Iris.EXE

Iris.EXE is a NetNavi and the younger sister of Colonel.EXE. She appears in Mega Man Battle Network 6 and is presumed to be human. She however had always been traveling through the real world in a CopyBot. Lan discovers her true form during the final events of the game. While she had a crush on Lan Hikari, and almost worked up the courage to tell him, she decided against it as it would never work out between them. She was deleted after fusing with Colonel.EXE in order to delete Falzar/Gregar once and for all. Her role in the anime is much different, in that she is trying to save her world from destruction.

Game History
In the games, Colonel.EXE was made to be the perfect military NetNavi, and Iris.EXE was made when Wily extracted the part of Colonel's data that allowed him to control machines and apparently the data that worked as his kindness program. She was initially supposed to be a war program, although her attitudes towards human nature being violent had changed after occupying a CopyBot at the lobby in the school at Central City and attending classes with the various students, although she was fearful of rebelling against her creator until Lan Hikari arrived at her school. She led Lan throughout the course of the game towards his goals and provided him CopyBots whenever necessary.

She was later kidnapped by Dr. Wily and used to control the Cybeasts Falzar and Gregar, but in a turn of events she worked together with Colonel.EXE and used their combined strength to beat one of the Cybeasts while MegaMan.EXE defeated the other. They managed to defeat the Cybeast they were fighting, although the effort left them both severely wounded. They later reformatted themselves back into one in order to separate the other beast from MegaMan.EXE, who possessed him after it was destroyed. Unfortunately, Dr. Wily had programmed Colonel and Iris to be deleted when they remerged, and the result was just that, although they nonetheless managed to destroy the remaining Cybeast in the process. Although Iris.EXE was dead, when MegaMan.EXE was using a CopyBot Iris formerly occupied in sent to the Hikari's house, he thought he heard her presence. However, in the end of the game where Wily redeems his actions, it is mentioned that both her and Colonel are rebuilt in the future by Wily, where she uses her powers to repair damage done to the network, while Colonel deletes Viruses. However, it's probable that it is not actually Iris and Colonel that were rebuilt, but rather systems named after them, as the two are continuously referred to with quotes.

Anime
Iris appears in Rockman.EXE Beast and Beast+, and has a similar role to her video game counterpart.

Manga History
Iris appears in the final two volumes of the manga. She is the keeper of the legendary program that would be bestowed upon the strongest NetNavi in the world. In order to determine who was worthy, she brought many NetNavis, including MegaMan, to the Underground to fight each other and had them collect the emblems from the losers.

Iris later appears after Colonel gives MegaMan his emblem and reveals that she herself is the legendary program and is Colonel’s sister. At first she and Colonel were one program that was created to defeat the Cybeasts, but they were unable to do so and instead sealed the Cybeasts in the underground. Iris remained in the underground to keep them imprisoned while Colonel left to search for the ultimate NetNavi.

Iris then bestows MegaMan with the power to Super Beast Out and is deleted along with Colonel. She makes one final appearance to tell MegaMan that the Cybeasts were always destined to return and that destroying the Cybeast’s nucleus would destroy the creature for good.

Trivia

 * As mentioned above this was only shown instance of a Navi falling in love with a human. This was revealed right before Iris merged with Colonel in the game, as she said, "Lan Hikari... I..." As Colonel replied, "What is it you want to say?" as she replied, "Nevermind... I'm just a NetNavi after all." Presumably this has happened before, however, as a script at the Beach studio in Mega Man Battle Network 3 outlines a soap opera in which a woman is in love with her friend, who is in turn in love with his friend's Navi.


 * Iris.EXE is the one of the three Navis in the Mega Man Battle Network series to have a counterpart from Mega Man X series, along with Colonel.EXE and Zero.EXE.


 * The fact that Iris.EXE is deleted at the end of Mega Man Battle Network 6 may be a reference to her original counterpart dying at the end of Mega Man X4. Coincidentally, both versions also ended up deleted/destroyed in large part due to remerging with their other halves.