Disclaimer: I do not own Rockman.EXE sadly.
Zero: A Legend Reborn
Thoughts "blah"
Chapter 10
When they reached their home Hinata invited Netto inside so that he could explain the situation to their parents.
As soon as Sasuke had heard why the NetSaviors had come looking for Jesse and the others he immediately backhanded O'Neil. "What were you thinking? No, never mind. It's obvious that you weren't thinking at all."
"Sir I realize that it's not my business, but I think that Jesse and his sisters just want to help. I can't really blame them for that even though what they did was wrong. It think that the important thing is their intentions." said Netto.
Sasuke looked at the young Hikari and said, "The road to hell is paved with good intentions. They should have known better."
Ayame looked at their little boy and said, "I always knew that you were the troublemaker of the group, but I thought even you had more sense than this."
Jesse scoffed and said, "Hinata's the troublemaker…it's just that she's never been caught. I get caught every so often and Ciel has never done anything wrong that I'm aware of."
Sasuke was still very angry and refused to look at anyone of his adopted kids. "I expect the three of you to serve your time and I don't want to hear any excuses. I'm disappointed in each of you." With that said he left the house. It was obvious that he needed time to deal with this.
Ayame looked at the kids and said, "Go to your rooms now and I don't want to see your heads for the rest of the night." She turned to Netto and said, "Thank you for telling us about their…activities. I can't say that I agree with you letting them off so easy, but thank you for choosing to do so."
Netto nodded and left knowing that right now there wasn't a lot that he could do. The two parents needed to come to terms with this on their own.
Jesse, Ciel, and Hinata went to their rooms as instructed. They knew that they would have to wait until their 'parents' cooled off before speaking with them more.
Later on that night Jesse was up talking with Zero. "I can't believe that we let ourselves get caught. If the NetSaviors didn't know about my Synchro-chip then they just would've dropped it and we wouldn't have any problems."
The crimson navi nodded in agreement but added, "There was really nothing that could be done about that. If you didn't crossfuse with me when you did then you, Hinata, Blaze and Ciel would've been killed." Zero could practically feel his NetOps regret about having been seen, but like he said it couldn't have been avoided. "Besides Netto did help us out and it's not as though you didn't want to help the NetSaviors any way."
Jesse's head immediately turned away before Zero could read his facial expression. The green-eyed teen asked hesitantly, "Am I…really that obvious?"
The former Reploid started laughing and said, "I could see it in your eyes when we went to see Forte. You had every intention of helping Netto and his friends. The only difference between what you had planned and what happened is that you didn't intend for them to know anything about us. You certainly didn't intend to get yourself and the rest of us arrested."
O'Neil nodded knowing that, as usual, Zero was right. "It still bugs me that I made such mistakes. I still can't figure out how I let myself get caught in the first place."
"I could answer that for you." offered Zero, "The biggest reason why you got caught was because you tend to draw out these massively complicated plans with lots of twists and turns. What you should've done was keep it simple."
The navi then explained why complex was never a good thing. "Complicated plans have too many opportunities for something to go terribly wrong. Keep it simple and you keep such possibilities down to a minimum."
-KNOCK, KNOCK-
"Can I come in?"
Jesse and Zero both looked at the door in fear and surprise. They recognized the voice as Sasuke's and prayed that he didn't hear anything. O'Neil looked at the door and said, "Uh…sure, come in."
The red navi and his NetOp watched as the raven-haired man entered the room. Sasuke shut the door behind him and walked over to his son's desk. He sat down in the chair and then turned his attention to his son who was sitting on his bed with a PET in hand. "We need to talk."
Jesse felt the dread swelling up in his stomach. He knew that this conversation was coming, but he'd really hoped that it would have been put off until tomorrow. "Atleast that way I could've come up with some really good excuses and maybe save my neck."
"I'd like to hear your side." said Sasuke. He saw the look of discomfort cross his son's face and added, "I won't think less of you, but you've got to come clean. Tell me what happened."
The green-eyed boy wrestled with himself over whether or not 'coming clean' was such a good idea. "We've basically lied to everyone since we first came here and now Sasuke's wanting everything out in the open. I never even told Netto everything…probably never will either." He took a deep breath and decided on how much to reveal. "This is going to be difficult, if not impossible for you to believe. I mean it's all true, but…not really believable."
"Just tell me. I promise that I won't laugh at you." The man felt that what was about to come next was going to be one heck of a bombshell. "Just remember Sasuke you asked him to come clean. You'll only have yourself to blame if you can't handle it."
