Final Chapter:
Chapter VII – The Last Soul
Megaman made his way to a wider area, where it would be less dangerous for him to fall off.
Then he heard something explode from behind him. It was Bass, and he had just finished breaking through the walkway Megaman just ran over. It was gone, turned to rubble, and as Megaman took a closer look around him, he noticed that it was his only 'safe' way out.
Without a second thought, the dark Navi dove back into the floor, getting ready for another underground attack…
A minute passed.
Suddenly, the blue bomber heard a 'whoosh' noise escape through the floor and ("AirShoes!") jumped up into the air. Not a second later came Bass head-first out of the ground below him, with his Dark LongSword readily at hand.
Megaman found himself in an awkward position. At this very moment he was dozens of feet in the air and running out of momentum. Bass was right below him, with a sword ready for cutting, and he was still coming up, while Megaman had nowhere to go but down.
"What do we do, Megaman?" shouted Lan.
"Something! Do something!" shouted back Megaman.
Whatever it was, Lan had to do it fast. So he thought. Hovering chips, no. Sword chips, Elec chips, Wind chips, Wood, Heat, Recovery, Navi, Shield…
He suddenly remembered Bass's 'ability' to use multiple chips at once. Was it really an ability? WHO CARES! Can Megaman learn it? In a matter of seconds? With no manual?
He didn't think so; even for Megaman it would be impossible.
With no P.A.s for him to use, he would need a different strategy: using chips that could indirectly work together. Or chips Megaman could maybe throw.
This took exactly three seconds for him to come up with:
"Use every chip I send you!" commanded Lan. "Trust me!"
Megaman simply yelled an "Ok!" and immediately Lan shouted out his first aerial chip combo.
Bass stabbed his sword up as if he was trying to give Megaman some twisted kind of high-five. But before Bass could make contact, Lan yelled "Tornado, IN!"
A small but powerful tornado suddenly entrapped Bass in mid-air, and he began spinning around inside of it, making his sword seem more like a drill. And Megaman was heading right for it.
"Guard3, IN!" The shield appeared in Megaman's hands and he placed it underneath himself, where it kept him afloat with the help of the Tornado chip. With that, Megaman began to spin very slowly.
Finally, now with his Navi's safety guaranteed, Lan moved on to the offensive. "Let go of the shield, Megaman! LongBlade, IN!"
Megaman did as he was instructed and found himself sitting cross-legged atop a slowly spinning shield with a LongBlade. Now, he couldn't exactly stab through the shield, so…
Megaman leaned over to the side and, without looking, stabbed the sword chip down into the spinning Bass below. The dark Navi yelled angrily, and then the Twister gave out.
Both Navis began falling. As Megaman moved the shield aside to look at Bass and get ready for another swing, he noticed a dismembered arm falling along with him, with a Dark LongSword at its end. As he took a look at Bass, he noticed that his head, neck, arms, and torso were encircled by a countless number of crescent-like scars.
"Great tactics, Lan!" exclaimed Megaman. "Now…" With his LongBlade, he slapped away Bass's spinning arm and got ready for when Bass got in range… because then…
"Megaman! The hole!" Lan yelled. He had almost forgotten about it, and Bass's flapping cloak was blocking it from Megaman's view. If he didn't do something quick Megaman was going to fall right through. "Use the Guard3 shield!"
It hadn't disappeared yet, but as Megaman reached for it, disappear was exactly what it did. "Another one, Lan!"
"I don't know if…!" But of course, one was right in the palm of his hand. He inserted it, and in one quick motion Megaman moved the shield underneath him again. While Bass fell through, Megaman's shield covered the hole completely and kept him safe on the top side of the Undernet.
He tried to quickly get off the shield when suddenly he was launched away from it. Bass had returned and he wasn't taking the time to say hello again. His right hand was gone, so he pointed a newly summoned GospelCannon from his left.
Megaman made a run for it as Gospel's flames scorched their area of the Undernet. It wasn't long before he found himself trapped: running out of space to run, and inching closer to a flame-broiled death.
"WideShot3, IN!" called out Lan. The water attack swept through the floor, dousing some of Gospel's flames and clearing a path for Megaman ("WideBlade, IN!") to run straight towards Bass.
