A/N: PEOPLE! Forgive Az for the lack of updates, again, but I've been either too busy or too tired to do more than just sleep for hours.

This was really a tricky chapter to write. Mainly because there is a lot of important stuff in it regarding the character's emotional development… took me a lot to get it done like I wanted it, but in the end I got ten pages for you to read! For those who are reading this, there is a manga reference in this chapter. A virtual chocolate (or vanilla, or strawberry, or whatever you like) cookie to who guess right!

ALSO! Unwilling Partners got another fanart! Azie is SO happeeee! Check my profile for the link!

Thanks to Silvera, again, for the few corrections she managed to do despite her impossibility to do it. I appreciate your effort!

Anyway, I do not own Rockman and anything coming from Capcom. I do own the plot idea, though. And the writing. Yep. Writing's mine. And the plot. Plot is mine too, especially the concept of "Black Fury". Kindly refrain from stealing it.

Az.

.

.

"Well, that was… interesting…" Netto had to chuckle as he remembered how people had reacted to his entrance into the curry shop and asked for a large portion of his favored food. Some of the customers had left in a hurry, a couple had backtracked to the wall in fear while the poor man at the counter had looked so pale that the boy had thought that he would faint any second. "At least we got some food."

Netto was currently sitting at the edge of a ledge on top of a tall metallic pylon adorned with satellite dishes and boxes that the boy didn't bother knowing the use of. It was located on a hill at the edge of the city so he had a nice view of the land before him, in particular the lake where the base had been.

Is curry all you eat? Forte asked in annoyance. If he concentrated enough, he could feel the taste of the food, and he had to admit that it was… interesting, but he was secretly starting to get tired of the same food over and over.

Netto lightly swung his legs into the air, eyes briefly looking down at the ground. In the past he would have been unnerved by such a long drop, but after spending so much time flying around and generally being high up in the air, he liked the advantage point he could gain from places like that. And humans would be unable to reach him without climbing a narrow ladder or without a helicopter, which was even better. He wouldn't have to worry about having to keep an eye on his back all the time.

"Well," the boy replied after a few seconds of silence. "I asked you if you wanted something else, but you apparently didn't care about it so I went with what I like best…"

After receiving only a disgruntled sound for reply, Netto sighed and focused his attention down at the still hot bowl of curry in his lap. The scent was sweet, as always, and it made him drool and wonder if he should have ordered more than just one large portion. Not to mention that his father wouldn't be angry at him for the bills he sent him.

"I wonder how everyone will take this," Netto suddenly spoke, idly playing with the spoon in his hand and making it twirl in his fingers. Normally he would lose his grip immediately, but the navi's superior dexterity made it so easy that he could do it without even looking at it. "Shocked, maybe?"

Just tell them and see for yourself, Forte replied with a grunt, still not fully understanding why his host was so reluctant in telling the truth. He knew that he had started doing it because of his feelings of hate and distrust, but it felt so long since they had seen who they could trust and who they had to be wary of.

"It's strange," the boy replied with a frown on his mouth. His eyes returned to the bowl of food on his lap and, after a couple of seconds of contemplation, he took a few spoonfuls of curry to his mouth. "The more I wait, the more I'm reluctant to tell them… but at the same time, I'm not bothered if they discover it on their own…"

After his words, silence filled the air and Netto quietly ate his dinner while watching the sunset. He missed being with his friends and family a lot, but at the same he had come to enjoy the solitude and quiet times. "How long have we been like this? A month?"

Roughly, Forte replied with disinterest, feeling a sudden wave of weariness and sadness coming from his host. Strangely enough, however, it wasn't because he was stuck with him.

"Should we go?" the boy asked after a while, empty bowl in his hands transforming into ashes thanks to a short burst of dark energy from his hands. He then stood up and turned towards the direction SciLabs was in and felt a sudden wave of reluctance in going back. Oddly, it was his reluctance, and not Forte's. "What's happening to me..?"

