Can you believe how soon I started this again?

Shila: *blinks, and looks at the calendar* soon? YOU CALL THIS SOON?! IT'S BEEN ALMOST 3 WEEKS SINCE YOU LAST UPDATED!!!!!!!!!

Kay: I know... so?

Shila: *sweatdrops* nevermind...

Kay: anyways, this chappie is going to focus more on the Cybernet, or Cyber Matrix. I, personally, don't like the term "Cyber Matrix", because it makes me think of the Matrix trilogy, and that makes me think about what if it really was a Matrix, and all the Navis were actually people, unconcious somewhere... and then I get angry, because it makes me think.

Shila: aw... poor you... you have to think...

Kay: only for another 4 days!

Shila: 4 days? why? *checks the calendar again* what... ooh.... AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *faints*

Kay: well, now that Shila has fainted, I can continue without any interuptions. As I was saying, this chappie is going to focus more on the Cyber Matrix (grrr....), and those Navis and Net-ops that are still there, especially their feelings on the whole "Roll's dissapeared!" thing, and Mayl's... Querso'n-like behavior... aka mood swings. The next chappie is going to focus on Roll/Eria, and the Undernet, while the one after that is going to serve the prupose of catching everyone up on what's been happening... elsewhere, and what partially leads up to this story, but also into Warp Fusion (my messed-up crossover), and even a little bit into Running... which I'm thinking of smushing into the whole Warp Fusion thing, like I am going to do to this one. Er, story I mean. And if anyone is confussed (as I'm sure that at least one person is) then please email me with what you're confussed about, or review, like PhoenixTales369, who gets a huge Vanilla Cake, since I can't eat cake... for those of you who don't know this, it's lent, and I gave up cakes and cookies... wah!!!!!!!! Oh well... the cake should be good for Phoenix's little road trip with Tenshi Kaprio on Netto Cam: Road trip. And now that I'm done babbling... for now... no with the story! Or something to that effect....

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

" "- talking

' '- the swoosh thing you do with your fingers

~ ~-letters, emails, notes

* *-thoughts

( )-added thoughts that could be taken out from the story, and it would still make sense

[ ]- Authors notes in the middle of the story, just in case I need to, although I hate doing this

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Characters (great... long list *groans*)

Lan Hikari aka Netto Hikari; Navi: Megaman, aka Saito

Mayl Sakurai aka Meiru Sakurai; *Navi: Roll, aka Eria (in this story!)

(And we all know the rest, right?

Dex aka Dekao; Navi: Gustsman

Chaud aka Enzan; Navi: Protoman aka Blues [whee!]

Yai aka Yaito; Navi: Glyde

Tori aka whats-his-name-again? Tahoru r summin? Navi: Iceman)

*The name Roll is used when Mayl's Navi is the normal, pink-red-black colored Navi with long, blonde hair with the green bow.

The name Eria is used when Roll was being refered to as Eria by Sho in the first and begining parts of the second chappie.

Eria is also the name used for Roll when she completes her transformation.

It is also the original name of Empress.



*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

It had been almost two days now that Roll was missing. Mayl was getting more worried by the second, and the feeling was quickly catching to those closest to her- namely Lan, Dr. and Haruka Hikari, Megaman, and Querso'n, who had been working non-stop for the last few days trying to find Roll. The lead that Mega and Querso'n had found didn't help much- but at least it told them that it would be useles to keep searching in the net.

Lan and Mayl spent the time that they weren't sitting in front of the computer screen, sleeping, eating or in school asking around if anyone knew anything. But that wasn't really helping- the Navis would know more about what was going on inside the Net than their Net-ops would.

While the two humans worked on the outside, Mega kept asking around both Scilab and ACDC Square for info, and Querso'n was busy continuously checking both Roll and Mega's files to see if there was any change, or if anything seemed remotely the same. No one knew why Querso'n was working so hard to find Roll- other than the fact that Roll still had Querso'n's CACDCPass. They were glad that she was working with them, of course, and although it seemed that she never went back to her Net-op, she seemed perfectly content to 'sleep' on the link to, or on, Lan's homepage- their "home base".

