Climbing up vertically for what looked like three hundred meters had physically and mentally exhausted Netto. Sore and in a worse mood than before, the boy was now lying on the ground on his side, glaring at the large half worm half shark as it tried to jump on top of the rocky plateau. So far, however, only its head managed to reach its goal and the thing would always fall back into the soft sand with a low, guttural growl-like sound of anger and frustration.
"It's been at it for about two hours now," Netto muttered to the navi sitting next to him. He had no idea how he knew how much time they had spent there, only that they had been stranded that long. "What do we do?"
Forte had an equally hate filled glare directed at large virus beast, wishing that the thing would just blow up in a million of pieces on its own and leave them in peace. To be able to brighten Netto's mood only to have all his efforts spoiled by something that just wouldn't mind its own business was really maddening. The navi glanced at the laying figure next to him and narrowed his eyes, knowing that neither he nor Netto had any energy left useful to outrun the beast for long distances.
"If we could fly, escaping would be easy," Netto continued after a while when his friend didn't answer. Perhaps talking about the obvious he could come up with an idea. "Even if we were slow, we could still stay out of its jumps..."
At that moment, the large head slammed against the rocky cliff with a deafening crash, shaking the entire structure and causing a few cracks on the raised ground. After that, the beast lunged again and again, and at each impact, the rock fractured more and became unstable. Large portions of plateau broke off and fell onto the sands below, raising immense yellow clouds so dense that it was hard to see past them.
If Netto had been in a bad mood before, now he was just plainly angry and stressed. No more laying down to rest, he was now dividing his attention between not falling into one of the many cracks under his feet and keeping an eye on the gigantic finned worm's movements. The beast, tired of waiting and unable to jump on top of the hard ground, had decided that it was best if its targets were brought down to were it was easier to catch them.
Forte grabbed one of Netto's arms and dragged him away from where he was standing just before the rock broke in half and the other side crumbled down like a castle of cards in the winds. "I believe this is a good time for you to come up with one of your insane plans!" the navi roared to be heard above the booming sounds of tons of rocks smashing together. He wasn't keen on asking for help, but he couldn't think of anything on his own. "And get us out of this situation!"
"Alright, alright..." Netto was trying his hardest to focus both on staying on his feet and thinking about a way to get out of their current situation. "To summarize... we can't fly, we can't fight it and we could barely outrun it for a few miles before it caught up with us..."
The head of the giant worm suddenly shot out of the middle of the breaking plateau with such violence that the the rocks exploded around it, sending everything flying. With no time to think and a failing ground under his feet, Netto leapt forwards and on top of the beast's head, right near the upper lip. From there, he could see the white teeth of the lower jaw glisten through the sand and debris, so sharp and hard that they cut through even the hardest of the boulders whenever the creature closed its mouth.
Forte growled under his breath, but with no other option left and not wanting to let Netto on his own, he followed the boy on top of the worm's head and hung onto one of the many scales with one hand. He looked around for his friend, not paying attention to the fact that the virus was slowly sliding back towards the sand, until he found him not so far from where he was.
Netto, once he had jumped on the beast, hadn't just stopped where he had landed. Now, even if hindered by the flying debris that were raining on him, he was climbing upwards, very close to the edge of the mouth. Realizing that the kid had something in mind, he followed him until they were on what could be roughly described as the nose of the creature. Forte leaned forwards a bit and saw the pearly white needle-like teeth smash to pieces a rather large boulder.
"I hope your brilliant idea will get us off this thing soon!" Forte shouted. It kind of felt like they were in the middle of an apocalypse and his ears were starting to hurt because of the thundering sounds.
When the creature had no more the strength to keep its body up, it slammed downwards with all its weight. The impact, although cushioned by the soft sand, was so strong that what was left standing of the plateau simply crumbled inwards with such a symmetry that it felt as if it had been programmed.
As the beast laid where it had landed to recover from its last attack, Netto had the time to look upwards. For a moment, time seemed to slow and stretch, the falling rocks hung in midair with a trail of brown dust behind them. He found it impressive, majestic and scary at the same time. But he would not let that place become his tomb. He was not ready to feel oblivion claim him once again.
To tell the truth, when he had jumped on top of the beast he had no real plan. It just looked a safer place than anywhere else. Now, however, that idea had turned against him and was close to be the last one he would ever have. Perhaps he was being pessimistic in believing that he would die if he was there when the rocks came down, but the fear and desperation were what made him act. He lifted his fist and slammed if downwards as violently as he could. The hard scale wasn't damaged at all, but the small vibrations produced by the impact were strong enough to attract the beast's attention. The creature let out a long, low wail as it raised itself up once again, the head tracing an arc in the air and rising past the collapsing rocks.