Bass jumped over the water attack easily, but as he was mid-air, Megaman jumped out from behind it and stabbed Bass – right in the neck. And in one, final, spiteful attempt to destroy the Navi that had caused them so much turmoil, so much loss, he pulled the sword out horizontally, gutting Bass's neck like the belly of a pig. Bass was just one flabby piece of neck-data away from being beheaded.
As both Navis touched the ground again (one on his feet, the other on both head and back) it was clear that Megaman was the victor. Bass was just about deleted – but not quite there yet. Like all deafeated video game icons before him, he had just enough life to give his final remarks.
"Kurrkh…" was the noise that came out of Bass's mouth and flabby neck. "Rrrk… imprrK…ible…. kh!" was the only vaguely understandable thing he could say.
So began his slow death. But a Navi as monstrously powerful as Bass.EXE could not just die like any other. He couldn't just drop dead and then scatter into useless data. Bass's death had to be different. So, his body, which has seen more death and felt more pain than any digital body before it, began melting and rotting into chunks of buggy, junk data.
His gold-trimmed frame turned into an ugly bug-colored purple, and broke apart, piece by piece, like wet sand. In a manner of seconds Bass's body had decomposed, dripping like rotten tomatoes, and all that was left to prove that a Navi named Bass had once existed here was his worn-out cloak and a crater in the middle of Dencity.
Bass's data flowed across the ground like water – nothing more, nothing less. That was all.
Lan, the victor of this battle, had no idea what to say. He had imagined this moment as triumphant, and filled with joy, where he would jump into the air and scream out "Hurray!" and high-five his friends. But his friends weren't here. And looking at Bass's 'corpse,' he had nothing to scream out about except for the nauseous pit in the middle of his stomach, and he was certain that Megaman felt somewhat the same.
See, the truth is…
Killing Bass was wrong.
The duo felt that they had to stop him, and that's truly what they were meant to do. Bass was destined to be brought to justice. But to kill him, however, is something Lan should have never sought out to do. Had these two characters – the cheerful, courageous Lan and strong, loyal Megaman – been different, they might have understood it.
But, here, I'm obligated to bring it to light: that death isn't punishment enough for the murder of an entire city. That the punishment for such a thing required something much more cruel. Much more cruel. In that respect, Megaman and Lan were never the right people to defeat Bass and bring him to 'justice,' despite their history. Someone far worse was needed. Someone who could kill Bass again, and again, and again, in horrible, unimaginable ways; so horrifying that Bass himself would need to beg, on his then dismembered, bleeding, horrifically warped knees for the mercy of deletion. Only then can anything be even close to 'justice.'
So here was Lan, and here was Megaman, two kids mature enough to save the world a few times, but not quite enough to plot out revenge against those who actually destroy it.
This was their 'flaw.'
Or maybe it was their greatest strength? Only time would tell.
Still, for now, Lan and Megaman seemed to be the victors of this battle.
"That's it Lan, we did it… We…"
A pause.
"We saved the world. I guess."
"Yeah. Whatever Bass was planning, he can't exactly do it now as a pile of rotting sand, can he?" agreed Lan.
"That is where you are incorrect!"
Then a miracle occurred. Suddenly hope was revived; suddenly there was yet a chance for 'justice' to be truly served!
But how?
Bass's jewel, the 't'-shaped cross that he wore on his helmet, arose from inside of the purple gunk.
Lan's eyes widened, Megaman stepped back, and suddenly the purple gunk began applying itself to the crystal bit by ugly purple bit. Bass's head began reforming, until the two could make out his fin-like helmet.
"What do we do?" hurriedly asked Megaman.
"I… I don't know! Let me think…"
Was this joy? The horrible pit inside Lan's stomach was gone! Was he glad to see Bass still alive?
No, impossible!
"We don't have time, Lan! We need to act now, before-"
He had to fight. He had to destroy evil. It was what he was meant to do! Casting aside all notion of 'justice,' Lan gave his command.
"Attack! Don't let him reform!"
"I need a-"
"VariableSword, IN!"
Without another word, Megaman got in range…
Lan inputted 'down', 'left', 'up', 'right', 'down' on his PET and suddenly Megaman's shape-shifting VariableSword became the LifeSword, which easily cut Bass's reforming body in half.
