Despite the rough handling by Gutsman, the warm bath had finally gotten rid of the soreness that had been plaguing Forte and Netto for days. Even the gash on the leg, now nothing more than a light cut, had stopped itching. All it needed now was to be wrapped with clean bandages.

There was only one problem that prevented Forte from tending to the injury, and that was the bizarre maze of corridors and rooms located in the left wing of the Ayanokouji's mansion. 'Bizarre' because from the outside, the place didn't look as large as it actually was inside, and Forte was pretty sure he could hear humming coming from the walls.

Having already visited the left wing in the past, Netto had provided some useful information on the place, but it never went past the 'dangerous place with traps' and was unable to explain how they had gotten lost in there.

Forte was glad to have successfully escaped the clutches of a bunch of kids that apparently did not know the meaning of 'leave me alone,' especially since it gave him time to figure out how to rebuild his helmet. Still, the minor setback of not knowing where he was and where he was going made his mood increasingly sour.

It was a complete contrast to Netto's absent, almost catatonic state, making Forte wish there was an easier way to confront the kid and punch some needed sense into him than falling asleep and hoping that their dreams met.

Instead, the fist that Forte wished so much to slam against the nose of his companion connected with the wall at his left with such violence that the surface cracked. "Why am I even bothering with you? Why am I compelled so much to… face you about this?"

Those were two of the many questions that Forte had been asking himself since those memories had come back and Netto's mood had taken a turn for the worse. And despite having troubles believing how much involved in the matter he felt, he knew that he would never feel at peace until things were back to normal.

As much normal as a human and navi hybrid could be…

His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden hiss and before he even realized what was happening, his fighting instinct took over and he jumped backwards, away from the danger. Forte didn't have to worry, though, because the danger was nothing but a trap composed by a large axe swinging left and right from the ceiling.

It was a slow and motion, hypnotizing in its rhythmic swinging and gentle hiss of cut air. Forte followed the blunt blade, mesmerized at how the large thing was designed to first hurt and incapacitate and then to block the way.

But the trap was designed with a human mind for humans and it would never take a navi by surprise, nor stop him or her from advancing. All they had to do was to just blow the obstacle away and go on with their business. Yet, Forte could not take his eyes away from that weird trap and the monotony that it expressed.

And he suddenly felt bored and annoyed by it. The hate and anger rose in him like a bubble in the water and he couldn't stop his arm from extending to easily grab the axe when it was in a vertical position. He wasn't entirely sure why he felt that way all of a sudden, nor why images of his life in the Undernet came to the front of his mind, but he did realize how much he had been running into an endless circle without seeing an exit.

That realization had came so suddenly that Forte felt dazed and had to fasten his hand onto the edge of the blunt blade he was holding onto to keep a steady stance. His free hand slowly went to cover his face and he closed his eyes, feeling nauseated by the simple memory of those ten years of never wanting to understand why his creator had never helped him.

He was not tired. He would never be tired or lose the will to live, but he was weary. For once, all he wanted to do was lie down and not be worried about random people, be them navis or humans, trying to kill him on sight. It was ironic how he had found some peace with a kid belonging to the race he hated so much.

Forte parted his fingers so that he could see at the faint reflection on the gray surface of the large axe. Despite the long period of being fused with Netto, it was still somewhat weird to watch a reflection that was not entirely his.

"When do you plan to face reality?"

When no reply came, Forte instantly knew that the kid was falling into the same cycle he had gone through. First he would refuse facing reality and seek answers. Then he would start to hate those that had hurt him. In the end Netto would hate everyone and do nothing but plot their destruction.

Forte could barely admit it to himself, but Netto deserved something better than having his life screwed up by a bunch of heartless humans.

The navi gave a deep sigh, wondering when he had started to be so soft-hearted. All he could recall was that in the beginning he had hated Netto with all his being, then, somewhere along their journey together, he had forgotten his hate and now he couldn't find it again. And he found himself liking this lack of negative emotions that had weighted on his frame for years.

He tightened his hold onto the axe and the pressure produced spider web-like cracks, breaking the reflection that was staring back at him into dozens of smaller ones. Forte shivered at that, feeling as if the reflection was Netto's personality that was slowly crumbling under all the stress of the last months.

When the blade started to crumble and fall to the ground in pieces, Forte backed away and observed the debris with a frown for a second before turning and walking away. The axe was just a mere tool, unworthy of anymore attention than what it already had gotten, but all the thoughts, the memories and the emotions remained, urging him to find a solution.

.

.

