Netto stared at the huge structure in front of him. He was finally there, after several months of traveling. Sighing, he brushed back his hair. He used the last of the credits to get himself a haircut, and his hair was back to where he liked it. Looked at his PET, he sighed. "Well, we're finally here. Hopefully there is something here that will help us."

Forte snorted. "There better be..."

Netto glanced down at the PET and sadly smiled. Since the event on the hill the previous day, the two had seemed to grow closer. Some part of him was telling him that neither of them wanted this to end, but he knew better. He had to get home to his friends and family.

Whether this was the last day he spent with Forte, or the beginning of several, he would make the best of it.

Walking into the compound, he was slightly startled when Forte suddenly growled. "Something isn't right here...be alert!"

Suddenly stopping, Netto glanced at Forte before staring at the area in particular. Looking around, he saw that the whole area looked like some kind of power plant. There were multiple buildings surrounding the middle area, and several large turbines near the edge of the establishment. Curious, he walked a bit closer to inspect them. Narrowing his eyes, he also inspected the others near the first one.

"These turbines are all in working order." Netto stated flatly, glaring at the ground. "They don't look damaged at all..." Getting up, he started to walk towards the middle area. "I don't like this. If the environmental system is so damaged, then why wasn't there any attempts to fix it?"

Indeed, Netto had wondered that throughout his journey. If people were suffering, then why wasn't there any attempts made to fix the system? Over time, he concluded that with the world in such a battered state, that there wasn't enough materials to do so. With this new revelation, however, it made him think twice.

"Let's explore a little deeper." Forte piped up, also suspicious of the area. "This is only the outside, so there may be an internal problem." Netto nodded as he began to walk deeper into the establishment. Some time passed as he was walking past the buildings, just looking around. The whole system was bigger than he thought...

Soon enough, he came across an abandoned computer building. Heading inside, he saw several things of equipment just lying untouched. "What is going on?" Netto asked in wonder, "Everything here is still usable!" Heading over to what looked like the main computer, he turned it on. Watching it boot up, he turned to Forte. "I'm not sure why, but something is very wrong." he whispered, staring intently at the navi. Forte could only nod at that.

Finally, the main computer booted up. Glancing at the navi, Netto frowned. "You ready, Forte?"

Forte grunted. "Yeah, let's just get this over with."

Netto nodded. "Plug in! Forte, transmission!" he cried as he fired the beam into the main port.

When Forte materialized within the computer, he blinked. The area wasn't really big at all. In fact, he only materialized onto some sort of platform, the space around him blank. "This is odd." he stated flatly.

Netto looked confused. "This is the main computer though, it shouldn't be blank like this!" he exclaimed, looking at the space through the PET. "Unless the computer itself has no data on it, then..."

At that moment, Forte spotted something on the far side of the platform. "Huh. What's this?" he questioned as he got closer to examine it. Analyzing the data, he narrowed his eyes. "Human!" Forte boomed loud enough so Netto could hear him. "I just found a video feed. Should I play it?

Netto blinked before looking around. There were no television screens around to play it, so he nodded. "Do it."

Complying, Forte played the clip on the computer screen.

There were two figures standing inside the computer room. Their figures were blurred, and there was all sorts of noises going on in the background.

"...What is this?" a gruff voice called out. Whatever noise in the background stopped.

"Sir, this is the main computer." came another voice, one that sounded distinctly snake like. "All the data about the system and the surrounding areas are kept in here."

"Huh." the first voice said before sounds of him turning away were heard. "Erase it."

"Sir?"

"You heard me." the gruff voice stated plainly. "No one needs to know what happened here. Erase all the data from this computer. That's an order."

"But sir!" the second voice protested, "the data here is all very important! If we erase it, then how will we fix the system?"

There was a long pause before the gruff voice spoke up. "You heard what I said earlier." the first voice hissed, "erase it. All of it!"

"...yes sir."

The video cut out shortly after that.

Netto looked shocked. So that's why the main computer was empty...

Forte took that time to plug out. "Hmph...looks like some sort of conspiracy." he remarked, staring at Netto. The boy nodded.

"Yeah...but why would they want to erase all the data on the Environmental System?" Netto asked, feeling slightly uneasy. "People could have used it to rebuild the system..." Shaking his head, he turned around and walked right out of the building.

Forte was slightly surprised. "You're taking this news a lot better than I thought you would."

Netto growled. "Let's just say that I know some humans can be like that." he shot back, making Forte's eyes widen slightly.

