There was a twisting, spiraling sensation that opened inside of him. This was confirmation of his greatest fears. Of the few people who he had ever met, they were the exception and that the rule of the Earth was ostracization.

He didn't know how to talk to people correctly. He had never seen someone his own age -- would they just be small adults? How would they act?

How should he be acting?

He stopped chasing after the shadows. Why should he even bother? They looked like they would slip away if he tried to cling to them.

What did he expect? For his beloved Earth to be a paradise willing to teach him the right way to be a child?

It was too late. The child that he was no longer existed.

He fell onto his knees, then sat onto the lunar surface, stirring up a grey cloud.

Maybe he could find some kindness here. Something that would let him sleep and dream of a place beyond this.

"Triese, my dear, it was wonderful to meet you!" Dr. Goodall cheered brightly, "You take care of yourself and your Navi, okay? And if you run into any more trouble with Noise feel free to drop by any time and we'll take a look."

"There's a maintenance room off to the side here that you can use to. Time travel," Aaron suggested with a notable pause.

"I think that'll work!" Geo chirped, nodding and smiling to Triese, "Let's get you home!"

They shuffled off into a room to the side, spacious enough for at least the two of them along with the bundles of wires and racks of equipment that lined the walls. Aaron lingered at the entrance, peering in warily.

"Curious about their time travel, Aaron?" Dr. Goodall teased good-naturedly.

He jumped and scrambled away, apologizing shortly afterwards.

Geo chuckled, turned back to Triese, and had her show him how to open a portal through his chatroom app. Shortly after, a portal opened with an obscuring swirl of light preventing anyone from seeing the other side. He emphasized that Triese should message him when she got home safely, just in case something went wrong.

Everyone said their final goodbyes and Triese stepped through the portal. It closed behind her, disappearing in an instant and leaving nothing left. For a quiet couple of seconds they all waited for something to break, but it soon became apparent that things actually turned out alright. The whole room let out a collective sigh of relief once the anxiety passed.

"Good morning everyone," a slow, drowsy voice came from one of Aaron's pockets, "What did I miss?"

Aaron groaned in resignation, "A lot, Ursa. You missed a lot."

That got a chuckle out of everyone, then Omega-Xis leaned down to ask, "Well? Do you still want to stay out of chatroom shenanigans, Geo?"

Geo pondered this, then met his partner's gaze and concluded, "I think there's a lot we're going to have to learn if we want to help anyone in there, but I think it'd be good to do so. To help the past and our future too."

"Now we're talking!!" Omega-Xis roared and pulled Geo into a side hug, "The interdimensional time fugitives are on the case!!"

Geo immediately protested, claiming loudly that they were not in fact 'fugitives' by any sense of the word while the rest of WAZA listened curiously to the pair of heroes making a ruckus. One thing was clear from all of this -- that this was just the beginning of many strange things to come.

Aaron deflated, "I know it's probably fine, but as a scientist who uses physics daily, it's always going to worry me every time I hear that time got broken."

"You humans worry too much!" Omega-Xis groused, waving a claw dismissively, "Deal with the problem when it becomes a problem!"

Geo gave Aaron a very "he's got a point you know" sort of look and nod, but that only made the man deflate further with a concerned sigh.

"Aaron, this is what science is all about!" Dr. Goodall proclaimed, "Learning from mistakes so we can get ever closer to describing the true nature of the universe!"

This didn't do much to lighten his mood and instead he turned to Geo and asked, "So, how are you going to send Triese back home?"

"Oh! Um," Geo pulled out his Hunter-VG and the chatroom app, "There's this application that connects a bunch of different dimensions together across time and space and it lets us communicate and travel between them. There's even one that's from 24XX!"

"Geo," Aaron raised a hand, "Anymore and I think I'm gonna pass out."

There was a pregnant pause that then burst into chuckles. Everyone but Aaron seemed unbothered by all this.

Dr. Goodall glanced at the monitor briefly, nodded, and then turned back to the group, "Final scans are done and everything's come back clean. You're free to disconnect your PET now, Triese."

"Ah," Geo popped up brightly with realization, "I guess that means you'll be heading back home soon then. I hope we'll be able to hang out again some time!"

