Chapter 8

The Last of the Lost Boys

Chaud continued to gaze at the door with a curious look in his eyes. It couldn't be, and if it was why hadn't Terra or Whisper told him? His thoughts were cut off when he noticed Lan staring at one of the documents that Whisper had dropped; Proto noticed it too.

"What's wrong?" Proto asked.

"It was Terra who came to the conclusion that Mega was my brother, not me. At first I thought that she was crazy. I mean the very idea that my dead twin brother was my netnavi seemed nuts, but I asked her about it anyway. She said that she found a report from my dad about a theory that he had that netnavis could become more human if they were incorporated with human DNA. But what if that wasn't the reason she knew at all? What if it was something else?"

"You think Whisper's really Skyler?" Chaud asked as he took the certificate from Lan and looked it over for himself.

"Maybe, do you?" Lan asked back.

Chaud turned to him and answered his question with another one. "Do you really think that Mega's your brother?"

"Well if Whisper really is Terra's sister why haven't either one of them said anything?" Proto asked. "Especially after they found out about Mega?"

"I don't know." Chaud said as he slipped document back in its file, "But there's something going on."

Once Whisper was outside City Hall, she started to relax. Besides being shaky and having an overwhelming urge to let out a decibel-defying scream she was ok. But she had so many feelings building up inside her: anger, confusion, violation, relief, happiness, but mostly violation. All in all she felt as if she had just woken up from a bad dream, a dream that had managed to last five years, but a dream. She wasn't Whisper EXE whose operator was Araya Terra Ann Javedson. She was Skyler Nadia Ann Javedson, a girl who lost part of her life saving her sister's and her dad had taken that knowledge away.

Terra was her sister. No wonder she had been under so much stress lately, she must have found out what their father had done to them. And not only that but she must not have mentioned it because she was afraid of what their father would do if he found out that she had rediscovered the truth. One thing was for sure she needed to talk to her. When she turned around she caught her reflection on the mirrored glass. No wonder the boys had been taken back, her eyes did look different. They looked human, they showed a girl who had a past.

Meanwhile…

Terra stood on the front porch of her house resting against a column PET in hand, Mega who had decided to follow her had stopped short just inside the house and out of sight. Terra gazed at the glowing hand held and down the street in the direction of her destination, she was actually going to do it. She opened Whisper's directory files and was just about to delete the program that was blocking her sister's memories when a dull throbbing started. "Uhh," Terra groaned as she tried to shake it off, but the pain kept coming. The throbbing getting sharper and more blunt. After a while the pain had become so intense that Terra couldn't hold herself up anymore. Mega who was still looking on noticed that his friend was in trouble.

"Terra!" he exclaimed as he came through the door and caught the girl just in time before she crumbled to the ground. "Terra are you ok, what's wrong?"

"I don't know." Terra said as the pain started to dull and subside, disappearing as quickly as it came. Terra didn't notice that her PET was glowing a different color, signaling something in Whisper's program had changed. "I feel fine now."

"How can that be possible?" Mega asked, "A few seconds ago it looked like you should be taken to a hospital."

"Who knows, it maybe just a side effect from being in here. After all we are in a mentally controlled environment and it's Regal's doing. I'm sure he didn't check to see if it was really safe." Terra replied as she removed herself from Mega's arms and sat on the top step.

"So you're sure you're ok?"

"Yeah I'm fine." Terra replied as she looked down the street, drawing up her knees, anxiety washing over her.

"Now what's wrong?" Mega asked as he picked up her vibe.

"I can't do this, no mater what I do, or what I say she's going to hate me. I would hate me if I were in her shoes."

"Terra she's not going to hate you. A little mad sure but she's not going stay that way very long."

"Yeah maybe, and that's a big maybe. Because if I recall Lan wasn't so cheery when he found out that his whole family had been lying to him for the past eight years." Terra replied bringing back the memory.

"You're rite," Mega said thinking about it, "But also remember he didn't stay mad very long, and considering what happened to you two, more of her anger is going to be directed at your dad, not you."