The brunette supposed he could have been more shocked at what the video feed had shown, but he found he wasn't. Although he didn't show it, he was still reeling from the image he had seen the day before. The way that one man could just order an army around to kill mercilessly opened his eyes to the fact that not all humans were good. Of course, he knew it already, but he had been denying it for some reason. He just couldn't figure out why.

For the next hour, Netto wandered around the premises, just looking for anything that could help him understand what was going on. Eventually, he sat down on a pile of crates outside the building to rest.

Staring up at the sky, Netto sighed. "It's been so long..."

"What are you talking about?" Forte asked, somewhat annoyed that they couldn't find anything so far.

Netto chuckled. "Sorry. It's just been so long since I've seen my family and friends." he said as he brought the PET up so he can look at Forte. "I wonder how they will react to me when we get back. I've changed, I know that..."

Forte snorted. "We have to get home first, human. Don't think about such stuff, it'll hurt even more in the long run." he said, almost whispering the last part. Netto gazed at him sadly.

"I know...but I have to keep hoping, don't I?" he asked the navi, closing his eyes as he did so. "It's what kept me going these last few months."

Forte shrugged. "I wouldn't know." Netto sighed again as he looked at the cloaked navi.

"You know..." Netto started, almost hesitant. "Sometimes, I get this feeling...like no one understands me at all." At that, Forte looked at him curiously.

"A feeling?" Forte repeated, just staring at the brunette. "How can you say that no one understands you? From what I know, you have plenty of people that can..."

" No you don't!" Netto said sharply, cutting Forte off. "It's just sometimes, I just need to talk about stuff that my friends wouldn't get. My mom wouldn't understand either..." he said lowly as he stared at the ground. "My dad would understand...but he's never around. I've needed to talk to him more and more, but he's never there."

Forte blinked. "So you're saying that you've never been able to talk about what was bothering you..."

Netto nodded. "Not only that, but...I just wanted someone there to talk to. And don't say anything about Rockman. I know he's always there for me, but...he doesn't understand some of the stuff I go through everyday." he muttered as resumed looking at the ground. Forte decided to stay silent.

Some time passed before Netto looked back up. "Alright, I think we can look around some more." he said as he got up. Slowly smiling, he looked down at Forte. "Thanks for listening, fin-head."

Forte snorted. "It's not like I had a choice in the matter, human."

Netto continued to smile regardless. "I know." he said as he made his way down the winding paths of the buildings, "But I wanted to get that off my chest for a while. I actually feel kind of relieved now." Looking around, he saw another area that he hadn't explored yet. "Well, there has to be something over here..."

Entering the unexplored area, Netto immediately caught sight of an odd looking building. The bottom level looked like all the other buildings, but the entire top area was twisted into some sort of tower. Shrugging, he decided to go in anyways. "Wonder what is in here..."

"Has to be something of moderate importance." Forte spoke up, warily eying the surroundings. "This building is built differently from all the others we've seen so far. Whoever was here was using this building for something..."

Netto shrugged again. "Well, we won't know until we see what's up there, right?" he asked as he started to ascend the steps.

For the next few minutes, Netto continued to climb the stairway. Finally, Netto reached the top, panting a little bit. "Jeez, those steps seemed endless..." he muttered before he looked around the top of the tower. Blinking, he looked around the perimeter again. "There's nothing up here!"

Forte glanced out of his PET and looked around. "Oy, human." he drawled, "Look to your right." he said, slightly annoyed that he had missed something really obvious.

Confused, Netto looked to his right. Right by the window was some kind of terminal, and it seemed to be blinking. Realization dawning on his face, Netto scowled. "How could I have missed something so obvious?"

Forte chuckled within his PET, and Netto glared at him. Sighing, he got the PET ready. "Whatever...Plug in! Forte, Transmission!" he cried as the infrared beam shot into a port in the terminal.

Materializing within the terminal's network, Forte looked around. "It's empty here too..." he murmured, "Did those humans get to this area as well?"

"I guess so." Netto let off as he looked around as well. Spotting nothing of interest, he was about to plug Forte out before the navi stopped him.

"Wait." Forte said before he took a few steps to his right. Leaning down, the cloaked navi picked something up off the ground. "This looks like some sort of text data."

"Text data? That would be helpful...how much can you salvage from it?" Netto asked, already knowing it had to be partially corrupted.

Forte ran a quick scan before shaking his head. "Most of it is pretty corrupted. I can get the beginning, and some of the end, but that's it."

Netto sighed. "Alright. Could you please open them so we can see what it's about?"

Forte slightly scowled, but nodded all the same as he opened up the text file.

