Here goes the craziness. Since I haven't acquired any licenses for
anything that is MegaMan or Evangelion, I own nothing.
------
Zero watched in horror as MegaMan began to deteriorate. Ireul, having taken the time to absorb the Chip fragment MegaMan held, began to laugh at the remaining Navies. "Fools! Now I have two of the fragments!"
Forte spun around and faced the virus. Anger and outrage were apparent in his voice. "What do you mean you have two?!?"
Zero shook his head. "Simple. It took yours when it attacked you. That means I'm the only one with a Chip fragment left. MegaMan... Dang it! I'll... I'LL KILL YOU!!" Zero Lunged at the virus, Z-saber drawn. He struck Ireul repeatedly, but each attack was deflected by the AT Field. Several tentacles lashed out and struck Zero. He rolled with the attacks to keep damage to a minimum, but kept made sure to protect his chip fragment. After a few of the attacks, Zero fell to the ground on one knee, his HP low.
"Zero! Aw, crap! Guess I'll have to use the trump card early. GOSPEL FUSION!" Forte rose into the air as the fearsome virus appeared to merge with him. As the fusion completed, the new and improved Forte GS found his feet on the ground once more. "FIRE GOSPEL!" Forte released the fearsome attack at the AT Field. For a few moments it seemed as if the energy would succeed in piercing the AT Field, but it was not meant to be. The energy dissipated quickly, and a shocked Forte screamed in frustration. "DANG IT! WHY WON'T YOU DIE?"
"Because you are useless." Ireul suddenly changed tactics and used it's AT Field to maim Forte. The Navi was slammed into the ground, his HP hitting rock bottom. Zero took the chance to fire his Chain Rod into Ireul, striking the defenseless virus. "WHAT!?! YOU IMPOTENT FOOL! GET AWAY!"
"YOU'RE DONE IREUL!" Zero yelled as he began deleting Ireul. Slowly, the virus lost power and began to deteriorate.
"Not so fast. You forgot to cure someone else..." One of Ireuls eyes winced as it's power was sapped away.
"Huh? What the heck are you talking about?" Zero was half tempted to stop draining Ireul, but knew a chance like this would never come again.
"I... Iris." The seven eyes suddenly glowed, and foot steps could be heard behind Zero. He turned his head to see the female Navi approaching him.
"Zero." Iris raised her hand as she began to charge. "You'll die now. Good-bye."
"IRIS! STOP!"
Roll tackled Iris, but not before she was able to fire a fully charged blast. Forte was able to lift his head for one last time. He could barely see the shot as it raced at Zero's exposed back. Zero's eyes went wide as the shot impacted him. The energy ripped into his chest, draining his HP completely. He stumbled forward, falling into darkness...
------
The each moment that passed was like a separate eternity for Vash and the others. Lan's bleeding had stopped for the moment, but the amount of blood lost was severe.
"Guys! We need to get him to a doctor!" Dex yelled. "He needs blood, and fast!"
"You think we don't know that?!?" Yai was yelling at Dex, filled with rage at his incompetence. "Darn it, if Ireul wasn't blocking our way, we would have been out of here a long time ago! We wouldn't even have to worry about Lan, because he would have been fine! He would have been fine..." She broke down crying.
"Yai..." Chaud pulled her close to comfort her.
"Why? Why is Vash's life turning out to be a repeat of my own?" Shinji slammed his fist into the wall as painful memories flooded his mind.
The five WWW members gazed in disbelief at what they were witnessing. Sure, they knew all about Lan's link to MegaMan, but this was over the top! What if they had defeated Lan and MegaMan before now? Could they have gone through with their plans after seeing this?
Vash hated seeing his friend like this. It struck deep because it reminded him of his past. "Lan, you've got to pull through. We... We were going to go to the N1 grand Prix together, remember? We would have dominated the competition! We were going to go to the spring festival on a double date! Just you, me, Maylu and Kasumi... We... We..." Vash was still holding his PET when it suddenly flashed. Just after the light faded, his body was filled with a burning pain...
------
Zero was lying silently on the ground. Roll recovered Zero's Chain Rod and drained Ireul from Iris, but she could tell nothing could be done for the red and black Navi once she inspected the damage. One of Ireul's tail like appendage slapped her away from Zero. It then wrapped around Zero's body and engulfed it, bringing him into itself. After a few moments, the seven eyes of Ireul's face went wide.