Tell them, the black navi spoke, averting the boy's attention away from his inner turmoil and back to reality. His voice sounded calm and collected, but deep down he could feel… something that he had never felt before. Something that frustrated him and made him wish he could blast whatever it was to smithereens. This has gone on for too long.

Netto lowered his head into the rim of his cloak and held onto a nearby pole for balance. "I… don't feel like I can…" he muttered, feeling torn between crying and laughing in amusement at his own insecurity. "It's just… I feel that when I'll face dad, I simply won't be able to say a word to him…"

The boy then pressed his right hand to his face and let out a humorless laugh while a tear ran down his left cheek. For a moment he felt like he would lose control and just break down, but then he shook his head, rubbed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I'm fine," he reassured himself as he lightly crouched down and jumped into the air. "Perfectly fine."

.

.

Yuichiro was too worried to actually concentrate on his work, but at the same time he needed to keep his mind busy with something else. Or at least try to since their current situation looked less than good.

The few humans that had been stationed in the underground base had all escaped death and then capture from the NetPolice, the few agents of the criminal organization that they had under custody simply didn't want to speak and Forte had been missing for hours after being spotted in a curry store and Enzan had been unable to speak with him. And there was no sign of his son.

The only positive result was that Meiru and the others had come back safe and sound and brought back with them a 'Materializer', the device that made possible for navis to walk in the real world without the use of a Dimensional Area.

"Interesting," Meijin muttered as he flipped a component to observe its other side and uncover a small tubular device that he instantly recognized. "Doctor, look at this."

Yuichiro lifted his head from the scribbled blueprints of a Materializer to look at the open device on the other side of the desk. "A… miniature converter?" he asked as he observed the battery-like component. At the moment it was deactivated, but he could recognize it as well. "So this is how navis can materialize? A miniature Dimensional Area…"

"It's deactivated, though," Meijin replied with a frown as he unhooked the small device and held it up so that both him and his colleague could better observe it. "It seems to work on electric current, but there is no battery inside the Materializer. Still…"

The older man nodded his head and took the miniature converter into his hand, rolling it around with his thumb while he hummed in thought. "Still, this sample is undamaged, so we know that it works," he continued before looking down at the blueprints he had personally drawn. "No battery… could it be that… the navi that uses this is the power source?"

Meijin frowned lightly, then started to follow the small wires that were connected to the support for the mini converter. "It could be," he replied as he prodded the device they were attached to. "This seems to be the hard disk that houses the navi's core program while his frame and sensorial abilities are projected by this other device…"

Yuichiro watched as the younger man prodded another device, then set the mini converter down and sighed, rubbing his eyes. "To think that someone came up with this useful device only to do harm…"

Having walked into the room at the right time to listen to the last bit of information, Cossack stopped next to Netto's father and looked down at the device. "Do you think that Forte is using one of these without realizing it?"

"It could be," Meijin replied, shifting the glasses up a bit. "But again, Forte himself told Blues that Dark Mu was after a code that he had, and he has a human-like body that lose blood when injured. We'd have to talk with him when he gets back."

The three men remained in silence for several long seconds, everyone deep into their own thoughts. Meijin was mainly focused onto the device, wondering if he could reproduce it with SciLabs's resources, Cossack was thinking about the reaction Forte will surely have upon seeing him and Yuichiro's mind was swirling with thousands of questions.

When the doors slid open again, the trio turned around with a start. For a moment they believed it was Forte, but upon seeing Enzan looking at them in slight confusion and a raised eyebrow, the men sighed in relief. As much as they needed to talk with the black navi, they still dreaded the time when he came back to SciLabs. Although lately he was more civil towards them, that didn't mean that he wouldn't lose his calm demeanor upon seeing that his creator was back.

"Still no sighting of Forte?"

Enzan stopped at one of the free edges of the table and looked down at the disassembled Materializer, then turned his eyes onto Yuichiro. "He has been sighted at this curry shop on the other side of the city roughly forty-five minutes ago to buy some curry," the boy replied as he took out his PET and let his navi display a map with a few red dots on it. One of them was the store he had mentioned while the others were either streets or skyscrapers. "The last sighting reports him flying to the east."