Yai and Tori had been also working hard to find Roll, but they could only help so much. The fact that Yai's father was rich and powerful certainly helped, and any hands or help that they could get from anyone was greatly appreciated.

However, no one was prepared for what happened on the morning of their third day of searching...

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Lan.. Lan... LAN!"

"AAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm awake, I'm awake!"

Mayl shook her head, in slight embarrasement. "Lan, you're hopeless..."

He grinned as he slowly got out of bed, almost tripped on the cot that Mayl slept in, and made his way over to his computer, where Mayl was currently sitting. "No, I'm just tired... is mom making pancakes?" He asked, as he sniffed the air.

"No... she left about half an hour ago, while you were still asleep. She's gone out to do the shopping, and since it is a weekend, I volunterted both of us to clean the house. And you have to cook your own food."

Lan's smile quickly disapeared off his face. "Wha... what?! You're not serrious? Isn't there anything to eat?"

"There is... but it's called cooking, Lan, and you're going to have to do some."

"But... what about Roll?"

Mayl shook her head again. "We'll find her when we find her, Lan. Megaman's askign around the entire net today, not just the Squares, and Querso'n's gone back to the Hall for more research. They'll be fine- besides, Mega's travelling with Protoman today, and Glyde and Iceman are teaming up as well. So, go cook!"

Lan just stood there in shock. "What do you mean that Megaman is travelling with Protoman?! When did Chaud agree to help?! Not that I'm complaining, but..."

Mayl sighed now. "I got an email from him this morning, asking why we were being so annoying, and bugging everyone. I told him, and he agreeded to help out, if it would help to shut us up quicker and stop scaring away all his oppenents. So I agreed. Oh, and Yai wants to meet us later at an office building downtown to talk about a good 'search and rescue' plan for Roll. We have to be there by 1, so that gives us about... 2 1/2 hours."

It was Lan's turn to shake his head. "You could have woken me up sooner! And, well, Chaud will be Chaud... so can you help me find something to eat? Please?"

Mayl laughed as she followed Lan out of his room. A small beeping from their PETs sounded through-out the room, but since no one was there to answer, it went un-noticed.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Wish I was... too dead to cry... the self affliction fades.... Stones to throw at my creator... the masochist to which I cater... umm, what's a masochist?"

Querso'n was singing quietly to herself a song that her "sister" Navi had once sung to her- it had originally made Querso'n feel sad, but now, she could see the truth behind the words- if she could only figure out what some of them meant.

A Navi next to her looked over at Querso'n, startled by the question. "I beg your bardon?"

Querso'n looked over at the Nav beside her. She had silver, white, red, yellow, and gold armor. Her hair was pulled up underneath her helmet. She had a piece of gold cloth that went over her nose, and a yellow mouth-filter over that. She wore a red, short and tight vest, which ended just below her breasts. Her stomach, arms and upper legs were silver, with red and yellow spirals and designs all over them. She had a belt of purest white, with a Navi symbol at the most front part, which pointed downwards. She wore off-white gloves, and arm-guards, which also had the Navi symbol on them. Her off-white boots went up to just below her knee, and, again, had the Navi symbol. Her helmet covered the top part of her forehead, and had a crown-like band across it, separated into dimond shapes, with small patches of silver and gold on it.

Her Navi symbol was a circle divided by an outward-curving line a little past the half-way mark.Another line, starting at the highest point on the curve, separated the smaller section into halves.

Querso'n looked at her for a few moments, before sighing, and shaking her head. "I... just don't know what a masochist is. Do you?"

The other Navi blinked. "Yes... a sadist is someone like... Sadam Husein, who brings down bad things upon others, so a masochist is someone who brings down bad thing upon themselves."

Querso'n made sure to remember that definition for no apparent reason, before she realized something. "I'm sorry to bug you again, but... who's Sadam Husein?"

The other Navi thought about it for a moment, before responding carefully, "I do not know. My Net-op used that definition when she told it to me, so she should know who he is or was..."

"You're lying."

That voice came from behind the two Navis. It scared Querso'n, but the other Navi didn't seemed to surprised by it.

"What do you mean, Risuko?" She asked, with a monotone voice.

