Manabe rather than the silent shadow that Mimic is trying to become (and sort of succeeding, considering how well her idea is working out so far).
As soon as Mimic is out of sight of Manabe, around the side of the prison-cottage, she makes a break for the trees. She keeps running on all fours, knowing that if she's any slower she'll get caught immediately - or at least seen. The grassy forest floor is a lot better to run on than hard concrete, and Mimic reflects that she would've probably enjoyed coming here if she hadn't been a prisoner.
The Net Police officers don't see her at all, even though Mimic can see them through the trees, crashing around and making enough noise for Mimic to pinpoint all of them just by sound alone. Manabe is still talking on her PET, but as Mimic pauses just inside the treeline, the call ends and Manabe steps off the porch to join the search properly.
Mimic scrambles up the nearest tree with ease. Just in time, too - barely moments later, Manabe walks under the tree Mimic is hiding in, blissfully unaware that the person she's searching for is hardly more than a few feet above her head. Manabe heads deeper into the forest, calling out instructions to the officers nearby.
Mimic allows a few moments to pass before slipping along the branch and jumping into the next tree. She doesn't allows herself to pause, skimming the branches of different trees as silently as a ghost, barely disturbing leaves or branches as she goes.
She passes over Manabe's head once again, but doesn't stop to look. She keeps going, jumping through the trees and keeping well above ground-level as the forest floor blurs past below.
Mimic hasn't felt this alive since the last time she ran and parkoured her way across DenTech City. She hasn't gotten the chance to, since her orders had forbidden her from going anywhere without at least one human with her at all times. No one's capable of keeping up with her when she gets up to speed, and she lets herself run wild now, finally getting to release all the built-up energy in her body.
She arrives at SciLab barely out of breath, skirting around the edge of the wall until she finds a tree overhanging into the grounds. It wouldn't be smart to just walk in through the front gate - she doesn't know how much the scientists here know, but she can't take the risk that one of them will realise she's not supposed to be here and call the Net Police. She'd never get to the location Lan and MegaMan gave her if that happened.
So Mimic sneaks through SciLab, thankful that the absurd amount of time she spent here has given her a pretty good mental map of the entire complex. It's ridiculously easy now to avoid being seen by both scientists and security cameras.
She makes her way to the room where the Poltergeist had been kept, before ProtoMan had turned into Dark ProtoMan. Half the machines are still broken from that transformation, including the capsule that failed to contain him, but she can see her PET still attached to some of the remaining consoles.
It's still letting off black sparks. They're not as intense as they were when she'd first downloaded that cursed Dark Chip, but her PET is still basically unusable because of them. It hurts to touch it, like the oddly-painful sensation you get when trying to work out pins and needles in your arm or leg, and while it's nowhere near as painful as before, it's still very nearly unbearable.
But she needs her PET. So she'll have to deal with the pain.
Mimic takes out the white PET and sets it down beside her PET. Arcadia looks out at her, grimly determined, as she reaches out and carefully tries to grab her PET.
She snatches her hands back, hissing faintly as the black sparks touch her bare skin.
"You can't be careful with it," Arcadia tells her. "Pick it up as quick as you can and put it into your holder. If you try to be careful, you'll only hurt more."
Mimic gives herself a moment to recover from the brief pain before nodding. Then she does as Arcadia says, flashing out her hands and grabbing her PET. Immediately she's assaulted by the pins-and-needles-like pain, but she snatches the PET out of the slot it's been in for the last several weeks and quickly shoves it into her holder, where it sparks harmlessly.
Before the console's systems can detect her PET's absence, Mimic puts the white PET into the slot. Arcadia nods to her as the white PET goes in.
"I'll head to Lan's PET," he says. "I'll meet you there, Mimic, Chaud. Be careful, and don't get caught."
Mimic has enough time to nod back to him before he vanishes from the screen of the white PET.
Now all she needs to do is get out of SciLab and head for the location Lan gave her. It's an old mansion just outside the city limits - nowhere near the prison-cottage, but still in a forest area that automatically makes Mimic wary of being seen by anyone who isn't Lan. At the very least, she'll be able to get through the forest easily enough; she proved that much when escaping from the prison-cottage.
Getting into the old mansion will hopefully be just as easy. Chaud managed it in the anime, without any of the stealth skills or cat abilities that Mimic has - so she should be able to do the same thing now.
Getting out of SciLab is easier than getting in, and she doesn't need to hide as she parkours her way across the city, following Chaud's directions to the old mansion. Mimic hits the city limits and immediately finds herself in a forest again, then jumps into another tree and keeps going without touching the forest floor. She can't be sure the Net Police won't send more people to try and find her, and no one's going to think to look up into the trees while they're searching the ground.
It's dark by the time she sees the old mansion through the trees up ahead. She's coming around it from the back, knowing that Dr. Hikari, Famous, and the others will all be in a wooden shack at the front - and if Dr. Hikari sees her, it's definitely all over.
Of course, everyone will know she's here when Arcadia materialises himself after the dimensional area appears. But Mimic will already be inside, well out of reach, and there won't be anything anyone can do then.
For a moment, a flicker of guilt pierces through her grim determination. Dr. Hikari had been terrified when Dark ProtoMan took her in front of him, and although Lan was the one who gave her the information to get here in the first place, he definitely wouldn't want to see her put herself in harm's way.
But hopefully it won't come to that. She's seen how the vaccine chip works - it's stronger than the one made in the anime, because SciLab used the research they have on Arcadia's Dark Immunity to create it. She just wants to watch, and be there when ProtoMan finally comes back.
Mimic shakes those thoughts out of her head and scans the back of the mansion. There's a fire escape leading up to a half-open door that she can see from her perch in the trees, so she slips down and darts up to the fire escape. The railing is rusted and old, and the stairs aren't much better, but she barely weighs a thing and the fire escape doesn't even shake when she climbs up it.
Within moments, she's up the fire escape, through the half-open door, and inside the old mansion. She knows Lan is already here, somewhere in the mansion. His instructions didn't include a map of the old mansion, but she's not going to complain about that - he and MegaMan have already done enough just telling her where to go.
She can figure it out for herself. It won't be long until the dimensional area appears and Dark ProtoMan materialises - and then she can just follow the sounds of battle. Until then, she'll move slowly. If she ends up getting lost, she might not be able to find the room where Lan is.
Mimic has just reached the end of the hall when she hears the rumbling of dimensional converters, and the dimensional area appears around the mansion. A moment later, she hears an explosion and a metallic crash, and guesses that Dark ProtoMan has just destroyed the fake dimensional converters.
She takes off running. She hears faint voices - Lan's, and Dark ProtoMan's - and follows them. Arcadia's voice joins them, so he must have materialised himself as well.
Then she hears another crash, and realises the battle has started already. Mimic picks up the pace until the sounds of battle are loud enough that she knows she's close by, and she darts through an opening to find herself on a balcony overlooking a spacious room.