Netto smiled in triumph, knowing that he had manipulated the beast into doing what he wanted. He planted his feet against the scaled surface and watched as the immense virus lifted itself almost vertically. "You wanted one of my insane plans, Forte," he said, his eyes glinting with mischievousness as he readied himself to jump. "And here it is. A giant catapult!"
Forte wasn't sure how he managed to jump at the same time his friend did, nor how the kid's improvised plan had succeeded. All he knew was that a moment after Netto had spoken, they were flying past the crumbling plateau with no sign of slowing down nor starting to descend. Again, the boy had proven to be able to think up a plan that was both successful and creative, and Forte felt strangely... elated to have seen it.
The navi turned his red eyes to glance at the figure next to him and noticed that Netto was smiling, and as he focused at the ever present link in the back of his mind, he could feel a mixture of emotions that he hadn't felt in days. Happiness, determination and a general sense of being alive had finally taken the place of depression, fear and denial. Forte wasn't sure how long the positive emotions would last, perhaps they would fade away as soon as the danger was gone, but now he knew that to keep Netto from having a mental breakdown he had to keep him busy both mentally and physically.
Forte stared at his friend for a few more seconds, then returned his eyes forwards to see where they were sailing. He could feel the pull of gravity starting to take a hold of him again, meaning that they had reached the peak of the curve they were following and were starting to descend. It didn't worry him, though. The beast was still in the middle of the devastation it had done, its cries echoing in the air as it tried to right itself amidst the large blocks of stone. The navi had no idea how long it would take to resume its hunt, but perhaps he and Netto had enough time to run towards the next plateau he could see in the distance.
"Hikari," Forte called as he mentally calculated that they could cover almost half the distance separating them while still airborne. "Do you realize that we can't keep doing this, right?"
Unsurprisingly for the navi, Netto nodded. "Yeah. Eventually something will go wrong," he replied. Still, the boy was far from being defeated or out of ideas and it showed on his face with a grin while his confidence only hardened his determination. "But! I have a plan!"
Forte didn't ask for further explanation. He had no need to. After proving himself several times during their time spent stuck together, he trusted Netto and his creative thinking. All he had to do was to anticipate his next move and make sure the kid didn't kill himself in the process. Which was not easy because most of the times the boy had the bad habit to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
They traveled in silence for several more seconds until gravity made them take a dive at the ground. The landing on the sand was easy and produced only a small cloud of dust that settled immediately afterward. But the two did not linger and started running as fast as they could towards the nearest large rock formation in front of them. The plateau was not too distant, but by the time they reached it Netto was, for lack of a better term, winded. Yet, the kid was already sneaking around, using dark spots, large jutting stones and narrow fissures to his advantage. Forte was following him using a slightly different path, knowing that the other was hunting for something, but not understanding what.
While the two were making their way through the complex maze of fissures and arching tunnels, the giant worm had returned to the sand. Netto knew this and he could feel the creature's presence moving in circles around their newest hiding spot. It would start attacking soon, though, but unlike before, now he had a plan in mind.
"When I was watching the Undernet, before you found me," the boy whispered as he crouched down to hide behind a large boulder, only peeking past it for a brief moment before retracting with a smile. "I saw a group of those dragon viruses flying here."
Forte took a quick glance at the viruses before staring at Netto right into the eyes, wanting to make sure that the boy was sure of what he wanted to do. "Alright, I admit it might work," he whispered after a while, understanding that with the viruses' ability to fly it would be easy to escape. "But how do you plan to tame one?"
There was an almost imperceptible tremor of the ground and Netto instantly placed a hand onto it. Truth to be told, he had never thought of how to tame the virus. Normally, people would reprogram one to do some specific tasks like battle training, but his knowledge on the subject was far too limited to be of some use.
"We have no time to find an easy way to do it," Netto replied, closing his eyes and feeling the distinct presence of the immense cyber beast lurking just outside their temporary shelter. It was moving slowly in circles around them, like a shark with a helpless prey before attacking, and the boy knew it wouldn't be long before the Sand Worm started to jump and ram at the rock to demolish it. "So we'll have to grab one and hope it'll listen to us."