"What? What is this?!? There are two fragments! One fused with his body, and the one which he holds... How is this possible? No matter. Now, I can become whole again. NOW YOU WILL ALL PERISH!" Ireuls body expanded without warning, engulfing the entire ACDC Town network...
------
"Commander Ayanami! We've got a jumbo-sized reading from ACDC Town! Blood Type Orange!"
"So they failed." Rei nodded to her support staff. "Prep Eva Unit-01. I'll get ready."
"Sir, you can't be serious! The entire town might be destroyed! We don't even know if you can fully synchronize with Unit-01!"
"I understand that." Rei nodded solemnly. "We cannot allow the Angel to roam freely however. If Vash and Lan failed, I see no alternative."
"Yes sir..." The techs turned back to their consoles, preparing for the worst.
------
Inside the computer room, Kasumi was burying her head into Vash's chest, crying her eyes out at the sight of his bleeding, and possibly his death. Maylu was also crying, but stayed right next to Lan's injured body. "I... I thought that only Lan was linked that closely to his Navi. Why would Vash be connected to Zero like that?"
"I'm not sure..." Shinji set his jacket against Vash's wounds, hoping against hope that the bleeding would slow like Lan's had. "Ever since we found him, he was always lonely. He turned to Navies for comfort because he disliked human interaction. He disliked it so much that he refused to fight back against the bullies that attacked him, even though he was extremely gifted in physical combat. He could land a solid punch when he was only eight!"
"The physical version of a child prodigy." Madoi nodded.
Shinji "Yeah. The only thing is, the bullies always deleted his Navies. He would always get really attached to them, then they would be gone. Then Zero and you guys came along. You all somehow broke through the barriers that he had put up, and he became a friendlier person who found the will to fight. He's grown up..." Shinji smiled at the child. "And if he makes it through this, he'll be more of a man than I ever will be."
"Do you think Lan, Vash, and their Navies will survive?" Chaud asked.
"Yes. Yes I do."
------
MegaMan was floating. Somewhere between his actual self and the data that made him a Navi, he found consciousness. Barely able to open his eyes, his vision was filled with the blurry forms of other people. His vision eventually cleared, allowing him to see everything around him. Before him stood four figures...
"The heck is this place? Heaven? Hell?"
"I don't know." Lan appeared at his brothers side. "Is that you MegaMan?"
"Yeah. Is that really you Lan?"
"Yep! What the heck is going on?"
"How am I supposed to know? Let's ask Zero, since he's right over there. HEY ZERO! DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON?"
"Uh, MegaMan? All four of them look like Zero!"
All of the figures turned to them. All of them of them looked at MegaMan, but one in particular stuck out. His armor was much different that the Zero MegaMan had known. He held a Z-saber that looked like it was something out of Star Wars in his hand, and his right shoulder had a fiery "Z" shaped insignia on it.
"I don't know. Why don't you tell me, MegaMan X. Your a Maverick Hunter just like me, so shouldn't you know what's going on?" He acted more like a combat buddy than a normal friend.
"That's not X. That's Copy X. In order to protect all the innocent people he has been terrorizing, I must defeat him." This Zero looked more like the one MegaMan had known, but he was more violent, more moody, more angry than his new friend. The second Zero dashed at MegaMan, and was about to strike him when one of the other Zero's called out to the second.
"Stop! He's not our enemy, he's my best friend! Isn't that right MegaMan?" There, among the other Zeros, was the Navi that MegaMan had befriended. But still, something was different. He was more innocent than Zero, more like MegaMan...
"Who are you?" MegaMan and Lan asked the final Zero at the same moment. They blinked in surprise.
"I'm... not sure. I've been here all along, yet I've never belonged here." The figure raised it's hands in a gesture of supplication. "Do you know where I belong?" The voice was unmistakable. Vash, in a strange crystal armor, was the one who spoke.
"Vash? The heck is going on here?!"
"I don't know. I'm a Maverick Hunter, not a psychiatrist." The first Zero shrugged his shoulder.
"I've lost everything I was, so how am I supposed to know who you people are AND what's going on?" Zero number two simply stared at MegaMan and the others.
