A/N: Read the end of the chapter to know about random authoress' fact.

Slow chapter again, but next one the pace will pick up so fast that you won't even see it. *insert evil mad laugh here*

Anyway, I do not own Rockman and anything coming from Capcom. I do own the plot idea, though. And the writing. Yep. Writing's mine. And the plot. Plot is mine too. Kindly refrain from stealing it.

Az.

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The infirmary was completely silent as Yuichiro slowly unwrapped the bandage around Forte's middle, not wanting to reopen the wound if the cloth was stuck on dry blood. Sure, the injury seemed to be completely healed, but it was better safe than sorry. Especially with someone like his current patient.

"It looks ok," he muttered more to himself than to the navi when he finally uncovered the stitched cut. There was no infection and the data had reformed itself, cancelling any scar that would have marked the skin on any human. "All that's left to do is to take off the stitches. It might be a bit uncomfortable, though."

Brown eyes looked up at Forte's face and observed how the navi was disinterested at his work, almost as if he was absorbed into his own thoughts. Curious, Yuichiro slightly tilted his head forwards and caught the navi's usually hidden eyes. They were dark red as he had seen them during his rampage, but unlike before, now they were unfocused and just looking straight ahead. Forte remained impassive for a good few seconds, then he turned his head and looked at the man treating his wound, their eyes finally meeting for the real first time.

For a moment, Yuichiro felt something really familiar coming from the navi sitting on the bed in front of him, but then, when the man thought that Forte was going to say something really important, his dark red eyes looked away and he returned to be disinterested.

Biting his lip to refrain himself from speaking to the navi and ask him questions that he really needed answers to, the scientist resumed his silent work on Forte's side. He worked in silence for several long minutes, removing the all the stitches with a small pair of pliers and scissors until all that was left to do was to clean the loose dry blood away. Using a damp cloth, Yuichiro carefully rubbed the navi's side and observed how the data quickly reformed around the small punctures of the stitches and completely sealed them, rendering Forte's side as unmarked as it had been before he had been wounded.

Discarding the dirty cloth and moving to Forte's other side, Yuichiro moved the cloak aside and started to unwrap the bandage on the navi's upper left arm. He was careful in doing that, but as before, the injury had completely disappeared as if it had never really been there and all the man had to do was to give it a quick clean with a new cloth dampened with some water. "You're as good as new, Forte," the man commented as he took a step backwards and watched the silent navi with kind eyes.

Forte looked up at him again, his dark red eyes focusing for a brief moment before the navi jumped down from the bed and floated towards to the door, where he paused and turned his head to regard the man once again. "Thanks," he muttered before leaving.

Yuichiro stared at the door as it closed behind Forte, then smiled. The thank you from the navi had been really soft, but it had been loud enough to reach his ears. "You're welcome," he replied in a murmur even if the other was already gone.

Shaking his head slightly and still smiling, the scientist started to collect the used tools and replace them where they belonged, or throwing them in the trash in the case of the used bandages and stitches. Despite the current crisis, despite the fact that three kids had been kidnapped and were held hostages, that Enzan was gone out in a really dangerous mission and that his son was still missing, he felt happy because, after what seemed like forever, Forte had finally started to open up, even if only with a thank you.

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They weren't sure when they had lost consciousness, but they both knew that it had been around the time they sat down on the bed in the infirmary and let Netto's father take care of their wounds. Memories were jumbled, hazy and tended to have gaps until a complete black out and as much as Netto tried to make sense of what he could remember, he still felt disoriented and at a complete loss since after waking up in a random corridor of SciLabs.

Rubbing his eyes and looking around at the empty corridor, the boy continued in his wanderings. "It… it doesn't seem like we blew something up, right?" he asked to his partner as he glanced out of a window. From what of SciLabs he could see from there, and he was at the top floor, nothing was out of place. Well, there were still the marks of his fight against the security guards when he had appeared the first time, but those weren't what he was looking for.

It appears so, Forte replied quietly. He too was still trying to make heads or tails of what had happened. All he could remember was being in the infirmary and then things just became too confusing.

"I don't even remember what I was doing that made us black out," Netto continued as he opened the window and floated outside, going up and landing on the roof. It was evening and the sun was almost down, and as his brown eyes scanned the city, he noticed that people had resumed moving about despite the recent attacks. "But… I think I felt something coming from you…"

Netto sat down on the railing, with his feet dangling into the air several floors above ground and his arms clasping the metal pole that had become his seat. "You were thinking about something, and… I got caught in your emotions…?" he said after a while when he felt that Forte wouldn't reply. "Do you think that could be the cause of our black outs?"

