Megaman ZX Omega

Me: Hi readers!

Maria & Neo: What the hell?

Me: I know, I know, but it feels wrong to leave my very first story unfinished! So I'm picking up where I left off!

Neo: (grumbling) took her long enough to figure that out.

Me: Hey! Neo, get back here!

Disclaimer: Do I have to say it again?

Chapter 16

Kari sat up, her mind in a daze. Her chest hurt. Ow…what happened to me? She remembered seeing the witch maverick in front of her…then there was nothing. Why wasn't she dead? Should she be dead?

Neo. Where was Neo? Kari looked around, but she didn't see him although she could have sworn he had been on the stretcher next to her. Was he okay? I hope he didn't get hurt.

Kari tugged at the wires patched onto her body. She felt a lot better than she had in a while, but she was sick of being wrapped up in these things. Reason number one I hate hospitals. The raven-haired girl thought with a huff. My transplant is done and I feel better. Surely they won't mind if I go walk around the block once.

Gently tugging off the patches, Kari freed herself from the machines and stepped out the door. The first thing she noticed was the halls were strangely quiet, and the lights were off. Now how weird was that? Usually Cinny was here to tell her off for leaving her sickbed. Where was she?

Rebelliousness replaced by curiosity, Kari walked down the halls. "Hello? Where is everyone?" She called. The lights flickered. A scuttling noise broke the silence. Kari looked over her shoulder.

Nothing.

"Okay…this is kind of scary…" She mumbled. Was this some kind of Halloween joke?

"This isn't funny!" She called. No response came. A shiver ran down the petite girl's spine. "This really isn't funny…" Kari said, mostly to herself.

She reached the stairs at the end of the hall and pushed the door open. The lights were fully on downstairs, and she could hear muffled voices. "…granger. Where is she?"

"I-cough-can't tell you."

Kari jerked back a step. Granger. That was her last name!

Anyone with common sense would have turned and left, but Kari headed further down the stairs, closer to the voices. "You try my patience…"

The resceptionist said nothing this time. He just coughed.

Kari walked closer still and pushed the door open a crack. Some red-haired guy was holding the secretary by the neck. He was wearing weird armor, and little wing-bits floated in the air around him.

CRACK. The man loosened his grip, and the other fell to the ground dead. Kari froze. The killer turned his head and looked at her. A slasher's smirk appeared on his face.

"There you are, little girl."

Kari screamed, stumbling away and running for the stairs. The shadows in front of her rippled, and suddenly someone grabbed her from behind.

Siarnaq put a hand over his captive's mouth and knocked her unconscious. Cyrus's smile widened as his pawn appeared from the stairs. "YOU SAY THE GIRL IS IMPORTANT. QUERY…WHY?" The shadow megaman questioned.

Cyrus tapped a few buttons on his gauntlet. "A broken child is easily manipulated." He replied smugly. "In fact…he's walking into my hands as we speak."

With Neo and Grey

"Where does he keep it?" Neo demanded. They had gone up and down the rat maze that Cyrus called a base, and they were yet to come across the antidote. Time was ticking away as he spoke.

Neo hated this feeling. The feeling of helplessness. He had all this power and yet he was struggling to save his sister.

Cyrus would suffer for this one.

"I'm not sure." Grey admitted. "He's paranoid. If it isn't in the safes we just checked, it's probably in his desk."

"Which is where?"

"This way." Grey led him back the way they came and down another hall. They had just reached the door to the Model W room when a loud screech halted them in their tracks.

Mechadoliods appeared in the hall behind them.

Grey groaned. "We tripped the alarms." He turned toward Neo. "Go ahead, I'll deal with this."

"But-"

"You said yourself, every second is precious! GO!"

Neo turned and headed inside. He got halfway across the room and froze.

No. This can't be…

Kari was lying awkwardly on the floor, coughing blood. A series of kuni were buried in her side. "Neo…don't come…trap…" She managed weakly.

The doors swung shut behind him.

"Humans are truly pathetic…" A voice said. Cyrus walked out of the shadows, arms crossed, to stand right behind Kari. "I figured that you, the feral Model O, would be less soft."

"You-!" Neo's voice shook. He was speechless with rage at this point.

"You walked right into a trap without thinking twice about it, and why? Your sister is dying. Feh. A true megaman would focus on destroying the enemy in front of him, not waste his time dealing with liabilities like this." Cyrus looked down at Kari as if she were some sort of disease.

"You call my only family a liability?" Neo spat out the words, his voice gone flat. "You call the only non-family member ever to care about me a liability?"

"Less than that." Cyrus snorted. "She's a powerless being. A stain on the earth, dragging everyone down with her weakness." Kari coughed again, as if to punctuate his words. "This is why humans don't deserve their land. They can't take care of themselves. They always needed reploids to save them from their own problems, and thanked them by declaring them maverick. How did such a weak, spineless race survive for this long? They should have been eliminated by Omega in the Elf Wars! They have ONLY survived because other, greater people have held them up! People like this," He made a disgusted gesture at Kari, who continued to loose blood as he spoke, "and those goodie-two-shoes chosen ones are the only reason humanity lives."

"YOU have the strength to purify this world, rid it of the filth that eats away at it." He gestured to Neo. "Your sister is weak, but you are not. I've seen you at work, you unstable young man. Come to me, like your predecessor came to my master, and destroy the stains that ruin this beautiful earth."

The mere idea that this man dared try to recruit him made Neo's vision go bleed red.

Cyrus had been expecting an answer, but the one he received wasn't the one he desired.

