Disclaimer: I do not own Rockman.EXE sadly.

Zero: A Legend Reborn

Thoughts "blah"

Chapter 5

The trio made their way to the area where the intruder had been confined by sealing the doors shut. Forte wasn't sure who they were dealing with, but Zero and Jesse seemed to have a very good idea.

When they reached the locked door nearest their 'guest' Jesse went over to the lock and disabled it. "Well Zero, here we go." The door opened and they slowly entered the room.

Once inside Jesse couldn't find the intruder, so they all started to look around. Jesse made it as far as the third door when a vase was smashed into his head. It wasn't heavy enough to knock him out, but it was enough to leave a large knot on the top of his head.

The intruder immediately grabbed a board and stated demanding, "Who are you? Where's my Zero-chan?"

"Ouch! Lady, what was that for?" Jesse was not amused even though Forte obviously was. The dark navi had a slight twitch of the mouth of his robotic body. The boy settled for glaring at the woman.

Zero appeared on Jesse's shoulder with a look of disapproval on his face. "Was that really necessary….Ciel?"

The blonde human saw Zero on the brunette's shoulder and her eyes widened. She couldn't understand why she was seeing her savior and friend as a tiny hologram. "This boy must've reprogrammed Zero or did something else horrible to him." She pointed her finger at Jesse and said, "What did you to do Zero's body?"

Jesse chose to ignore her question and just continue to glare at her. Zero knew that his NetOp would be sore about this one for a couple of days especially since he'd let his guard down just before the attack.

Forte excused himself after Zero told him that Ciel wasn't a threat, but in fact an old friend. The dark navi smirked when he heard the boy scoff at Zero's assessment.

"It's good to see you again Ciel," said Zero.

The young scientist smiled and replied, "It's good to see you again too Zero, but where's your body? Where can I only see a hologram?"

Zero sighed and explained to her what had happened since Ragnarok. "…so that's basically it. I'm Jesse's NetNavi now and I've been helping him ever since."

Ciel nodded in understanding and looked at the brunette that she now knew as Jesse O'Neil. Extending her hand she said, "I'm sorry about, you know, the vase. I thought that you had done something horrible to Zero."

Cautiously taking her hand only for Zero's sake Jesse forced himself to accept the apology. "Sure, but you must know that nobody to forcibly control Zero for long. If that had been the case he would've already broken free and come after me for retribution."

The young scientist nodded in agreement knowing how head strong Zero usually was. She glanced at the PET that contained the digitized Zero and asked the red navi, "Has he been treating you well? If not just say the word and I'll make him regret it."

"Jeez this woman is defensive…and violent. I'd expect something like that from Zero, but not from her." Jesse led Ciel into the main lab at Forte's complex and set the PET on the table.

Zero appeared over the 'Link PET' and said, "Ciel trust me, Jesse's been the best NetOp that I could ask for. He used to be difficult when it came to training him in swordsmanship, but I finally got him past that point."

Ciel swore that she heard the boy mutter '…that's because I can't get away.' The scientist chuckled at that and shot Jess a sympathetic look. Ciel had handed Zero trainees before and they always found any excuse that they could to get out of training. Zero's methods were strict and usually very brutal especially for humans.

The former Reploid asked, "Ciel, why did you follow me here? More importantly, how did you follow me here?" These were questions that Zero already had a few theories about, but he wanted to hear it from his old friend.

"I asked the 'Mother Elf' to send me to wherever you were…so that I could bring you home," she answered.

Both of the former Resistance members saw the brunette tense up after hearing Ciel's intentions. They knew that the boy had become attached to Zero and didn't want to lose him.

The NetNavi looked at his operator and said, "I'm not going to abandon you now Jesse. I stick with my friends and I did agree to become your navi." He turned to Ciel and said, "I can't leave, but I would like to know how our world has been doing since my departure."

It was apparent that Zero had promised to remain this boy's navi most likely because he didn't think that there would be a way to return home. "I see…then I'm not going back either."