"Yeah!!" Omega-Xis roared, "Bring some friends and we'll all play baseball! We'll cream all of you!"

"You'll be able to leave in just a second, let me do a final scan and you should then be good to go. Do you have a ride back, Triese dear?" Dr. Goodall asked, leaning over to peer at the group.

"I'll be taking her back, Dr. Goodall!" Geo offered, raising his hand like he was in class.

"Ah, very good, well then," Dr. Goodall looked over her shoulder at a pair of snooping WAZA officials who upon being spotted by their senior, suddenly remembered the work they needed to do and hurriedly left everyone in the Main Computer room alone. Dr. Goodall smirked to herself and then walked over to Triese and the others, "Will you need any help getting her back to when she's supposed to be?"

Geo sputtered, "W-Wait! How did you...?"

Dr. Goodall smiled warmly, "The data on her PET gave it away. Though it wasn't hard to suspect something was going on the moment you two walked in -- there's always something like this going on with you, Geo."

Geo chuckled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head and then turned to Triese, "This isn't the first time something like this has happened. A while back I went to the past and met Lan Hikari, don't know if you know of them."

"More time travel...?" Aaron groaned, rubbing his hair under his hat, "The less I think about causality breaking, the better."

"I wouldn't worry about it, Aaron. Stranger things have happened," Omega-Xis huffed.

"Like you?" Geo quipped.

"Yeah like me," his partner agreed and then guffawed heartily.

The figures of people fell to wisps of dust as his eyes fell on them. The features he recognized in the corners of his vision belonged to people he had never met.

No, he knew he was alone, and beyond that, empty. Hollowed out like a shell with a veneer of something over top.

Gentle and kind words tried to reach his ears, but he couldn't make out the words and he knew that they couldn't fill the void inside him.

The effort to walk across the lunar surface was weighing him down and Argent seemed further away the more he walked towards it.

He closed his eyes and reached out for those voices that were calling out to him. Whoever they were, they had to help. Whoever they were, they had to let him forget this darkness for just a moment.

"What!? You haven't been any trouble at all!" Geo blurted out as he sprang forward, "Triese, I had a really good time today showing you around and hanging out! I'm just glad you're ok after all of that."

It was night and day really. Siren Splash was ruthless, singularly focused, and cruel. And Triese was everything that wasn't. She didn't deserves this.

Omega-Xis appeared with a groaning bellow, "Are you two done having your pity party?"

"Mega..." Geo chastised strongly with just a sharp glare.

"I'm serious! What use is it to mope around and feel sorry for yourself?" he huffed, folding his arms against his chest, "So you got taken over by an FM-ian, happens all the time! That's just the thing with humans, you all've got this little hole of loneliness in you that FM-ians nestle themselves into all nice and neatly, there's no use feeling sad about it, it's just human!"

He and Geo shared a look and then he palmed his partner's head and ruffled his hair, making it full of static and even more spiky than it already was. Geo batted Omega-Xis away, chuckling.

"So just listen to your partner Lurerre there, alright? She sounds like she knows what she's talking about," Omega-Xis concluded with a prodding point towards Triese's PET.

Geo's eyes went wide with concern as Triese berated herself. For the moment he was too stunned to speak.

Dr. Goodall took this opportunity to speak up as she typed, "Triese, my dear, everything is going to be okay, because you're so much stronger than you think. And I earnestly believe that. Not many people are kind enough to hold back an FM-ians influence, and from what I can tell with the lack of damage to key structures, you did a wonderful job fighting back. You were very brave!"

It was a nice thing to say, Geo knew, and he noticed the lack of detail about what actually had been damaged. The many, Many Satella Police Wizards that fell in that fight would be difficult to replace, but not impossible. And who knows how much damage Siren Splash had accrued before he and Omega-Xis had found her.

Aaron knelt down and offered a white cloth to Triese, "It's all done. WAZA's sensors aren't detecting any traces of a rogue FM-ian, and those sensors are world class!" he chuckled, briefly, "You're safe now, I promise."

Geo fell back onto his hands behind him, sighing deeply as he finally felt the anxiety of the lingering battle leave him. He looked over at Triese and gave her a reassuring thumbs up. It was over!! And thankfully, no one had gotten hurt.