Dark ProtoMan is a whirling, screeching mass of bushy hair and sharp claws, lashing out at Lan and then Arcadia, keeping both of them back. He's not keeping still at all, and as the second dimensional area appears underneath the first - the second one must be SciLab's, Mimic thinks - it becomes clear he's not going to make this easy for them. They need him to keep still long enough for the vaccine chip to be shot at him, but with Dark ProtoMan moving like this . . .
It's impossible.
Unless . . . Mimic narrows her eyes. Is there any way she can help?
She doesn't have any battle chips that can paralyse a NetNavi, but she does a battle chip that can be used to damage them slowly. The Anubis battle chip should work just fine here - if she gives it to Arcadia, it won't affect him, and she can switch the connection to Lan and give him a Barrier or something to help him with the poison.
You have three Barriers, Chaud reminds her, as she takes out the Battle Chip Gate and connects it to Arcadia. There's a program advance for the Barrier - use it on Lan, and Anubis won't affect him at all.
You sure about that? Mimic asks. She grabs the chips she needs, including three Barriers - she may not be entirely convinced about the program advance, but she'll do it anyway. She doesn't want to accidentally hurt Lan with Anubis.
Absolutely, Chaud replies. You looked up different program advances once with Lan, remember? I know Barrier was on there, but you didn't have three Barriers at the time, so you ignored it. Then Lan got you those battle chips from the Bargain Bin, and one of them was a Barrier.
Alright, Mimic says. Here goes nothing, I suppose.
She downloads the Anubis chip. Arcadia isn't surprised when it appears - he can hear Mimic and Chaud talking thanks to his Empath Program anyway, so he knows exactly what Mimic's plan is.
Lan, on the other hand, looks startled as the Anubis statue starts to spew out purple poison gas. Dark ProtoMan scowls at it for a moment, and then looks around until he spots Mimic on the balcony.
Mimic shoves down the instinctive jolt of fear she feels upon being noticed by Dark ProtoMan and quickly connects the Battle Chip Gate to Lan. She downloads all three of her Barriers, wasting no time on words because the poison is fast-moving and could easily take Lan out if she wastes even a second.
A solid, transparent barrier fades up around Lan. He looks shocked as he reaches out to touch it - he must realise what it is, she thinks, even if it looks just like any other Barrier. The poison rolls across the floor rapidly, covering most of the room below in its gas, and Lan is completely unaffected. Mimic is fine because she's up on the balcony, though if she were any closer she'd probably get poisoned by her own attack.
The Anubis works quickly. Dark ProtoMan starts hacking and coughing, clutching at his throat like he's struggling to breathe. He collapses to his knees, choking, and Mimic forces herself to ignore the instinctive pang of guilt she feels - this isn't ProtoMan, far from it. This is the monster ProtoMan was forced to turn into, the monster they're going to get rid of today.
She sees the vaccine chip launcher materialising behind Dark ProtoMan as the poison gas starts to fade away. Anubis never lasts long, but it's extremely effective for its short duration, which more than makes up for it - and it's definitely useful here, because Dark ProtoMan can hardly breathe, and he's not moving much.
A beam of light shoots out of the vaccine chip launcher and hits Dark ProtoMan. Immediately, the Darkloid begins screaming, and Mimic covers her ears with a flinch - not that it does much good. But she watches carefully, hoping that this will be it, and they won't need to do anything more than throw this vaccine chip at him.
The white fire that burnt away the Dark Aura in the other Navis encircles Dark ProtoMan. He grips his head, rearing back and screeching his pain to the heavens, and the white fire starts to crawl up his body. It burns away the image of Dark ProtoMan, leaving the brighter red colour of ProtoMan's armour in its wake.
Mimic leans on the railing, no longer caring about Dark ProtoMan's screeching, too intent on watching what happens next. She refuses to miss this - she has to make sure it works.
It looks like it is. The white fire burns away Dark ProtoMan, leaving the real ProtoMan behind, and Mimic leans forward, hardly daring to breathe as hope rises in her chest. Some distance away from ProtoMan, Arcadia moves around to watch, wide-eyed, and his rippling feathers begin to flicker out. The Barrier program advance fades away from Lan as he steps forward in hopeful anticipation.
It's working, Mimic thinks. It's actually working!
Chaud seems too joyful for words, and if he were an actual cat, he'd probably be purring. Hell, it feels like he wants to purr anyway, and Mimic wouldn't even laugh at him for it - she's half-tempted to purr herself, out of sheer excitement.
And then the shadow of the Dark Aura blows out the white fire of the vaccine chip, and Dark ProtoMan comes back with a gasp.
Mimic's hope vanishes so suddenly that she's left with an empty space where it was. Chaud's own hope turns to terror that sparks through their connection as Dark ProtoMan gets to his feet, his enraged growl echoing throughout the room, and looks up at Mimic on the balcony.
"You thought that would work?" he taunts her. "My Dark Aura is stronger than anything you've ever come across, stupid humans! It learns, it adapts! Good luck trying that trick again!"
He crouches, unsheathing his claws, but before he can pounce on Mimic, Arcadia slams into him and hurls him into the wall. Dark ProtoMan simply twists in mid-air and kicks off it, bounding toward Lan, who's still frozen with shock at the disastrous turn of events.
Dark ProtoMan's wild screech breaks Lan out of his stupor and he dodges to the side just in time to avoid getting clawed in the face. A Firebomb from Arcadia explodes upon impact with Dark ProtoMan's head, but he ignores the attack, gathering the Dark Aura around him and hurling it at Lan.
No, Chaud whimpers. No, no! It was supposed to work!
But it didn't, Mimic replies numbly, watching the battle below.
She knows Dark ProtoMan is right - the vaccine chip won't work twice. It didn't in the anime. Even so, she'd been hoping - praying - that the vaccine chip would work, that she wouldn't have to go any further, that she wouldn't have to put Lan or Arcadia in any more danger than they're already in, trying to fight off Dark ProtoMan.
What now? Chaud asks desperately.
We have one option left, Mimic murmurs. Our last resort.
Chaud goes quiet for a moment. Down below, she sees Arcadia grappling with Dark ProtoMan, and then he shoves the Darkloid away and looks up at Mimic.
He knows exactly what she's about to do. It's why she needed her PET - even if she hoped the vaccine chip would work this time, she had to be prepared. Dark ProtoMan is nothing like any of the other Navis who were afflicted by the Dark Aura, and it's all because Mimic used that Dark Chip on him.
This is her fault. So she has to fix it. To fix him.
Do it, Chaud says. Save our NetNavi. Please.
She can't ignore a desperate plea like that.