The legendary Reploid wasn't that surprised by Ciel. Zero sighed knowing that there was no talking her out of this, so he asked the next thing that came to mind. "How did you plan to go back anyway?" When he didn't get a response he looked at Ciel to see a familiar look on her face. "Ciel? Please tell me that you did think of how to get back."

She looked nervous and embarrassed, refusing to meet the navi's knowing eyes. "Well…I…I sorta thought about it." Ciel knew that Zero wasn't buying it when he crossed his arms. Breaking down she said, "Ok, fine. I admit it. I don't have a way back…yet. I didn't think about the return in so much detail as I'd planned to wing it."

Jesse finally reentered the conversation saying, "I'll leave you two alone. I'm going to go see if I can finish my project while you two catch up."

Ciel immediately asked, "What project? Perhaps I can be of assistance."

Zero smiled and pulled up the data that the PET contained on the project. "Here take a look. It's something that my operator cooked up, but it's taking so long to complete. I think that it would certainly give us an advantage over the competition and we would appreciate any help that you could render." He looked at his operator and said, "Isn't that right?"

The brunette swallowed his pride and said, "Yeah. Any help would be very welcome. Every simulation so far has ended with the test subject falling apart on the molecular level."

"I'll do what I can. I can already see several things that you've overlooked. They're small, but other than that this looks very promising," said Ciel as she reviewed the test results and other data.

At Sci-Labs Dr. Hikari had called for the three NetSaviors to come to his lab. The first to enter was his own son, Netto Hikari. Laika and Enzan entered behind the hyperactive brunette and wondered why all of them had been called.

"Dr. Hikari what's this all about?" Enzan looked behind the doctor at the monitors for some kind of hint, but found nothing.

Yuuichiro readjusted his glasses and motioned for the boys to take the seats in front of him. "Please be seated." Once the boys were seated he began to explain why they had been called. "As you three know Forte has somehow acquired more Dimensional Area generators and he's been using them. So far he's hit several facilities taking equipment, rare metal, and other materials. We don't know what he's up to, but the higher-ups want him stopped and the stolen property returned."

Laika nodded in understanding and said, "In other words it's a simple search and retrieve mission in addition to information seeking. I don't see why you need the three of us for this task."

The Vice President of IPC looked at the soldier and said, "Forte is a formidable navi. His powers have continued to increase and evolve at an alarming rate. The best that we could do in the past was fight him to a draw. Don't take him light or else you're dead."

Rockman and Netto both nodded in agreement as they recalled their battles with the super navi. Underestimating Forte was the quickest way to get yourself and those around you killed.

Searchman asked, "Rockman is he really that tough?"

The blue navi nodded and said, "He's by far the toughest opponent I've come across with the only exception being Gospel. Laserman and Dr. Regal was a walk in the park when compared to Forte." Rock was worried that the dark navi had become active again since his minor interference during Nebula's reign.

Laika knew that Netto's abilities had seriously increased since becoming a NetSavior and the fact that the boy was showing fear made the soldier nervous. "For Netto to actually show fear this Forte must be really powerful," he thought. "When do we begin Dr. Hikari?"

Yuuichiro replied, "There's an informant in Ura Net 3 that's offering us the information on Forte's location."

The young businessman of the group knew exactly what that meant. "At a price you mean," he finished.

Dr. Hikari nodded. "Yes sadly. The Commissioner has already approved a rather large sum for the information. You're to send your navi's there, get the information, and deal with Forte's operations in our world immediately."

The three boys replied, "Yes, sir."

Laika smirked seeing that he'd had some influence on Netto, but that smirk vanished when the soldier realized the Netto had just been mocking him.

In the lab Ciel was working on the project and was making good progress. Jesse and Zero had already come very far, but they had missed a few small things that had been the cause of the numerous failures. The blonde smiled to herself knowing that Zero had actually listened to her ranting about science.