Sadly, it just floated back into place.
"Ah, crap!" groaned Lan.
"Lan, I've got an idea!"
"What? What is it?"
"The crystal!"
"Of course! Give it a go… CustSword, IN!"
"Wait, is this chip going to work?"
"Attack! Finish him off, Megaman!"
"…?"
But before Megaman could, something strange happened. The gooey, reconstructing Bass – at the moment still only a torso and arms – reached out and grabbed Megaman by the neck. It lifted him up with one hand and stabbed Megaman with its other: a freshly molded, purple lance. In turn, Megaman swung his CustSword and cut off both arms – one still attached to his chest. The other arm simply slushed onto the floor.
The top of Bass's legs were now beginning to take form.
As Megaman mustered up the willpower for a second go at the crystal, Bass's arms began hovering back into place onto Bass's shoulders. Megaman was sent to one knee as the arm inside him pulled itself out and reapplied itself to Bass.
Things didn't look too good. Luckily, Lan was used to high-pressure situations, so it was only a matter of seconds before he thought up yet another strategy, one that ended up being pretty simple.
"Ball, IN!"
Megaman's CustSword vanished and was replaced by an extremely heavy metal ball the size of a melon. He threw it at the crystal atop gooey Bass's gooey helmet.
Gooey arms came up to stop it, but to no use. The Ball chip went through the arms like water, tearing them into strands, and broke into the crystal, ultimately crushing it. The chip continued on through the gooey Bass's helmet, and eventually right through the floor.
The crystal crumbled, and to Megaman's surprise, all it did was turn back into goo.
Is this how it was supposed to be? Is this what Bass's ultimate deletion was supposed to look like? Hell, was the crystal even important? …Or was it…?
A sharp pain punctured Megaman from his back to the front of his chest. He looked down to his torso and found Bass's gooey sword stabbing out of him. Except it was far from goo. What was inside of Megaman was pure black darkness.
"Finally, Megaman falls victim to my blade."
A perfect reconstructed Bass kicked Megaman away from his sword, onto the floor. He then turned the dazed Megaman around and stabbed him again in the stomach, pinning him into the ground.
Megaman was utterly confused.
"But… we killed you. And then you… turned into that…" stumbled Lan as he subconsciously entered a Recovery300 chip.
"It was a decoy, bumbling fool," responded Bass. "As a copy of my body distracted you from the front, my real body recomposed from behind, thanks to a thin trail of bugs that passed under your very nose, disguised as dripping water."
By water he meant 'rotting bug juice.'
With new energy surging through him (the Recovery chip), the blue bomber digressed. "No… No way! We deleted you! I almost cut your head off! How can you just recompose out of thin air!"
"Bugs," responded Bass.
"Bugs…?"
"There's a certain Navi I've made that can supply me with an endless amount of them. He's my life force. As long as he lives, I can never die."
"…I see," said Lan. "So to defeat you we have to defeat him. Your son."
Bass scoffed at the idea. "He's not my son, but merely a tool I made for myself, nothing more."
"So where is he then? If all we have to do is defeat him, then…"
"Don't think me the fool to tell you, Megaman," said Bass. "But I'll let you know, at this moment he should be killing your pink friend."
"What! Where is he, you bastard! Tell us! Lan!"
"Sword, IN!" shouted Lan.
A short sword appeared in Megaman's hand, but before he could use it against Bass, Bass formed a DarkSword with other hand and sliced off Megaman's arm.
"AHH!"
"Don't struggle, Megaman. You aren't going anywhere but to the dark abyss of deletion."
"D-Damn…!"
"Megaman! I'm out of Recovery chips…!"
"L-Lan…"
"This is the end, Megaman."
And then suddenly, Megaman hiccupped.
It was a bad tasting hiccup that felt less like air and more like a dark and intense combination of emotions: anger, sadness, and tragic hope. It was a hiccup that didn't feel like his own, because he never hiccupped before in his life.
A chime echoed in the back of his mind. It resonated within him, filling him with a cold sense of regret and anxiety. Suddenly everything felt wrong to Megaman, like he was supposed to be somewhere urgent and just wasting his time here. The chime just multiplied that feeling.
Before he knew it, there was someone else there with Bass: Tempo.
