"Blues!" Rockman yelled while running down the hall. "Searchman, Roll!"
"What?" Blues asked, sticking his head out of the control room.
Rockman ran over to where Blues was then skidded to a stop, panting. "Tell me you've seen Netto-kun," he gasped.
"No," Blues said. "Why, what's wrong?"
"He called me, and when I went to where he was he was gone. He told me Ribbon was here," Rockman said quickly. "Did you find her data signature?"
Blues eyed Rockman, "Netto-san… called you?"
"Blues, what happened?" Rockman snapped. It was quite apparent he was on the edge of panic.
Blues turned to his computer and pressed some keys, "Nothing has been forced through," he mused. "I can't tell."
"Oh god," Rockman said.
"Can you… uh… 'call' Netto-san now?" Blues asked.
Rockman shook his head, "He won't answer. Blues, something happened, Netto-kun is gone."
Netto woke up to someone stroking his hair gently. At first he thought he was back at the Sci Labs building and that Roll had somehow found him, but then he remembered Ribbon and what had happened earlier. He forced his eyes open to see a vast room with various toys dotted throughout it. "You're awake?" a voice asked.
"Hm?" Netto replied, he was surprised at how weak he felt.
Ribbon pulled Netto's body into her arms and cradled him, "Sorry, Lividity-sama made me promise to keep you here," she explained.
Netto looked up at the hyper navi, "What do you want?" he asked.
Ribbon grinned faintly, "I want to play," she said. "When I play, I don't feel sad anymore."
Netto growled and switched tactics, "Why can't I move?"
"I used a binding program to keep you from running away," Ribbon explained in a falsely happy voice.
Netto shut his eyes and exhaled slowly. He knew there was an extra program but he wasn't sure if it was needed or not, now that he knew it wasn't all he needed to do was delete it. Ribbon looked on curiously as Netto focused on the program and deleted it, enabling himself to move.
"Amazing!" Ribbon cheered and hugged Netto tightly.
"Let go…" Netto said trying to break out of her grasp.
Ribbon smiled, "Aww, you're just a little kid though. You can't get away."
Netto blinked. She was right, he may be able to delete programs and use the link to hack into things but the fact remained that his body was that of a five year old. "Let go," he said.
"If you promise not to run away," Ribbon said. "Or Lividity-sama will be mad."
Netto glared at her, "You still believe that freak!" he yelled.
A flash of anger passed over her eyes before she nodded, "Of course I do. Lividity-sama is the one who saved me."
Netto gave her a frustrated sigh, "Why did you take me here?" he asked.
"Because, you're interesting," she giggled. "You're 12 but you look like your 5, you're human but you're not, you have power over data like I do. You're different," she said. "Not like other humans."
"What does that mean?" Netto asked.
Ribbon smiled, "Exactly what I said. You're very interesting," she said.
Netto pushed against her and got free. He took his sudden freedom to make a break for it and run off. "You're not going to get anywhere," Ribbon sing songed. "You're in the net and there's only one link out of here."
Netto blinked and stopped in the middle of the toy strewn room. "What do you want?" he asked.
Ribbon shrugged, "I've told you."
Netto crossed his arms, "Stop kidding around. If you wanted to 'play' you could have done so at Sci Labs. What are you after?"
Ribbon sighed and stood up, "You're very inquisitive," she said.
"You didn't answer my question," Netto replied.
Ribbon scowled, "Why do you care?" she asked him.
"I want to know why you're so… upset," Netto said. "I mean, you're not a little kid like you pretend to be, you're 25. Why are you forcing yourself to live a lie? What's the point?"
Ribbon looked slightly angry as she looked at the child half way across the room. "You don't know anything," she hissed.
Netto had finally managed to break through the façade that was Ribbon's personality. "So, something did happen."
Ribbon crossed her arms, "I already told you," she snapped, all of her previous child likeness gone.
"Jamie?" Netto asked.
A sad look crossed Ribbon's face, "Yes…" she said, "My Jamie-chan."
Netto's curiosity got the better of him. "What happened?"
Ribbon gazed at Netto and frowned, "Jamie-chan got sick… I think he had leukemia, I can't really remember anymore. And after about 9 months he died. After that happened I ran away and wandered the net for several years before my programming became obsolete and I no longer could survive in the net. It was around then when Lividity-sama took me in and upgraded me and took care of me, for years Lividity-sama did that telling me that no other navi would ever feel my pain again. I wanted to believe Lividity-sama…" she said softly.
"You were on your own for 20 years?" Netto asked her.
Ribbon nodded, "Yeah, it was hard. The whole time I only wanted Jamie-chan."
Netto looked sad, "I'm sorry," he said softly.
Ribbon stood up and walked over to where Netto was and Netto didn't see the point in running away. She knelt down and ruffled his hair, "You look so much like my Jamie-chan," she whispered.
"You know what Lividity is doing is wrong," Netto told her, trying to convince her to see the truth.
Ribbon sighed, "I know," she replied. "But… what humans do to navis is wrong to you know," she replied.
Netto frowned, "I never said otherwise," he pointed out. "But you're making it seem like Jamie hurt you on purpose."
Ribbon felt a sob collect in her throat, "Jamie-chan would never do that," she told herself. "He didn't…"
Netto frowned, the more he talked to Ribbon the more he realized that she was just a confused navi who was manipulated for the wrong purposes. "Ribbon, you can't keep living like this," he told her.
Ribbon sighed and gathered Netto into a tight hug. "I can't leave Lividity-sama," she sighed. "I can't."
Netto thought about struggling but then he decided against it since she was so emotionally unstable that it might prove a bad decision to make it worse. "Ribbon, I can't stay here," he said.
Ribbon let him go and stared at him, "Why?" she asked.
"I need to go back to Rockman," he said.
Ribbon frowned, "I'm sorry, but Lividity-sama told me that you aren't allowed out of my sight," she said. "You have to stay with me."
Netto growled, his temper beginning to rise again. 'I need to get out of here,' he thought.
Ribbon smiled and stood up, her sunny disposition returning, "So, do you want to play?"
Rockman finally found the link where Ribbon had been. After Blues analyzed it and agreed with Rockman they all went through it and began to follow where it led.
"What happened again?" Roll asked.
"Netto-kun called me and said that Ribbon was there and when I went to go check they were gone. Ribbon took Netto-kun, I know it," he said.
Roll frowned, "Don't worry, we'll find him," she said.
Rockman nodded, "I know," he sighed. "I just hope he's okay."
Roll patted his shoulder comfortingly right before they came out the other end of the link.
"So this is where Lividity is?" Blues asked.
They were in a huge room that was empty and showed no signs of life, navi or otherwise. "I hope," Rockman said doubtfully.
/Rockman/ a voice called.
Rockman's eyes widened/Netto-kun/
/I'm in a room with Ribbon. There should be a hidden link somewhere, I can't find it/ he explained.
Rockman nodded/All right. Don't worry, we'll find you./
Netto gave Rockman a small laugh/I know./