The Shuryou robot reentered the room with Hinata in tow. The navi left the girl with Ciel and returned to planning for Duo's arrival and the power that he would gain from Nebula Grey.

Hinata recognized Ciel from the Rockman Zero games and was surprised to see her here. Jesse and Zero entered the room and stopped seeing the other brunette. "Hi sis. What's up?"

Blaze's operator stared at her brother before asking, "What is Ciel doing here? And what is she working on?"

The boy didn't want to tell his sis just yet. "Well Ciel came here after Zero, but it seems that she's going to be staying with us. You come up with the excuse, I'm not a convincing liar."

The other NetOp frowned and said, "I don't lie, I fib. It's like lying only classier." Blaze chuckled and watched as Jess got grilled. Hoshi then asked, "So what is she working on?"

The green-eyed boy knew that his sister wasn't going to let this go and he had to act fast. "Look I'll tell you once it's finished, but not before. It's something that I wanted to surprise you with."

The brown-eyed girl decided to let her adopted brother keep his secret for now. She could be patient and it wasn't like it was some urgent matter. Hinata didn't think that it was a prank since Ciel was working with Jesse. "So how long until it's done?"

Ciel stood up at that exact moment and said, "There, I'm done making the corrections."

Jesse and Zero smiled as they were both eager to taste the fruits of their hard work. The boy started a number of machines up and watched as they started processing the operations that he'd indicated. The estimated time for completion was twenty minutes. "Ok, while that's working we need to come up with something for Ciel. She's not going to live on the streets, so lets find here a place to live."

Zero said, "Why not let her live with us?" He wanted to keep his friends, new and old, close to himself.

Hinata agreed and said, "That's a good idea. Since she looks so much like a child we can just claim that she's our older sister or maybe a cousin."

"We were lucky that they believed that you and I are related. I still don't get how our parents could be that dense, but I'm not going to complain." The green-eye NetOp was sure that their adopted parents wouldn't buy that story, so he came up with another idea. "Why not just say that she lost her parents like us during Wily's reign?"

Ciel remembered Zero telling her about how they had made a life for themselves here. She didn't approve of their method, but she knew that they didn't have much choice. Nobody would have believed the truth anyway. "We'll I am only twenty-four even thought I look about seventeen, so either one will probably work. How did you guys end up looking like you are twelve or thirteen?"

Hinata glared at Jesse and the boy looked away with a guilty expression on his face. Ciel would have to find out about this and so she asked for details. By the time the Jesse and Hinata had finished the operation was five minutes away from completion. Ciel worked out a few theories about the unstable Dimensional Area and how it must've been responsible for turning them into children again.

Before they could talk more the DA generators started up and surrounded the factory with a familiar dome. Ciel was a little alarmed having never been inside of a Dimensional Area while the others were surprised that the generators had been activated.

"What's going on?" Hinata pulled her PET from her clip and readied her Synchro-chip. Either they had a serious threat or Forte had found out that Jesse wasn't a psychic. In both cases they were in trouble. Hinata noticed that her brother hadn't pulled out his Synchro-chip and she asked, "Why aren't you getting ready to Crossfuse?"

The other brunette answered, "Because I can't do that and transfer the data on the project into my PET. Zero get the transfer started and then delete all evidence while I take care of the evidence here." He pulled out some small explosive devices that he'd rigged just in case something went wrong. "Good thing that Zero taught me how to make bombs too." He turned back to his sis and asked, "Can you stall who or whatever is attacking us?"

Hinata nodded and Crossfused before using 'Area Steal' to get outside of the building. Ciel asked, "What can I do?"

The boy answered, "Help me set these. Zero can remote detonate them once we're clear."

The blonde quickly went to work setting the small devices around the running machines. It wouldn't be good if someone got their hands on the technology that they were working with. It wasn't just from this world, but some from her's as well. "No doubt Zerohadtaught his operator how to build this stuff."

Outside of the building Hinata flew overhead and saw viruses popping up all over the place, but that's not where her attention was focused. Near the entrance to the factory three familiar NetSaviors were closing in.