The center zone of the Ameroppean continent was known for its large tropical forest and rich ecosystem. It was common knowledge that humanity still had to discover all the animal and vegetal life forms that lived there, and it was in this place that a lone human with vast knowledge had discovered something that everyone would give a limb or two to find.

Located several hundred meters under the forest's surface, hidden deep into the maze of immense tunnels and caverns, the legendary continent of Mu laid dormant.

With its many towers, however, the continent wasn't exactly a large island in the middle of an underground sea. Instead, it was an immense city entirely made with a black metal that was stronger than anything humans had ever created in their history.

It was in this forgotten place that Dark Mu had built its base. From there, thanks to several miles of cables and hidden parabolic antennas on the surface, the organization controlled the entire network without being discovered and easily dispatched its members to do the dirty work.

On top of the tallest and largest tower, Paladin observed the darkness that ruled within the gigantic cavern, too strong to be defeated by the small dots of yellow and white light that humans had used to illuminate the paths and zones that were frequently used. He didn't like the pitch black, too suffocating for his own liking, yet the navi couldn't help but stare at it with fascination and a small amount of longing.

"Here again, brother?"

Shaken out of his thoughts by the sudden appearance of Ninja at his back, Paladin turned around and glared at his younger sibling. "Will you stop doing that? One of these days you're going to create several bugs in my programming!"

The black navi's eyes shone with amusement for a second, then the mood instantly turned serious once again. "Still thinking about that?" he asked. He knew his brother far too well and was able to read him like an open book. "That's going to cause only troubles for you."

Paladin frowned, grunted under his breath and returned to stare at the darkness. "I thought that you didn't care about it," he replied after a while. "That it wasn't your problem."

"It became my problem when you started thinking this way," Ninja's voice was soft, but his words were firm and so quick to the point that the white navi felt as if he had been stabbed in the back. "Your thoughts are dangerous, brother. Stop them before they will lead you to your deletion."

The silence hung between them for several long seconds until Paladin sat down. Navis didn't necessarily need to sit down, but he had discovered that he liked it and it made thinking strangely easier to do. "You don't understand," he said when his running thoughts finally halted for a moment. "And I don't either. It's something that goes beyond my own programming. It's…"

There he stopped and wildly gesticulated to the air, unable to find the right word to describe what he felt. "It just is. It's there, I've seen it, felt it and for a single moment I understood it. Now it's gone, but it didn't leave without leaving this… feeling."

Maybe he was corrupted and his programming was decaying, but when he looked down at his hands, the feeling only strengthened and it brought a whirlwind of emotions that only confused him further. It made him feel like he was clinging to a small piece of wood in the middle of a raging ocean and losing the fight.

Ninja crossed his arms and waited in silence until he felt that his confused brother was ready to listen once again. "The Emperor has new orders," he said watching as his words made the other's shoulders slightly tense. "We're going out. Just the two of us so that the lesser ranked members can't screw up the mission."

The white navi stood up and walked towards the opening in the floor that would bring him to the lower floors of the tower. "What are his orders, this time? Capture the kid again?"

Briefly shaking his head, Ninja followed his brother down the short stairway. "Not this time. This is something really delicate that he wants none but us to take care of it. He has commanded us to meet with him as soon as possible."

That Osamu Michiro, leader of Dark Mu and self proclaimed Emperor, would trust only his two navis with something delicate was obvious, but Paladin still wondered what it was to force them off Netto and Forte's back for it. Still, orders were orders and the two quickly walked through the corridors and down several flights of stairs to reach their leader's office.

The room that Osamu used to control the more technical part of his activity was large and the walls were decorated with scenes of a world that was never seen before. Lined along the left and right wall, four legless statues hung on their support in a way that it almost felt as if they were ready to attack at any given command.

Watched by their silent gaze, Osamu sat at the desk located towards the end of the room. He was reading some papers with the aid of a desk lamp and for long minutes he didn't bother acknowledging the two navis' presence. When he was done assimilating the latest information, he looked up at them with his sharp black eyes shielded by small round glasses.

Having lived almost his entire life in Choina, the man had taken to dress in a long dark blue tunic. On top of it he always wore another one that was black with small white speckles. His hair, which was black with a few gray strands, was collected in a low ponytail that reached past his shoulders.

"You're here," he said, his calm and clear voice cutting the air in a way that made Paladin cringe inwardly. He motioned for the two to walk closer and pointed down at a figure on the paper he had just finished reading. "Bring this to me."

Paladin felt surprised at how a large ball of data was considered more important than regaining possession of Netto and Forte.

.

.