Her PET still makes her hurt when she touches it, but she does her best to work through the weird pain. What comes next will probably be even worse than a bit of pain from a malfunctioning PET - but Mimic is fully prepared for it. So she should be able to take the pain from her PET.
Lan doesn't notice her taking out her synchro chip. He's too busy trying to fight off Dark ProtoMan, who's decided that Lan is an easier target than Arcadia and is slashing at him, laughing at his panicked dodging.
It feels odd to hold her synchro chip, after so long of not even touching it. It's just been sitting in her folder, separate from her battle chips in her zipped pockets. She had no reason to touch her synchro chip - she didn't have her PET, and she didn't want to screw anything up by trying to force a Cross Fusion before they had the means to contain whatever she and Dark ProtoMan would become when Fused.
Now, she opens her PET for the first time in weeks, and wastes absolutely no time downloading her synchro chip.
Nothing happens.
Puzzled, and a little more than worried, Mimic turns her PET around in her hands, trying to figure out what the problem is. Chaud is just as confused - he'd been expecting this to work as well, and has absolutely no idea what went wrong.
It worked in the anime, so why isn't it working now? Chaud had downloaded his synchro chip, and then-
He'd jumped off the balcony and collided with Dark ProtoMan.
Maybe that's it, Mimic realises. I need to be touching Dark ProtoMan to force a Cross Fusion!
How're you gonna get down there? Chaud asks, no less confused than before. There aren't any stairs, and it's a pretty long drop from here to the floor. I don't think you could get Dark ProtoMan to come up here, either - he'd kill you before you even have a chance to touch him.
I'll have to take my chances jumping, Mimic decides. She feels a jolt of shock from Chaud. Forcing a Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan is probably going to hurt a hell of a lot more than jumping off some balcony!
Chaud still hesitates, but after a moment, his resignation flows through their connection. He doesn't agree with this - and maybe she's just putting herself in danger needlessly - but it's pretty much the only option they have, short of taunting Dark ProtoMan into attacking her.
Mimic ducks under the railing of the balcony and edges forward until she's about to drop off. It's hardly bigger than most of the drops she's faced when running around the city, or even in the forest - but she has nothing to rebound off here, it's just a straight drop. She knows how to fall, but it's still going to hurt.
Bracing herself, she slips off the edge. The fall hardly takes more than a second, and she hits the ground feet-first, bending her knees to absorb the impact. Even so, she still feels the shock of landing, and has to crouch and grit her teeth for a moment to recover.
Then she looks up. Dark ProtoMan is letting out a wordless screech at Arcadia, glaring up after him as he takes to the air. There's a long cut down Arcadia's side, bleeding data, and Mimic can see his expression tight with pain. Lan is leaning against the wall nearby, his skin showing through cuts in his bodysuit, but he's not bleeding like Arcadia.
He's distracted, go! Chaud urges her.
Mimic darts out, heading straight for Dark ProtoMan. The synchro chip is still downloaded in her PET - all she needs to do is touch Dark ProtoMan, and she and Chaud will be able to fix him from the inside.
"NO!" Lan screams, when he sees her mad dash. "CHAUD!"
She ignores his protests. Dark ProtoMan snaps his head down, sees her, and grins - and she ignores that too, actively fighting the instinctive urge to turn and run the second she sees that terrifying grin.
Mimic reaches out, brushing her hand against Dark ProtoMan's NaviMark.
Pain explodes throughout her entire body. White light overtakes her vision, and she feels like she's being ripped apart - maybe she is, she doesn't know what's going on. All Mimic is aware of is the absolute, all-consuming pain.
It lasts only for a split second, but that split second is agony.
And then she feels nothing.
Chaud has no idea what happened. One moment, Mimic was rushing toward Dark ProtoMan, and then the next, she touched him - and everything had just gone insane.
Their connection exploded with pain. He thinks the only reason he didn't have any pain of his own is because he's not in control of his own body, but what he felt from Mimic was absolute agony. The pain of feeling your own body being ripped apart, even if it's just for the briefest of moments.
Then there was nothing, and now . . . now he has no idea what's going on.
He's not in the old mansion anymore, he knows that. He doesn't think he's anywhere, really - but just as he thinks that, he becomes aware of light.
It's nothing like actual light. Sickly, dark, and muted. It reveals an overgrown graveyard, one he remembers with a jolt of shock - the graveyard where Mother is buried, outside the mansion he grew up in. The Blaze mansion isn't where he grew up, it's just where Father decided to go after Mother's death and Chaud had no choice but to go with him, no matter how much he'd wanted to stay where Mother's grave was.
Just as he thinks of the original Blaze mansion, he's swept into a dark forest. The trees pass by in a blur, almost like when Mimic was jumping through the trees when they were escaping from the prison-cottage (as she calls it).
The trees part suddenly, and he's looking at a derelict old mansion. It takes him a moment to recognise it as the original Blaze mansion, because he hasn't seen this place in years - and the stonework is cracked, broken in places, as you would expect from an abandoned building. It's just as dark as the graveyard and forest, and covered in the same sickly light. No wonder he didn't recognise it immediately.
Then he's inside the mansion, looking at the main hall. It's just as dark and derelict as the outside, but there's something . . . off. It's different, and not just because it's old and broken and dark. He wants to figure out what it is, but he has no idea what's going on.
If only he had a body, he could just walk around and see things properly.
As soon as he thinks that, he's standing in the main hall. Chaud blinks, shocked at the sensations he hasn't felt in over a year, and lifts his hands to stare at them wondrously. He sees his long-sleeved black shirt covering his arms, and realises he's wearing the clothes he always used to wear, before Mimic accidentally stole his body and started wearing the clothes he now thinks of as hers.
"How sentimental."
He jumps at the voice, curling his fingers into fists, and looks up.
Dark ProtoMan is standing a few feet away from him. There's a cruel smirk on his lips, and a mocking tilt to his head. But he's not attacking Chaud. Yet.
"Before you died, you remembered the place you grew up in," Dark ProtoMan goes on.
Chaud draws in a gasp of shock. He's dead? Does that mean Mimic is dead, too?
That must have been why there was so much pain from their body. She didn't feel like she was being ripped apart, she actually was being ripped apart - and now they're both dead, banished to this . . . place.
Well, he is. Him and Dark ProtoMan. He hasn't seen or felt Mimic since he . . . woke up? Somehow that term doesn't seem correct, but it's the only way to describe what happened.
"Where's Mimic?" Chaud demands. He narrows his eyes as Dark ProtoMan tilts his head in the way that ProtoMan does when he's raising an eyebrow. "What've you done to her?"
Dark ProtoMan lifts his chin defiantly. "I haven't done anything to her."
"You think I'll believe that?" Chaud snaps. "Where is she?"
"This isn't her body," Dark ProtoMan reminds him. "I'm not an expert on trans-dimensional body-stealing, but I'm pretty sure that's the reason she's not here." He laughs, the sound glitchy and harsh on Chaud's ears. "Good for me, because it means she's not here to interfere anymore!"