It's a possibility, the navi supplied after a few more seconds of silence. Every time that happened, you seemed to… feel much more of my emotions than you normally do…

For the first time, Forte wasn't too much bothered in opening up with his host. Perhaps it was because he felt too weary and too used to Netto's constant presence to continue withholding information or give him a cold shoulder. It had been so long since he had expressed his hate for him too, as if he had forgotten that Netto was as much of a human as every other human was…

"Should… should we try this theory out?" the boy asked after another long pause of silence as he watched some people walk about in front of SciLabs's entrance until one of them looked up and saw him. The man stopped and nudged his colleague, said something to him and motioned upwards with his head, making the second scientist look up too. The two stared at the cloaked figure sitting on the roof's railing for a few seconds then hurried inside.

Netto was somewhat amused by their antics. If that was the reaction he was going to always get while he was stuck in a Cross Fusion with Forte, he might as well take advantage of that and scare everyone away when he was going to be forced in a queue at a game shop. Not that he was going to actively scare them, though…

It's worth a try, Forte wasn't happy to let his host get that close to him, but he had to admit that the kid was right once again. They either worked out a solution to those black outs and controlled them, or they might wake up in a dire situation without even knowing how they had ended there.

Netto averted his eyes away from the bustling crowds below him and looked at the city laying in front of SciLabs, then at the lake on the other side of the town. Slowly, however, he started to shift his attention onto Forte's feeling that were always present in the back of his mind and that felt as if they were his. As always, they were only a part of the navi's true emotions, but as he got closer to them, they became clearer.

Oddly, he couldn't feel any hate directed at him, only reluctance at his attempt to verify what was always making them lose control. But as he slowly and carefully prodded deeper, ready to back away as soon as Forte rejected his presence, the reluctance faded away and he could feel the navi's deepest emotions.

Mental boundaries faded once again and brown eyes became dark red as Forte and Netto's feelings and thoughts became mixed. None of the two knew who they were anymore and the new persona stood up onto the railing with and unfocused gaze looking at the lake in the distance. There were no memories, nor reasons, but who they had become had the sudden urge to go there.

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For the few hours that he'd dress as Forte, Enzan could get the picture of how it meant to feel as if the whole world was against you. He wasn't sure how the black navi could calmly wander through the corridors of SciLabs with every single scientist working there watching him with a mixture of terror and hate, whispering to each other about how they wished for his deletion. Once he was ready, Enzan hadn't lingered at SciLabs for long to hear everything, but what little he did, it made him shiver and promise to himself that he would speak with doctor Hikari about it.

Frowning in displeasure, he looked down at his hands and feet as he boarded the small submarine. After meeting with Dark Mu's agents, some weak-looking and un-customized navis, they had cuffed him with something that was supposed to completely block Forte's powers. Luckily, all he could feel right now was the strong pull that the devices, which seemed to be a shrunken and adapted version of the green converters used in the past, exerted on the network of wires under the suit.

"Move."

Letting his displeasure be known to the navi that pushed him forwards with a low grunt, Enzan trudged up the small ramp. Who would have ever thought that one of Dark Mu's bases was under the lake right outside Densan City?

Glancing one last time at the beach, his blue eyes - they had been unable to find red contact lenses in time - caught glimpse of a figure in the distance. It had been just for a fraction of a second before it disappeared behind some trees, but it was enough for him to recognize the presence of Forte tailing him. He was probably there to follow him to the base without getting caught by Dark Mu and strike them by surprise, but for some odd reason he could feel that he could trust the navi to help him out if he really needed it. After all, so far Forte had been on their side…

Smiling to himself, and after being pushed a second time, Enzan boarded the vehicle and watched as the doors closed behind his back. Now there was no turning back, but even if he could, he wasn't going to. Destroying one of Dark Mu's bases would give the organization a good blow to their plans, giving the NetPolice and SciLabs more time to track the leader down and come up with a plan to defeat them.

"I can't believe it was so easy to capture the infamous Black Fury," a navi muttered to one of his comrades as they kept their eyes and standard weapons trained on the cloaked figure standing in the middle of the bay. "All we had to do was to take hostages and he came willingly."