Geo sat upright at the mention of Mega Man. Maybe she was more conscious after that fight than he thought.

She probably was also able to remember a lot of the fight too, given her reaction. Siren must have gotten her influence deep into Triese...

"You weren't stupid," Geo stressed, pausing for a moment to gather his thoughts, "Wave Changing... It works because a pair to work together to be better and stronger, but Siren didn't do that! Siren was the stupid one! And so that's why you're here and she isn't..."

Although... there was always a seed that FM-ians latched onto to take control. Some commonality between them and their host that they manipulated. For Triese and Siren... The only thing he could really think of at the moment was 'interested in water' and that was definitely not enough to go off of.

But at the same time.

To suggest that she did want this in some way? That she was in part responsible for her misery right now? He couldn't bear to bring that up with her at this moment. She was devastated enough as is!

Geo clenched a fist again, smoldering with righteous rage over such a nice person like Triese being taken advantage of. He imagined his own words and feelings being tossed aside like that and wanted to punch Siren all over again.

Great. It was weird.

Well, he already knew this and it wasn't comforting to hear it coming from the mouth of an expert. But now he at least had confirmation.

But his creation...

Flashes of moments from a past he was not there for peppered his vision. Hardly any detail, barely perceptible, data broken and frayed at the edges. Perceived with the little data wrapped up in them instead of actually seen with his eyes.

It was something he'd gotten used to. It wasn't obtrusive now and at this point had given up on trying to understand it. And in any case, it made him feel closer to Ellen, bizarrely enough.

Cometman's face journeyed through furrowed then pensive then distant looks, landing right back onto his usual nonplussed expression.

"Nope, like I said, memories just start at one point," he shrugged, "Figures that would be another thing that's weird about me. You know..." he trailed off, remembering his first encounter with Dragonman, "Do all Navis just have a lot of this knowledge built in?? Like, I tried playing chess, right? Apparently other Navis just have the rules baked into them fresh out of the box, but I sure didn't! I had to look that up! I don't know why I'm complaining about this right now, it's just," he smirked, "life's crazy isn't it?"

He resigned himself to that conclusion. No one would have these answers for him. He was weird and that was just how things were he supposed.

Geo jumped, scooching over quickly with hands raised placatingly, "It's okay! It's okay. We're right here. We..."

He sighed, letting his shoulders slump, "You didn't mean to do what you did. You were being controlled by someone else. But we stopped them and you're safe now!"

He clenched a fist as he was pained by Triese's expression. It'd be easy to brush all this away, pretend none of this happened, just to comfort her now. But...

"Triese, look at me for a sec," he suggested, trying to redirect her attention, "This isn't the first time I've dealt with something like this. I've had friends that this has happened to before. People who have felt just like you're feeling right now."

He thought of Luna, every venomous attack burning with unheard rage. And her regret afterwards.

"They're okay now, and you will be too, okay? I promise."

Geo blinked owlishly and then scrambled in place a little, "Ah-! Yes! Um! So there's this thing called Wave Changing and-"

Omega-Xis gripped Geo and squeezed him into a side hug, "THIS right here is Mega Man! Hero of the planet three times over! So don't you worry about a thing, we're experienced in this sort of stuff! Triese'll be right as rain before you know it."

Geo chuckled and nodded affirmatively, "Yeah, we've had this sort of stuff happen before and everything's always turned out alright in the end. It just might... take some time."

He wiggled out of Omega-Xis's grip and then knelt down to Triese on the floor slowly. He reached out, but Triese recoiled a hair and caused him to flinch. She did not seem to be doing well here. In one motion he scooped her up, cradling her in close.

He looked over at Lurerre with a gentle smile, then pulsed out into the Main Computer room of WAZA with Triese in his arms. He laid her down against the wall in the back where it was dark and quiet, then undid his Wave Change.

Aaron came running over, but stopped a couple of steps away. Geo couldn't muster a victorious expression and instead refocused on keeping an eye on Triese.

The only sound in the room was the low rhythmic tapping sounds of Dr. Goodall on her keyboard as it seemed everyone else at WAZA was holding their breath while watching the aftermath unfold. After a moment, Dr. Goodall walked around the massive computer and placed Triese's PET on the floor right next to the poor girl.