A loud thump distracts both of them, and they look over at an odd, evil-looking statue of some sort of horned animal. It looks almost demonic - and even though Chaud barely remembers this place, he definitely knows there was never such a terrifying-looking statue in the original Blaze mansion.
As they watch it, the statue shakes with another thump, as if something's trying to knock it over - or as if there's something inside, trying to get out. Chaud's heart - such as it is, when he has no actual body and hasn't for so long - leaps into his throat and he steps back, wary of whatever could be inside the statue.
Dark ProtoMan laughs again. "I made a few changes in here. I hope you don't mind," he says to Chaud. He looks back at the statue, and Chaud is surprised to see a hint of unease in his expression.
That's what makes Chaud realise - whatever's making that statue move isn't Dark ProtoMan, and it's certainly not Chaud himself. Maybe it's Mimic? But if it was her, he'd be able to sense her, right? Through their connection. He senses nothing but emptiness where there used to be another person, and that scares him more than being confronted with Dark ProtoMan and whatever's making the statue move.
A scrape of claws on concrete abruptly brings his attention back to Dark ProtoMan, and he only just manages to dodge out of the way of a slash from the Darkloid's claws. Dark ProtoMan lashes out again with a hiss and Chaud ducks under it, then regrets it immediately as Dark ProtoMan kicks out with his foot - tipped with claws just as sharp and deadly as the claws on his fingertips.
Dark ProtoMan's clawed foot drives into Chaud's stomach and he feels them sliding into his body, sharp pain exploding from the point of entry. He gags and Dark ProtoMan drops back, looking delighted at the blood on his foot claws, as Chaud staggers backwards, clutching his stomach.
He takes his hands away from the wound and is shocked to see how much blood there is. He doesn't know where they are - some world of memories, maybe? - but clearly he can still be hurt, and holy hell is this painful.
Dark ProtoMan steps toward him and Chaud takes a step back, bringing up his arms to try and defend himself. It doesn't intimidate Dark ProtoMan in the slightest.
"You're just going to try and fight me?" he taunts, grinning with a mouth full of sharp teeth. "What, you're not even going to attempt to change my heart?"
"That won't work," Chaud bites out. He can feel the bloodstain spreading on his shirt, and the pain is damn near unbearable, but he tries to ignore it. He's not entirely successful, and Dark ProtoMan knows it. "M-Mimic said . . ." He breaks off to gasp for air for a moment. "Mimic said you wouldn't listen. In the anime."
"Oh, the anime." Dark ProtoMan's voice is mockingly soft. He lunges forward suddenly, grabbing Chaud by the hair and yanking him around until he stumbles, and Dark ProtoMan hurls him to the ground. "Have you never considered that she's lying to you? You can't read her memories of that anime of hers. They probably don't even exist."
"Don't even try it," Chaud snaps, looking up with a glare. "You already tried to convince Mimic that she's not a real person, and that didn't work at all."
"Oh, but it did. For a while, anyway, until that damn owl-Navi looked at your souls," Dark ProtoMan scoffs.
Chaud stares at him. Dark ProtoMan sighs pityingly.
"We're sharing a mind, you stupid human," he points out. "I have access to all of your memories. Especially that one with your souls. What was it Arcadia told you about them? Oh, yes. Mimic's soul has a dead core, yet the outer shell is going strong. You, on the other hand . . ." His grin comes back again. "Your soul is weak, because you haven't been in control of your own body for so long. Which means you're too weak to fight me!"
He lunges forward, slashing with his claws, and Chaud screams as the skin on his cheek is ripped open. He tries to scramble away, but Dark ProtoMan is bigger, stronger, and faster than him.
Dark ProtoMan grabs his foot and drags him across the floor, flips him onto his back, then lets him go. Before Chaud can even think about escaping, Dark ProtoMan pins him down, digging his claws into Chaud's sides until he's crying out, feeling the sharp pain of his skin being pierced again.
"I'm going to enjoy ripping you apart," Dark ProtoMan hisses. "And then I'm going to find Mimic and rip her apart, too! You want to know what I'll do after that?" He leans in close, and Chaud chokes out a sob of mixed pain and terror as he looks into that glinting red visor. "I'll go back to the real world and rip Arcadia to pieces. He'll probably give up as soon as he realises I've killed you and Mimic. Then I'll do the same thing to Lan, and MegaMan too, since they're in Cross Fusion. And then the rest of those pathetic humans and their Navis nearby!"
"Stop," Chaud tries to beg, but the word comes out as little more than a gurgle.
Dark ProtoMan's cruel laugh echoes throughout the main hall, and his claws rip gashes into Chaud's sides.
I'm right here! Mimic tries to scream. But Chaud doesn't react, and neither does Dark ProtoMan - as far as she can tell, they can't see or hear her at all.
And it seems like Chaud can't even sense her. Is that because her body was ripped apart when she forced Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan? She hadn't intended this at all - she'd thought she and Chaud would be able to fight Dark ProtoMan together, and instead she's forced to watch as Dark ProtoMan taunts Chaud.
Why? Why can't she do anything?
"This isn't her body," Dark ProtoMan says to Chaud. "I'm not an expert on trans-dimensional body-stealing, but I'm pretty sure that's the reason she's not here." He laughs, and the sound isn't pleasant, not just because it's glitchy and harsh. "Good for me, because it means she's not here to interfere anymore!"
Fuck, Mimic snaps. She hadn't thought of that - why in hell's name did she not think of that?
This isn't her body. Of course she wouldn't be able to do anything in here. She might have her connection with Chaud, but she stole his body, and clearly being the accidental thief of someone's body bans her from helping with stuff like this. However ridiculous that sounds, it's true and it means she can't do a goddamn thing to help Chaud.
Unless . . .
She turns her attention to the demonic statue. She recognises it from the anime - after Chaud had gotten rid of Dark ProtoMan, the statue had cracked and smashed open, revealing the real ProtoMan sealed inside.
There's no time to wonder if it's the same now. She concentrates everything she has on the demonic statue - whatever the hell she has, anyway - and imagines pushing it. She has no body right now, but she has her imagination, and that's quite literally all she has here.
The statue rocks with a loud thump. She's elated for all of two seconds before realising that she wasn't able to move it very much, certainly not enough to shove it off its pedestal and break it.
Frustrated, she tries again, and gets the same result. Mimic turns her attention away from the statue, because it's clear she won't be able to force it to break, and focuses on Chaud and Dark ProtoMan again.
They're both looking at the statue. So her efforts to break it haven't gone unnoticed - Dark ProtoMan looks unsettled, which is good, but so does Chaud, which is definitely not good.
Doesn't he know it's her? Their connection should-
Oh, wait. Her connection with Chaud isn't working the way it should - it's like it's been severed or something. Dammit, she'd forgotten.