"I'm not supposed to even be here! I'm gone, catch you people later." The Navi turned and walked away.
"Hey, you need to stay here!" Vash ran after the Navi. The Navi tried to escape, but Vash knocked it to the ground. Immediately, the other two Zeros attacked Vash, but he simply knocked them aside like he did the Navi. darkness once again clouded Lan and MegaMan's vision as Vash approached them...
When it cleared, they were standing on a beach. The shore was made of pure white sand, while the ocean was a vivid red.
"Woah... Where...?" Lan fell back on the soft sand, landing in a sitting position.
A little ways out to sea, a crumbling statue was set in a crucifix like pose, a large two pronged lance was set through it's chest. It's head was missing, having fallen off before they arrived. In the sky, the moon was shining brightly. It was full, but a long line of red mist crossed it's equator. Several thousand pillars of wood had been driven into the ground across the landscape, like a madman with nails and a hammer had decided to do some redecorating.
MegaMan looked about for a while before he spoke. "Looks like Armageddon... Did Ireul do this?"
"I don't know." Lan decided to stand up. "Let's look around. Maybe we can find some clues."
"Okay."
MegaMan and Lan began walking. Before long, they spotted two bodies on the shore. One was a boy, dressed in slacks and a white shirt. Nothing seemed to be wrong with him. The other was dressed in some kind of flight suit. She had a broken arm in a sling, and a bandage across her left eye. She had long red hair, which almost matched the red suit.
"Look!" Lan pointed at the two people. "Maybe they know what's happened!"
Before they could run over to them, the boy rolled on top of the girl and started choking her. This caused MegaMan to pick up the pace considerably, but it was all for naught. Before the boy could finish his grim task or be stopped by MegaMan, the girl reached up and caressed his cheek. It caught him off guard, and his grip went limp. He broke down crying as MegaMan approached them. MegaMan kept Lan behind him, knowing that the boy could still be dangerous.
"Who are you?" MegaMan went down on one knee, hoping to get a better look at the boy's face.
"Asuka... Asuka, please..." Was all the boy whispered. His brown hair shook as he continued to cry.
'Asuka... That's Shinji's wife!' Lan was suddenly alarmed. 'Vash's aunt Rei said something about Ireul being able to cause the end of all things! So could this be the result of our failure? Could this be some weird version of heaven?'
They boy continued to weep uncontrollably. Finally, after hearing it many times, MegaMan understood what the boy was saying.
"Asuka, please save me!"
The girl that lay beneath him suddenly lifted her uninjured arm and caressed his face again. She began to speak.
"Shinji. My Shinji. I can't save you. You saved yourself. You saved all of us."
"Hate to interrupt this sweet little monologue, but I have to kill you now." A strange figure dressed in red and black stepped out of the darkness. The moonlight gave none of his features away, with the exception of seven eyes.
Shinji, who looked considerably younger, finally stopped crying and stood up. "No. You can't kill us because your time is gone. Besides, didn't Ritsuko already beat you?"
"Heh. She sealed me. That little suicide program didn't work as well as she had hoped."
"Ireul!" MegaMan raised his buster. "Get the heck away!"
The virus merely ignored MegaMan's words. "Now I shall have my revenge. This world would have been ours if your father hadn't used you. You could have made it so easy. Now I must stop the future. The future is filled with violence. The future has no hope. Hero's will rise and fall. Young will turn to old. Everything will fade to dust! But my kind... Data lives forever! Even if there are only shreds left, it still exists. There is always a trace! Even your genetic code is permanent. The base elements will still exist somewhere, even if it doesn't form a life, it is still there."
"I won't let it be that way." Asuka struggled to stand. Lan ran over and helped her to her feet, which wasn't hard considering she wasn't as grown up as before. "Shinji stopped that false lie that you wanted us to believe. He destroyed it. I'm proof of that."
"Your wrong. That was just a substitute for reality. I tried to run away and replace reality with my dreams." Shinji took a step forward. "But dreams are not reality. They're merely an extension of it! It doesn't matter if life doesn't last. I still want to live it! Even... even if it means I have to experience pain!"
"Then pain you shall feel!!" Ireul launched it's tentacles at Shinji, who simply waited for them to hit him. Before they could, MegaMan intervened. A charge shot turned both of the tentacles into nothingness. "YOU! YOU WON'T EVEN LET ME CHANGE THE PAST! I PUT SO MUCH POWER INTO THIS ONE MOMENT IN TIME AND SPACE AND YOU RUIN IT!"