There was a moment in which Forte felt like his frame had been turned into ice. It was a weird feeling and all the tension from imagining Netto wrestling with a virus while hundreds of feet from the ground was making his soreness return with a vengeance.
The navi stared for a few more seconds, then closed his eyes and let his body relax. It was either the flight with a wild virus or another face to face with the lurking beast that was hunting them. If he concentrated enough, he could feel the increasing vibrations it emitted every time it scraped against the rock. "When we're out of this, you'll have to explain a lot of things to me, Hikari."
"If we have the time," Netto replied as he prepared to jump at the closest virus to him. The group, a mixture of the three known sub-species, was pretty calm and quiet for being one of the most savage race of Undernet virus. "And if I can answer your questions, Forte. There are things... that I don't know how to explain myself."
A red Lavagon trudged closer to their hiding spot without suspecting the ambush, it lowered its head and moved aside a few rocks in search of something, as if it was a normal animal looking for food. Netto would have observed it more if he had the time, so he pushed his curiosity to the back of his mind and jumped at the dragon. Swift and silent as a shadow, the boy was instantly on top of the virus' neck, clinging tightly as the digital creature started to trash around wildly to get the attacker off of its back. A couple of seconds later, Forte had followed suit and was holding one of the wings to not fall off.
The ruckus provoked by the struggling trio alarmed the rest of the pack. Loud roars filled the air, fireballs, ice-shards and thunderbolts flew in every direction as the dragons attacked everything and everyone in a mad rush. Their blind panic, however, prevented them from focusing on the real attackers and all that was hit were the rock walls surrounding them. While the fire and ice elements caused little damage, the bolts of crackling electricity created deep zig-zagging fractures on the rock, chipping it away. When the first pieces of sharp splinters started to rain onto the crazed viruses, one of them had enough sanity left to open its wings and fly away into the sky, soon followed by the rest of the group.
Netto glanced up at the retreating figures for a brief moment, attracted by the ruckus of beating wings, then had to focus once again on clinging onto the virus' neck with both arms and legs. The Lavagon suddenly stood straight up, stretching its wings out and coiling its tail under its body. Understanding that the virus was ready to fly away too, the boy climbed towards the head and covered the dragon's eyes with his hands. Suddenly blinded, the virus lurched forwards with a cry of fear and outrage as the added weight on its neck made it lose its balance and fall forwards in a heap. The tumble wasn't enough to dislodge Netto from where he was, but it was successful in throwing Forte on the ground.
The navi shook his head and looked around, slightly disoriented by the sudden fall, then rolled away from being stabbed by a flailing, sharp wing. There was a loud ripping sound and when he stood up, he noticed that his cloak was sporting a long vertical rip on the right side. Without his powers, Forte took a few steps back and observed the struggle, trying to find an opening that would permit him to to tackle the virus again without getting hurt in the process. When the Lavagon started to swing its head left and right in an attempt to free itself from the headlock Netto had on it, he quickly made his way behind it and leaped past the wriggling tail, successfully landing on its back.
Feeling another weight onto its body, the virus became even more desperate and increased its efforts, eventually managing to make Netto lose his hold onto the neck. The boy was lurched forwards in a low arch, hands flailing desperately until the left one grabbed at the single horn at the end of the elongated head. Netto lurched to a halt with a grunt, feeling as if his left arm was being torn off from his shoulder. Hurt but not defeated, the boy grabbed the virus's muzzle with his other hand and hung there with his remaining strength.
Momentarily pausing to regain some of its vigor back, the virus gave enough time for Forte to move forwards and sit onto the neck, grab at it and look at Netto in the eyes. "Hikari," he grunted, feeling the Lavagon's frame tense under his hands. "We're not making any progress here! Let's just delete it and find another way out!"
Netto had to agree with Forte. The virus was not giving in and he could feel his own strength fading with each passing second. Yet, there was the weird feeling that there was a way for him to make the Lavagon listen. "I..." he started, hoisting himself up so that he could look at the dragon in the eyes. "Remember when I said that there were things I couldn't explain?"
Forte watched Netto's eyes harden in determination with a raised eyebrow. "Let me guess," he said after a while, mentally resigning himself to follow through whatever insanity his friend was going to do. "This is one of those things."
Netto gave a single nod before he became still, too focused into trying to silently communicate with the virus to notice anything else that was going on around him. For a moment it looked like the boy was succeeding in his intent, but then the Lavagon shook its head again in a renewed attempt to get free, causing Forte to almost lose his hold onto its neck.