The howl shook the earth, the wordless cry of rage echoing through the land around it.

It was painful, but at the same time he was running on some sort of weird high. The madness was back, but…it was channeled. It was directed, rather than scatter bomb random. Everything was forgotten but the rage, and the unadulterated need to destroy the being in front of it in the most horrible way he could devise. For once…the God of Destruction had purpose, its own hateful direction. The boy had finally been pushed too far, too times had the people he cared about suffered, taken blows for him.

The tame one, the kind one, was incapacitated, near death. That sweet smile was disappearing, the heartbeat that kept him anchored in sanity was fading away into nothingness. His grip was loosening, the black water of insanity below him raging invitingly. She was all he wanted. All he needed. They BOTH were, and they were both threatened, threatened by the same person. Anyone with half a brain would have known to step aside and let the girls survive, but no. Not only had he harmed them, but he had bragged about it, arrogance and self-assurance dripping off every word, as if it hadn't occurred to him that the being in front of him could slaughter him in an instant.

The BUG had forgotten his place in the presence of the Shadow of Death, figuring he could control him the same way his master had, by stripping away the layers of humanity that his loved ones had given him, by eliminating them.

The same way he had destroyed the first, to get the fabled Crimson Demon to obey his orders without question. His lips curled back into a snarl that would have made Lucifer tremble, revealing fearsome fangs, at the memory Model O had given him.

Her laugh, her eyes, they seemed so real to him even through a half-forgotten memory. And then she was gone, shrapnel buried in her chest, lying on the floor. Just like from his dreams, only in a bitter reality.

He could destroy anything in his way, and the man knew that. The blood roaring through his veins, he gave the man in front of him a look that would made a devil cower, all the hatred he had ever felt directed at the person in front of him. The person who had taken a single step back, as if realizing his mistake, his final mistake.

Was this all the great Model W do? Force others to do its bidding by destroying their lifelines, the ones who held their hearts, tearing away the walls that protected them? Obliterate their minds and hearts, leaving only the easily-manipulated husk behind?

How dare he…if he were to take away the people he loved so dearly, he must WANT to die. Suicide by the new Omega. That was the only explanation for such idiotic behavior, for such arrogance in thinking that this crime would go unpunished, that he would simply comply after everything he knew was destroyed.

Kari's eyes fluttered open again, trying to find him. "N…eo…" Her breathing was getting weaker. "I'm…so…rry… … …I couldn't… …stay….too…dark…" That face, one of the only things he'd ever loved, grew dark as her consciousness slipped away from blood loss.

Kari was apologizing? She had done no wrong! She had harmed no one! She had done anything to merit the suffering she had to endure!

Because of HIM!

He howled again, a dystopian, animalistic sound he hadn't realized he could make as a human being. The pain was gone, replaced by white-hot fury. His only link to the kind world lay on the floor, her life draining away as he stood there, helpless…

The saber appeared in his hand once again, although he would have just as happily used his bare hands. The crystals on his armor were glowing, the sign of Omega alight. Neo's eyes opened, revealing black eyes with red irises.

The attempt to break his will had resulted in something far worse.

"You have to understand, Neo, I had no other choice!" Cyrus began, but a low barking laugh from said chosen one broke into his pleading.

"I know the drill, what you want me to do." Neo snarled, dark light burning in his eyes. "I'm supposed to go on a roaring rampage of revenge, right, to benefit you and Model W." He spat the syllable out. "Well, fine. I'll roar." His blade glowed red. "I'll rampage." His claws dug into his armor, so tight did they hold his buster gun. His voice had a double echo to it, and anyone who knew whom the other belonged to rightly trembled in terror. "But I'LL be the one to get the bloody satisfaction, Cyrus!"

With one last inhuman cry, Neo Omega lunged forward, blood-hungry.

Dark red blood splashed against the floor. The coward had called reinforcements. Huh, let's see how long THAT lasts. It was beyond the usual damage he caused…almost like his hatred had been narrowed into a beam, aimed in a single direction. His eyes were locked onto his prize, who had fled into another room.

Neo looked around him, rage boiling at the sight of the mavericks surrounding him. How dare these pathetic beings get in his way! Beings with no backbone, mere PUPPETS!

"Get the hell out of my way!" He spoke in a voice not of his own. He threw his saber up in the air, jumped and kicked in down into the earth. The resulting shockwave tore through the cannon fodder in his path, eliminating it in one well-placed blow.

This is what Albert had always intended for a Megaman to be-merciless and in total control of the battlefield. He probably hadn't imagined that the only one to reach that point would be against him.

Neo didn't care at this point. He only cared about his target.

Smashing the door into splinters, he saw Cyrus disappear into the transerver. He flipped the desk over, causing papers to spill everywhere. A vial clinked onto the floor next to it.

In his rage, Neo realized that it was the antidote he had been searching for.

"Neo?" Unthinking, Neo sent it spinning across the floor in the direction of Grey's voice and took off after his target.

Grey stared blankly in the direction Neo had disappeared. "he's gone crazy!" He exclaimed. He tried to decide what to do. He could tell from that murderous rampage that Neo could handle himself. Plus, he was more likely to calm down if Maria and Kari weren't dead…

"Let's hope all hell doesn't break loose before then!" Grey mumbled fervently, grabbing the vial and Kari. He transported away.

He didn't hang around long enough to noticed that the Model W's did the same a few moments later.

End Chapter

Oh yeah! It's good to be back! I'm hating on myself for not finishing this before, but I'm glad I'm writing it again! I hope you all enjoy this!

Oh, and please review!