As she's getting frustrated with her and Chaud's broken connection, Dark ProtoMan launches himself at Chaud. Mimic tries to yell a warning to Chaud, but he doesn't hear her, and only just manages to dodge out of the way.
Dark ProtoMan tries to slash again, but Chaud ducks under it, and then Dark ProtoMan kicks him in the stomach. At first Mimic can't see what damage that would do - aside from the obvious - but then she sees the claws on Dark ProtoMan's boots, the blood dripping off them, and Chaud staggering back.
Dark ProtoMan starts to taunt him, to try and force Chaud to doubt Mimic. She wants to scream and lash out - she tries to, actually - but she can do nothing but watch, her frustration mounting by the second, until Dark ProtoMan mentions Arcadia looking at her and Chaud's souls.
"We're sharing a mind, you stupid human," he tells Chaud. "I have access to all of your memories. Especially that one with your souls. What was it Arcadia told you about them? Oh, yes. Mimic's soul has a dead core, yet the shell is going strong. You, on the other hand . . ." He grins cruelly. "Your soul is weak, because you haven't been in control of your own body for so long. Which means you're too weak to fight me!"
Mimic screams again as Dark ProtoMan continues to taunt Chaud, grabbing him and dragging him across the floor. Then he's trying to rip Chaud apart, and even though their connection isn't working and Mimic can't feel a thing from Chaud, she knows how much that must hurt - she can see the bloodstains spreading from where Dark ProtoMan's claws dig into Chaud's sides, and Chaud's desperate choked pleas are cut off by his own blood gurgling up his throat.
She hears Dark ProtoMan threatening to rip apart everyone - Chaud, herself, Arcadia, Lan and MegaMan, and all the others waiting for them to deal with this monster of a Darkloid. Dark ProtoMan laughs and digs his claws in even harder, and Mimic decides she's had enough.
She forces herself to ignore Chaud's cries, and turns away from the main hall. There's nothing she can do here - she can't free ProtoMan, she can't make Dark ProtoMan stop hurting Chaud, and she definitely can't talk to Chaud.
Is this how Chaud felt, before their connection grew strong enough for him to talk to her even without her looking at her own reflection? He basically didn't have a voice unless she looked at him, and even then she had to teach him sign language because reflections can't talk. Now it's her turn, and she fucking hates it.
But however angry she is at being unable to do anything to help Chaud, she has to at least try something. Maybe she can't free ProtoMan, but he's not the only other one in here that could help.
So she heads deeper into the mansion. Deep below, under the floor, through the soil and concrete. She goes far below the limits of any kind of mansion, because this is a mansion made of memories and thoughts and of course it doesn't make sense, going deeper and deeper and deeper until-
Mimic finds a cavernous chamber so massive that the furthest walls are cloaked in shadows. She can't see any kind of entrance or exit, and it's more like she's in the middle of a black hole with just the barest amount of visibility rather than a massive chamber deep under a mansion that only exists in the shared mind of a half-dead child and an insane Darkloid.
She can just about make out a mass of darkness somehow blacker than the shadows it prowls in. A pair of harsh, staring white eyes shine from somewhere high above, and the mass of shadows is somehow completely silent despite its size and how it paces back and forth. It's like it has no actual weight, even though it has form.
Are you the Poltergeist? Mimic asks, even though she hasn't been able to communicate with Chaud - or Dark ProtoMan - since the forced Cross Fusion.
To her surprise, the eyes swing around in the blackness and look directly at her. It's disconcerting, considering she kind of doesn't have a body right now and is basically little more than a formless . . . thing.
But the fact that it's looking at her gives her hope. That means two things - one, she can talk to it. And two, it is the Poltergeist.
I need your help, Mimic tells it. Dark ProtoMan is-
The Poltergeist cuts her off with a wailing shriek that rocks the entire chamber. Its mouth stretches wide at the joints, then stretches open past the joints, showing the same harsh white glow from inside its mouth that the eyes are made from.
Listen to me! Mimic tries to shout over the shrieking. Dark ProtoMan is trying to kill Chaud!
The shrieking continues, rising to a fever pitch. A high-pitched white noise screams underneath the shrieking in an undertone, and if Mimic had hands, she would cover her ears - though she suspects it wouldn't do much good here anyway.
She doesn't know the Poltergeist that well. She knows Dark Shadow - which is an aspect of the Poltergeist - but Dark Shadow isn't the Poltergeist, and she can only guess why the Poltergeist is screaming at her like this.
It's like Famous said - it has a mind of its own, and is heavily influenced by ProtoMan. It doesn't want to help Dark ProtoMan at all, which might be why it was so deep under this mental mansion. It obviously hates Dark ProtoMan and wants absolutely nothing to do with him.
Please! Mimic shouts. I can't do anything on my own, this isn't my body! I want to help Chaud, but I can't do anything!
The Poltergeist continues its wailed shrieking, thrashing from side-to-side. She can't tell if it's trying to do anything specific, or if it's just so worked up and full of hate that it can't do anything else other than scream and thrash around.
I need to free ProtoMan! Mimic screams desperately. That's the only way we can get rid of Dark ProtoMan!
The shrieking stops abruptly. The sudden silence is deafening, and Mimic can't bring herself to break it, afraid that she won't be able to speak, or that she'll be too loud.
The Poltergeist turns to look at her. Its mouth forms into a smile, almost splitting its head in half, and the smile is unsettling until Mimic realises it's a slit-mouthed version of her own scary smile.
"What do you need me to do?" the Poltergeist asks.
Chaud slips in his own blood and collapses to the floor. It's covered almost entirely by blood splatters now, and he has no idea how he's even still conscious after losing this much blood - but this is a world where nothing makes sense and what they imagine will become real if they want it to be, because it's their world.
Mostly Dark ProtoMan's, he thinks. The main hall is growing darker and more sickly the weaker Chaud gets, an obvious sign that Dark ProtoMan is winning this fight, and like a cat playing with its prey, Dark ProtoMan is keeping him alive just so he can rip Chaud's body apart again and again.
Dark ProtoMan relishes tearing him open. His claws and teeth are dripping with Chaud's blood, so much of it that he could probably bathe in it if he just let it drip and pool at his feet. But Dark ProtoMan is wild and energetic, and he's enjoying this far too much to stay still and let something like blood on his claws distract him.
"How does it feel?" Dark ProtoMan asks, too gleeful to pretend to care. "What's it like, being ripped apart again and again?"
Chaud's too weak to respond. His vision is swimming from the loss of blood, though he knows Dark ProtoMan will probably fix him again just so he can start this all over once more. Pain laces across his entire body - Dark ProtoMan tore him apart in so many different ways that Chaud doesn't think there isn't a single part of his body that hasn't felt the Darkloid's claws or teeth.