"Blaze get Jesse," said the girl. The navi quickly did as she was asked knowing that it would be nasty if the others were caught. "Jesse the NetSaviors are here and they are heading your way. GET OUT OF THERE!"

The green-eyed boy replied over the PET, "I can't. Zero's still transferring the data and the operation is almost done. Take a few shots at them and then bale. We'll be right behind you…and don't you get caught."

"Urgh…you stubborn… Blaze let's do like he says." Pulling out her guns the NetOp took aim at the approaching NetSaviors and fired several shots. Enzan was hit in the leg while Laika dodged them completely. Netto ended up buried under part the roof that he'd been standing under.

The brunette NetSavior quickly dug himself out of the rubble and said, "Laika go after whoever did that. I'll take care of Enzan and then join you inside."

Laika followed his instructions even thought they came from Netto and followed after Hinata.

Being able to fly made it easier for the girl to outrun Laika and soon she was on the other side of the Dimensional Area. She hid as best she could considering her wings were in the way and waited for Laika and Searchman to show up.

Netto had since pulled himself out of the remains of the ceiling and moved Enzan off to the side where he should be safe. He could tell that the Vice President was not happy about being hit because he'd let his guard down. "I'll be back as soon as we're done."

The indicators on the machine started going off indicating that the operation was complete. Jesse reached inside and pulled out a new Synchro-chip. "Perfect. This is going to make things very interesting."

-Thud-

"Hey is anyone in there. Open up, I'm a NetSavior." The voice was very familiar and the owner started to jiggle the handle trying to open it, but found that the door was locked.

Jesse put a finger over his mouth and then pointed to the door on the other side of the room. Both he and the young scientist ran for the door and slammed it shut just as a brown haired boy smashed the first door down. Jesse whispered, "Let's get out of here. We have what we needed. I can repeat the process later, but not if that idiot catches us."

Ciel didn't really know what was going on, but if Zero trusted this boy then so would she. They both started running for an underground utility passage that they could hide in until the DA collapsed.

Zero transferred himself back into his PET and informed his NetOp, "I've deleted all evidence that we were here on my end and I'm ready to detonate the bombs."

"Wait until the Hikari kid gets out of there. The last thing any of us want is the blood of an innocent on our hands," said Jesse. The other reason he didn't want to kill Netto was because he'd been one of Jesse's favorite characters.

The red navi nodded and sealed the doors behind his operator. He smiled as he heard something smash it's way through another door. "The kid's persistent, I'll give him that." With Zero's help and their familiarity with the layout of the factory Jesse and Ciel were able to make it to the utility tunnel with ease.

Elsewhere Hinata wasn't doing as good. She fell out of Crossfusion and climbed into a barrel hoping that Laika wouldn't search them.

The Sharo born soldier knew that someone had entered this storeroom and he was determined to find them especially since that person or navi had wounded his fellow NetSavior. He searched the place looking in all corners and didn't find anything.

Finally Laika's eyes settled on the barrels and he reached for the lid. Using Searchman's strength he yanked the lid off the first drum. "Gotcha!" Inspecting the insides he found that he was mistaken and started checking the others.

Inside her barrel Hinata could hear Laika getting closer and she silently thanked God that the soldier hadn't just used Searchman's scanning abilities to locate her. "Probably because he's pissed and not thinking straight after I shot Enzan. Why did I have to actually hit the cute one?"

Hinata's barrel shook and she knew that Laika had caught her now. She closed her eyes and prepared for her inevitable exposure.

-BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!-

The sound of the explosions ripped through the air alerting everyone that something was going on inside the factory. Poor Hinata cursed herself for being in a small…metal barrel. The sounds of the explosions had been amplified and left a loud ringing in her ears.

Laika punched the barrel causing it to fall over and when he didn't see anyone fall out he rushed back outside. He ran towards the burning fires to make sure that Netto and Enzan hadn't been hurt. When he made it there Netto landed on the ground by him.

