----

I'd give up forever to touch you

'Cause I know that you feel me somehow

You're the closest to heaven that I'll ever be

And I don't want to go home right now

-"Iris" by the Goo Goo Dolls

----

In less than a heartbeat they reappeared in a heap on the tiled floor of a large laboratory. Blues was sprawled on his stomach with Rock's body in his arms and Forte-Saito's arm wrapped around his neck. Yuuchirou held the limp Netto tightly.

Roll, who had had the unfortunate luck to be standing in the middle of the scene, stared. "Blues?!"

"Roll!" The bioroid smiled in relief.

"Roll!?" Forte-Netto gaped at her. "That's her!?"

"What on earth happened!? What's wrong with Rock!?"

"Er..."

"Forte!?" Roll finally identified Blues' 'attacker,' looking around frantically for a weapon. "Get away from him!"

"Oh!" Saito released his hold on Blues and scrambled to his feet.

"It's all right, he's a friend, it's not actually Forte...I think."

 "Why is he here!?" Roll eyed her brother accusingly.

"It's a long story," Forte-Netto sighed. "It'll take a while to explain."

"And we're getting out of here before we explain it," Saito added.

"What? Why? It's so much easier to move around!"

"It's unsettling, Netto-kun."

"Agreed," said Blues.

"But the buster is really cool..."

Blues gently laid Rock's body on the ground and stood. "All right, we'll tie him up and leave him outside, or something." The red bioroid went to find some restraints.

"We'll be back." Forte-Saito tilted his head to glance at their father, and clumsily shuffled after Blues.

Roll rushed out another door. "I'll go get Dr. Light!"

"I'll, uh, stay here." Yuuichirou stood and laid Netto's body on one of the numerous tables in the room.

Roll came back in a few minutes later, followed by Dr Light. One could imagine his shock at the scene before him.

The body of Rockman, the boyish robot that he had built years ago, whom he had considered a son, was lying limply on a table, next to a boy he did not recognize. Little did he know they were both dead.

And then there was an unknown man next to the unknown boy.

As Dr. Light stared at the scene in utter confusion, Blues returned and broke the silence. "Uh..yeah. I guess you want me to explain all this."

Dr. Light nodded. "Please."

"All right, well, after I went to go find Rock, I kind of ran into this guy." He pointed to Netto. "He's the 'Netto' boy that the other Rockman was talking about. I helped him, Rockman, and a few of their friends who also happened to be there out of the fortress, and out of convienence, we went back with Netto because we happened to be in that world.

"So I found out what happened to our Rockman on the way back. He's turned into one of those Navi thingies that the other Rockman was talking about - man, this must be getting really confusing, huh? - but by the time we got back from the fortress, it turns out that Wily had infected both the Rockmen with some sort of virus. Well, we decided that Dr. Hikari," He pointed to Yuuichirou, "Who's Rockman's creator in the other universe, couldn't fix up either Rockman alone, because he doesn't know anything about our Rockman's programming or body, so we went back through the fortress to go through the portal and take Hikari to this world so you two could work together to fix both the Rockmen, but as it turns out the two Wilys - There's two of them now, unfortunately - were waiting on the other side of the portal and, hang on, gotta catch my breath." He paused and gasped, "And they were waiting for us on the other side of the portal, and FORTE KILLED NETTO, which is really bad, because Rockman and Netto have some sort of mind-link thing going on so if one dies, the other dies, and since our Rockman is was connected to his body, HE DIED TOO, so NOW THEY'RE ALL DEAD and here we are."

During the last few sentences, Dr. Light's eyes went wide and he turned to gaze at the body of Rock, the closest thing he'd ever had to a son, who was now (as Blues put it) dead.

Dr. Light nodded. "I see. So, can you tell me why Forte was with you?"

"Actually..." Blues mused, "No."

"I'm not too sure on that myself...the other Rock and Netto seem to have become ghosts--or something--and I think one or both of them stole Forte's body." He glanced at Forte-Saito as the robot left the room. "That's basically it."

Saito proceeded outside and across the street, ignoring the stares he was getting. "Maybe we sould knock him out," Netto suggested. "He's too close to us for comfort."

"If he has any memory of what we just did he's going to be able to find us again easily enough...and if he doesn't, then he won't know where to look." the elder twin replied.

"Oh, okay."