"I guess," Terra said as she shifted her weight putting her hands behind her and resting on them.

"Now get up and go find your sister before I make you get up." Mega replied jokingly as he transformed his arm into his buster and trained it on Terra.

"Fine, fine," Terra said as she threw her arms up in mock surrender, "I'll go."

Mega reformed his arm and watched Terra leave waiting a few minuets before he started to follow.

Terra walked down the empty streets, so deep in thought that she didn't even notice the stillness and eerie feeling that they carried, but not so deep not to notice that she was being followed. She had niticed Mega some time ago and was glad that he was there. She had only been trying to put on a brave face when she told him she wanted to do this alone and she was happy to have the support. Terra was so lost in thought that she didn't notice that she had just passed Whisper. Whisper saw her but let her go by because she didn't know what to say either, but as she watched her getting further and further away from her she knew she had to say something so she said the only thing that came to mind.

"Airie?" she asked softly enough so it seemed like it could be part of a dream but loud enough that it was made reality.

Terra stopped in her tracks when she heard her name being called, her nickname. But how could that be. There had only been one person who called her that, and that person had been locked away. It was then that Terra noticed her PET's soft glow, taking it in her hands she saw a notice posted that a program from its memory had been deleted, asking was she sure she wanted it gone. Terra didn't have to check the file number to know which one it was, she knew. The only question she had was: How? Once Mega saw that the two had met he took his leave and headed back to Terra's house. This only made the girl more nervous than she already was when she saw Mega leave.

"Airie?" Whisper asked again as she steeped closer.

"Sky?" Terra asked softly not daring to turn around. When she heard no objection she continued, "You hate me don't you?"

"No." Whisper replied as she stepped near to her sister. "Why would I hate you?"

"Because, it's my fault you got hurt in the first place, not to mention that I've known the truth ever since Lan found out about Mega and I never said anything. Even after I noticed that the program was degrading." Terra replied as she tears began to flow freely from her eyes. "How are you, you again anyway?"

"I had a little help." Whisper said as she pulled two certificates from her back pocket, handing them to Terra, "I left behind the ones I found at City Hall and got theses from the hospital. I came across my birth and death certificates during the search, somehow seeing them unlocked all my memories."

"Same thing happened to me." Terra replied, "When I found Mega's cirtificates I was able to know for sure that what happend the night of that big eletrical storm wasn't a dream; that it was real and I really saw you."

"This is just so weird," Whisper commented, "Just this morning I thought that I was just a netnavi who was fortunate enough to have a good relationship with her operator. Now I come to figure out that the past five years of my life have been a lie."

"Well I can relate to that too." Terra added, "It feels pretty weird since I was talking to my netnavi this morning and now I'm talking to my sister."

Whisper smiled at the comment then her face became solemn. "I still can't believe that dad is responsible for all of this though."

"For messing with our memories?" Terra asked.

"Yeah," Whisper replied, "We'll never understand what went through his head that night will we?"

"Probably not, I almost feel like I came out of a horror movie. How do you feel?"

"Confused to say the least, I still feel like I'm two different people."

"I can relate to that." Terra agreed, "So what happened when he program came down?"

"To tell you the truth it was pretty painful, I had this huge migraine for a few minutes. All the memories were coming back at once and I didn't know what to make of it, but after a while it all just clicked." Whisper replied.

"So Lan, Chaud, and Proto know something's up?"

"They have to," Whisper replied, "when it was all over everyone was giving me so much attention, Proto said that my eyes had changed and I know by the way that Chaud looked at me that he recognized something, that and the fact that I called him 2tone."

"Well, duh, Skyler, that would be a dead giveaway. You were the only one that ever called him that."

"Well can you blame me? I was trying to wade through half of my memories so I called him the first thing that came to mind. Besides I thought that you called him 2tone too?"

"No I didn't, I called him Oreo, remember?"

"Yeah, an oreo with it's top screwed off," Whisper said laughing to herself.