"That's because I want to exist! I want Lan to exist! I want Zero to exist! You... You would have destroyed us for your own selfish gains! I HATE YOU!" MegaMan dashed forward, his Saito Style giving him more power and speed than normal. Ireul simply blocked his attack with it's AT Field, once again foiling his attempts at an attack. Suddenly, Lan appeared at MegaMan's side. "Lan! Get out of here!"
"No way Saito! We do this one together!" Lan slammed his palms into the AT Field. It suddenly became distorted, the hexagonal fields twisting every which way. Shinji and Asuka, seeing his actions, followed his example. Soon, the field fazed out of existence...
"NO! HOW COULD YOU!" Ireul lashed out at Lan and the others with his tentacles, but a volley of electricity evaporated the attack.
"Thought you could take him on alone, did you?" Forte stood upon a nearby hill, smirking in the moonlight. "I still have to give this guy some pay back after he beat me down!"
MegaMan aimed his fully charged buster at Ireul. "Forte! Lets delete this freak!"
MegaMan fired the charge shot at Ireul, causing the virus to fly back quite a ways. Ireul grew another set of tentacles and launched them at MegaMan and Forte, who jumped out of the way. Forte slid down the sand dune he had inhabited, firing his electric rush as he went. Lan tossed a battle chip to MegaMan, and a sword appeared in his hand after he caught it. He charged forward, slashing the tentacles out of his way. Soon, he was face to face with the demonic virus. He slashed the remaining tentacles out of the way, then landed a solid blow on Ireul, which caused it to fall. It quickly jumped up and swung at MegaMan, but Forte used his Slam attack to knock the Virus off balance. Lan tossed MegaMan a M-Cannon chip, which MegaMan used to knock Ireul to the ground once more. Forte followed up MegaMan's attack with his Fire Gospel, which pounded Ireul further into the ground. Before MegaMan and Forte could attack again, three Z-sabers came flying out of the sky and pinned the virus to the ground.
"So they came too!" Ireul yelled out from the ground. "Heh... I knew letting his three personas loose would get me into trouble. But Vash... Vash Ikari couldn't be contained by Zero. Nor could Zero be contained by Vash Ikari. For once... For just this once I will give in. God didn't plan this. We did. Hah! Back with us to where we belong! I will be sealed away now. Back into my three forms." The virus stopped for a second, then it's seven eyes went wide once more. "You... still have... one more battle to... to fight." The virus suddenly stopped talking and turned to sand, leaving everyone on the beach to stare.
Forte jumped down into the sand and walked over to the sabers. "That was way too easy."
"I agree." MegaMan approached Ireul's grave carefully. The sabers glowed in a strange light, adding an extra aura of mystery to the otherwise surreal scene. MegaMan reached out to grab one of the sabers, but the glow intensified. He quickly drew his hand back and watched in amazement as one of the sabers transformed into a battle chip. A second, the one that belonged to the Maverick Hunter, simply floated into his hand. The third raised itself into the sky, high above everyone...
There was a flash of light, and everything on the planet turned back to the way it was intended to be. Trees replaced the wooden pillars, the ocean returned to it's natural blue, and the sun appeared in the sky. Night had passed into day. The strange statue still remained however, as did the blood red line in the sky.
"It doesn't hurt anymore." Asuka said as she removed the bandages.
"This... isn't the end." Vash called out from the sky. He was still in the crystal armor, but now held the third Z-saber.
"Vash!" Lan called out to his friend. Vash didn't respond to his call, however. instead, he concentrated on MegaMan.
"You... You were the one that sealed the whole! I, the fragment of Resentment, will destroy you!" Vash descended from the sky and pointed his Z-saber at MegaMan and the rest. "Zero, the fragment of Truth, cannot control me. Maverick, the fragment of Chaos, is still under my influence! Ireul will be revived... Until then, I WILL END YOUR EXISTENCE!"
------
Dang! That was really hard to write! If you find a million things that don't make sense, it's because I re-wrote this and the last chapter about ten times. If you are massively confused because of the actual story, give your questions in the reviews and I will attempt to answer them. I'm hoping to finish the story in the next two chapters, but who knows when I'll finish those.