Being swung around like a flag, Netto lost grip on the muzzle and had to hold onto the virus only with his left hand. His shoulder protested in agony at the abuse it was going through and made the boy scream both in anger and pain.
"Enough!" Netto's angry command stilled the virus long enough for him to have a slight respite. The pain didn't fade completely, but it dulled enough for him to be able to hoist himself up again towards the Lavagon's head to look at it in the eyes once again, sure that it was the right way to achieve his goal to tame the beast. In doing so, however, his right hand grabbed at the virus's forehead and that was then when things took a turn for the weird.
A new jolt of pain traveled through his right hand, up his arm and then stabbed him right in the brain. It was so sudden and sharp that Netto was knocked unconscious, falling to the ground in a heap in front of the clawed feet of the dragon virus. Forte raised a hand, ready to delete the Lavagon to spare his friend from being trampled, but stopped before starting the downwards motion that would bring his hand to smash the neck he was still holding onto. It wasn't because he was feeling merciful, nor because he was doubting his own ability to delete a simple, mindless virus with the sole use of brutal strength. What really halted him was that the Lavagon had actually calmed down and was now looking at the unconscious figure at its feet, waiting.
The navi stared at the virus, then moved his gaze onto Netto, then back at the Lavagon, trying to understand what had happened, but knowing that, in a way or in another, the boy had managed to accomplish what he had planned. He shook his head as he dismounted from the dragon's back, feeling his lips pull into a faint smile. "Impossible doesn't exist for you, right Hikari Netto?" It was a question mostly directed at himself than to the unmoving figure. "Especially if they tell you so."
He crouched down and placed a hand onto his friend's shoulder, shaking him and successfully waking him up from his forced nap. The kid was still dazed and disoriented, but he was recovering quickly and within seconds he was already sitting, looking up at the still waiting Lavagon in front of him with confusion, amazement and a heavy streak of victory shining in his eyes. "See? It worked!"
Forte crossed his arms and glared at his friend with all the anger he could muster in that precise moment, which wasn't much. "And you got knocked out in the process," he replied, trying to remain calm. "What if the virus wasn't tamed? You would have ended up being torn by its feet..."
Brown eyes looked up at the navi and Netto smiled widely. "It didn't happen, did it?" he asked, laughing tiredly. "I'm still in one piece and recovering from whatever it was that knocked me out. Stop worrying, Forte."
There was a furious, frustrated and outraged glare directed at him for several long seconds before Forte gave a deep sigh and crouched down to move the boy's left arm around his neck, slowly hoisting him up. Netto was still wobbly on his legs and let the navi drag him away from the Lavagon to sit on a rock. "Next time you think of doing something like that, I will punch you."
Netto remained silent for a moment, then started laughing loudly. Before Forte could take that as an offense, however, the boy waved a hand into the air to call for attention and calmed down a bit. "Before you try to strangle me to death for laughing, know that I wasn't laughing at you or your worry about me."
Choosing to ignore the muted "I wasn't worried" coming from the navi standing next to him, Netto leaned forwards, his elbows onto his knees and head bowed. "What I find funny, Forte, is how much roles have reversed. I... I..." he took a pause and looked up at the black sky for a couple of seconds before closing his eyes. "Unlike many people out there, I know that something is wrong with me, Forte. I know that I should deal with it and go on with life, but..."
Forte's frustration and anger faded away as he instantly recognized what Netto was talking about. It had been days, now, since recovering that memory of dying, but the kid was unable to forget it, nor find a way to deal with it or let his friends and family help him out of it. The fact that the kid was confiding in him was something that made him feel... special, but in a different way than just being an all powerful, highly customized and independent navi.
"I think you can understand, Forte," Netto resumed, bringing his friend out of his train of thoughts. He was kicking at the dirt with one foot now, nervous and unsure of the words he should use. "That need to feel alive... to feel energy run through your body, to brush with death again and then laugh at its face when it couldn't take you again..."
Then the moment of insight of the troubled teen ended and Netto stood up, dismissing his own words in regard of going to pet the Lavagon on the neck. He still had no idea how he had tamed it, only that he remembered grabbing its forehead with his right hand. "Can you even understand me..?" he asked in a mutter as he grabbed the head with his hands and brought it to his own eye level.
The virus complied, waiting silently for any kind of command it would receive from its owner, and the two stared at each other for long moments before a strong vibration of the ground and a loud crash of rocks reminded Netto that they hadn't much time left before the giant Sand Worm would break through the immense stone formation and attack them again. The boy looked up at the top of the plateau, watching as small rocks and dust fell down with each shake with a calm expression on his face. He blinked once, then twice and shook his head, trying to clear it from distracting thoughts.