Saito led the bioroid's body into an alleyway and lay down on the ground. "On three, we get out of him...and don't say anything while we're in hearing range."

"Got it."

"Ready? One, two..."

"--the buster really was cool..."

"--I'm used to it. Three!" The twins left Forte at the same time, Netto grabbing Saito by the wrist and pulling him away.

Back to himself, Forte shook his head in confusion and got to his feet. "Where the hell am I?"

Netto flashed his brother a victory sign and began using him as leverage to move out of the alleyway and back to the lab.

While this was going on, Yuuichirou was explaining the DNA link between Netto and Saito/Rockman to Dr. Light.

"So since Netto died, Saito died as well. And he was in your Rockman's body at the time, which probably caused some chain reaction which led your Rockman to perish too."

Dr. Light listened intently. "So, if we were to somehow bring Netto back to life, both the Rockmen would be brought back as well."

"I-" D. Hikari's eyes lit up, "Theoretically, yes, but how do you expect to do that?"

"You said he was choked to death, right?" Light looked at Netto. "That means there was no actual damage to the body itself, just a lack of oxygen. If we could get his heart going again for just a moment, he'd be able to breathe again, and hopefully he'd come back to life. There is still a large chance of brain damage, but he probably can be revived."

Yuuichirou felt like a weight had just been lifed off his chest. So there was a slight chance of bringing Netto back to life! But there was something else bugging him...

"But if you're a robot scientist," he began, "How do you know all of this?"

Dr. Light smiled. "I had to study things like that, if I wanted to make Blues, Rock, and Roll. as human-like as they are."

A relieved smile crossed Dr. Hikari's face. "All right. So how are we going to get his heart going again?"

"Well," Dr. Light began, "We'd have to apply a minor electrical shock to his chest. This is dangerous, but it's our only chance."

Yuichirou nodded. "For my son's life back...I'll have to take that chance."

For Saito and Netto, getting back to Light Labs was much harder than getting away. Especially when they didn't have a body to do so in.

The boys first attempted to move by pulling each other; but when overcompensated Saito would fly in one direction and Netto in the other. Saito was a little better at maneuvering, but he couldn't drag them both back at once. Forte, meanwhile, had immediately teleported away, freeing Netto from his silence. "Come on, Rockman, help me out here!"

Saito, about 10 feet away, grumbled a response under his breath.

"Rooooock... "

"I'm coming, hang on." Saito paddled over to his twin, who was drifting over the busy street.

"I knew we should have hung on to Forte."

Saito shivered. "No way, it was too creepy!"

"But at least then we had a body!"

Meanwhile, at the lab, Blues watched intently as Roll pulled Netto's shirt up a bit as Light and Hikari took the coating off the ends of two wires, and then attached the bare ends to Netto's chest.

"This is going to be dangerous." Dr. Light stated, "I could end up hurting Netto instead of helping him."

Yuuichirou nodded. "Yes, I realize that, but it's the only chance we have."

Light nodded. "All right. I'm going to start the current now." He put his hand next to a switch. "Are you ready?"

Yuuichirou nodded, not taking his eyes off Netto.

"All right then." Dr. Light flipped the switch.

"Okay, let's try this again." Saito murmured for the hundredth time. He outstretched his arm for Netto to grab.

The brunette nodded and grabbed ahold of his brother's hand.

Or at least, he tried to. He made a noise of surprise as his hand passed through Saito's.

"Er...Rock--!" Netto gasped, inspecting his own hands. He could see right through them, which he couldn't do before. "Something's happening to me--!"

"What's wrong!?" Saito exclaimed. "Here, try again!"

Netto's hand passed through Saito's like before.

"Rockman...I.." Netto blinked, "I feel funny.."

"Netto-kun!" Saito shrieked, as his brother started to physically fade away. "Netto-kun! You've got to try and fight whatever's happening!"

"I...can't..." Netto breathed, "I feel so...weak..."

"NETTO-KUN!" Saito tried to grab his brother's hand one last time...but was too late.

"Saito...niisan..." Netto faded completely.

"NETTO-KUUNNN!"

Back in the labs, Hikari Netto's eyes snapped open.

Author's Notes:

(Marisa) I did the last two paragraphs. Phj33r me! I'm so cool! Go me - *gets shot*

(Shimegami) I wrote lots of Forte-possession! \o/ Whoo!

See you next time!