"Take your time waking up, Triese," she suggested soothingly, "Lurerre's right here next to you," and then backed up, giving her plenty of space.

They all waited silently with Geo sitting the closest to Triese on the ground, anxiously hoping that she would bounce right back to her usual bubbly self.

A pillar of light split the world and fell upon Siren Splash like holy judgement, shaking the comp space and crackling with boiling electricity that trickled across the comp floor. Siren Splash instantly collapsed as her helmet cracked open against the ground, giving the dazed Triese a view of her attacker.

From the bolt's origin stood Mega Man, hands clasped and a lingering crackle of electricity dissipating from him. He slowly lowered his guard, cautiously watching Siren Splash on the ground. Once she ceased moving Geo ran to her side.

"Triese!!" he called out, slowing and kneeling next to her, "Triese... Are you ok...?"

"Geeze Geo you went a bit overkill there, dontcha think?" Omega-Xis worried beside him.

"I... Anything less and I think she would have been able to deflect it," he concluded, sighing with relief as the Wave Change over Triese began to disintegrate.

"Yeah, I suppose," Omega-Xis grumbled, leaning over their defeated opponent, "That Siren is one heck of an FM-ian. Scary."

Geo knew that she'd be fine, he had dealt with plenty of FM-ian Wave Changes to know that it was the FM-ian who took the brunt of the damage, but it still worried him.

As expected, Aaron called him soon after to check on him and Triese, and Geo updated him on everything. After hanging up, Geo turned his attention to Lurerre floating in the capsule that, presumably, was de-Noising her.

"Hey Lurerre, I don't know if you overheard but, Triese is okay! I'm sure she will be waking up soon," he reassured, then cast his eyes down, "I'm sorry things turned out like this."

What laid before Siren Splash was a long and winding path that stretched far into the comp space. The walls were lined with images of glowing monitors with outlines of the research going on at WAZA. All of them dim save for one in the back, shining like a beacon, its content unknown from such a distance.

Stray viruses and automated security programs descended upon Siren Splash, slowing her down briefly. They posed no real threat and fell in droves to her bubbles. Her swirling musical notes captured long range attacks while her buster cleared the path forward with bursts of cleansing water.

It was all going well and only a person with a lifetimes worth of experience dealing with tricks would be suspicious. The humans were fighting back, after all. All computing power was being put towards a counter attack so clearly the humans didn't actually want Siren Splash there, so what was it? What was WAZA hiding?

Whatever it was, it needed to be destroyed. That's why Siren Splash was there, wasn't it? a silent scream of unknown origin echoed in her mind

After carving a path of destruction, Siren Splash had arrived at the core. A large white capsule stood in the center with pulsating tubes of red light oscillating away from the central chamber. An aqua figure floated inside, arms crossed against its chest. It stirred as she approached.

This was it, this was her target...! The thing she was meant to destroy!!

Wave after wave of Satella Police Wizards fell before Siren Splash. Their near rhythmic charge had given her ample targets with predictable movements. Their entire strategy of attempting to overwhelm their enemy only served to make more of them fall faster.

Within all the confusion, some of the Wizards turned on their fellow officers and began attacking each other, evidently falling under Siren Splash's beguiling influence. This thinned the crowd significantly, leaving the giant shield over WAZA open to attack.

In the building every scientist was at a monitor, hands on keyboard, relaying information on headsets. The only time people stopped was when they braced themselves on their work stations every time the building shook from an attack on the shield.

Aaron held his hands, half out of nerves and half praying for a miracle. He stared at the monitor Dr. Goodall was working at, watching the noise slowly get removed from Lurerre.

That poor girl Triese, getting mixed up in all this chaos, when in reality she probably just wanted...

"I'll be right back, you keep working on Lurerre!" he exclaimed, bolting and heading straight to central command.

The head of WAZA was busy directing the hoard, constantly surrounded by at least two officials that would exchange a bit of information before swapping out with another in waiting.

Aaron pushed his way through the crowd and addressed the head with level headed urgency, "Sir, we need to shut down all electronics, anything with a comp space, except for the Main Computer in the back."

This caused everyone in a 10 foot radius to pause incredulously before quickly going back to their business. The head gave Aaron a stern look, then after taking a deep breath to prepare himself, asked firmly, "Mr. Boreal, what do you have planned?"