Enzan tilted his head towards the two and copied Forte's odd habit of watching someone from behind the rim of his helmet and cloak. To say that he was confused was saying little. The black navi didn't care about humans and Dark Mu should know that if they wanted to capture him. Plus, they had taken Netto's friends as hostages, not Forte's. Not to mention that the navi didn't had any friend that could be used for such a tactic…

Before more information could be disclosed to the boy, however, another navi glared at the two. "You! Stop the chat and keep your eyes on him," he said with a bossy voice, probably the leader of the small ring. "We don't want to give the Fury an opening."

Grumbling their displeasure at being ordered by someone of their level, the two became silent, leaving Enzan with more questions than answers for the entire length of their underwater journey.

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After watching hundred of navis and humans alike rush in one direction and leaving the rest of the base unprotected, Meiru, Dekao and Yaito's progress became much easier. Still looking out for any possible guard or a surveillance system, the trio made their way towards the storeroom holding the Materializers, sure to not take the wrong turn thanks to the map Glyde had successfully downloaded without triggering any alarm.

"You know," Dekao suddenly spoke in a whisper, his eyes scanning the silent corridor in search of a possible enemy. "This is the same organization that is giving Netto so many troubles in coming back? They are doing a really bad job with the guard… it's like they have forgotten us…"

"Probably," Yaito replied as she turned left at an intersection as Glyde indicated. "From what we heard earlier, they are expecting to keep prisoner that black navi, and if the name is any indication, I'd say that he's so dangerous that these guys would want every single navi and human there to keep an eye on him when he arrives."

Meiru frowned and glanced back to make sure no one was following them. "Isn't it strange, though?" she asked. "We don't know that black navi, yet these people are using us as hostages to get some control on him. The first time we saw him, he didn't seem like the type of person that would care for someone else…"

At her mention of the navi's rampage against an old man, the trio and their navis shivered. The mere presence of the "Black Fury", as Dark Mu had called him, had been oppressive and all they could do was to stare in fear as the cloaked figure advanced on the man standing in front of them. Even their navis, still relegated in their PETs, had felt his dark aura.

Falling into an uneasy silence, the kids made their way through the empty corridors until they reached their destination. Like the rest of the base, the large door was unguarded and it didn't take long for Glyde and Roll to open it.

Inside, the room was well lit and full of crates neatly piled against the walls. Some of them were empty, some were opened but still full while the rest was still sealed shut. Walking inside and shutting the door behind them, the kids walked to the nearest open crate and peered inside.

"So, these are the Materializers?" Dekao asked as he grabbed a round and flat device and held it up for the others to see. It was shaped exactly like a navi emblem, only a dull gray and with a strange black square on the back. "I imagined them to be… different…"

Meiru fished into the crate and took out another device. "Let's try it out," she said as she held up her PET and aimed the laser port at the small black square. She wasn't an expert, but she could recognize an infrared port when she saw one. "Are you ready, Roll?"

The pink navi inside the PET nodded her head and smiled. "I am, Meiru-chan." She replied with contained excitement. Ever since she had been activated, she had always desired to spend time with her NetOp while outside the PET. Sure, there were Dimensional Areas, but those were deployed only when necessary.

With the hit of a button, Meiru sent her navi into the Materializer and watched as the device hummed gently in her hand before data started to materialize where the infrared port was. The process was somewhat slow as the Materializer automatically reconfigured itself for the first time, but after less than a couple of minutes, Roll opened her eyes and stared into the ones of her operator.

"This… is amazing," she said as she took a step towards Meiru and touched her shoulder. She could feel everything… from the texture of her dress to the warmth coming from her body. Still, despite her newfound freedom in the real world, she was still linked to her PET. It was probably a system to let the operator support their navi with battle chips during a battle.

Following her example, Dekao transferred his navi onto the device he was holding and watched in fascination and amazement as data materialized and clustered together to form Gutsman. Being larger than Roll, the navi took longer to appear in the real world, but once the process was complete, Dekao placed a hand onto his large arm and found out that the data it was composed of felt unlike any other thing he had ever felt. Warm, smooth and with something that made his skin slightly tingle.

Yaito, instead of doing the same as her friends, however, grabbed several Materializers and pocketed them into her small purse. She would love to give Glyde free movement in the real world, but they still needed to get out of the base, and while two materialized navis could act as perfect bodyguards, they would still need someone able to quickly get inside control panels and open the doors.