"…You. I never told you to come meet me. Have you dispensed of Roll?" asked Bass abruptly.
"Dispensed of Roll…? No, I have not. Nor will I ever," meekly responded Tempo.
A weight suddenly fell off of Megaman's shoulders.
"…What?" inquired Bass.
"You heard me."
"You dare disobey me?"
"I dare. And because of that, you die." Tempo pointed at Megaman and snapped his fingers. "Arise from the depths of Megaman's soul! Dark Proto Soul! Abandon your dying vessel!"
Still pinned down by Bass's sword, Megaman hiccupped again, and suddenly watched as a great big black bulge erected from his stomach. It got longer and longer, until it popped, and gushed what looked like black ink all over the place. And suddenly…
In a blink, both of Bass's arms and a half of his leg flew away from him. After getting one quick glance at his attacker, off flew his head. But he wasn't dead. And immune to death as he was, he was not immune to pain. Agony burst through his nerves like lava through human veins. It may not seem like much, but this pain that echoed through his body, needling through every inch of it, was only beginning. An eternity of it yet awaited him.
Proto Soul? thought Lan. But it wasn't so. It was Protoman, sword swinging, taking his revenge, that had burst out of Megaman. There was just one main difference: every single piece of his armor was completely, pitch, black.
He continued cutting up Bass, piece by piece, slice by ever-so-thin slice, with lightning speed and sadistic precision.
"What… just happened?" thought Lan out loud.
Megaman was thinking along the same lines. Is that Protoman? Did he… escape?
"Protoman! You're okay!" yelled the Navi, ignoring the pain of his missing arm for a moment. But Protoman didn't respond.
Tempo laughed and pointed at the cut-up remains of Bass. Protoman stopped attacking Bass, and suddenly the dark Navi's body reformed into its former self – complete with cloak – in the blink of an eye. It stood still there, as if it couldn't move.
"What is the meaning of this?" angrily asked Bass.
"Didn't I just tell you? I'm going to delete you!" exclaimed Tempo, suddenly in much higher spirits than he was before.
"You can't possibly think that a weakling like yourself can-"
"Protoman?"
The dark Protoman lunged at Bass and stabbed into his mouth, silencing him.
"Protoman…?" said the shocked Megaman.
"Hahah," laughed Tempo. "It is not the same Protoman you've always known, Megaman."
"What? And who are you?"
Slightly put-off by the question, Tempo responded, "Doesn't necessarily matter. But I know you, Megaman. You're the world's great hero, who always fights for right and against wrong." He paused, to consider this fact ever further. "Yes, you fight against wrong. And, according to Roll-"
"Roll!" gasped Megaman. "Is she okay? Where is she?"
"She's fine," responded Tempo. "As I was saying: According to Roll, you will naturally try to stand in my way when the time comes. Because of our natural differences…"
"…What are you…?" started Lan.
"Hmm," said Tempo to himself. "Yes… So it is so… Then, I have no choice. Protoman?"
The black Navi pulled his weapon out of Bass's head and turned to Tempo's attention. In a cocky, youthful voice he spoke, "What now? Still bossing me around, are you?"
"Kill Megaman."
"Heheh, you always have such fun requests…" But as he walked closer to him…
(Megaman?)
"Agh… crap….!" Protoman had stopped in his tracks and began holding his aching head.
(What are you doing, Dark?)
"None of your business! Kah! Go back to sleep!"
"What now?" inquired Tempo.
"He's… Ah! Awake…" responded Dark Protoman through huffs and puffs.
"Well, deal with it and kill Megaman!"
"Easy for you to say! You're not… GAH!" cried the dark sword slinger. "Why don't you do it yourself! He's-" and suddenly, "-AH!"
Megaman had just stabbed him with another Sword chip.
"You aren't Protoman, are you?" asked the blue clad hero. "You're nothing like him…! What did you do to him? Where is he?"
"Son of a- He stabbed me!" exclaimed Dark.
"Then do something about it! I'm getting tired of-"
"You do something about it! I'm not your damned servant!"
Bass coughed abruptly right after that. He was probably trying to say something offensive about Tempo's leadership, but his mouth had no tongue to say it.
"I can't," explained Tempo. "It already takes a large amount of energy to keep father in check, and I don't have enough to do anything else."