------
Zero watched in horror as MegaMan began to deteriorate. Ireul, having taken the time to absorb the Chip fragment MegaMan held, began to laugh at the remaining Navies. "Fools! Now I have two of the fragments!"
Forte spun around and faced the virus. Anger and outrage were apparent in his voice. "What do you mean you have two?!?"
Zero shook his head. "Simple. It took yours when it attacked you. That means I'm the only one with a Chip fragment left. MegaMan... Dang it! I'll... I'LL KILL YOU!!" Zero Lunged at the virus, Z-saber drawn. He struck Ireul repeatedly, but each attack was deflected by the AT Field. Several tentacles lashed out and struck Zero. He rolled with the attacks to keep damage to a minimum, but kept made sure to protect his chip fragment. After a few of the attacks, Zero fell to the ground on one knee, his HP low.
"Zero! Aw, crap! Guess I'll have to use the trump card early. GOSPEL FUSION!" Forte rose into the air as the fearsome virus appeared to merge with him. As the fusion completed, the new and improved Forte GS found his feet on the ground once more. "FIRE GOSPEL!" Forte released the fearsome attack at the AT Field. For a few moments it seemed as if the energy would succeed in piercing the AT Field, but it was not meant to be. The energy dissipated quickly, and a shocked Forte screamed in frustration. "DANG IT! WHY WON'T YOU DIE?"
"Because you are useless." Ireul suddenly changed tactics and used it's AT Field to maim Forte. The Navi was slammed into the ground, his HP hitting rock bottom. Zero took the chance to fire his Chain Rod into Ireul, striking the defenseless virus. "WHAT!?! YOU IMPOTENT FOOL! GET AWAY!"
"YOU'RE DONE IREUL!" Zero yelled as he began deleting Ireul. Slowly, the virus lost power and began to deteriorate.
"Not so fast. You forgot to cure someone else..." One of Ireuls eyes winced as it's power was sapped away.
"Huh? What the heck are you talking about?" Zero was half tempted to stop draining Ireul, but knew a chance like this would never come again.
"I... Iris." The seven eyes suddenly glowed, and foot steps could be heard behind Zero. He turned his head to see the female Navi approaching him.
"Zero." Iris raised her hand as she began to charge. "You'll die now. Good-bye."
"IRIS! STOP!"
Roll tackled Iris, but not before she was able to fire a fully charged blast. Forte was able to lift his head for one last time. He could barely see the shot as it raced at Zero's exposed back. Zero's eyes went wide as the shot impacted him. The energy ripped into his chest, draining his HP completely. He stumbled forward, falling into darkness...
------
The each moment that passed was like a separate eternity for Vash and the others. Lan's bleeding had stopped for the moment, but the amount of blood lost was severe.
"Guys! We need to get him to a doctor!" Dex yelled. "He needs blood, and fast!"
"You think we don't know that?!?" Yai was yelling at Dex, filled with rage at his incompetence. "Darn it, if Ireul wasn't blocking our way, we would have been out of here a long time ago! We wouldn't even have to worry about Lan, because he would have been fine! He would have been fine..." She broke down crying.
"Yai..." Chaud pulled her close to comfort her.
"Why? Why is Vash's life turning out to be a repeat of my own?" Shinji slammed his fist into the wall as painful memories flooded his mind.
The five WWW members gazed in disbelief at what they were witnessing. Sure, they knew all about Lan's link to MegaMan, but this was over the top! What if they had defeated Lan and MegaMan before now? Could they have gone through with their plans after seeing this?
Vash hated seeing his friend like this. It struck deep because it reminded him of his past. "Lan, you've got to pull through. We... We were going to go to the N1 grand Prix together, remember? We would have dominated the competition! We were going to go to the spring festival on a double date! Just you, me, Maylu and Kasumi... We... We..." Vash was still holding his PET when it suddenly flashed. Just after the light faded, his body was filled with a burning pain...
------
Zero was lying silently on the ground. Roll recovered Zero's Chain Rod and drained Ireul from Iris, but she could tell nothing could be done for the red and black Navi once she inspected the damage. One of Ireul's tail like appendage slapped her away from Zero. It then wrapped around Zero's body and engulfed it, bringing him into itself. After a few moments, the seven eyes of Ireul's face went wide.