"Or a sundae made with chocolate ice-cream and white fudge." Terra added with a laugh, then her tone became a little more serious. "Mega knows too. I sorta freaked out when I realized that Regal's knew about you and that you were part of the riddle so I had to tell him."

"That's ok." Whisper replied, "After all he knows what we're going through, it's not like we can't trust him, plus he'd find out anyway woudn't he?"

"Ok now that we have all of the important things out of the way I have another question."

"What is it?" Whisper asked having no clue what Terra was about to ask.

"Well with all the recent changes that you've just gone through I was just wondering if you still have that crush on Proto?"

"I do not have a crush on Proto!" Whisper exclaimed as she gave Terra a playful shove.

"I'll take that as a yes," Terra replied as she got out of dodge just in time to avoid another shove.

"There is no dissuading you is there?" Whisper asked.

"N,o not really, but you should already know that." Terra replied.

"Well at least I can say one thing that you won't object to." Whisper said.

"What's that?" Terra asked.

"I was right about the riddle." Whisper said as she began walking the way Terra had come, "Back at City Hall I suggested that we should start with Mega since he would fit the description in the riddle but everyone thought that it was a dead end. Not that I came blame them, there was no other proof at the time."

"But now there is."

"Yeah, and since everyone already knows about Mega, he's probably the soul that was in the light."

"And since I was the only one that knew the truth about you, you're probably the soul that was in shadow," Terra said picking up.

"Yeah and that leaves only two more people, but we only have to figure out who one of them is. Ok Mega's one, I'm one…OMG" Whisper breathed stopping in mid sentence as she looked sharply at Terra.

"Protoman's the third." Terra said finishing Whisper's sentence, "How can that be…"

"Possible?" Whisper said finished, "Your guess is as good as mine because I didn't see this one coming I swear." Whisper said as she and Terra stopped in front of their house.

"So you two finally made it back." Mega said from the porch steps drawing the two's attention, "You were gone so long I thought one of you might have had a breakdown."

"Our mental health is fine Hub, but thanks for asking." Whisper replied as she came up the walk and sat down next to him and Terra doing the same on the opposite side.

"You're welcome-" Mega started to say, he would have said a more sarcastic remark but he found himself pulling a blank as what to call Whisper. He knew she knew the truth and that Terra probably told her that he knew, but he didn't know what to call her, or what she wanted to be called.

"Call me anything you want to Mega, I'm having an identity crisis myself."

"Yeah, well you shouldn't worry after all in a little while you'll probably have some company, because I have a feeling that that third soul will have more obstacles to overcome than any us." Terra added.

"You mean Protoman?" Mega asked.

"How'd you know that?" Whisper asked.

"It wasn't very hard to figure out. I mean if I'm one of the souls and you're the second one that left only one logical suspect to be the third. And like Terra said before Regal wouldn't make this hard, so it had to be someone close, but its pretty hard for me to picture Proto ever being human, he's so proper…or maybe I can." Mega said after he though for a second.

"How?" Whisper asked.

"Well remember when we battled Novaman earlier today and when he was haggling me about my past-" Mega started.

"And Proto made that remark about wanting to shutting him up." Terra said finishing the thought.

"Exactly, I thought that it was pretty weird for him to have that reaction but maybe he did that because he understood what I was going through." Mega said.

"Wow I guess the sayings true, everyone dose have a skeleton in their closet and the rich and famous always seem to have the best one's don't they? So where do we go from here?" Whisper asked.

"I guess we should try to find the truth about Proto, by the sound of the riddle the only person who knows the truth about him is himself and he hasn't made a move. I mean I hate to go behind his back but we need to get out of here." Terra commented.

"What about me?" Whisper asked, "I mean what do I do? Stay here or go back to City Hall?"

"Do you think you can hold up to what Chaud's going to ask you when you go back?" Mega asked.

"I can handle the questions," Whisper replied, "Besides since who I am is part of Regal's brain teaser the truth is going to have to come out, and I want to tell him, but what I don't understand is what Regal's trying to accomplish. I know he's trying to wreck the team but he helped Airie and me. I don't get it."