O'Neil nodded and then pointed at Zero and his PET. "I'm sure that you've noticed by now that my PET isn't normal. In fact it isn't even one of the currently available models." He saw his father nod and he continued, "…Me, Zero, Blaze, Hinata, and Ciel are not from Earth…or at least not this one."
The raven-haired man's mouth fell open and all he managed to get out was, "Huh?"
"Like I said you wouldn't believe me, but it's true. We're from an alternate version of Earth. Zero, Ciel and Blaze came from one while Hinata and I came from another. We all met up here and we did what we had to in order to survive." Jesse looked into Sasuke's eyes to make sure that the man was keeping up. After all it's not every day that you tell someone that you're from an alternate universe.
"Me, Hinata, and Ciel are not siblings…of Ciel should be obvious sense we didn't come from the same universe and before you ask, No I have no idea how we ended up here and I have no way to send us home." O'Neil reached of to his desk and pickup a glass of water and took a sip. He wasn't really that thirsty, but he thought that Sasuke needed a short break to process what he'd learned so far.
Zero watched as his operator set the glass back on the desk and then turned to look at their caretaker. He could see the disbelief on the man's face and decided to take care of this now before it became a problem. "Sasuke he is telling you the truth now. Think about it…there were no papers on either of them, no family members have come forward to try to claim them, and they are a lot smarter than most people in their classes."
Slowly the pieces were starting to fit together for his kids. "This explains so much about all of you. I always thought that you guys were special, but I never would've guessed this."
The green-eyed boy thought about it and had to agree. "True. It's not something that you'd normally see on adoption papers. Place of birth: Alternate Universe." He chuckled at his little joke because of how funny it would look.
"Is Hinata really your sister? How is it that you're so smart? Why didn't you tell me?" When Sasuke asked the last question he couldn't keep the hurt out of his voice.
The boy and navi felt guilty about withholding such information, but it had been their only real defense until the new Synchro-chip was developed.
Zero re-entered the conversation saying, "We didn't think that you'd believe us even if we did tell you and we're not eager to be sent to padded rooms."
"To answer your other questions no Hinata is not my sister. We're are close friends from back home and that's it." Jesse then smirked and said, "As for how it is that our grades are so high…let's just say that I'm not twelve years old."
Sasuke looked at the boy and said, "The people in your world grow slower or something?"
Jesse shook his head. "When we were sent to this universe me and Hinata were turned into kids again. Believe me when I say that I wouldn't subject myself to this kind of torture intentionally." Looking away he angrily muttered, "Puberty once was enough for me. Darned squeaky voice…"
The man and navi heard the comment and started laughing lessening the tension in the room. The boy just glared at the two not finding his situation amusing in the least. Finally after working the laughter out of their systems Zero and Sasuke gave the attention to Jesse who was alternating his glare between the two of them.
"Are you two finished now? Having a squeaky voice and all that jazz once was cruel…but a second time is just…wrong." Jesse growled at the other two.
"Alright, we'll stop laughing. So how are you really?" asked Sasuke curiously. What amazed him was that he was able to fully believe what his 'son' was telling him about himself and his siblings. Most people would've already called the local psychiatrist and made sure that the boy was 'properly treated'.
The boy looked up in surprise that his dad was actually staying with him on this. It was hard enough just talking about since the risks were still very high and the possibility that Duo or his servant was spying on them were just a high. Finally recomposing himself he said, "Actually I just recently turned 21 and Hinata's a year older than me. Ciel…well I really don't know how old she is and I value my life way too much to ask. Women always get touchy about their age."
The other two males nodded in agreement remembering their own encounters with that dangerous question and females. No sane man would ask a woman her age unless they had a death wish or it was said woman's birthday.
The door swung open and on the other side was the most terrifying thing that they had seen all evening.
"Well dear brother a woman's true age and past are best left as secrets." said Hinata with a blazing aura covering her and the other two with her.
Blaze seemed to be completely engulfed in fire while Ciel's eyes seemed to be almost glowing red like some sort of evil demon.
Regaining his nerve Jess said, "Come on in and have a seat."
The girls accepted the offer and did as offered. Blaze looked at Hinata's 'brother' and said, "Well as long as you're being completely honest…why don't you tell us about your new Synchro-chip. We can't get anything from Ciel, so we're going to hear it from you."
O'Neil easily recognized the threat, but didn't pay it much mind. He'd intended to tell them how it worked earlier anyway. Now was as good a time as any. "Alright. To begin with you remember the transporters from Zero's world, right?"
As soon as both Hinata and her navi nodded Jess continued, "Well as you may recall the transporters work by converting matter into to data, transmitting it from one point to another, and the converting it back into matter. I took the converter and miniaturized it. Then I combined it with Dr. Hikari's Synchro-chip and that's basically what I did in a nutshell."