That got everyone's attention. A slow ripple of turning heads propagated out until the whole command center was looking at him.

He swallowed his nerves and continued, "We know what Siren Splash is after. If we can direct her by cutting off any escape routes, Mega Man can stop her right then and there. In the Main Computer Cyber Core."

The head of WAZA furrowed his brow briefly, looking into Aaron's eyes like he had a question that he answered himself a moment later, "...Okay. Divert all power and computing to the Main Computer, shut down anything and everything else! Unplug it if you have to! " he readdressed Aaron shortly afterwards, "I'm trusting you, Mr. Boreal. This gambit of yours has to work."

He thought back to a time when he had put his life on the line to prove his faith in someone and nodded, "Trust me. I believe in her."

The head of WAZA closed his eyes, striking a small smirk underneath his mustache, just as the overhead lights dimmed and all the monitors that surrounded them shut off, leaving them in a dimly lit, abnormally quiet room.

One last air display in the middle of the room showed a live feed of the EM shielding outside of the building. The hexagonal structure flickered and faded away, and then the display itself disappeared soon after. The hook had been set, now all that was left was for their catch to take the bait.

"Halt!!" a Satella Police Wizard called out as it lead a charge of other official looking Wizards brandishing stun batons.

They warped in and stormed forward, becoming an oncoming deluge of a counter-attack. As Siren Splash began her assault, a barrier arose around WAZA, encompassing the building in hexagon patterned light. The Satella Police Wizards quickly surrounded her, but were quickly knocked aside and bubbled by Siren Splash's strength.

Inside WAZA, Dr. Goodall watched the feed with a tense expression. She whipped around and quickly made way for the main computer in the back. She continued her work on clearing the Noise from Lurerre, focusing intently as if the world around her had disappeared entirely.

Aaron did a double take as he watched the doctor walk away while the rest of WAZA was scrambling like a disturbed nest of ants.

He followed after her, leaning over conspiratorially and hissing, "Dr. Goodall, is this really the time to be working on that?"

"Now don't blurt this out, Aaron dear," she advised sweetly, keeping her eyes trained on the screen and hands on the keyboard, "But that's Triese that's attacking us."

"That's Tr-!" he sputtered, covered his mouth and quickly recovered, "Wait, do you think Lurerre can help us with this?"

Dr. Goodall furrowed her brow, "Not yet... Maybe at the right moment. We can't risk looking like a kidnapper and agitating her further. This is a delicate situation."

Aaron nodded and adjusted his cap, "Right. Ok then! I'll contact Geo and keep him updated. Let's hope he can get through to her."

"It's not him I'm worried about," she noted.

The entire building shook like someone had slammed a drum against the outside, making some lights flicker and causing everyone to pause and look at the monitors. The fight was not going in their favor.

Aaron pulled out his Hunter and called Geo, anxiously watching as the signal struggled to connect through the shielding, "Come on... Geo, wherever you are, please be okay."

Slipping right between the water notes, Geo dashed in, delivered his attack and leapt out of the way of the oncoming shielding notes. The slash revealed just a sliver of Triese's face underneath and Geo swore he could see the panic in her eyes.

Just a little bit more...!

He prepared hit next attack -- the only way forward was a relentless barrage! Stun Knuckle ought to stop all this-!

The deluge from Sticky Rain stopped him in his tracks while the force of the water held him in place. He cursed the fact he was countered so deftly. Was that Triese or Siren that was this good at fighting!? It was concerning that as the fight continued, Siren Splash was getting stronger. Whatever that meant, it wasn't good...!

When the attack ended, Geo and Omega-Xis were left way far back. Siren Splash was so far ahead that it'd be impossible to catch up now.

"Blast it! Geo! Get moving! She's gonna reach WAZA!!" Omega-Xis roared.

Worry gripped Geo and tightening by the second. He couldn't stop her from doing what she'd soon regret.

"Hate to do this but..." he muttered, pulling up an air display, "I'm going to make a call. WAZA needs to know what's heading for them."

An ever present low hum welcomed Reg with a familiarity so loud it was like he had never left. His eyes adjusted to the darkness, slowly making out the ceiling of his living room. It was never truly dark here, it was too dangerous for that.