"We should go," she said after handing a few more Materializers to her two friends to carry. It was never a bad idea to carry some extra. "I don't want to get caught in here."

Stopping her ogling over her materialized navi, Meiru grabbed a couple of the offered devices and pocketed them. "Yes, better be going. Security might be sloppy right now, but we don't know when it'll pick up again," she said, nodding her head towards the door and taking out her chip folder just in case Roll needed support in a battle.

Dekao understood and, after a brief not to his navi, walked to the door and opened it enough to check the corridor. "Empty," he muttered as he slowly made his way out, soon followed by Gutsman and Roll, then by the two girls. "Lucky us."

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"Meijin," Yuichiro called as he entered the main laboratory of SciLabs at a fast pace. "Where is Enzan?"

The younger of the two men taped a few keys on the main keyboard and glanced up at the large screen displaying the lake just outside Densan City. "So far no one of Dark Mu discovered him or his PET hidden in the cloak."

Yuichiro nodded his head and glanced up at the monitor too, wondering how a base so close to them had been missed until then. Perhaps they had some cloaking device, or it was well hidden from view. "Keep the Dimensional Area Generator ready, Meijin. Enzan might need it at any given moment."

Nodding his head, Meijin punched a few more keys and brought the generator online and ready to be used, then resumed to keep his eyes on the few readings that he could get from the boy's PET. So far, the hastily put together encryption system had gone unnoticed and he could follow Enzan's progress underwater until it stopped at the deepest part of the lake.

"Doctor Hikari?"

Yuichiro turned around and watched as a shy young man walked up to him. He recognized him to be one of the recent acquisitions of SciLabs after some of the older scientists had left for pension. "Yes?"

The man nervously shifted from one foot to the other before mustering his courage. "There is this man that has asked for you. He was so insistent," he continued with a trembling voice. "And he knew his way around and things of SciLabs that I didn't even know of… and…"

Before he could continue, however, an old man with short hair, a beard and a pair of small glasses on his nose entered the laboratory and smiled at Yuichiro. "It's been a while, hasn't it, Yuichiro?" he asked with a cheery voice. "This place hasn't changed much. Same corridors, same rooms. Just more technology. Did something happen to the front doors?"

Yuichiro regarded the man like with wide eyes and took a step towards him in disbelief. "Doctor Cossack…" he muttered, unsure that the man in front of him was really who he thought he was. "I… I thought… this is truly a surprise…"

Cossack gave another smile, but unlike the previous one this had some sadness to it. "After that day ten years ago, I left and let everyone think I was dead," he replied, his eyes looking around the laboratory with longing and regret. "But I'm getting old, and I thought that before dying I should at least to try and speak with Forte."

Yuichiro flinched visibly and earned a raised eyebrow from his old friend and mentor. "I don't think that's a good idea," he said as he motioned for the man to follow him to a desk to the side where they could sit and talk. "Forte… he might be… mellower lately, but he has this tendency to… go into a rampage and not stop unless he is sedated, or whoever he's targeting is dead."

The two sat at the desk and Yuichiro folded his hands on it, looking down at the surface in regret at not being able to help the other man better. Ten years of suffering, and all because SciLabs as a whole couldn't understand Forte and accept him as he was. "Last time someone that wanted his deletion hurt him… he would have killed him if I hadn't sedated him. I wasn't even sure it would work…"

Cossack listened in silence, his arms folded in his lap and kind eyes looking at the young man sitting at the other side of the desk. If only he had done more in the past, Forte would have never suffered so much and would be still with him.

"I fear that if he sees you," Yuichiro continued, forcing the older doctor to wake up from his brief reverie. "He won't be easily stopped like last time…"

Placing a hand onto Yuichiro's folded ones, Cossack smiled as their eyes met. "Thanks, Yuichiro. Thanks for taking care of my son and for trying hard to understand him and do the right thing," he patted the younger man's hands once and then leaned back onto his chair. "And thank you for warning me, but I think I will take the risk and talk to him myself. I'm tired of… running away from my mistakes."

Netto's father gave him a sad smile, but nodded in understanding. "Then let me tell you as much as I learned of him in this past week or so."

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A/N: Well, Cossack officially makes his entrance. I have to say, I know next to nothing of the guy, so I'm going to make him a kind guy that has a lot of regret in not being able to help his "son" when he really needed it and that he is desperate to correct those mistakes (even if they weren't his mistakes) and reconnect with Forte.