Yuichiro examined the map with a hum, one hand under his chin. "Odd," he mumbled out, confused at the coincidence. "That's one of Netto's favored curry shops…"

Perhaps it was just Forte getting food for his son, but there was something that just didn't make sense. A small detail that that he couldn't put his finger on it and that would surely solve the mystery around the navi's strangely calm behavior and his son's disappearance. "Maybe I'm just tired…"

Cossack placed a hand onto the younger man and squeezed it gently. "From what you told me, I can guess that you haven't slept well in a while," he said with a gentle smile and worry in his eyes. He might have been away for ten years, but he still cared for the man that had once been an apprentice at SciLabs.

Yuichiro rubbed his eyes and sighed heavily. "It's just… Forte knows a lot of what's going on, but he doesn't talk," he replied, suddenly feeling tired and older than he was. "He's been here for several days, and all I could get out of him was a single word… I know that he will talk when he is ready, but it's… so tiring to just wait…"

"Yuichiro," the older man started, gently pushing Netto's father around and starting to accompany him towards the door of the room. "You have been working almost non stop since your son went missing. It's time you take your deserved rest and leave everything up to your colleagues."

Yuichiro sighed and rubbed his eyes, feeling another wave of tiredness pervade his body and mind. "But I need to find Netto," he replied after a few seconds, voice faint and subdued. "Who knows in what danger he is in…"

Cossack affectionately patted the shoulder of the man he was accompanying. "I'm sure he's fine. He seems like the type of kid that knows what he's doing."

Netto's father sighed again. He wasn't exactly sure of how truthful his old friend's words were… his son, although always coming on top of things, was rash and had a tendency to jump headfirst into a fight without thinking about it or what consequences there could be. There were too many chances of him making a mistake and getting hurt, or worse, dead.

Giving a nod of silent acceptance, however, Yuichiro let the older man guide him out of the laboratory, leaving Meijin behind to continue in his analysis of the Materializer with Enzan giving him a hand. "I just… can't help but worry…" he eventually murmured as they walked through the corridors, directed to the sleeping quarters within SciLabs.

"You're a good father, Yuichiro. Better than I could ever be," Cossack's eyes softened as he remembered how he had failed to support his son when he really needed it. "But right now you should take care of yourself. What would your son say when he comes back and find you hospitalized because you had a sudden collapse? And let's not forget your wife. She needs your support to get through this."

The younger man bit his lip, feeling a sudden wave of guilt claw at his heart. "I should call her…" he mused with a tired smile. Even if she knew that he was always at SciLabs to find their son, Haruka needed more than just the moral support from her friends. "Tell her to not worry, that Netto will…"

As Yuichiro faltered both in his speech and in his steps, Cossack stopped walking and watched the other's face with a light frown of confusion. Netto's father was looking straight ahead and had an expression that was a mix between anxiety and fear, and, after following his gaze, the older man understood why Yuichiro looked like that.

At the end of the corridor, enveloped by his brown cloak and floating a few inches from the ground, Forte was staring back at them. His face was hidden from view, but there was no need to see it to understand that the navi was close to explode with rage. Both men could feel his oppressive aura pushing against their skin.

For a moment, time froze and Cossack felt the sudden urge to approach the silently raging navi and apologize for everything. Instead, it was Yuichiro who made the first move by placing a halting hand onto the older man's shoulder before taking a step towards Forte, his movements careful and slow as to not spark any unwanted reaction from the navi.

"Forte," Yuichiro spoke calmly, but in reality he was worried beyond imagination. He raised his hands into the air to show that he was unharmed and took a few more steps forwards. When the navi slightly turned his head to look at him, he stopped advancing and tried to look as harmless as possible. "Please, listen to me."

Forte shifted his attention between the two men several times, giving Yuichiro the impression that the navi was having an internal conflict of some sort. Listen to his words, or attack?