"What? What is this?!? There are two fragments! One fused with his body, and the one which he holds... How is this possible? No matter. Now, I can become whole again. NOW YOU WILL ALL PERISH!" Ireuls body expanded without warning, engulfing the entire ACDC Town network...
------
"Commander Ayanami! We've got a jumbo-sized reading from ACDC Town! Blood Type Orange!"
"So they failed." Rei nodded to her support staff. "Prep Eva Unit-01. I'll get ready."
"Sir, you can't be serious! The entire town might be destroyed! We don't even know if you can fully synchronize with Unit-01!"
"I understand that." Rei nodded solemnly. "We cannot allow the Angel to roam freely however. If Vash and Lan failed, I see no alternative."
"Yes sir..." The techs turned back to their consoles, preparing for the worst.
------
Inside the computer room, Kasumi was burying her head into Vash's chest, crying her eyes out at the sight of his bleeding, and possibly his death. Maylu was also crying, but stayed right next to Lan's injured body. "I... I thought that only Lan was linked that closely to his Navi. Why would Vash be connected to Zero like that?"
"I'm not sure..." Shinji set his jacket against Vash's wounds, hoping against hope that the bleeding would slow like Lan's had. "Ever since we found him, he was always lonely. He turned to Navies for comfort because he disliked human interaction. He disliked it so much that he refused to fight back against the bullies that attacked him, even though he was extremely gifted in physical combat. He could land a solid punch when he was only eight!"
"The physical version of a child prodigy." Madoi nodded.
Shinji "Yeah. The only thing is, the bullies always deleted his Navies. He would always get really attached to them, then they would be gone. Then Zero and you guys came along. You all somehow broke through the barriers that he had put up, and he became a friendlier person who found the will to fight. He's grown up..." Shinji smiled at the child. "And if he makes it through this, he'll be more of a man than I ever will be."
"Do you think Lan, Vash, and their Navies will survive?" Chaud asked.
"Yes. Yes I do."
------
MegaMan was floating. Somewhere between his actual self and the data that made him a Navi, he found consciousness. Barely able to open his eyes, his vision was filled with the blurry forms of other people. His vision eventually cleared, allowing him to see everything around him. Before him stood four figures...
"The heck is this place? Heaven? Hell?"
"I don't know." Lan appeared at his brothers side. "Is that you MegaMan?"
"Yeah. Is that really you Lan?"
"Yep! What the heck is going on?"
"How am I supposed to know? Let's ask Zero, since he's right over there. HEY ZERO! DO YOU KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON?"
"Uh, MegaMan? All four of them look like Zero!"
All of the figures turned to them. All of them of them looked at MegaMan, but one in particular stuck out. His armor was much different that the Zero MegaMan had known. He held a Z-saber that looked like it was something out of Star Wars in his hand, and his right shoulder had a fiery "Z" shaped insignia on it.
"I don't know. Why don't you tell me, MegaMan X. Your a Maverick Hunter just like me, so shouldn't you know what's going on?" He acted more like a combat buddy than a normal friend.
"That's not X. That's Copy X. In order to protect all the innocent people he has been terrorizing, I must defeat him." This Zero looked more like the one MegaMan had known, but he was more violent, more moody, more angry than his new friend. The second Zero dashed at MegaMan, and was about to strike him when one of the other Zero's called out to the second.
"Stop! He's not our enemy, he's my best friend! Isn't that right MegaMan?" There, among the other Zeros, was the Navi that MegaMan had befriended. But still, something was different. He was more innocent than Zero, more like MegaMan...
"Who are you?" MegaMan and Lan asked the final Zero at the same moment. They blinked in surprise.
"I'm... not sure. I've been here all along, yet I've never belonged here." The figure raised it's hands in a gesture of supplication. "Do you know where I belong?" The voice was unmistakable. Vash, in a strange crystal armor, was the one who spoke.
"Vash? The heck is going on here?!"
"I don't know. I'm a Maverick Hunter, not a psychiatrist." The first Zero shrugged his shoulder.
"I've lost everything I was, so how am I supposed to know who you people are AND what's going on?" Zero number two simply stared at MegaMan and the others.
"I'm not supposed to even be here! I'm gone, catch you people later." The Navi turned and walked away.