"I mean that you do know who this Sadam Husein person is. It is in my programming to tell who is lying."

The other Navi grinned. "I could change your programming, if you want."

Risuko shook his head. "No thank you Tialsia. But I am curious as well. Who is this Sadam?"

Querso'n looked over at Tialsia. "Well? Are you going to answer?"

Tialsia nodded. "Sure... but then you have to answer a question of mine afterwards."

"Deal."

Tialsia leaned back against the shelf upon which all the records were kept. "Well... Sadam Husein was a very bad man... he was the dictator of an old country called Iraq. Another one of the old countries, called the United States of America, wagged war on Irag because they thought that Sadam had a lot of Nuclear weapons, but it was never proven, I think, and... oops, I think that my Net-op actually said that Osama Bin Laden was a sadist, not Sadam... oh well."

"Then who is Osama Bin Laden?"

"Well... *sigh* Osama Bin Laden was thought to be a terrorist leader... well, he was, the leader of Al Queada, which was a terrorist group, but what started what was called the "War on Terrorism" was when two planes were hijaked by suicide bombers, and crashed into the World Trade Center Twin Towers in New York City- one of the more important cities on the Eastern Seaboard. Another hikajed plane crashed into the defense area of the Pentagon- the United State's main... control center, I guess you could call it, and another crashed into a field not too far from where the President was supposedly staying. That right there made almost all the countries who were a part of NATO- the North Atlantic Treaty Organization- wanted to start a war agaisnt Terrorism, so that they could be safe. Thousands died on that day- September 11th, or 9-11, as some people liked to call it. So, Osama was the sadist, and Sadam was the unproven sadist. Okay?"

Querso'n and Risuko just stood there, before the larger Navi grunted, and left.

"Now... um, what was your name again?"

"Querso'n."

"Okay, Querso'n... can I ask you a question?"

"Sure."

"Where did you hear that song that you were singing?"

Querso'n thought that it was a strange question, but replied, "my... sister... used to sing it to me... but one day she left, and I thought that I had forgotten the song... and I guess I have, because those first few lines were all that I could remember about it."

Tialsia nodded. "Interesting... well, I need to get going." She put away the file that she had been looking at, which promptly disapeared into the rest of the files, stood up and stretched. "Well, good-bye, Querso'n, and I hope to see you again."

Querso'n nodded, and watched as Tialsia descended the "stairs".

'I wonder what she was doing...'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Megaman grunted as he dodged another attack from the viruses. It ocured to him that lately all the viruses had been moving in large packs. Protoman was at his back, keeping half of the viruses at bay, while Mega had to keep the other half from getting any closer.

And then it occured to him that they only moved in packs around the Hall, where he was taking Protoman to find Querso'n so that they could actually meet for once.

"Are you sure that you're not just trying to find a way to do me in quickly with out getting your hands dirty?" Protoman asked Mega, as they both deleted a few more viruses.

"If I wanted to delete you, I would be doing that myself, not getting some viruses to do it... although, it would be nice to have Rush right now..."

As Mega said that, he drifted into his thoughts. While his body kept blasting away everything infront of him, his mind wandered freely. He at first began to think of how easy they could defeat these viruses if Rush was there, then he realized that Rush would be there if Roll was there, then he continued to think about how if Roll was there, they wouldn't even be fighting these viruses, or he wouldn't know Querso'n, or about the Hall... and then he asked himself, that if everything turned out okay, would he really regret not finding Roll sooner? Of course, he missed her dearly, but if he had found her right away... he would never have met very many people, and that made him feel... kind of empty.

"Hello? Mega? You there?"

"Hmm? What? Oh, sorry, Protoman... I just let my thoughts wander..."

"Well, don't do it again any time soon! In case you haven't noticed MORE viruses have come since you started to day-dream?!"

And so, the great virus-deletion brigade started... again, and it continued on like that for another couple minutes, until both Navis were getting worn down. However, that was soon to be evened out when glowing, red rings pulsing with energy and electricity surrounded 10 of the viruses, and deleted them. Quickly, another ten, and then another ten were deleted in the same way.

"Wha... what? What's going on?" Mega asked, startled.