"Come on, let's get out of here," he said softly as he sat at the base of the Lavagon's neck, letting a very thin smile appear on his lips. "I'm tired of this place."
Another vibration accompanied by a loud bang made Forte uncross his arms and walk to the virus's side. He took a moment to observe the Lavagon's back, unsure of how he was supposed to sit on that slightly saucer-shaped body nor if the dragon could actually carry both of them. "I presume you know how to... guide it?"
Seemingly offended by the navi's tone of voice and perplexed expression, because Forte refused to believe the virus could understand his words, the Lavagon stood straight up and spread its wings, roaring at the sky. Netto looked between the dragon and the navi, then scratched his cheek in embarrassment. "I have no idea, but I think it..." there he paused as he gazed at the white eye looking back at him, briefly pausing as he tried to figure out something. "I think she knows where to go..."
The moment of awkwardness lasted for about a couple of seconds before Forte closed his eyes and tried to ignore a lot of things and questions. "You better start explaining, Hikari," he said as he jumped on top of the dragon's back and tried to not fall off as the virus started beating her wings. "Starting from how you managed to tame it."
"'Her', Forte," Netto corrected, holding onto the neck as the Lavagon finally took to the sky quickly. "The Lavagon is a she. Don't ask me how I know. I just... do. I looked at her head and I suddenly knew her gender."
Again, Forte chose to ignore the fact that viruses suddenly had genders. "Fine," he muttered more to himself than to the boy sitting in front of him. "But you still haven't told me how you did it. How did you tame this Lavagon?"
By now, the navi was really curious. If there was a way to tame viruses, then their life in the network could be slightly easier if they had an army of beasts at their beck and call. He wasn't one to rely on external help, but having a swarm of viruses trample, throttle and generally make a mess of their enemies was a sight that he would love to see while he sat back and relaxed.
With those thoughts freely running through his mind without him realizing it, he and Netto were carried up high into the black sky of the Undernet, leaving behind a slowly crumbling plateau and an angry giant worm. They ascended so much that when the dragon finally leveled her flight, their pursuer was nothing but a small, dark dot following them through an expanse of gold dotted with brown blotches.
"I don't know how I did it," Netto spoke softly, almost as if he was afraid to disturb the silence up there. It had taken him long minutes to finally put an order to his own thoughts and memories of the event. "It all happened when I touched her forehead with my right hand."
The boy lifted his right hand and stared at it, trying to understand the secret that had tamed the virus. So far, however, his eyes could catch nothing but the pure white color of the digital material coating it. Yet, he knew that there was something there. Something that was not present in his other hand. He might be unable to see whatever it was, but he felt something. A presence that he could feel only if he focused enough and that would fade away as soon as he became distracted with something else.
"It was painful," he resumed, shaking his hand to see if the movement would bring out something. "Hit me in the brain so badly that I still feel a slight headache from it. When I woke up, my hand was itchy, but it faded quickly and now it's back to normal..."
Forte didn't speak for a while after Netto finished his tale, waiting, hoping that the boy would continue or remember something else. When that didn't happen, however, he let out a very faint growl that only he could hear. He wasn't angry at Netto for being unable to understand what was happening to him. He was displeased at the fact that there were more and more questions to answer with each step they took. "So," he said after a while, voice calm despite his hidden frustration. "It's another of those things you can't explain?"
After a single nod of his head, Netto became silent once again. It was really weird to be sure to know the answer to a lot of things but be unable to reach them or understand why he had no immediate access to that knowledge. "It's like being an amnesiac..." he said after a while, perhaps a bit disheartened. "I've heard that sometimes an amnesiac knows something, but they can't remember why they know it..."
Forte closed his eyes and let the silence calm his racing thoughts. He would never find an answer if he was agitated, frustrated or angry. Things like that took a lot of patience, and despite the popular belief that he had none, he was a really patient navi that could bid his time and strike at the most profitable moment. Sooner or later, Netto would be able to provide them with the right information.
They remained in silence like there for what felt like hours, with Forte meditating with closed eyes and Netto looking around at the slowly mutating landscape. The sand had become sparse, present only in small splotches or long, curving paths that reminded the boy of rivers and lakes filled with liquid gold, too small and shallow to let the Sand Worm cross them. Netto felt relieved that they had finally lost the virus as it was one less trouble to deal with.