LOG 26998-A0X

The Environmental System has been totally destroyed by some unknown variable.

However, no worries. I am certain by the end of next month, we can have it up again. Although the core may have been totally vaporized, it isn't that hard to make a new one from scratch when you know what you are doing. The question is how much damage will be done in that short span of time...

...I've been hearing some frightful things, though. Apparently, some army has been marching around the continent, slowly taking over areas that belonged to us. Our army is trying to repel them, but...

Almost...we almost have the new core ready. We've been in quite the rush though; the gray army is approaching fast. They want something from us, but what could it be...?

...no...they...

..z..zzt...

END OF LOG

Netto blinked from reading that. "So they were trying to repair the system after all..." he breathed, somewhat surprised. "I wonder what happened though...the person who wrote this said some kind of army was approaching, but the log doesn't give a date, does it?"

Forte shook his head. "No, it doesn't." Netto furrowed his brows in thought before his head shot up, his face etched in shock.

"F-Forte! The log said that they were the gray army, didn't it?" The cloaked navi merely stared at Netto until he caught onto what he was saying. His eyes widened too. "That means the gray army we saw in that vision..."

"...was the same one that was heading here. Of course..." Forte murmured. Netto shook his head to shake off some of the shock. Now it made some sort of sense. The gray army had invaded and made their way to the Environmental System. It still didn't explain why they had, however. Sighing, he plugged Forte out and stood up.

"Well, let's head for the main building." Netto said as he started walking down the stairwell. "Maybe there it will explain everything."

Forte found himself nodding. "Yes...maybe there we will find a clue to getting home." Netto glanced at him and smirked.

"We will find something there, count on it!"

---

Sera stared at the two figures in boredom. Much to her ire, the two had managed to reach the Environmental System with little to no problems. It confused her on how one human could be so lucky as to catch all the breaks he had during his journey. On top of that, it seemed that her theory was being proved wrong. The accursed human and computer program were growing closer.

She scowled as she waved away the image. "It seems the human has disproved my theory after all..." she muttered silently as she got up. "Hmph. That's no fun at all." Gathering some energy into her palms, she started to focus on a distinct figure. She had to keep it as small as possible, however, to avoid alerting The Master.

Grinning as she felt it, she then sent the figure down to where Netto and Forte were at. "Yes, fly my pet..." she murmured before chuckling. "Fly to where those worms are and destroy them. I'm counting on you to do this right, Geetz..."

"No!"

Startled, Sera turned around to see another figure rush in. Snarling, she immediately recognized who it was. "Yuna! What are you doing here!"

Yuna glared at her sister. "I'm here to stop you from destroying those two. I won't let you continue your sick game any longer."

Sera smirked. "Well, you're too late. I've already sent my pet, Geetz, to dispose of them. There is nothing you can do." Her grin became wider when she saw Yuna's face pale.

"No..." Yuna muttered, her eyes staring at the image of Netto and Forte. "Have all of my efforts been in vain?"

"Efforts?" Sera repeated curiously before she snarled again. "Now I get it...you've been helping that brat all along! No wonder he's had so many lucky breaks...you've been working behind the scenes!" Seeing Yuna wince, Sera narrowed her eyes. "Now it all makes sense...the money, the battle chips, everything! You've been helping him avoid all the danger I placed ahead of him!"

Growling, Yuna merely gazed at her sister. Sera suddenly smirked. "Well now...I believe this counts as interfering with another god's area...I think The Master will have something to say about this." she said gloatingly.

"How dare you!" Yuna suddenly screamed, absolutely furious at her sister's arrogance. "The Master would not let you get away with something as huge as this! Are you so blinded with your hate of humans that you would chance flouting the rules of The Master?"

Sera cackled again, making Yuna wince. "The Master would not notice, dear sister! He hasn't for the past thousand years, and he won't now! Who cares if I had to bend a few rules just to prove myself right?"

Yuna then closed her eyes and sighed. "Have you learned nothing over these past millenia, Sera?"

Sera only glared hatefully at her sister. "I have learned far more than you have, Yuna! The human race is a scourge upon the universe, nothing more than tiny bugs waiting to be squished. I wanted to see how such insects would survive without their precious 'technology', so I totally destroyed one world to see...it seems that they still could. How disappointing." she spat out.

"It seems that you have never understood the human race, Sera..." Another voice rang out, it's tone somewhat harsh. Sera gasped as she turned around. Behind her was The Master, with his long blond hair and clad in his blue robe.

"Master!" she whimpered, bowing low. "I-I didn't hear you arrive...!"