"I... don't know.." Protoman responded, his voice filled with uneasy-ness.

"Oh, come on... don't tell me that two of the greatest Navis of right now can't even defeat a couple hundred viruses easily? And she says I need training..." said a voice from behind the two male Navis.

They looked behind them to find a young Navi, dressed in red, gold, yellow, silver and white standing there, with ten red rings looped around her arms, legs, neck, stomach, head... everywhere that a round ring could wrap around, there was one. [I am soooo not re-doing her description again.. go scroll up if you already forget it.]

"Excuse me.. do I know you?" Protoman asked, still not lowering his weapon.

"No... if you knew me from before this, I'm pretty sure that F'del‰ would kill me... that or decide to give me one of those battle chips..." she shuddered. "Every time I do something wrong...oh well, so you're Megaman and Protoman, huh? Nice to meet you. My name's Tialsia. I'm... not from around here, I guess you could say."

Protoman and Megaman looked her over again. "... why are there those rings around you? They just deleted at least 4 dozen viruses!"

She sighed and shook her head. "I'm in battle mode, dingus... and viruses aren't that bad, actually, I've heard of one that saved a couple o' thousand people... anyways, I need to get going. Sometimes I wonder why on Earth I do things like this!" She shook her head, and stretched out her arms. The Navi symbols glowed a couple of times, and the rings slowly dissapeared. "Well, see ya guys!"

She quickly ran off, away from the hall.

"...that was interesting..." Protoman stated.

"Oh, yeah... wonder what battle chips she was talking about?"

"I guess it doesn't matter... come on, I need to meet this Querso'n person soon, so that I can get back to doing what I'm supposed to be doing- not running around the net, looking for some little, lost, pethetic navi."

Megaman turned then to look at Protoman with a look of utmost hatred on his face. "What... did you just say about Roll? She is worth a million times more than you!"

Protoman was startled by Megaman's rebuke, but shrugged it off- not without some un-easiness. "Someone's getting a little defensive, isn't he? Now, come on- I don't have time for this."

Protoman walked away towards the hall. Megaman stared after him for a moment, before looking at the rest of the net from where he stood.

'Don't worry, Roll...' he thought. 'We'll find you... I'll make sure of it.'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tialsia couldn't help but laugh as she over-heard the two navis arguing. "Devotion... and maybe something else... oh, Megaman, your father really knew what he was doing when he turned your dead body and memories into a Navi..." she couldn't help but sigh at the next thought. "Although WHY on Earth they would name you Hub... I am quite happy that you used the name Saito... I guess it is just your programming that switched the name from English into Japanese... grr.... if the entire planet wasn't already blown up, I would gladly kill those Capcom idiots and whoever did the translating..."

She couldn't help but grin again, as she activated her shadow-cloaking program, and sent a quick message to both Lan and Mayl.

"Hehehe... they probably won't understand this message, and if they aren't there at their PETs in 10 minutes, it won't matter..." she couldn't help but sigh again. "If only your heart wasn't already taken... I know far more about you, Megaman, than you could ever imagine... but, Destiny is, after all, extremely creul... now to report to F'del‰..."

No one noticed the black shadow moving quietly through the net, or the fact that she carried with her a very important piece of data.

'But first...' she thought with a grin, as she ended up just outside the SciLab mainframe, 'to plant the first clue... to everything...'

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

She sat in the shadows, watching everyone walking casually by. Some of them were shopping, some where talking, some were heading to lunch. She pittied them, and their easy, perfect, organized and orderly lives- which would be turned upside down within ten years.

"Roll going missing is the first key- soon, the rest shall fall into place."

"I beg your bardon, Ms...? But may I ask what you are doing?"

She turned around to find an older-looking gentelman, wearing a tux, standing over her shoulder, and looking down on her, with a kind smile on his face. Behind him, the side door of the office building was open. Peering outside the door, she saw a young girl with a large fore-head, braided blonde hair, and wearing a red dress.

Turning her attention back to the man, she replied casually, "no, you may not. Can a simple person not simply stand in the shadows and watch the poor, unknowing and hopeless people completeing their daily chores or enjoying themselves, which will soon be nothing more than a memory?"