He hears wet squelches as Dark ProtoMan steps closer to him. Instinctively, Chaud tries to flinch away, but slips on the blood and ends up scrabbling pathetically on the ground until Dark ProtoMan reaches down and grabs him by the throat.
Dark ProtoMan lifts him up, so high that Chaud's feet don't even touch the floor. He's choking, clawing at Dark ProtoMan's hand, trying to make him let go - but too weak to do anything. He wouldn't be able to do anything even if he wasn't weakened from being torn apart so many times.
"The only reason you're still alive right now is because you're amusing me," Dark ProtoMan informs him, grinning. "I think I've changed my mind. I won't kill you - I'll keep you alive and torment you until you die of old age or something. Or until you commit suicide. Whichever comes first."
The mansion suddenly rocks violently, like an earthquake is hitting it. Dark ProtoMan stumbles, dropping Chaud out of surprise, and looks around wildly. Chaud draws in a gasp of air and struggles to sit up, but between his weakened state and the earthquake, he can hardly manage it.
Shadows spike up around the edges of the room. They flare in a way that Chaud hasn't seen since ProtoMan turned into Dark ProtoMan, bleeding through every single crack in the main hall they can find, creeping across the floor and walls and ceiling like black fire.
The shadows converge on the demonic statue that was rocking earlier. Chaud had forgotten about that creepy thing after Dark ProtoMan started ripping him apart, but now the shadows crawl over it, reaching into the cracks, tugging and pulling and bleeding through it. More cracks appear as the shadows do their work, until the demonic statue is absolutely covered in cracks and shadows.
With a loud crash, the demonic statue breaks apart. The shadows converge into a single point before Chaud can see what's inside, and then morph into an achingly-familiar shape, kneeling on the pedestal.
The Poltergeist stands up, raising its head. Its harsh, staring white eyes fixate on Dark ProtoMan, and its glowing white mouth stretches wide, the edges melting and tearing as it opens.
It seems to take a deep breath, and then lets out the loudest shriek that Chaud has ever heard coming from it, even louder than when it first took over ProtoMan and made him go insane.
The shriek makes the mansion shake even more than the earthquake that rocked it, and Dark ProtoMan is knocked off his feet, ending up on his hands and knees. His back is to Chaud, so he can't see the Darkloid's expression, but he's trembling and his hair's bristling in the way that ProtoMan's does when he's scared out of his mind.
Shadows streak out from the Poltergeist and pierce Dark ProtoMan's body. Data bleeds from the wounds, but he seems to be too terrified to scream, even as the shadows lift him into the air like a puppet.
The Poltergeist steps forward, its footfalls making no sound as it moves across the blood-soaked floor. It stares at Dark ProtoMan for a few moments, and then slowly turns its head to look at Chaud.
He suddenly becomes aware of how he must look. He's covered in his own blood, terrified and terrorised, so weak he can't even stand up. He looks like an absolute mess.
And that pisses off the Poltergeist.
It snaps its head back to Dark ProtoMan, letting out an enraged scream, and the shadows spasm in response to its anger. Dark ProtoMan finally finds his voice and screams, but he can do nothing but struggle in vain as the shadows slam him into the floor and pin him down.
The Poltergeist is on him before Chaud can even blink, ripping and tearing and shrieking its rage at the Darkloid.
It's quick, brutal, and Chaud wants to look away, but horrified fascination keeps his eyes glued on the Poltergeist's savage revenge on Dark ProtoMan. The screams hurt his ears, both from Dark ProtoMan himself and the Poltergeist, and all he sees after a few moments is the occasional spray of data and lashing shadows.
Then the Poltergeist slows to a stop, stepping away from Dark ProtoMan. The shadows recede, most of them slinking back to the edges of the main hall, others curling around the Poltergeist and going back into its rippling black body.
The only thing left of Dark ProtoMan is a torn-up body so mangled and shredded that Chaud can hardly recognise it. The body twitches feebly, and begins to turn to dust, which fades into data and vanishes from existence.
Everything dark about the mansion begins to fade away. All the terrible additions that Dark ProtoMan made are replaced with lighter, softer things, and there's no more darkness or sickly light anywhere. The blood splatters on the floor fade away as well, and Chaud starts to feel stronger as the blood covering him fades along with it.
Looking up, he sees the shadows stripping away from the Poltergeist. There's a flash of bright red under the shadows and his eyes widen, breath quickening in anticipation.
Chaud struggles to stand up as the shadows leave, receding into the edges of the room and flickering there like they're watching. He pays no attention to them - his eyes are fixed on ProtoMan, who stands looking at him, fully restored.
"ProtoMan," Chaud says weakly.
He takes one step forward and his legs buckle under him, but ProtoMan is there in a flash, holding him up. Chaud stares at him for a single moment before launching himself at his Navi, standing on his toes to wrap his arms around ProtoMan's neck and bury his face in his chest, bursting into tears immediately.
"I'm here," ProtoMan whispers, and Chaud has never been happier to hear his voice in his entire life. "I'll never leave you again. I promise."
His arms tighten around Chaud, so much that he can feel ProtoMan trembling against him.
Chaud doesn't care how tight the grip is. ProtoMan is back. That's the only thing he cares about right now.
Mimic touches Dark ProtoMan, and then a burst of light almost blinds Arcadia.
He feels the moment when Mimic and Chaud's minds vanish from his senses. It's abrupt, like someone has cut the connection he has with them without warning, and the last thing he senses from them is a burst of pain that only lasts for the briefest of moments before the connection is severed and he feels nothing from them anymore.
The light dies down, revealing Mimic standing with her head bowed. She's in Cross Fusion, which means she was successful - but Arcadia's feathers are still rippling. That . . . does not bode well.
A harsh noise, almost like glitched choking, comes from Mimic. It takes a moment for Arcadia to realise it's laughter - and it sounds horrifying.
She lifts her head, and her mouth stretches far wider than a human mouth has any business being. Jagged teeth replace the familiar cat-teeth of ProtoMan, reminding Arcadia of the melting mouth of the Poltergeist, but this is even more horrifying because it's Mimic, she's human, and she should not have that kind of mouth.
"Oh, no," Lan whispers. Arcadia senses his horror like icy water washing down his body.
Mimic screams.
The Dark Aura flares up around her and the ground trembles at her scream. Arcadia digs his talons into the ground to steady himself and spreads his wings, fighting through his own horror at the sight of what Mimic has become - she's going to attack them, he doesn't need to be able to sense her to know that.
But . . . he can't sense her. He can't sense Chaud, either. It's like with Dark ProtoMan - he can't sense their emotions or their thoughts or anything because the Dark Aura cancels out his Empath Program.
Of course he knew this would happen if Mimic had to force a Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan. She said so, when she told him and Chaud what happened in the anime - but he'd been hoping it wouldn't come to this, that Mimic wouldn't have to kill herself to bring ProtoMan back.