"Hey, you need to stay here!" Vash ran after the Navi. The Navi tried to escape, but Vash knocked it to the ground. Immediately, the other two Zeros attacked Vash, but he simply knocked them aside like he did the Navi. darkness once again clouded Lan and MegaMan's vision as Vash approached them...
When it cleared, they were standing on a beach. The shore was made of pure white sand, while the ocean was a vivid red.
"Woah... Where...?" Lan fell back on the soft sand, landing in a sitting position.
A little ways out to sea, a crumbling statue was set in a crucifix like pose, a large two pronged lance was set through it's chest. It's head was missing, having fallen off before they arrived. In the sky, the moon was shining brightly. It was full, but a long line of red mist crossed it's equator. Several thousand pillars of wood had been driven into the ground across the landscape, like a madman with nails and a hammer had decided to do some redecorating.
MegaMan looked about for a while before he spoke. "Looks like Armageddon... Did Ireul do this?"
"I don't know." Lan decided to stand up. "Let's look around. Maybe we can find some clues."
"Okay."
MegaMan and Lan began walking. Before long, they spotted two bodies on the shore. One was a boy, dressed in slacks and a white shirt. Nothing seemed to be wrong with him. The other was dressed in some kind of flight suit. She had a broken arm in a sling, and a bandage across her left eye. She had long red hair, which almost matched the red suit.
"Look!" Lan pointed at the two people. "Maybe they know what's happened!"
Before they could run over to them, the boy rolled on top of the girl and started choking her. This caused MegaMan to pick up the pace considerably, but it was all for naught. Before the boy could finish his grim task or be stopped by MegaMan, the girl reached up and caressed his cheek. It caught him off guard, and his grip went limp. He broke down crying as MegaMan approached them. MegaMan kept Lan behind him, knowing that the boy could still be dangerous.
"Who are you?" MegaMan went down on one knee, hoping to get a better look at the boy's face.
"Asuka... Asuka, please..." Was all the boy whispered. His brown hair shook as he continued to cry.
'Asuka... That's Shinji's wife!' Lan was suddenly alarmed. 'Vash's aunt Rei said something about Ireul being able to cause the end of all things! So could this be the result of our failure? Could this be some weird version of heaven?'
They boy continued to weep uncontrollably. Finally, after hearing it many times, MegaMan understood what the boy was saying.
"Asuka, please save me!"
The girl that lay beneath him suddenly lifted her uninjured arm and caressed his face again. She began to speak.
"Shinji. My Shinji. I can't save you. You saved yourself. You saved all of us."
"Hate to interrupt this sweet little monologue, but I have to kill you now." A strange figure dressed in red and black stepped out of the darkness. The moonlight gave none of his features away, with the exception of seven eyes.
Shinji, who looked considerably younger, finally stopped crying and stood up. "No. You can't kill us because your time is gone. Besides, didn't Ritsuko already beat you?"
"Heh. She sealed me. That little suicide program didn't work as well as she had hoped."
"Ireul!" MegaMan raised his buster. "Get the heck away!"
The virus merely ignored MegaMan's words. "Now I shall have my revenge. This world would have been ours if your father hadn't used you. You could have made it so easy. Now I must stop the future. The future is filled with violence. The future has no hope. Hero's will rise and fall. Young will turn to old. Everything will fade to dust! But my kind... Data lives forever! Even if there are only shreds left, it still exists. There is always a trace! Even your genetic code is permanent. The base elements will still exist somewhere, even if it doesn't form a life, it is still there."
"I won't let it be that way." Asuka struggled to stand. Lan ran over and helped her to her feet, which wasn't hard considering she wasn't as grown up as before. "Shinji stopped that false lie that you wanted us to believe. He destroyed it. I'm proof of that."
"Your wrong. That was just a substitute for reality. I tried to run away and replace reality with my dreams." Shinji took a step forward. "But dreams are not reality. They're merely an extension of it! It doesn't matter if life doesn't last. I still want to live it! Even... even if it means I have to experience pain!"
"Then pain you shall feel!!" Ireul launched it's tentacles at Shinji, who simply waited for them to hit him. Before they could, MegaMan intervened. A charge shot turned both of the tentacles into nothingness. "YOU! YOU WON'T EVEN LET ME CHANGE THE PAST! I PUT SO MUCH POWER INTO THIS ONE MOMENT IN TIME AND SPACE AND YOU RUIN IT!"