"I don't think he's trying to tear us apart that way," Mega said, "more or less I think he's trying to distance us from the adults, like your dad, after all none of us are to fond of him at the moment, including me." Mega said.

"Yeah, but Chaud isn't too fond of his dad already, I don't see how making him despise him anymore is going to help Regal out." Terra added.

"He's not going after Chaud's dad," Whisper said coming to a realization.

"Who's he going after then?" Terra asked.

"Chaud and Proto themselves, think about it. In each case one of the pair knew the truth, Mega knew and Lan didn't, then you knew and I didn't."

"So in this case Proto knows and Chaud dosen't?" Mega asked.

"Probably, and for Chaud that would really hurt, besides us and Proto Chaud doesn't have anyone. When we were little his mother was the only family he had, his dad was already like he is today, so when his mom died and Chuad's dad made them move he didn't have anybody. And if this thing keeps going the way it is, Proto's possibly related, he may even be an older brother. Maybe that's why he's always kept his visor on." Whisper said when she really thought about it.

"If that's true than Chaud's going to feel really betrayed." Mega added.

"And who could blame him?" Terra asked.

"No one, but before we get any further ahead of ourselves we need to find the proof to back us up." Mega said.

"Well then I guess you two should get to that, I on the other hand have to get back to City Hall, before someone has a heart attack. I'll see you guess later." Whisper said as she got up and headed back to the city.

"See ya." Both Mega and Terra said calling after her.

"So you want to start looking for that skeleton now?" Mega asked.

"Sure," Terra replied, "But more or less we won't be looking for a skeleton so much as a member of the living dead. And I wanted to tell you thanks by the way,"

"What for?"

"For telling me that everything was going to be ok. Skyler doesn't blame me for what happened and she doesn't hate me either."

"Well you're welcome, come on." Mega replied as he drug Terra from the porch and on to the street.

Back at Scilab Tasha was sitting quietly in one of the labs. While the rest of the scientists and the net police were tying to track down Regal, she and Breeze had been left behind in case the team's signals resurfaced. Tahsa still had Terra's locket and was contimplating wether to open it or not.

"You know that locket isn't going to tell you where they are." Breeze said looking over.

"I know, but it might be a clue as to why Regal wanted them." Tahsa replied as she continued to examine the piece of jewelry.

"Or the darkloids might have not have noticed it when it fell off her neck. Do you know the chance of that locket meaning anything? This isn't TV you know, that stuff only happens in the movies."

"Well our lives are weird enough for television." Tasha replied looking back.

"Can't argue with you there," Breeze said, "Hey Tasha do you think there's any chance they're like us? I mean really like us?" the navi asked.

"I have no clue, if they are it might be a reason why Regal wanted them but…" Tasha started to say when a soft pinging drew her attention to her monitor, "OMG," she breathed as she looked at the screen.

"What is it?" Breeze asked.

"I think I just found the teams signal."

"Hey I'm back," Whisper called as she reentered City Hall finding it quiet, "Hello?" she asked when she went back into the archives room, she was greeted with a sneeze, followed by a huge cloud of dust erupting into the air.

"Hey," Lan replied as he appeared from behind a filing cabinet.

"Where is everyone?" Whisper asked as she walked over to the dust-covered boy.

"Out back I think," Lan replied, "Chaud and Proto went out for some fresh air about five minutes ago. I decided to stay since I only had one more cabinet to look through. And since I'm done with that," Lan said as he shut the cabinet door, "I'm going to try to get some of the dust off of me." Lan said as he looked at himself noticing that he was totally covered.

"Yeah I would suggest that, you look like you got attached by a five year old who got into her mom's powder." Whisper said as she reached over knocking some dust off Lan's shoulders. Lan looked at her as she did that. Something really had changed about her. Her mannerisms and the way she carried herself were different. It wasn't like she was truly different, but she wasn't the same either. Whisper could see Lan's wheels turning and decided it was best to say something. "Well I guess I'll go and find Chaud." She said as she began to walk to the door.

