A/N: Only a few more chapters to go, guys! :o
~Chapter 19~
"Dean!" Mea called and flew closer, causing the male Navi to shift his brown eyes to her.
Flying fast and landing right beside him, she stared down at him in silence for a few moments.
"What.. are you doing on the ground?" She asked, her expression turning confused.
The male Navi simply stared up at her for a while, then floated up to his feet while dusting his now dirty uniform with both of his hands.
"I'm guessing it didn't go so well..?" Mea asked, her mouth shifting into a troubled smile.
Dean sighed heavily.
"Nah, it didn't." He answered, smiling sadly at her.
Neither of them spoke.
Feeling bad for her friend, Mea reached her hand to him and patted the male Navi's back.
"Cheer up.." She said, "At least you told her, right?"
But her attempts to make him feel better only seemed to backfire, as the male Navi only slumped at her question.
"Yeah, she knows." He confirmed, his voice low.
She wouldn't ever admit it to her male friend, but Mea would have been extremely surprised to hear anything other than what he had just told her. She already noticed everything that was happening since long ago, but she also knew it was better for him to get it out of himself instead of forever holding it in; eventually ending up regretting not ever telling Lei about how he felt.
Her green eyes suddenly widened with realization.
"So.. where's Lei?" She asked, looking all around her.
Dean raised his brown eyes to the distance at where the petite female Navi had disappeared into.
"Went to find that asshole." He answered, his expression turning irritated. "I tried to convince her against it but.. You know her."
Mea shifted her green eyes to the same direction as she kept silent.
'To the UnderNet..?' She thought to herself, her expression turning into a mixture of surprise and worry.
She simply smiled helplessly to herself.
'Really, my friends are so troublesome..' The tall female Navi jokingly thought, then sighed.
"Come on, Dean, Let's get outta here." She said, wrapping her arm around his shoulder, and smiling kindly at him.
Flying fast through the UnderNet, Lei's expression gradually turned more and more confused.
'Of all times to not be a part of the Communication System, Bass..!' She thought to herself, biting her lower lip.
The UnderNet was vast, and every part of it looked different to her.
Just where was she supposed to even find him?
The female Navi could only blindly venture deeper and deeper into the place, hoping luck would be on her side and would somehow help her cross paths with him.
The fact that she was basically putting herself at risk didn't bother her as much as not finding Bass and explaining everything to him as soon as possible.
Her expression turned determined as she clenched her fists.
There was no way she could let him spend another minute of his time being confused and sad over what happened, not after the whole 10 years he had already suffered by himself, being lonely, hurt, only left with unanswered and empty questions, eventually succumbing to hatred.
She didn't want him to absorb anymore negative feelings into himself. She had to find him.
She felt like this was a risk that she had to take.
In her mind, Lei went over all of the places where she got to meet him, realizing they were all completely random.
Except one.
Her blue eyes widened as she recalled the place where MegaMan and Bass fought each other, causing her to suddenly stop right in her tracks.
'Bass and I usually fought in a rather specific area.' MegaMan's words suddenly popped into her mind.
She blinked.
But will he even be there..?
Lei figured that was probably the best chance she had to find him, as she remembered the route MegaMan and her took just a few days ago.
She then floated up in the air, high enough for her to make out the familiar path.
Unfortunately for her, the specific area itself was still too far away for her to see, but she knew that for now, this was better than nothing.
'Oh, I better not attract too much attention to myself.' she suddenly remembered, quickly lowering herself to the ground below, then flying fast in the direction of the place in which both Navis previously battled.
"Hey.." Mea suddenly said, grabbing the male Navi's attention, "I've been wondering about it for a while now.. What happened to your neck?"
Both Navis were now sitting in the hospital lobby, as the patients and doctors ran all around them, dealing with their own problems.
Dean stayed silent for a few moments, watching his female friend closely.
"Bass attacked me." He said.
Mea's green eyes widened at his words. For a moment there, she thought she misheard him.
"What?!" She suddenly raised her voice, causing all of the nearest NetNavis in the room to shift their confused stares to the loud Navi.
Mea quickly covered her mouth and apologized to their surrounding, while Dean simply sighed.
"Idiot." He said, shaking his head at her.
The tall female Navi's expression turned serious as she moved closer to him.
"-What do you mean Bass attacked you-?!" She whispered, raising an eyebrow at him.
Dean sank into his chair.
"He came for her, so I told him to stay away, then he got pissed at me." He muttered, his expression turning angry at the memory of his little exchange with the Black Shadow of the UnderNet.
Mea blinked at her male friend in amazement.
"Damn! That's pretty brave of you, Dean." She said, watching him closely.