Unable to decide, however, Forte brought his hands to his head and clutched it, suddenly howling in agony for a moment before rushing past Netto's father, roughly shoving him against the wall, and tackling his creator to the ground.

"Forte…" Cossack rasped out as he recovered from the collision with the floor. The back of his head hurt and the two hands around his neck were slowly tightening. Yet, even if the navi was strangling him, he couldn't help but look up at the Forte's face with loving eyes. A different face and cold dark red eyes stared back at him, and when he placed a fatherly hand onto the navi's shoulder, the hands around his neck jerked to a stop.

Standing up from where he had been shoved against the wall, Yuichiro took a few seconds to recollect himself, then he approached the unmoving navi once again. "Forte, please… listen to me. Doctor Cossack never meant to hurt you. Ten years ago… he couldn't help you because he was held by the police!"

"Liar…" Forte's cold voice cut the air like a hot knife would do with butter, but both men could see that the navi was conflicted on what he wanted to do. Already his hands were moving away from Cossack's neck and traveling to his head to clutch at it again. "Liar!"

Then Forte jumped away and landed at the end of the corridor, collapsing on his knees and hunching over. Something in him wanted to blast his creator to oblivion, but something else told him that he could trust Yuichiro's words despite everything he knew. The conflicting emotions showed themselves as physical pain and the navi started to shake and breathe raggedly for air, as if chocking.

Yuichiro kneeled next to Forte and placed a hand onto his back, rubbing it up and down in the same way his wife did with Netto when he was still very small. It was an action that seemed to soothe people in distress, and the man was glad to see that the navi didn't flinch away. "Forte," he called softly, hoping that his voice would keep the navi from having a mental breakdown. If it happened, Forte would surely react violently. "You have to believe me."

"I've been thinking about what to say since I've seen you on TV days ago," Cossack spoke, ignoring the burning that every word brought to his throat. He kneeled down in front of Forte and placed his hand onto the navi's shoulder once again. "But now I realize that everything I thought is… useless. There is no way for me to express how sorry I am for not having tried harder… there are just no… excuses…" he paused and watched as Forte tried to flinch away from him, but somehow had no strength to do so. "Still, even if it will never make things right once again, I'm sorry."

The reaction from the navi wasn't exactly what Yuichiro and Cossack had hoped for. After pushing the two away, Forte screamed and blasted upwards, smashing through several floors before disappearing through a layer of gray clouds. Netto's father was the first to stand up from where he had been shoved and, after carefully sidestepping some precarious-looking debris hanging from the hole in the ceiling, he helped the other man up.

"Well," Cossack coughed out as dust filled his already sore throat. He dusted his hair and took his glasses off to better observe the crack in the left lenses. "It didn't go as I had hoped, but still… it wasn't a total disaster…"

"He almost killed you," Yuichiro replied, lifting an eyebrow at the other man. He was perplexed at Cossack's laid back attitude regarding the matter, especially since Forte almost strangled him to death. "Aren't you worried?"

The older man gave a tiny smile and peered at the sky that he could see through the several holes the navi had made. Forte was nowhere to be seen, probably already far away from him. "I am worried, Yuichiro, but… I have to give him his space," he explained, resigned to wait rather than actively seeking reconciliation with the navi he had created. "He'll be back, eventually. To either talk with me or kill me."

The two remained in silence for a while, both absorbed into their own thoughts, until Yuichiro gave a small sigh. "He changed a lot recently, though," he suddenly said, drawing the other man's attention. "He's… mellower… somewhat. He doesn't attack unless provoked, which isn't like him…"

Cossack massaged his throat, trying to get rid of the soreness. "And he's not the kind of person to have such an emotional conflict that causes him pain too, but again, it's been so long… Forte might have changed from the navi I knew more than I had originally thought. Even his face is different…"

Yuichiro turned his gaze onto the man standing next to him and raised an eyebrow. "You saw his face? Forte hasn't let anyone see him in the face since he came here," he commented, shifting his glasses up his nose with a finger. "I just saw his eyes a couple of times. They are of a much darker red than what I remember."