"Yeah and I'll go and find a Dirt Devil somewhere." Lan said as went out another exit down another hall. Whisper waited for a while to make sure he was gone and then made her way to the filing cabinet she had seen Proto look in before her 'eye opening experience'. She had noticed that he had paused over a cretin file and she wanted to know what it was. As she thumbed through the tabs she found one marked 'Blaze'. "Bingo," she whispered to herself as she slipped the file from the rest. Opening the manila folder she found a state-certified certificate, an adoption certificate. "Emery Tristan Blaze," Whisper whispered as she read the name. "Who are you Protoman?" she asked her self, then she heard someone coming. Whisper quickly closed the folder slipped it back into it's place closed the cabinet and slid over to the next one just as Chaud walked in. She hadn't lost a step.

"So you finally made it back," the dual haired teen commented as he came in.

"Yeah just a few minutes ago," Whisper replied as she looked up, "I just thought that I should finish looking through this file first since I didn't finish." She said as she shut the cabinet.

"That's good, because if knew better I would way you were avoiding me."

"I'm not trying to avoid you," Whisper said as Chaud began to eye her, "Ok maybe I was trying to bide some time." She finally admitted as she played along with Chuad's game.

"So it really is you." Chaud said.

"Yeah, Chaud it's me." Whisper replied.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?"

"Well to tell be honest I didn't know I was anyone else besides Whister EXE before I fell out." Whisper replied. "Weird I know but that's the way it worked. Terra found out that I was living as a navi three years after the accident. It was the night that that huge electrical storm came through. For some reason our dad didn't want her to know that I was alive, after she ended up fainting because she was so upset he just put her back in bed and acted like nothing had happend the next morning, then he blocked my memories with a program. Terra was always torn whether what she had seen that night was real or not, but after she met Lan and Mega and found his birth and death certificates she was able to realize that everything had really happened.

"I'm sorry, Whisper I had no idea." Chuad replied.

"It's no big deal, I ended up finding out anyway. When we were looking through the files I ran across my own death certificate, seeing it brought back my memories."

"So that's what was going on when you blacked out. You had us really worried."

"Yeah the memories were being downloaded by force, I guess some of my dad's program was still around."

"Well like I said before I'm sorry, do you want to tell everyone else or wait?"

"She doesn't have to wait we already know." Lan said as he and Proto stepped from around the corner, "So you're Terra's sister."

"You were eavesdropping?" Whisper asked.

"Not really," Proto replied, "we pretty much had you figured out rite after you left."

"Yeah maybe but still that's not something that I would expect from you." Whisper said directing the statement to Proto.

"What can I say everyone falls below what's expected of them at least once in their lifetime." Proto replied.

"Sure from someone else, maybe, not you." Whisper replied as she gave Proto a short look over, "So what do we do now?" she asked.

"Keep trying to unlock Regal's puzzle." Chuad replied.

"Oh that ought to be fun," Whisper replied, "Especially since what we have to go on is nothing."

"Yeah but-" Chuad started to say when he noticed Lan looking off in space, "Lan, you still with us?" he asked grabbing the boy's attention.

"Oh yeah," Lan replied, "I was just thinking how weird all of this is. Out of the six of us two have had their lives saved by my dad in the same exact way. Hey…." Lan started to say when he really thought about it, "that matches the…" his voice drifted off when his eyes fall on Proto, 'no it couldn't be. It wasn't possible,' Lan thought to himself when he turned back to Chuad and in the mean time catching a sharp glance from Whisper. Obviously she must have been thinking the same thing and at the same time she wanted it dropped.

"Matches what?" Proto asked.

"Nothing," Lan replied still looking at Whisper, "you know what it wasn't important."

Chuad caught the eye contact between Lan and Whisper, he didn't know what it was but something was going on.

"So what do we do now?" Mega asked as he and Terra continued down the empty streets toward Chuad's mansion.

"Find the proof for the missing piece of the puzzle. And hopefully find out who Proto really is. " Terra said as they turned down Chuad's street.