At first, she noted, he started at her reply, but he continued, "I am sorry then, Ms, but I must ask you to leave these shadows, since there is a private meeting going on behind me."

She nodded and got slowly up from her seat on a crate. "I will leave... oh, and Ms. Aiono..." the younger girl in the doorway started as the man had done, "be careful tonight... we don't want anyone finding about this whole Roll thing... it could easily become a nation-wide disaster." With that, she walked casually into the street- only to look up, see something, and dodge into the alley directly across the street.

Yai was confussed as to her movements, but was just as confussed, and equally surprised as Lan and Mayl walked into view, and the other girl's eyes followed the two friends as they walked. When they had passed, she quickly dodged out of the alley, and made her way quickly down the street, in the oposite direction.

"Yai! We're here!" Came the call of the aforemention best friends, who had just walked into the office.

Yai was glad to see them. "Hey!" She greeted them as they walked over to her. "Tori and Dex should be coming soon, although Dex has been really down lately... I wonder why... do you guys want a seat?"

Lan nodded. "Yeah... thanks Yai..."

"Hello, my adoring public! Have you come to watch me, the BEST NetBattler in all of Den City, as I crush Lan and Megaman once and for all?!"

The three in the office sweatdropped as Dex and Tori made their way into the office. As Dex sat down beside Mayl, who looked quite confussed, Tori took a seat between Yai and Lan, and whispered, "he was like this the entire way. I had to just say that he was joking, or it was lined for the play, so many people were staring... and then he started going on about how Mayl would so completely fall in love with him... it was really embarrasing..."

"Hmm-hmm?"

That stopped all talk in the room. Everyone looked over to the doorway, where Chaud stood, leaning against the door frame.

"Were you having a meeting without me?"

Yai snorted, and turned her head away huffily. "Yes... what's your point?"

Chaud smirked. "Well, based on recent occurances, the only reason, I would think, about you meeting here was to talk about Roll, and her being missing. And since I have become part of this... ensemble, I would have thought that I would be invited to a meeting such as this."

Everyone looked at Mayl and Lan.

"What?" they asked in unison. "We needed the help... just four Navis wouldn't be enough to find Roll..." Mayl continued hastily.

"And five IS?!" Yai retorted.

"Well..."

"Can we continue this fighting later?!"

Everyone looked in surprise this time to Lan, who shrugged, just as bewildered, and looked at his PET screen, which showed a picture of the inside of the hall, with Protoman, Querso'n and Risuko in the background, as well as some other Navis that they had never seen before, who were all looking at Megaman astounded.

He blushed slightly at everyone staring at him, but continued, "If we want to find Roll, fighting isn't going to help. Nor is boasting, or making inapropriate comments."

Protoman nodded in the background. "Megaman is right. We need to concentrate on our central task, and that is finding Roll. Not bickering with each other."

The NetBattlers in Yai's office acknodledged this, and nodded their assent, as well as all of the Navis involved.

Yai suddenly remembered something. "You guys! Just before you two got here (she pointed to Mayl and Lan) there was a weird girl in the shadows behind the office. She said something about Roll missing being the first key, then she started talking about... that we're hopeless or something, and that this will all be a memory? And when we asked her to leave, she walked out into the street, but when she saw Lan and Mayl coming, she ran into another alley, hid there until they walked by, then ran in the other direction..."

Lan and Mayl looked at each other. "Wonder what that was about..." Mayl stated.

"Hey, can you guys jack us in? We want to help too!" Iceman called out to Tori from his PET.

"Alright..."

Yai, Tori and Dex walked to a central computer, and said together, "Jack in! Glyde.EXE/Iceman.EXE/Gutsman.EXE transmission!"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He cursed. Loudly.

"Dr. Hikari? Are you alright?" A young intern asked worriedly.

"Yeah, I'm fine... but I'm not sure if the computer system will be..."

He ran his fingers through his once tidy, red hair, which was now askew. He adjusted his glasses, and looked again at the screens infront of him.