A blast of Dark Aura just barely misses him by inches. The only reason it missed is because Lan shot Mimic at the last moment while Arcadia was too wrapped up in his own horror to notice that Mimic was aiming at him.
He takes to the air immediately, not wasting any time on thanks - there'll be time for that later, when Mimic isn't completely insane and evil and trying to delete them. He doesn't want to do this, he hates to do this, but if he doesn't, Mimic will go on a rampage and there's no telling what will happen if she isn't contained.
Arcadia lets his Holy Fire flare along his arms, hating himself for doing this, and throws out a stream of Flashfire. Mimic wails as the white fire washes over her, and Arcadia stops his attack immediately.
She activates the Proto Buster and fires at him, shooting him out the air. Arcadia crashes to the ground with a gasped yelp, and Lan is by his side in an instant, helping him stand up while his Mega Buster is trained on Mimic.
Mimic screams again, and Arcadia feels the twin guilt of Lan and MegaMan as Lan fires a hastily-made Charged Shot. Boosted with the Dark Immunity Program, it's insanely powerful, and Mimic is blown back into the wall with a pained screech that makes Arcadia flinch and want to cover his ears, curl up somewhere, and hide until this nightmare is over.
"We can't hold back," Lan says tightly, even though Arcadia can sense that every word is torture for him. "We have to save him."
"He's trying to fight Dark ProtoMan from the inside," MegaMan adds quietly. "We have to do all we can to help from here."
Arcadia would rather do anything but fight Mimic, but MegaMan and Lan are right. They won't help Mimic by holding back and not attacking her - they're going to have to fight her as hard as she's fighting them, because she'll delete them if they don't. She'd kill herself if she got out of this and discovered she'd deleted Arcadia or MegaMan, or killed Lan.
Mimic smashes out of the rubble of the wall with a piercing caterwaul, and launches herself at Lan and Arcadia. They split off, letting her slam her claws into the ground between them, and then she whips her head from side-to-side, as if frustrated that she can't decide who to attack first.
Arcadia decides to make it easy for her to decide. He makes a Firebomb - he won't be able to keep up a stream of Flashfire, he knows he'll cancel it immediately if he sees it hurting Mimic - and hurls it at her. The Firebomb explodes and she screams, writhing around as the white fire burns her, and when it fades, she snaps her head around to hiss at him with that far-too-wide jagged mouth.
He backs away, trembling. Even if he agreed to fight her, he doesn't know if he can do this - it's Mimic, his operator, and he's supposed to be protecting her, not fighting her!
Mimic springs at him, ignoring the way she burns where she touches him, and starts clawing at him. She tries to bite him with her jagged mouth, but Lan grabs her hair and yanks her off Arcadia, hurling her away from them.
Lan tries to follow up with another blast from his Mega Buster, but he hesitates when he sees Mimic stumbling along the floor on all fours, moaning. It's the same thing that makes Arcadia reluctant to attack her - Lan doesn't want to hurt her, even if she's trying to hurt them.
Mimic takes advantage of their reluctance to attack. She hurls another blast of Dark Aura at their feet, and it explodes and throws Arcadia into the wall, and he hears a pained yelp from Lan as he's slammed into another wall.
Arcadia gasps and tries to haul himself up, but he freezes when he sees Mimic bounding toward him. Panic grips him and he can't move, only being able to watch his operator in terrified horror.
"Air Buster!"
Blasts of air slam into Mimic and tear up the ground around her, and she halts with an enraged screech. She scrambles back, but Arcadia's attention is captured by the newcomer who's just materialised out of nowhere.
Bass lowers his arm as his Air Buster vanishes, and half-turns to glare at Arcadia.
"I thought you didn't want to help," Arcadia blurts out.
"Yeah, well . . ." Bass trails off, scowling.
Arcadia blinks as his Empath Program makes him aware of something that he never thought Bass would be capable of feeling. Underneath his usual hostility and bad-temperedness, Arcadia can just about sense the faintest traces of embarrassment. And even fainter under that is worry, so faint that Arcadia's not even sure Bass himself is aware he feels it.
"As far as humans go . . . yours . . . isn't that bad." Bass's scowl deepens, as does the embarrassment Arcadia feels from him. "Besides, if he dies, I can't play that stupid game anymore."
If it's so stupid, Arcadia wonders, why do you keep coming back to play it so much?
He doesn't say that out loud, though. Whatever brought Bass here - whether it's the faint sense of worry that Bass probably isn't even aware of, or the fact that no more Mimic means no more Skyrim for him - Arcadia is glad to have him. He's insanely powerful, and with all three of them working together, they should be able to contain Mimic.
"Why the heck is Bass here!?" Lan's shocked voice echoes from across the room, and Arcadia feels his shock sparking through his Empath Program.
He winces. Right - they haven't actually told anyone about Bass and his visits to play Skyrim. They'd agreed to keep it secret until they could figure out what to do about it, and where they stood with Bass.
How is Arcadia supposed to explain that they've somehow earned Bass's . . . tolerance? There's no way he can explain this right now, anyway. Mimic is still trying to rampage, and they need to stop her.
"Focus on the battle!" Arcadia calls to Lan, pushing out of the rubble and standing beside Bass. "He's here to help us."
"I'm just here to make sure your dumb human doesn't die," Bass snaps.
Which is basically what Arcadia was saying, but sure, whatever makes him happy.
Bass suddenly throws out a Hell's Rolling, and Mimic collides with it, screeching as the attack explodes in her face. Arcadia realise she was trying to attack while their attention was away from her, again, and this battle isn't going to go in their favour if they keep letting themselves get distracted enough for Mimic to instantly take advantage of it. At least Bass seems to be fully aware of what Mimic is doing, though.
Arcadia spreads his wings and takes to the air, heading for Mimic, and Bass follows him on the ground. He's never fought with Bass before - either against him or alongside him - and even Mimic isn't entirely sure what he's capable of, so she wasn't able to give him much information about Bass aside from the fact that he hates humans, does what he wants all the time, and has a lot of insanely-powerful attacks she can barely remember the names of.
But Bass is willing to help them, so that must mean something. He's not sure what just yet, but it has to be something good, otherwise Bass wouldn't have even bothered to show up.
Arcadia shakes those thoughts out of his head - he can't let himself get distracted by wondering about Bass's motives. They need to stop Mimic.
She's recovered from Bass's Air Buster, and as Arcadia and Bass head for her, she screeches again. She bounds forward a couple of steps and then hurls herself into the air, aiming for Arcadia, and he halts in mid-air, intending to dodge to the side and avoid her attack.
He doesn't need to bother. Bass grabs Mimic's ankle before she's more than a few feet off the ground and yanks her back down, slamming her into the floor. Mimic scrambles back up and hisses at Bass, pulling back her claws to slash at him.