"Hah! What a long and boring way to say that you're weak!" exclaimed Dark. "You- AAAAAAH!"
"What…?"
"It… It's… his…!"
Sure enough, the real Protoman's light red sword was sticking out of Dark Protoman's chest a few inches away from the Megaman's Sword chip. There was no entry wound, the sword come out from inside of Dark.
(Leave Megaman alone.)
"It's useless… he won't let me be…!"
"…Because of Megaman…?" muttered Tempo. "…We're leaving."
"Wait," demanded Lan. "Where's Roll? What did you do to Protoman?"
"Useless questions. You'll know their answers soon enough…" replied Tempo.
"Dammit, let's go already!" cried Dark.
With nothing more to say, Tempo, Dark, and the captured Bass teleported away.
"Wait…!" cried the one-armed Megaman.
"They're gone… Damn! DAMN!" cried Lan.
"I can't believe it…"
"All of this was for nothing…! We couldn't stop Bass, we couldn't stop that Navi, we couldn't even save Protoman!"
"…"
"Damn…!"
"…We'll get him next time, Lan."
"…If there is one."
"There will be. There always is."
A long silence ensued. Megaman got on his feet and stared at Lan. Lan had eyes closed, thinking, thinking, thinking...
"Maybe… Yeah..." He suddenly jacked Megaman out and slowly began walking out of the bank, into the streets of Dencity. The sun was beginning to set, and the sky was already beginning to darken. Soon the entire town would turn pitch black.
"So… what now?"
"Now? Now…" Lan walked back the way he came, north. "I guess now… we're going to prepare. This isn't over. As soon as you get better, Megaman, we're going virus busting! To get better. So that next time…"
"Yeah. So that next time we can really defeat them. Once and for all."
"Yeah, once and for all."
Lan walked north, away from the sun.
The war, although Lan didn't notice it, had just begun under his nose. Tempo wasted no time in getting his plan into action, and within the next few days, countless cyber-terrorist attacks would erupt all over the internet, and all over the real world. Navis would disappear from the safety of their operators' PETs in order to join the cyber-terrorist group know as 'Rebellare.'
But for now, in the calm before the storm, Lan walked north. To Mayl. To a long, desperate hug with her, and a long and vulnerable, blind first kiss, to burn away their pain and loss. Before the tides of war changed them all, Lan and Mayl lip-locked destinies, and, later, cuddled together outside the ruins of their hometown.
Together, finally and truly, they prepared for the worst:
When revolution finally erupts.
The End…
Unanswered questions and all, Rebellare comes to an end here. It was a fun ride and everything, but this universe took way more out of me than I anticipated. To exemplify how out of control this story has gotten, recall the last three chapters. They were originally meant to be only the 5th part of this 9 chapter series, yet that one chapter somehow managed to hold enough text for the three entire chapters just released. That's, originally, 9,000 words for one chapter. Imagine how inflated this story would get if this continued? With college, a new job, and only weeks left before my parents kick me out of the house, I simply can't put up the time and energy to keep this story up, no matter how much better its been getting lately (or not).
To get to the point, everything that happens after the events of Lan and Mayl's first kiss are entirely up to you. You can simply say that together they fight off Tempo's army, end the war, and save humanity. But then that wouldn't give justice to the events for when Tempo confronts his feelings for Roll. Then there's Dark Protoman to worry about: he still hasn't followed through with Chaud's last command, to avenge him. And there's the question of who really killed him, Bass, who commanded NTT, or Tempo, who made NTT for Bass's purposes (don't be surprised if you don't remember this, I never said it).
This story was meant to be much more. Years were meant to have passed before the next chapter. Lan was supposed to be become a strong-willed, handsome individual with a beautiful girlfriend and lover in Mayl. Both of them would have matured significantly, thanks both to the ensuing war in which they take part in and to the events that just took place. Even the Navis were going to be remodeled slightly. Slightly. Everyone will of course always be the same characters you've grown to love, just more evolved.
Anyways, I don't know why I continue to blabber. I just hope that you enjoyed this story. That's all. Thank you sincerely for reading. Hopefully in due time, I'll get to Rebellare 2 or at least continue with The Elf Wars. In a few years. Seriously.
Thanks again, and good bye.