"Aw…so that's how you pulled it off. Basically it converts Zero back into a Reploid while merging him with your body. I assume that it does the same with the battlechips?" said Hinata as she thought about the new chip.
"Exactly and as for the 'flaw' in the chip…I lied. We could've exited Crossfusion at any point, but I didn't want the NetSaviors to get their hands on the technology behind the new chip. Zero trusted me with it and I'm not about to risk allowing someone out there to become another Dr. Regal." Jesse knew human nature all too well. Given temptation too many would give in for power or wealth and he didn't want to be responsible for giving such people the means to cause more devastation.
"So your technology is more advanced than ours?" asked Sasuke.
Hinata shook her head and said, "Not our technology. We're still way behind compared to this world. Ciel and Zero on the other hand have access to tech much more advanced than yours."
Both blonds nodded at the statement and waited to hear what Sasuke would say next. The raven-haired man looked at them all and asked, "Why did you steal the chip if you've got access to stuff more advanced? And why were you working with Forte?"
Jesse took the opportunity to answer those questions. "Well we didn't actually steal it. We accepted stolen property, but that was it. As for why we were working for Forte, well we needed his help. Also as much as the Net Police would like to see him gone they can't do that. He's going to be needed for future battles if humanity is going to survive."
"In other words you made a deal with the devil." guessed Sasuke filling in the blanks.
The others just looked surprised and it wasn't because they didn't think that he would figure it out, but because Sasuke had said the exact same thing that Jesse had said before they met with Forte.
Sasuke then stood up and started walking towards the door. "Well you've certainly given me plenty to think about. I'm not going to say anything about this to your mother or the NetSaviors, but I do expect for you five to pay your dues. Even if you had good intentions what you guys did is a crime."
"Multiple crimes if you think about." thought Hinata. Of course she wouldn't say that out loud after everything that they've been through today.
"Thanks" "Thank you" "Appreciate" filled the air as Sasuke closed the door and returned to his room. There was no doubt that he wouldn't be getting much sleep tonight, if any.
They continued to talk, but eventually they called it a night and returned to their own rooms. The future was starting to look really interesting for them.
The next morning Hinata and her siblings were greeted by Enzan and Laika. "What are you two doing here?" she growled.
Laika just glared at the girl and said, "The Commissioner wanted us to keep an eye on you three."
"Don't you mean five," said Jesse before pointing to the PETs. "You forgot about Zero and Blaze."
"Yeah don't you forget about us my little mutant haired freak." shouted Blaze. The phoenix navis wings were twitching and burned with fire showing just how angry she was about being forgotten. Blaze was always one to enjoy attention and while she may not get it all of the time she absolutely hated being ignored.
The former Reploid remained silent but emitted an aura of 'killing intent' that both Blues and Searchman were able to easily pickup on from within their PETs.
Enzan hated having to put up with kids, but this was his 'glorious' assignment. "I hate working with kids. What did I do to deserve this torture?" Clamping down on his temper before he said anything that he'd regret the boy turned to Ciel and said, "As I was saying the Commissioner wants us to 'break you in', teach you procedure, etc."
"In other words he wants to 'tame' us." voiced Zero finally starting to settle down even though he still wanted to maim something. He really didn't care what he viciously ripped to shreds so long as he got to do it soon.
O'Neil immediately recognized the warning signs of Zero's explosive temper and said, "Uh…maybe you'd like to go spend some time in the net? Yeah I think that you some quality 'Zero time'." Ignoring Enzan and Laika Jesse immediately sent Zero to the Cyber World and wished him luck…not that the crimson demon would actually need it. "It's the thought that counts."
"Did you think that perhaps Zero might need to hear this too?" asked Enzan using that 'I'm-superior-to-you' voice of his.
Jesse flipped him off and said, "Zero's A LOT stronger than you've seen and believe me when I say that he is not someone that you want to screw with. He has a very wild nature that's only quelled by fighting. You pissing him off like you just did could easily resort in something, say a partner being deleted."
"DON'T YOU DARE THREATEN ME!" Enzan barked. "How dare these…these punks try to intimidate me?"
Ciel spoke softly saying, "He wasn't threatening you Enzan. He was just telling you the truth. This is Zero that we're talking about and he is many things, but controllable he is not. Zero doesn't really fight for justice so much as he fights for his friends and their ideals."
"You can't control your navi?" asked Enzan in surprise.
O'Neil scoffed and said, "I can't control Zero anymore than I could control you. I would think that Netto had taught you already that navis are people too." Jess leaned in getting angry again and added, "They have their own souls and dreams, don't treat them like they are possessions that only exist to serve you and others. They are people too even if they are not made of flesh and blood."