Arcadia quickly makes his Avenger's Arrow bow and shoots before she can hit Bass. She's blown back by the attack, and Arcadia is lucky that Bass wasn't hit by the explosion of white fire from his arrow. Bass drops back, keeping his attention fixed on Mimic.
"Grab him!" Lan shouts, suddenly.
"What?" Arcadia calls back, shooting a quick glance at Lan even as he keeps his bow trained on Mimic.
"I can absorb the Dark Aura!" Lan explains, and Arcadia remembers hearing about this when he, Mimic, and Chaud had been locked up in that cottage.
Arcadia exchanges a quick glance with Bass. At the very least, it seems like Lan isn't going to question Bass's presence anymore, and is willing to accept his help even if he doesn't know why or how Bass is even here in the first place. And this is something they can do easily, provided Mimic doesn't get the chance to attack and rip them apart.
He beats his wings and then shoots straight for Mimic. He ignores her angry hiss and lands, slamming one of his wings into her. She staggers and he grabs one of her arms, her bodysuit and glove sizzling and burning where he touches it. He sees Bass running in from the other side, ducking under a slash from Mimic's flailing claws, and he grabs her other arm.
Mimic screeches and thrashes, kicking out and trying to bite them. Arcadia lifts one taloned foot and curls his talons around her ankle, preventing her from kicking out again, but there's nothing he can do about her other leg. With only one limb free, though, Mimic can't do much aside from scream.
Lan darts over, shooting an uncertain glance at Bass. His confusion is obvious even without the Empath Program, but Lan buries it for now - there's going to be a lot of questions later, Arcadia suspects - and focuses on Mimic.
He reaches and grabs her NaviMark. Immediately, Mimic's thrashing gets wilder, her screeching gets louder, and the Dark Aura starts to bleed out of her. It twists up Lan's arm, and he flinches, but keeps his hand on Mimic as the Dark Aura is absorbed into his own NaviMark. Arcadia can feel the Dark Aura being burnt away inside Lan and MegaMan. The Dark Immunity Program is seeing to that.
His rippling feathers - a visual effect of his own Dark Immunity ability - begin to flicker. They did the same thing when the vaccine chip was used on Dark ProtoMan, when they thought it was going to work and they were about to get ProtoMan back.
Now, he can sense it's different. It's definitely working this time - they're not just burning away the Dark Aura, they're getting rid of it entirely, with Lan using every bit of strength he has and every power he's gained from the Dark Immunity Program to force it out of Mimic and destroy it so completely that it won't ever come back.
Cuts start to appear across Mimic's body. They bleed light, almost too blinding to look at, but Arcadia and Bass keep a hold of her because Lan isn't letting go either, and the Dark Aura still isn't completely gone.
Then the light gets too intense, and Arcadia has to look away. He doesn't let go of Mimic, but he can sense the moment when all the Dark Aura has been burnt out of her, because he senses her emotions again, senses Chaud's emotions, and-
He senses ProtoMan.
He can sense his big brother again.
ProtoMan is back.
The light fades with the dimensional area. Lan catches his PET after he Crosses Out, barely aware of Arcadia and Bass being forced back into the cyberworld.
Chaud Crosses Out as well, but he sways on his feet as his PET clatters to the floor. Lan darts forward to catch him just as Chaud staggers to the side and almost collapses, and then carefully lowers them both down. Chaud is barely conscious, eyes half-closed and dull, and he doesn't seem capable of moving much.
That's fine. At least he's still alive.
Lan picks up Chaud's PET - it's no longer letting out black sparks, and he can see ProtoMan leaning on the edge of the screen, trembling with the effort of trying to stand up. Arcadia appears beside him a moment later and launches himself at his big brother, and ProtoMan weakly wraps his arms around Arcadia, smiling through his exhaustion and letting out a weak purr.
MegaMan follows Arcadia into Chaud's PET, and grins at the sight that greets him. The grin slips away quickly when ProtoMan's purring falters as he staggers to the side and very nearly collapses, but MegaMan rushes forward and helps Arcadia steady him, and together they carefully lower him to the floor of Chaud's PET and let him curl up into an exhausted ball.
Arcadia and MegaMan settle on either side of him. Arcadia doesn't seem to want to let go of ProtoMan, and he lies over his brother's back, curling his wings around him protectively.
MegaMan glances up at Lan, keeping one hand resting on ProtoMan's head. "Bass left," he reports quietly, apparently not wanting to disturb the quiet moment of happiness. "I think as soon as the dimensional area was gone, actually."
"I wonder why he came to help," Lan murmurs, glancing at Arcadia and ProtoMan, and then at Chaud, who's leaning against his side and watching the screen of his PET even though he's just barely conscious enough to keep his eyes open.
"We can worry about that later," MegaMan replies. "We've got ProtoMan back. That's all that matters for now."
Truer words have never been spoken.
Lan hands Chaud back his PET, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and letting Chaud press into his side. He's pretty sure Chaud won't be able to stay awake for much longer, so he's just waiting until Chaud's asleep - then he can take Chaud outside, to where Dad and the others are waiting in that shack.
But it turns out he doesn't need to take Chaud to them. Barely a few minutes later, Dad comes running into the room, followed by everyone else.
Dad rushes over and drops to his knees in front of them. He's out of breath from running and Lan realises with a pang of guilt that he was probably terrified the entire time - everyone in the shack could see what was going on in here, and they were obviously just as horrified as Lan to see what happened to Chaud after somehow forcing a Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan.
But however horrifying that was, it worked. Lan's not sure if he would've been able to destroy the Dark Aura if Chaud hadn't been fighting Dark ProtoMan from the inside, while Lan, Arcadia, and Bass struggled to keep him contained in the real world.
It's not what he'd intended when he got MegaMan to send that message directly to Arcadia - he'd thought the vaccine chip would work, and knew that Chaud would want to be there when ProtoMan was saved. He didn't know it wouldn't work, and he definitely didn't know that Chaud would force Cross Fusion with Dark ProtoMan.
"Don't ever do that again, you hear me?" Dad tells them shakily, reaching out.
Before he can touch either of them, Chaud raises his head and focuses on Dad with some effort. He seems confused for a moment, almost like he doesn't recognise him, and then his expression softens into relief and happiness.
"Dad?" Chaud whispers weakly.
Lan draws in a breath of shock, and Dad freezes entirely. After a moment, Chaud finally slumps against Lan, eyes sliding closed and falling into unconsciousness like ProtoMan.
" . . . Did he just-" Lan breaks off, gaping at Dad.
"He did," Dad says wondrously. Slowly, a smile spreads across his face.
Lan returns Dad's smile with a beaming grin of his own. They've got ProtoMan back, and then that just happened . . . This is the best day ever. Lan has never felt happier, or more exhausted, in his entire life.