He sighed deeply.
"Yeah, also pretty stupid." He started, shifting his brown eyes to stare at the distance, "He charged at my throat as a response."
Mea kept silent for a few moments.
"Well, in retrospect, what did you expect him to do? Just agree and leave?" She asked him, her expression amused.
Dean shifted his eyes back to the tall female Navi and glared at her incredibly misplaced mocking tone.
"I didn't think about it I guess.. I just wanted to.. protect her." He said, then sighed once again, "But it seems Lei doesn't even want to be protected."
His last sentence was left to hover in the air as both Navis went silent.
"Yeah.." Mea said, then sank into her chair as well.
"I had a feeling that.. something was different for a while now." he suddenly said, grabbing his friend's attention, as his expression turned sad, "But I guess that I just didn't want to accept it.."
Mea simply watched him in silence as he continued;
"Lei was always friendly, but kind of.. Distant. She could stand right next to me and talk to me, but I sometimes felt like her mind was trailing off to somewhere else. Like she wasn't with me 100%.. I always thought that's just the way she is.. but I've noticed she felt a lot.. closer lately. Happier.. I don't know how to describe it.. As if she was finally here."
The tall female Navi smiled sadly at her friend.
"Yeah. I felt that too." She admitted.
Dean sighed.
"Well, now we both know why." He said, rubbing the back of his neck.
Mea kept silent for a few moments, as her eyes shifted away from him.
'Lei.. Please be careful, girl.' She thought to herself.
"Ah! This is it!" Lei said to herself, as she recognized the long line of big piles of rocks before her.
She floated up to land on top of one of them, the entire familiar area spread before her once again, causing her blue eyes to widen at its incredible features.
'I don't think this place will ever cease to amaze me.' She thought to herself.
She looked all around her, desperately trying to locate Bass' figure as she floated forward and landed in the middle of the broken ground, the wind flying through her long ponytail.
Then, Her blue eyes shifted to where the energy blast had almost hit her, making her suddenly remember how Bass stopped his fight to come looking for her under the rubble, her expression turning sad at the memory.
'Bass..' She thought to herself, 'Just where are you..?'
"So we meet again, huh, GIRL?!" A loud voice suddenly called from somewhere above her, startling and making her turn around in a sharp movement to look for its source.
Her blue eyes widened as she recognized who it belonged to.
A bulky, large, metal Navi was floating not far above her, his expression dark and his smile even darker.
Lei's expression turned worried as she backed away from him, only to be immediately grabbed by one of his gang members. He held both of her hands behind her back in a tight and painful grip, causing the petite female Navi to cry in surprise.
The metal Navi broke into a loud, evil laugh.
"Trying to run away so soon?! We're only getting started!" He yelled, floating down to her level, then shifting his glare to the Navi behind her, "Destroy her communication device so that she can't call for help."
The large NetNavi holding her grabbed both of her small hands in one of his huge ones, then used his free hand to reach into the pockets in her uniform mini-dress and quickly pulled the small device out of it, then crushed it right before her eyes, its pieces falling and scattering everywhere near her feet.
Suddenly, a few more NetNavis began appearing above her, making her jump with surprise.
"Ya see, Delivery girl, I've been watching your little trips in and out of the UnderNet for a while now." The gang leader started, moving closer to her face, causing Lei to close her eyes and back away as much as she could, "Seems like you're important to the Black Shadow, so now we'll wait for him to come save ya so I could have my revenge on that lil' punk!"
She opened her eyes.
'He's using me as bait..?' Her brow furrowed as she processed his words, 'For his revenge against Bass..?'
Her expression turned sad.
She was just so tired of hearing about the importance of fighting against each other, revenge, destroying lives.. Really, what was the point in all of that except for never-ending suffering..?
She suddenly felt the NetNavi holding her tighten his grip around her wrists even more, causing her to wince in pain, breaking her out of her thoughts.
'Bass..!' She cried his name to herself.
"Let her go right now if you don't want your death to be slow and agonizing, scum!" A familiar firm voice yelled from above them, making all NetNavis turn in its direction.
Bass was furious. He looked as if he was ready to kill, and was only holding himself back from destroying each and every single Navi before him.
The gang leader broke into a loud laugh at the sight of him.
"Bass! How nice of ya to join us! I knew holding onto this lil' cutie would lure ya out of your hole!" He yelled.
The cloaked Navi gritted his teeth and clenched his fists in anger, as his intense stare wandered to Lei.
She bit her lower lip as her expression turned worried.
He only held her gaze for a few seconds, then quickly averted his red eyes away from her, his glare turning murderous as he fixed it on the gang leader below him.