Yuuichiro(sp?) Hikari's eyes followed the quickly ascending lines of binary code- except for 3 lines, which kept appearing. They were made up of no letters or numbers that had seen, and he had designed many of the new codes. They had apeared in the encripted part of SciLab's data- and, he noticed, the symbols appeared at the end of one code, and the begging of the other- like who, or whatever, put them in there, knew exactly where one started- like the codes weren't encripted at all.

Put this mess ontop of everything else that had been going on, namely Roll disapearing, but not being deleted (they hoped), and he knew that there was no way that he could possibly be able to get home for another couple of days.

"Great..." he hissed.

A few of the symbols he began to recognize, like alpha, beta, delta, and omega, but many of the others were unfamiliar to him. There was, in one part, onyl two letters that he recognized- but they were stuck together, and he knew that they didn't not mean the separate letters "a" and "e"- they made a new letter, one which he did not understand. And, he also noticed, there was a strange... name, he could only guess, in it- "'thelweard". He had no idea what it was, but he could only assume that it had something to do with the '- after all, that letter was in the word/name.

Further down, he found only one more, slightly recognizable word. He could not pronounce it, nor could he understand what it meant.

So, hopping that some one knew, he called everyone else on duty, interns to doctors, to try to see if anyone knew what it was. Only one intern did, by the name of Edward. Well, he knew how to pronounce it anyway, and the word spread quickly, around the room, until it reached back to Dr. Hikari's ears. He sent out an email to everyone in ACDC, Den City, everywhere that he could reach, including Creamland, Nettopia and other foreign cities and countries. And soon, all anyone with a Navi could think was...

"Yggdrasil... what is that?"

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tialsia was trying extremely hard not to laugh at Dr. Hikari's and his collegues antics.

"What is Yggdrasil... hah! Man, you WOULD think that they would know... although, I do like the old myths about the Tree, the real thing is sooo much more sophisticated. Or at least high-tech." She couldn't help but grin, as everyone started trying to also pronounce the '. Which made Tialsia laugh even harder.

"They call themselves smart! Hehehe... you WOULD think that they would know old English, it is one of the Old Languages that they new Common is based off of..." she could help but sigh. "This... is going to be harder than what I thought. I sure hope that the chosen ones here will figure this out... I'm sure, with all their "connections" that they'll be able to figure out what everything means, or it will be a real shocker soon..."

She couldn't help but laugh again at the probable looks on everyone's faces when they found out the truth...

As she jumped away, he shadow cloaking program back on, one more thought crossed her mind, right as she lept over the Hall. She didn't realise that she accidentally activated her special ability- telepathy.

*I can't believe that they haven't realized... it was pure genious putting 'thelweard in there- Nobel Guardian. It matches the twin's description soooo perfectly... ooh! I wonder what the Navi one is doing... hopefully, trying to work out that code, which I think is now a prophecy...*

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Megaman's head shot up.

"What is it, Megaman?" Iceman asked, worried at their friend's strange behavior.

The blue bomber simply closed his eyes, and stood up straight. Although looking weird to all those around them, Megaman was hearing something in his head in a female voice that he had heard before, but couldn't seem to place it.

*I can't believe that they haven't realized... it was pure genious putting 'thelweard in there- Nobel Guardian. It matches the twin's description soooo perfectly... ooh! I wonder what the Navis doing... hopefully, trying to work out that code, which I think is now a prophecy...*

He slowly opened his eyes, and muttered quietly, "'thelweard... that's what it means..."

Since standing up, and staying there so stock still for a couple seconds, he had caught a few Navi's attention.

"What... did you just say?" Protoman asked quietly.

Megaman looked at him with steady eyes for a second. Then he shook his head, and replied, "that email we got from d... Dr. Hikari (it was obvious to all the Navis around him that he meant to say something else, but they would bug him about it at a different time)... I'm still not sure what Yggdrasil is, but... the other word... it's pronouncved 'thelweard, it means 'Nobel Guardian or something..."

They all looked at Megaman with confussed faces. Finally, Glyde decided to speak up.

"Megaman... are you sure that that is what it means?"

He nodded his head.

"How do you know, Guts?" Gutsman asked.

Megaman looked at him, and tried to think of something that wouldn't sound so crazy as, 'I heard it in my head'. He knew who the twins were... especially since he was pretty sure that there wasn't any other twins where one of them was a Navi.