By the time Forte finally found a way out of the left wing without blowing something up, the day was coming to an end. Already the sun was going down, coloring the clouds in the sky with a myriad of oranges and reds, rendering the scenery more of a painting than a real life situation.

Still not having understood the new system that controlled his powers, the navi was now sitting on a bench and looking up at the canopy of a nearby tree. The leaves were large and green, but some were starting to turn yellow, indicating that autumn was close to beginning. Even the temperature of the day was lower than the one he remembered.

Those were the first real signs of the time that had passed since that summer night in the middle of a wood in Amerope. Both Forte and Netto had eventually stopped counting the days, too busy surviving to pay attention to a menial thing like time, but the navi was sure that they had been fused together for about two months and something now. He was so caught up in his thoughts about how the short time he had spent with Netto had changed him that he didn't notice he was being observed until the watcher decided it was time to make his presence known.

Despite having solved the terrible misunderstanding during their previous meeting, Doctor Cossack couldn't help but feel awkward in presence of his son. His love for Forte was strong, he would never deny that, yet he was still scared that the navi would refuse any further contact and disappear once again when he was freed from the symbiosis with Netto. It was something that the aged man could not bear to witness again.

"Forte," Cossack said, coming to a stop near the bench. He had been looking for the navi, but now that he had found him, all the things he had to say died in his throat. The doctor knew that silence would never lead to a solution to their current situation, so he took another step towards his son and smiled despite feeling awkward.

Red eyes were instantly on him, wary but not hostile, and the aged man felt a bit more at ease. "I've heard that you got dunked into a pool of water," he said after a while, trying to break the unnerving silence. "Something about… stinking of sewer…"

Forte scoffed and crossed his arms, seemingly sinking into his cloak with his head. "It was unnecessary," he replied quickly, still miffed to have been treated more like a dirty rag than a person. "And annoying."

Doctor Cossack chuckled at the slight pout that his son was wearing. "Perhaps," he conceded, sitting on the other end of the bench were Forte was. "But I'm sure everyone will be glad that you got rid of that bad smell."

Not in the mood to partake in an idle chat, Forte did not reply and stared up at the first stars that appeared in the sky. It was nothing special to him, just speckles of light to indicate the position of distant suns. Yet he couldn't help but watch them, transfixed by their feeble pulsation in the approaching darkness.

"Forte," Cossack's voice was soft, but it did gain the navi's attention even if he didn't take his eyes away from the sky. The man knew that idle chat would never work with his son. "I'm not putting Netto above you, but Yuichiro needs to talk with him."

Forte hummed to himself, somehow finding himself understanding the urgency that doctor Hikari had. Normally he wouldn't care about this kind of stuff, but life was never set in stone and he found out that his normality had been turned upside down.

However, the problem of making Netto listen remained. The kid was slowly, but steadily, falling deeper into his catatonic state of mind without having the strength or the will to fight it.

Guessing Forte's perplexity on the issue, Cossack leaned backwards onto the bench and looked down at his lab-coat stained with marker streaks and coffee spots. "Do you remember a project called Pulse-In?" he asked, smiling. It had been two days of intense work and he, Yuichiro and Meijin had barely gotten any sleep, but they were all pleased to see the result of their efforts.

The navi frowned, concentrating to remember what little he knew about that project. "It was something you were working on years ago, why?"

The doctor nodded approvingly, happy that his son could remember something that old. "I never told you what it was about, Forte," he said, looking up at the stars. "The basic idea behind it was for me to enter the network with my mind and the use of an avatar to meet you in first person, and not through a screen."

Forte turned his gaze onto the man at his side, mildly shocked at the revelation. He watched his creator's profile in the dimming light and noticed how he was looking upwards with a sincere smile. After a few more seconds of staring, the navi blinked and looked up too, reordering his ideas.

He was not sure how the Pulse-In machine would work, but if what doctor Cossack had said, then it could let a human walk the network. And he knew it would work because Dark Mu's scientists had done it before. In a certain way, he and Netto would be able to become two separate entities and the kid would finally have to face reality.

With the solution to his problem, Forte stood up and grinned widely in victory. "I'm in."

.

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A/N: Disclaimer at the end of the chapter because it's better this way.

Anyway, short chapter, but I decided to end it here because it was a good place to end it (and end my suffering along with it).

Anyway, I do not own Rockman and related stuff. That's Capcom's. I do own Paladin, Ninja and Osamu Michiro and the ideas within this fic.

Also, check out my profile for the link to the archive and see drawn reference of Paladin, Ninja and Osamu done by awesome artists!