Instead, the ten thousand square feet of building he called home was the safest place to be for miles. At least, that was the joke that people liked to tell.

He arose from laying down on the couch, feeling heavier than usual. His first step off led him to the middle of the greenhouse. Under the thick glass roof he could barely make out the stars shining above.

The walls of greenery underlit by floor lights offered a small, inaccurate glimpse of what nature was.

He knew better, he couldn't stay here hecouldntstayherehecouldntstayhere, no there were things to do and idle hands made for an inefficient life.

He stepped outside of the greenhouse, got his orders and got to work. His father he couldn't see his face had given him the job to study diligently and so he did. The words on the page filled his mind but the words themselves danced and morphed every time he glanced.

He gave his eyes a break. The monitor next to his desk offered a view of the outside.

Black. Sunless night and stars and pure, absolute black.

A darkness so raw the mind conjured images just to have something in the blanks.

No, he had to focus on his studies his-

The books, the tablets, the pens, the tools all gone. He had fallen through the window into the dark and as he spun to get his bearings, all that there was that surrounded him was the night.

His EVA suit had already began to feel the chill of the sunless sky, but there was a heading for home, and all Reg had to do was follow.

Cometman couldn't hide his disappointment. His face immediately fell upon hearing that Rockman hadn't recalled that incident. He quickly tried to recover his previous more pleasant expression, he wouldn't wanna be rude or something.

"Well that's just it," he grumbled, holding his chin, "Everyone has been calling me a Navi. Ellen, Reg, Eni, even One and Silver. But-" he gently tapped his fist to his lips, "Okay, how do Navi's normally get made and activated? Cause whatever was normal for other Navis probably didn't happen to me. To me, one day I was just. Here. I was apparently just a video game character before all this and then I was just, this?

"Is that-" he grasped the air like he was searching for words floating right before him, "Weird? Is it weird that I think that it's weird?"

Was there something wrong with me?

Those were the words he wanted to say, but couldn't voice them. He knew the words, he knew what they all meant, but to say them aloud was to admit they were real.

And on top of it all, he couldn't ask Rockman that.

Triese's sorrowful rage struck a chord and for a brief moment, Geo hesitated. It was only a second but that was all it took for Siren Splash's attack to hit its mark.

Trapped in another bubble, he and Omega-Xis were flung and bounced down the wave road until it popped on its own, sending him sliding on the road prone.

"Gah-!" Geo coughed, quickly struggling to right himself, "Sorry-! I-!"

"Oi! Don't you start Geo!" Omega-Xis interrupted swiftly, "She's getting in your head, just focus on how happy Triese'll be when you get her out of this mess!!"

His partner was right, so much so that it almost seemed obvious in retrospect. With his mind unclouded, he affirmed with a short rallying cry and loaded his next Battle Card.

"Black Ink!!" he yelled as a black missile shot out of his buster, landing in front of Siren Splash's path with a burst of heavy dark clouds.

It formed a dense fog, instantly turning the area around Siren Splash into a false night. Silence fell in the darkness. Then a blur of light silhouetted a humanoid figure that burst from the ink with a sword made of lightning aiming straight for Siren Splash's helmet.

Geo leapt back to dodge the wall of bubbles, hearing the The Snowball thundering towards him, but not Triese's hesitations. The giant ball of snow burst through the bubbles, ending up large enough to obscure where Siren Splash was, which meant she also couldn't see Mega Man was well. Geo estimated how long it would take for the attack to reach him, preparing his counter, waiting for the last moment to activate it.

The Snowball slammed into a cloud of leaves and appearing right next to Siren Splash was Mega Man, sword in hand, slashing down and just barely missing her. In that moment as he finally got in close, time seemed to slow as he recognized the face of that girl who was opening her heart up just minutes before this.

He couldn't follow up with another attack. He took too long and landed out of his Fox-Fu awkwardly.

"Triese..." he squeaked, then emboldened himself, "When this is all done, I promise I'll make it up to you!! Just hang in there!"

With a swift raise of a foot, he activated his next attack, "Flicker Kick!!" and began rapid fire kicking, launching electric laced projectiles with every strike, peppering Siren Splash with bright, flashing bursts of electricity.