"I just do, Gutsman... I just do."

Seeing that they weren't going to get any other sort of information out of the blue bomber right then, all the Navis in the room relayed the information to their Net-ops. All the Navis, including those who didn't even know Megaman. But they were suddenly intrigued by this blue Navi, who didn't seem like a normal Navi at all.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Tialsia watched the whole things from the shadows, and could only think of one word.

*Ooops*

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Megaman concentrated on the voice again, and looked straight up. He saw something move, but then freeze under his steady gaze. He wanted to call up, but decided not to draw any more attention to himself than there already was.

So, instead he thought, *who's there?*

To his surprise, he got a response.

*Oh, don't tell me that you've forgotten already!*

He blinked for a second, before remembering where he had heard that voice.

*You're name... wasn't it Tialsia?*

*Yup! Listen... you weren't supposed to know about 'thelweard, but since you do, I'll tell you what Yggdrasil is, as long as you don't tell anyone else.*

He thought that over for a moment before replying with a non-energetic, *yes*.

*Alright. In myths and legends, Yggdrasil was a huge tree planted by the Gods that connected Earth and the Spiritual realms. Earth was at it's base, and heaven in it's branches. But, in fact, Yggdrasil is an advanced computer, operated by Gods and Goddesses alike, controling mostly everything that is not natural- in one case, you. Since you've already said that you know what 'thelweard was, you should not say anything more. Please, take care- life is going to get much harder, but I know that you will eventually get to meet some important friends of mine- four of them being those Goddesses that operate Yggdrasil. Ja ne, Hub... Saito.*

Megaman stared at the dark spot that he assumed was Tialsia. Then he lowered his head, and looked at the ground, deep in thought about what he had just been told.

*Controls unnatural things- things like me... I wonder... does that involve Lan, too?*

Only Protoman noticed his movements. He looked up as well, and saw a darker form on the "ceiling".

"What is that..." he muttered to himself. However, just as he was about to draw attention to it, the shadow disapeared, leaving no evidence that it was ever there.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Wow... I didn't think that this chappie would be this long...

Shila: Yeah... and it took you ALL or March Break to finish it! Now, if only you could write faster for some other things...

Kay: Like what?

Shila... oh, I dunno, Running?

Kay: I already said, Running's chappie 2 is at school! I can't exactly work on it... and besides, the sooner I get this finished, the sooner I can start on Warp Fusion... although it probably won't make any sense until I completely finish Running. I'm thinking of just forgetting the idea of writing it at school, and just doing that at home on the stupid Word and Note Pads.

Shila: Goodie for you. And what was up with that whole thing about the "Tribute to Takato?"

Kay: Well... I was up late one night, and I had just finished watching a couple of sad movies, and I was like, "that really got me thinking about what it would be like to be in someone's position, and have someone you hold close leave you." So, I immediately thought of Takato (one track mind!), and started writing down quotes and things that I thought that Rika or someone else close to Takato would say who's life he had changed drastically. And then I kinda smushed the all together.

Shila: You like long-winded explanations, don't you?

Kay: Well, I did a run-on sentence once! It was for that Card Captor Sakura fanfic... the one that I have only 8 chapters for? That I was trying to write about a year ago?

Shila: Well, let's not hear it now... maybe post the story, and continue it?

Kay: hhhmmmm... that's actually a good idea... but I'll have to do a major spell-check. And some other stuff first.

Shila: Alright... now, everyone else, R&R!!!!! She needs more ideas to lead up to the final scene. Kay's got that all nicely planned out.

Kay: And I have a surprise for whoever gives me an actual sugestion! Okay, well, depending on whether the idea is good or not, or if i use it, you might get a better or worse prize than what I would normally give...

Shila: yes... and flames are always welcome!!!!

Kay: ... why wouldn't they be?

Song of the chappie: "Taking me Over" by Evanesence. I'm thinking of turning this into a song-fic featuring Takato and Ruki... erm, Rika. Just cause I've never done a song-fic, and I think that it would be good from both Takato's and Ruki's P.O.Vs... especially if Takato goes missing... :)