Cossack hummed in thought, suddenly feeling like he had already seen Forte's new face somewhere. There was a sense of familiarity with it that it almost frustrated him beyond reason. Looking down at the cracked glasses still in his hands, the man gave a soft sigh and pocketed them in resignation. Without having another close look at Forte's face, there was nothing more he could do about it.

The two then moved away from the hole in the ceiling as some debris fell from the upper floors, making the place too dangerous to stay in. "He's like a shadow… Never talking, never letting someone see him in the face, never doing more than wandering unless necessary. He thanked me once, for getting care of his wounds, but his voice was so low that I nearly missed it…"

The two remained in silence as they walked away. Now that Forte was gone, there was no need to stay there and risk their life for nothing. "We should probably see where he's going…" Yuichiro suddenly suggested, turning a corner and directing himself towards the main laboratory. Despite knowing that the navi was perfectly capable of taking care of himself, he was still worried he could get into troubles…

"You really are a good father, Yuichiro," Cossack laughed heartedly despite the situation. "And you have the same hero complex you had ten years ago. As soon as you see someone in trouble, you have to help them. Even if they don't want it."

"I'm surprised that Forte came to SciLabs in search for help…" Yuichiro replied, watching Cossack go from happy to sad as soon as he remembered how he had failed the navi that he considered a son. "Or that he's helping my son with something…"

The older man gave another tiny smile to Yuichiro as they walked inside the main laboratory. "In my travels, I learned that anything could happen when you least expect it. Maybe your son managed to talk some sense into mine."

"Netto? Talk sense into Forte?" Yuichiro asked with a raised eyebrow. "I would believe it if it was Rockman, but Netto? Netto's the one who needs sense talked into his head sometimes. As much as I love him, he can be… such a troublemaker at times…"

"Sounds a lot like Forte ten years ago," Cossack laughed again, amused at how Yuichiro's son and his at some point in their lives had shared certain traits of their personality. "But maybe your son grew up since he went missing. After all, it's been… what? A couple of months?"

Netto's father nodded. "Yes, about two months," he replied with a small sigh. The boy had been missing for a whole month without them being able to track him down before he sent a cryptic message to Enzan. As of now, his son was still eluding both the police and SciLabs's attempts to find him, only occasionally leaving a note for them.

They remained in silence until they entered into the main laboratory, where Yuichiro greeted Meijin with a nod. "I presume you got wind of what happened just a few minutes ago," the man asked his younger colleague. At the moment he, Meijin and Cossack were the only people within the room.

"Sure I did," the youngest of the trio replied, returning to the console and pressing a few keys. "Forte wasn't quiet when he left. The building shook only slightly, but it was enough to send everyone into a panic. They all left in a hurry, but they should be back soon. Was that because he found that Doctor Cossack is back?"

Yuichiro nodded and stood next to Meijin to look at the large screen hanging at the wall in front of them. "He acted oddly," he replied as he observed the younger man use a satellite to scan the land around SciLabs in search of Forte. "At first he nearly strangled him, but then… he almost had a mental breakdown."

Cossack watched in silence as the two used the most advanced satellite to track the fleeing navi down and sighed to himself. Even if the first meeting had gone better than he had thought and gave him hope, he also had to agree with Yuichiro on Forte's odd behavior. It was like the navi had two personalities that were fighting each other so violently on what to do that it caused him physical pain.

A sharp beep then woke the old man from his reverie and his green eyes turned to look at Meijin, who was scratching his head in perplexity. "Well," he heard him say softly, words probably meant only for himself. "That's… the last place I would look for him…"

Yuichiro raised an eyebrow and looked down at the small monitor in front of the keyboard, blocking it from Cossack's view. "Where is he?" the blond haired man asked, moving to the side so he could glance at the screen from behind Meijin's shoulder. The video feed that showed an apparently calm Forte made him sigh in relief, but when he noticed where the navi was floating, he had to raise an eyebrow too. "Space?"