"Exactly as I planned it." The Master said as he stared upon the trembling Sera. "Sera. You have not only failed in your duties, but your total disregard of the rules has upset me."

The goddess paled. "M-Master? But what about Yuna? She has been intruding on my duties as well!"

The Master growled at Sera, startling both goddess. Neither of them had seen him this angry in their entire lifetimes. "Don't you even dare to try and blame Yuna. She was doing her job, and you're the one who interfered first." Sera winced at his tone, but he wasn't done yet. "Not only have you intruded within Yuna's sphere of influence, but now I find out that you really did destroy that world...how dare you."

If The Master was angry before, he was absolutely livid now. Sera stepped back in fear. "From this day forth, I strip you from your position of watching over the mortals and remove from you your power to do anything."

"N-no! Master! Anything but that!" Sera all but screamed. That was one of the worst things to happen to any god or goddess, to be stripped of their power so completely that they were just bystanders. The Master fixed her with a cold glare.

"You are lucky that I am being lenient, Sera, because the full punishment I had in mind was a whole lot worse." he stated icily, making both goddesses shiver. "Now, begone from my presence and wait for me in your chambers. You are not to leave, or the consequences will be harsh."

Sera looked like she was going to protest again, but quickly stopped upon seeing The Master's glare. Fixing Yuna with one last hateful stare, she teleported out. The Master sighed before looking at Yuna.

"I really wish I didn't have to do that, but I had no choice. Her disregard to the rules I set down has forced me to act." he said before sighing again. "You know I also have to punish you, Yuna, for breaking the interference laws."

Yuna stepped up to the master, unhesitant. "Yes Master, but I did it out of necessity. I simply could not let Sera play around with human lives as if they were mere toys." The Master raised a brow quizzically.

"But one of them is not human." he pointed out, "One is merely a program created by the humans to simulate life." Yuna shook her head.

"Maybe, but they are living all the same. I promised myself that I would see both Netto and Forte home, and I intend to go through with it. I shall face whatever punishments that come my way; I am not afraid."

The Master merely stared at her before chuckling. "Very well then...I'll suspend your punishment for now. I wish to see how things turn out for the two of them."

Yuna then gasped. "Sera sent Geetz down to kill them!" she said, shocked that she had forgotten such a thing. "Master! We need to go down and help them!"

The Master shook his head sadly. "Unfortunately, our laws prohibit such a thing...it is all very crazy, actually. I really need to go back and destroy those loopholes..."

"Master!" Yuna cried in dismay. His head perked up at that.

"Oh, right...I would not worry, Yuna. I have the feeling everything will turn out alright for them. Let us watch for now and see how things turn out."

"But Master!" Yuna said, surprised that he couldn't do anything, "Sera sent down her pet to destroy them! Not even the two of them can deal with something like Geetz..."

Surprisingly, The Master chuckled. "Do not worry, Yuna. I have seen to it that Geetz will not be able to use all of his strength." Yuna looked confused, so he pointed to the image he conjured up. "Let us just watch and see how they deal with it.

Yuna frowned. I hope you know what you are doing, Master...Netto, Forte...stay safe.

---

"Phew..." Netto muttered as he finally entered the main building. It had been a long walk from the abandoned tower, and he was already feeling tired. The main building was very spacious on the inside, and it looked like there were several rooms to look through. Netto sighed. "This is going to take forever, at this rate."

"Let's just avoid looking in all the rooms." Forte suggested. "All we need to do is find the area the houses the system itself. Nothing else matters."

"I guess you're right..." Netto sighed. Forte smirked.

"Aren't I always?" Netto cast an amused glance at the navi.

"Getting a bit of a personality, are we?" he snickered as Forte blushed a bit and turned away. Shaking his head, Netto continued deeper inside the building.

For the next hour or so, he had no luck. Every area he tried going through was a dead end, and he was starting to get frustrated. "Where is the stupid system?" he hissed, turning back yet again from another dead end. That was the fifth one he had run into, and his patience was starting to wear thin. Forte was starting to get mad as well.

Finally, after yet another half-hour of searching, Netto managed to find a passageway that was easily overlooked. Trudging along, he couldn't help but notice that it seemed to get darker as he advanced. He came to a stop outside a pair of steel doors, feeling oddly on edge.

"Aren't you going to open the doors, human?" Forte growled out, his patience at an end. Netto gulped and opened the two doors.

He paled when he looked inside.

Inside the giant room was huge machine with some kind of sphere held above the ground. Netto reasoned it was the core for the Environmental System, so he quickly ignored that. What frightened him, though, was the numerous amount of skeletons that were on the ground.