"That's because I want to exist! I want Lan to exist! I want Zero to exist! You... You would have destroyed us for your own selfish gains! I HATE YOU!" MegaMan dashed forward, his Saito Style giving him more power and speed than normal. Ireul simply blocked his attack with it's AT Field, once again foiling his attempts at an attack. Suddenly, Lan appeared at MegaMan's side. "Lan! Get out of here!"
"No way Saito! We do this one together!" Lan slammed his palms into the AT Field. It suddenly became distorted, the hexagonal fields twisting every which way. Shinji and Asuka, seeing his actions, followed his example. Soon, the field fazed out of existence...
"NO! HOW COULD YOU!" Ireul lashed out at Lan and the others with his tentacles, but a volley of electricity evaporated the attack.
"Thought you could take him on alone, did you?" Forte stood upon a nearby hill, smirking in the moonlight. "I still have to give this guy some pay back after he beat me down!"
MegaMan aimed his fully charged buster at Ireul. "Forte! Lets delete this freak!"
MegaMan fired the charge shot at Ireul, causing the virus to fly back quite a ways. Ireul grew another set of tentacles and launched them at MegaMan and Forte, who jumped out of the way. Forte slid down the sand dune he had inhabited, firing his electric rush as he went. Lan tossed a battle chip to MegaMan, and a sword appeared in his hand after he caught it. He charged forward, slashing the tentacles out of his way. Soon, he was face to face with the demonic virus. He slashed the remaining tentacles out of the way, then landed a solid blow on Ireul, which caused it to fall. It quickly jumped up and swung at MegaMan, but Forte used his Slam attack to knock the Virus off balance. Lan tossed MegaMan a M-Cannon chip, which MegaMan used to knock Ireul to the ground once more. Forte followed up MegaMan's attack with his Fire Gospel, which pounded Ireul further into the ground. Before MegaMan and Forte could attack again, three Z-sabers came flying out of the sky and pinned the virus to the ground.
"So they came too!" Ireul yelled out from the ground. "Heh... I knew letting his three personas loose would get me into trouble. But Vash... Vash Ikari couldn't be contained by Zero. Nor could Zero be contained by Vash Ikari. For once... For just this once I will give in. God didn't plan this. We did. Hah! Back with us to where we belong! I will be sealed away now. Back into my three forms." The virus stopped for a second, then it's seven eyes went wide once more. "You... still have... one more battle to... to fight." The virus suddenly stopped talking and turned to sand, leaving everyone on the beach to stare.
Forte jumped down into the sand and walked over to the sabers. "That was way too easy."
"I agree." MegaMan approached Ireul's grave carefully. The sabers glowed in a strange light, adding an extra aura of mystery to the otherwise surreal scene. MegaMan reached out to grab one of the sabers, but the glow intensified. He quickly drew his hand back and watched in amazement as one of the sabers transformed into a battle chip. A second, the one that belonged to the Maverick Hunter, simply floated into his hand. The third raised itself into the sky, high above everyone...
There was a flash of light, and everything on the planet turned back to the way it was intended to be. Trees replaced the wooden pillars, the ocean returned to it's natural blue, and the sun appeared in the sky. Night had passed into day. The strange statue still remained however, as did the blood red line in the sky.
"It doesn't hurt anymore." Asuka said as she removed the bandages.
"This... isn't the end." Vash called out from the sky. He was still in the crystal armor, but now held the third Z-saber.
"Vash!" Lan called out to his friend. Vash didn't respond to his call, however. instead, he concentrated on MegaMan.
"You... You were the one that sealed the whole! I, the fragment of Resentment, will destroy you!" Vash descended from the sky and pointed his Z-saber at MegaMan and the rest. "Zero, the fragment of Truth, cannot control me. Maverick, the fragment of Chaos, is still under my influence! Ireul will be revived... Until then, I WILL END YOUR EXISTENCE!"
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Dang! That was really hard to write! If you find a million things that don't make sense, it's because I re-wrote this and the last chapter about ten times. If you are massively confused because of the actual story, give your questions in the reviews and I will attempt to answer them. I'm hoping to finish the story in the next two chapters, but who knows when I'll finish those.