Both NetSaviors had already accepted that idea after having been around Netto for as long as they had, but to hear another person talk about it the same way that Netto did was something that they were not expecting.
Both teens dropped the subject and returned to the original topic of their conversation. "You three still need training and…" Laika turned to Ciel and looked her over. "Why don't you have a PET? Surely you have a netnavi."
Hinata glared at the NetSaviors knowing how this particular topic was a sore subject with the blonde scientist. "I'll make you pay if I see so much as the beginning of tears in Ciel's eyes."
Right on cue Ciel's eyes started to water up and she managed to say, "I don't have my own navi. I've never really had the time to prepare one for myself and I don't want a generic navi. I want one of my own creation or at the very least one that I can identify with."
"That's it! He is mine!" Hinata started trying to come up with an effective and embarrassing way to strike back at the dual-haired teen. "Torture…no, kidnapping and torture…too easily traced back to me, laxatives in food…no guarantee that he'd eat it and no doubt that he'd see any funny looks on my face. There has got to be…oooo, maybe I can use 'that'? I doubt that Jesse would mind, it's for a good cause after all."
Hinata walked up next to Jesse and brushed against him lifting something from his back pocket. She received a funny glance from him, but she returned the look with one of her own that said 'I'm scheming something, so just leave me alone and you won't get hurt'.
Getting no objections from her 'brother' the girl turned around and discreetly shoved the object into her back pocket making sure that the NetSaviors didn't see it.
"Hold it! What did you just slide into your back pocket?" Laika had caught the subtle movements with his watchful eyes and he knew that they were again hiding something.
"Nothing." answered Hinata indignantly. "Just a little sibling affection. Nothing wrong with that, right?"
"If it were someone else then I'd say no, but this is you two that we're talking about here." Enzan walked over to the two teens and patted Hinata down first. Ignoring the protests and threats of a horrible death he quickly reached her back pockets. He reached in and emptied out the contents. "A battlechip?" He turned his attention back to the younger two and searched their faces for some clue as to what it was.
"Fine I'll tell you. It's supposed to be some kind of SUPER RARE battlechip that Zero and I found in the Ura Net a few weeks ago. It was something that I'd promised to Hinata and if you don't mind I think that she'd like it back…like say now." Jesse ordinarily wouldn't get too involved, if at all in any of his sister's schemes, but this time he'd make an exception.
Ijuin looked at the chip and then back to Hinata. "So what is it? What does it do?" he asked.
The girl just shook her head and said, "I don't know. I haven't had the chance to try it yet, but given how deep it was in the Ura Net it must be something powerful. I simply did Jesse's homework to get it and I didn't want you guys to take it away, so I tried to slip it out of his pocket in order to avoid this."
The soldier just shook his head and said, "You really don't think that we believe that do you." He couldn't believe the arrogance of these three kids. Did they really think that they'd be able to make a fool out of him? "Not likely kiddies."
Jesse rolled his eyes and said, "Since when have I cared what you think?" He stuck his finger on his lip making it look like he was deep in thought and then added, "Come to think of it when have I really cared what anyone thought? I think that I feel insulted...nope that's just last nights curry."
"Hey I made that last night!" shouted Hinata. "Like his cooking is any better. Last time he was allowed near the kitchen he about killed me and five other people with food poisoning."
Enzan stepped in breaking up the fight, "We're gonna have Dr. Hikari examine the chip and then you MAY get it back."
Hinata moved to take it back by force, but she quickly found both arms being held painfully behind her back. "Laiki-chan get off of me. That's abusing your power you know."
"Like we need lecture about abuse from you. We'll do this our way and after Dr. Hikari has completed his tests I might give it back to you. You'll just have to wait and see." Enzan then tucked the tiny chip into his pocket and started walking for the door.
Laika released Hinata's arms and then turned her around so that she had to face him. The green-haired teen could see the hatred in the girl's eyes. "Good, now to channel that hate in another direction." "After school today the three...five of you are to come to the NetSavior HQ for training. Enzan will escort you Ciel while Netto will accompany Jesse and Hinata."
Seeing the angry looks at their faces Ijuin said, "After all we want to make sure that the five of you show up. We can't have you kids pulling a disappearing act."
With that said the two NetSavior escorted their 'prisoners' to school while the same van of NetSavior agents set itself up at the schools main entrance.
Jesse and Ciel immediately notice that they are the center of attention as the students and faculty spot them entering the main building.
"Um...okay...this is awkward." thought Jesse while Hinata and Blaze seemed to be ignoring everyone in favor of smiling about the trap that she'd set for Enzan and Laika.
"Soon my little puppets, soon."