"Good to see that you are not hurt," said the brunette. Rockman meanwhile was checking up on Searchman as well. Opening a secure line Netto asked, "Enzan are you ok?"

"Yes I am, but what was that? And where is Forte?" The young businessman had managed to make it to the control room with his injured leg. He'd checked the security footage and found that everything had been erased by a Program Advance. What was worse was that the dark navi that they'd come to battle hadn't been sighted since their arrival.

"Don't know. Neither of us has seen him either and it's not likely that the one that shot you was him, " said Netto. He knew that the super navi wasn't one to hit-and-run. Forte stood his ground and fought until he was on the verge of deletion.

After detonating the bombs Jesse and Ciel met up with Hinata near the storeroom. "Come let's get out of here," urged Jesse. With his own main goal complete he no longer needed this place and their own base of operations was still safely hidden from the NetSavoirs.

The three people made their way back to the utility tunnel and opened the door. Before they could enter a green glove roughly grabbed O'Neil's shoulder and the owner said, "Freeze! You three are under arrest. I'm a NetSavior and my name is Laika."

"Then shouldn't you be pointing that gun at those viruses instead of my brother's head," said Hinata. She was always quick on her feet and continued, "And why you're at it explain why we are in this…whatever it is."

Netto supported Enzan as they met up with Laika and his captives. Netto immediately recognized Jesse and Hinata. "Hey what are you guys doing here?"

O'Neil resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the blue NetSavior. Ciel just moved closer to Jesse and tightened her grip on his hand.

Hinata already started scheming one of her match making ventures for those two. "They're so cute…and so much alike. They both need this." Drawing her mind back to their current situation she said, "We hang out here everyday after school until late in the evening. It's always quiet here and it never bothers anyone, so we come here."

"You do know that you can't be here? It's considered trespassing," informed Enzan.

Jesse spoke up saying, "By who? Well…there is the bank that owns this place, but it's not like we've been spraying painting graffiti everywhere or anything like that. I don't see what the problem is."

"Never mind that Enzan. Jesse have you or Hinata seen a strange navi while in here or a robot by any chance?" Netto being the dense person that he is didn't want to believe that the two new students where behind this.

Zero appeared over his NetOp's shoulder and answered, "Well there was a strange guy in the window of one of those buildings, but he never came out and said anything to us."

Enzan perked his head up and asked, "Did this strange guy by any chance have long, light green hair with purple tips?" When Zero nodded Enzan was surprised. Forte must've known that these kids where out here and yet he didn't do anything about it. "May he didn't attack them because he didn't want anyone to know that he was here. If he had attacked or killed them there would've been an investigation, so he just watched them from a distance." It was the only theory that the boy could come up with next to these kids being behind this. "But they are just kids, they couldn't possibly have built these dimensional area generators."

Laika held the three of them in custody while the NetSaviors went over the factory. Thankfully for them the fire and bombs had destroyed any evidence that they had been involved.

Many Dimensional Area generators were uncovered and thirty-six were still usable. As they were moving more people in the Shuryou robot appeared and glared at Netto before disappearing. The NetSavior had seen this and now believed that the new students had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. He told the Chief what he'd seen baffling the old man and Dr. Hikari. Forte's actions didn't make any sense.

Enzan questioned Jesse and Hinata several times getting the same thing every time. When he questioned Ciel the young girl grew silent and started crying asking for her siblings. "Great! One of those types that can't be without her brother and sister without breaking down into tears." Ciel portrayed herself as the innocent, shy girl that she'd been growing up.

The NetSavior Chief decided to release them back into their parents custody. Ciel managed to pass herself off as their older sister and reconfirmed that 'their parents were dead'. Sasuke didn't hesitate to take the new girl into their family after he lectured them all for being on private property. The father had been told that the NetSaviors would be keeping their eyes on them for a time just to be safe. What he didn't know was that Kifune believed that they might have been working with Forte and he wanted to know for sure.