"So you know where Chuad's dad keeps his records?" Mega asked.

"Come to think of it, no." Terra replied when she came to the realization.

"Well wouldn't we need to know where the files are?" Mega asked sarcasticly.

"Ha, ha, ha," Terra said as she pulled out her PET and called Chuad placing it on speaker.

"Oh, hey Terra," Chuad said when he picked up, "have you guys found anything yet?"

"We're not really sure yet." Terra replied as she looked over at Mega, "we may have something but we're not sure and we need to check your dad's files first, so do you know where we are exactly? Because I have no unearthly clue where they are." Terra asked hoping she was being vague enough so Chuad wouldn't be able to tell that she knew more than she was saying.

"They should be in my dad's office if they're anywhere," Chuad replied, then he paused for a second, "Whisper told me what happened, Terra, I'm sorry."

"Thanks," Terra replied, "So I guess we'll look at this stuff and call you back if we find anything ok?"

"That'll be fine, I'll see ya then, bye." Chuad said as he hung up.

"Ok see ya." Terra replied as she did the same.

"So the files are in his dad's office, well that's obvious." Mega supplied.

"Yeah it may seem that way but with Chuad's dad you never know; he's a little paranoid when it comes to that kind of thing."

"And he knows about Sky."

"Yeah."

"You think he's going to be able to draw the connection between me Whisper and Proto?"

"Hopefully, if he dose it will lead him strait to Protoman without our help, because I kinda feel bad going behind his back." Terra said as she and Mega rounded the corner and the side of Chuad's mansion came into view.

"So you ready to finish this?" Mega asked when they reached the door.

"Yeah I'm ready but to tell you the truth this is happing way too fast and it's starting to get way too weird."

"Well you should be use to that by know. We all should, so what so you think we'll find?"

"I don't know, but I'm sorta aiming for the truth." Terra replied as she opened the door.

As the door opened it seemed to creak, reveling behind it the view of the house, and since it was missing its staff seemed pretty cold, open and drafty. It seemed odd and out of place.

"Well here we go," Mega said as he entered the foray leaving Terra to follow. As they made their way to the staircase Terra couldn't help but think that with no one in it the mansion wasn't the most inviting place.

"Ok," Mega said as she opened the door to the office, "You take this side and I'll take this one." He said pointing to right side for Terra and the left side for himself as he started to take charge.

Terra went to the nearest cabinet opened its first drawer and started to thumb through it's contents. All business files. As she began to check another one she began to feel guilty. Chuad should be here, this was his family's secret and he should know about it. He should be there. As she continued to thumb across the file tabs her curiosity got the best of her and she began to flip through their pages. But what she saw made her disgusted.

"This is unbelievable," she said in a not so gracious tone.

"What is it?" Mega asked as he looked up.

"Look at these." Terra said as she held open the manila folder that contained several business transactions.

Mega's interest quickly deflated, "They're business transactions so what?" he asked when he looked them over.

"Hub, look at the signature."

"It's Chuad's?" Mega asked still not getting the point.

"Yes, it's Chuad's signature, but they're on all the documents, they're even on these." Terra said as she pulled the out the ones that Mega had been looking at.

"Whoa," he said as he looked them over, "these records go back three years. Hey isn't that about the same time that Chuad's dad left the country to scour the globe for companies to assimilate?"

"Yeah it is. Seems like the jerk has been having his son run the company for him. I thought they had like a 70-30 partnership between them but I guess not. No wonder Chuad doesn't care for him." Terra added.

After a few more minutes the two hadn't found anything. There was nothing to prove that Proto had ever been human.

"Well either we hit a dead end or we've been wrong since the start." Mega said he shut the last drawer. "There's nothing here."

"No this has to be it, everything fits. The three souls are you, Whisper, and Proto, and the one person who ties them together is your dad. Plus this is the only way we can find the answers in ourselves. OMG." Terra said

"What is it?" Mega asked.

A smile spread across Terra's face as she spoke. "The answers are in this house Hub, we've just been looking in the wrong place."

TBC