"Yes," Meijin confirmed, typing something else and opening a new window showing the planet and several lines running around it in circles. One of them was in red. "He has a stable orbit around the planet near one of our satellites. From a first analysis, it appears that he has some sort of shield protecting him from the void of space."

"Looks like he's safe for now," Yuichiro took his glasses off and rubbed his eyes. "Since there's nothing more we can do at the moment, I'm going to rest a bit. Meijin, keep an eye on Forte and tell me if something happens."

The younger man nodded and watched as Netto's father trudged out of the room with slumped shoulders. "Sometimes, he overworks himself too much," he commented once the door had shut and left him and Cossack alone. "But I can't blame him. His son is missing and he has taken a fatherly shine to Forte, probably because of his hero complex…"

"He's like I remember him," Cossack replied as he returned his eyes on the monitor. Forte was still floating in space, unmoving and with his face hidden from view by his cloak and helmet. "But that's what makes him a great man."

.

.

Even if he still had to open his eyes after waking up from the latest black out, Netto knew that he was floating somewhere in space. It hadn't taken him too long to clear his mind from the haziness of unconsciousness and recognize the feeling of weightlessness and the lack of sounds save for his heartbeat, his breathing and the occasional rustle from his cape further confirm it.

He wasn't bothered about it, though. He had been in space before, and if he had flown so high up, he could also fly back down in a way or in another. Besides, the quietness of space had some sort of calming effect on Forte, and by extension, on him too.

It was the reason he had gotten there that worried him. He didn't know what had happened, but he could vaguely remember being in pain and feeling like he was suffocating. Then there was the faint memory of flying upwards in search of fresh air and not stopping for a long time. And all because of that old man that he had seen with his father.

"Forte…?"

What?

Forte sounded weary and his voice was soft, devoid of its usual edginess, making him sound more like a sleepy kid than a blood thirsty navi. Netto could faintly feel his confusion. "Who was that man?"

The navi was reluctant in replying, but after a moment of silence he gave a sigh. That was Doctor Cossack, my creator…

"So," Netto started after a while, remembering the words he had heard when he had entered Forte's nightmare. Doctor Cossack had been talking about how a huge mistake the navi's creation had been and that he needed to be deleted. His hand moved to his chest and covered the scarred emblem, his fingers tracing the neat line and letting his mind feel the emotions that came from Forte. "…Betrayal…"

To think that the navi had been betrayed by his own creator hurt Netto more than he could bear and made him curl on himself, clutching at the emblem as a phantom pain suddenly cut through his chest. He knew that it wasn't real, that in the end it was just a memory, but it still was such an agony that it made him breath raggedly.

He remained there for long minutes, motionlessly waiting for the pain to go away and trying to keep his mind from wandering too close to Forte's emotions. The last thing he and the navi needed was to black out again and wake up on the moon. Finally opening his eyes, he took in the magnificent sight of the planet hanging in front of him.

Until a few drops of water floating in front of him caught his attention.

After bringing his right hand to his face to rub his eyes, he observed how the white material appeared slightly darker on certain parts of his fingers. "Tears?" the droplets of salty water were less than the fingers of his hand, but they still confused him. Yet, he knew that they had been spilled because of Forte's past. He still didn't know all the details, but what he knew was enough to make him want to go back to SciLabs and give that Cossack guy a piece of his mind.

Yet, as much as he felt compelled to do just that, there was something that stopped him. "You know…" he spoke after thinking for a long while and suddenly remembering where he had heard the man's name. "My dad used to talk a lot about him when I was younger… he used to tell me how kind and great Doctor Cossack was…"

Lies, Forte's voice was soft and disheartened. All lies…

"Still… I can't believe that my dad lied to me on something like this," Netto replied with a light frown on his face. His father might have been away from home for months at time because of his work, but he could trust him to never lie on something important. "He would never do that…"

Are you saying that I lie? That what I went through ten years ago is a mere fantasy I came up with?

Before Forte could get angry, the boy shook his head. "No. No. I trust you. You have no reasons to lie on something like this either, but…" he paused and gave a deep sigh. "But what if there was a misunderstanding between you two?"