Even Forte couldn't hide his shock. "What happened here...?" he breathed, blinking rapidly. The sight before him was gruesome...

Breathing deeply, Netto stepped into the room. Forte looked at him in surprise. "You're still going in there, Netto?" he exclaimed. Netto nodded.

"I...We have to. If we ever hope to understand what has happened, then we have to see what's in this room." Netto said with false bravado, but Forte could see that the boy was trembling. Netto continued into the room, avoiding all the skeletons as much as he could.

Climbing up the numerous stairwells, Netto finally reached something that seemed to be a gigantic console with a giant monitor. Calming himself, he reached for the PET. "You ready again, Forte?" he asked quietly, trying to hide the nervousness in his voice.

"I am." came the reply.

"Plug in! Forte, Transmission!" Netto cried as he fired the infrared beam into the console.

Forte once again appeared in an area where there was nothing but the platform he was on. Looking around warily, he spotted another piece of data on the far side of the platform. "I found another video feed...are you sure you want me to play it?"

Netto hesitated for a second before he nodded. "Do it. There's no turning back now..."

Forte closed his eyes. "Alright then." he said quietly as he began the feed.

"So, this is the main area of the system, eh?" came a gruff voice from a shadowy figure. The second figure nodded.

"That is right sir..." came a snake like voice, "This is the main control for the environmental system area."

"Argh!" came a voice from down below before gunshots were heard. There was the sounds of bodies hitting the floor before it fell totally silent again.

"Bah!" the first voice snorted, turning away from the system. "Such scum are lower than the dirt beneath my feet. Their technology as well! Destroy it all!"

The second figure paused. "I am afraid that is impossible, sir. It seems that they have made the system itself...untouchable." he said finally. The first figure growled.

"Fine." he spat, not at all pleased. "Take anything that looks useful and bring it back with us. We're leaving."

"Sir, what about the new core the scientists were working on?" the snake like voice asked. The gruff voice snorted again.

"Leave it. We don't need it anyways...soon enough, this continent will come under our rule...

The rest of the feed cut out from there.

Netto stood there, stunned. "So...the gray army came in here and killed unknown amounts of people just to rule this continent?" he asked incredulously. "Is this how human kind really is? That we follow those that hold power blindly? So that we kill others under orders, not caring about the lives we take?" he asked as he started shaking again. This was starting to get to be too much for Netto.

"Netto!" Forte said from the computer, trying to calm the human down. "Don't forget what we talked about yesterday! Are you going to be so weak as to allow a few images to rule your mind?"

"Easy for you to say." Netto spat viciously. "You already hate humans, so you don't have to suffer over the fact that you know your own kind is doing wrong."

Forte blinked in surprise before closing his eyes and sighing. "Perhaps you are right, but beating yourself up over this isn't the way to go about this." he said, trying to break through to the boy.

Netto merely stared up at Forte, his eyes still having unshed tears in them. "Is this what you had to go through, Forte? With your hatred of humans?"

Forte shifted uncomfortably. "Not exactly..."

Suddenly, there was a loud screech behind Forte. Turning around, the cloaked navi found himself facing a large, bird-like creature.

The bird had some kind of gold color-scheme and an some kind of armor on. It's wings were huge, spanning the length of the entire platform. The feathers on its wings looked sharp, and it's talons looked even sharper. The bird's tail had some kind of drill-like tip on the end, and it's red eyes bored into Forte.

"What is that!" Netto cried, surprised at something appearing so suddenly.

"I don't know, but I'm taking it down!" Forte stated as he got into a battle stance. Netto took in a breath and nodded.

"Alright Forte, let's do this! Battle Routine, set!" Netto yelled as he drew a chip out of his pouch.

"Execute!" Forte cried as he started to charge his Shooting Buster. The bird screeched again before diving forward, talons extended.

Netto tried to shake off the shaking feeling he had. Something was telling him that something was going to go wrong. Shaking his head to clear it, he took a chip.

"Battle chip, Dream Aura! Slot in!"

If only Netto knew that his feeling was right...

---

Author's Note: No next chapter preview, mainly because it's the conclusion. That, and I want to keep it a surprise.

Anyways, I decided to get this chapter out earlier than I intended. Mainly because I have some schoolwork I have to do, and I wanted to write this out before I became swamped. So here it is.

The next chapter will be out soon. This chapter was to set everything up for the conclusion, which is only two chapters away. Stay tuned

Thanks go to Quatre and JK Fie'r for betaing.