What else can there be? the navi replied in barely contained anger. He abandoned me. Ordered my deletion. Is that what someone would do to their 'son'? Just because I wasn't like they wanted me to be? The security was lousy and I was merely showing them how easy it was for someone to crack the defenses. Thanks to me, they corrected countless of bugs and replaced useless security navis with better ones!

Netto silently listened to the navi ranting, finally getting a few more details on his past. He didn't interrupt for fear that Forte would just shut up once again. Sure, the navi's method of troubleshooting SciLabs's security system was not the best way to do it, but there was no malice behind is actions. He had just wanted to help in the only way a fighting-type navi knew. Fight.

And what do I get in return? Forte continued, his words dripping with venom. They want me dead! They can't care less that I'm as aware as them, that I can feel the same emotions they feel, that despite being made of data, I'm alive. No! They told my creator to delete me, and he agreed! He was so disgusted by me that he didn't even care to be there when they almost killed me…

Netto gritted his teeth and felt his fingers twitch involuntarily. He was angry and for a moment he wished he could track those people, punch them in the stomach and tell them how they had been disgustingly full of themselves to realize that they had been demanding the death of a sentient being…

"Still…" the boy forced the anger away and closed his eyes for a couple of seconds, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "I… believe in my dad too. There must be another reason. Something amiss… you said that he wasn't there when you were attacked, right?"

Forte gave an affirmative grunt, too weary to fight his host's annoying prying and his firm belief in his father. At the moment he didn't even care for what Netto was trying to find. All he wanted to do was just… retreat to his little corner and block out the entire world. Yet, the determination that drove the boy in finding the truth behind Cossack's absence, whatever it was, kept him where he was.

He just didn't care… he countered weakly. His creator was still an open and painful wound to him and he just didn't want to have anything to do with the man anymore. Left me to die while the navi that attacked me praised the restraints that he had personally put on me…

"Forte," Netto called out as he started to float towards the planet. "I don't know every detail, but I have a feeling that you have been misled on purpose. I want to find out why Doctor Cossack was absent at the time, but to do that, I'll need your help to crack the security of NetPolice's archives."

At first the navi was reluctant in agreeing, but knowing the boy to not be satisfied with anything less than a 'yes', he eventually grunted. He wasn't happy with Netto's choice of investigating the past, but at the same time he wasn't in the mood to get into an argument with the boy. Especially when they were reentering into the planet's atmosphere like a meteor. Thankfully their shield was doing a very good job in keeping the heat at bay.

Netto rolled around so that he was falling on his back, his eyes cast up at the sky. The flames had died as the friction with the air started to slow him down. "This is a nice powerful Life Aura we have..."

The boy's words and his carefree attitude pushed the tension away and the navi suddenly felt lighter. The pain, the anger and the hate were still there, but for the first time in ten years he felt… at peace. He was so enthralled by the feeling that he noticed too late that the proximity scanner was warning him of the presence of a large passenger plane directly below them.

Caught by surprise, the first thing that Forte did was to follow his instinct and roll to the side despite the fact that he wasn't in control of their shared body. Everything that happened after that point spanned a mere second, but it was as clear as day. There were no words between them, no thoughts. Just the action of twisting to the side and dodge the airplane by a couple of feet.

They observed the people on the other side of the small windows, unaware of the barely missed collision and chatting happily with their friends, then continued their fall for a couple of more seconds before coming to a halt and observing the plane continue its flight and disappear behind a white and puffy cloud.

Netto spent a few more seconds in looking at the direction the plane had went into, then looked down at his hands. One moment he was laying on his back and looking up at the sky, the next he knew he had to move to the side. He had felt in perfect control of his body, but at the same time he had felt like he had been guided through the action…

"What… what happened?"

Forte was as confused as he was. He didn't know how he had done it, but he could remember moving his host's body, and although it had lasted only for a second, he knew that it had been real. I… don't know…

Yet, despite their confusion and perplexity, what they just did, whatever that was, had been… exhilarating.