Flying past the flat zone of earth and sand, the dragon started to weave around a forest of sharp, jutting rocks that emerged from the ground almost vertically. They were of different heights and dimensions, with the smallest being as big and tall as Netto while the largest ones were comparable to most of the highest skyscrapers of Densan City. Amongst these giants that seemed to stab at the sky, large cracks snaked around their feet, so deep and dark that they appeared bottomless.
Netto brought his right hand to his forehead and massaged his temple. Perhaps it was still the shock he received earlier, but there was an increasing pressure at the forefront of his brain. It wasn't painful at all, just uncomfortable and very annoying. It was so distracting that he quickly lost focus on everything but the strange, invading feeling.
"I'm fine, I'm fine..." he started to chorus, voice faint as he tried to fight off the assault on his mind. He didn't know if it was just him or there was someone or something out there, somewhere, that was prodding at him with who knows what. The only thing he knew was that the more he concentrated to stay alert and conscious, the more the pressure increased, eventually creating another headache.
Then, as suddenly as it came, the pressure was gone and the boy was able to focus on the world around him once again, noticing that now they had abandoned the open sky and were flying at the bottom of one of the narrow canyons he had previously seen. It was dark and damp down there, with the sounds of rushing water coming from below them that echoed off the natural passage's walls. Said walls were vertical and almost black in color, with little footholds for climbing, as if someone had cut the earth with a sharp scalpel rather than a river digging the canyon with thousands of years of erosion.
The Lavagon banked to the right, flying into a larger path. If the previous one was wide enough to let only a dragon fly in it, this one could house three of them side by side and let them have the space to beat their wings without bumping into each other. Still, the light seemed to be scared of reaching that deep into the earth, preferring to stop a few hundred feet above their heads and leaving them, the river and the bare rock in darkness.
The sudden question of why someone would go that far to design such a land suddenly invaded Netto's mind and the boy found himself rubbing at his temples again. The pressure was back, only this time it was slightly different than before. Still annoying, sure, but it brought the familiar feeling that he had all the answers he needed and that the only thing he had to do was to reach for them. The only problem, however, was that he had no idea what he was looking for or how to get to that information.
And then, before he could even try to make head and tail of his thoughts, the Lavagon finally flew out of the canyon and into a brightly lit valley, landing just a few seconds later on a small shore of the river they had been following the entire time. Forte was the first to jump down from the back of the dragon, disgruntled at how much further they had distanced themselves from their real body. "So..." he started, turning his gaze back onto Netto after a quick survey of their new surroundings.
But Netto wasn't exactly there with his head anymore. Still sitting on the neck of the Lavagon, he was looking around with unfocused eyes, his body so relaxed that if the virus moved he would have fallen to the ground.
The valley wasn't that large, perhaps a couple of miles, with a big river in the middle and a lush forest on both sides that extended until the valley's floor became too steep and rocky to let any tree grow. The incline then transformed into vertical walls that connected to the desert above. From where he was standing, Netto could see some of the tallest of the rocky pillars that they had weaved through before.
Taking away his eyes from that sight, the boy looked first at his left, then at his right. The small shore they had landed on was high enough to let him see above most of the trees growing at the bottom of the valley, and was suddenly reminded of a snake by its continuous curves. It was so long that Netto could not see the end to his left as much as he squeezed his eyes while, in the opposite direction, there was a sharp curve leading to the right. All through its length, streams of various sizes were led into the valley by canyons similar to the one they followed and went to join the large river in the middle after several small waterfalls and ponds.
After finishing his examination of the strange place they had ended up in, Netto blinked, his eyes returning to normal, and jumped off the Lavagon's neck, landing on the soft sand with barely a sound. He walked around a bit, confused and oblivious to the keen stare that Forte was giving him in that precise moment, until he directed himself towards the nearest tree.
The plant was strange, nothing he had ever seen before, with large and elongated leaves that had a really deep, dark green color. The bark, so similar to that of a pine, lacked the characteristic resin of one and was of a really light ash color. The weirdest part, however, were the fruits. They reminded him of a pear, but were at least one foot long, had a brilliant red color and were so shiny that Netto could see his distorted reflection on the surface.
The boy grabbed one of the pear-shaped fruits from a low branch and fiddled with it for a few moments, then turned around to stare at Forte with a mixture of confusion, worry and fear.
"I've been here before..."
.
.
Almost on the other side of the desert from where Netto and Forte were, two tall navis were observing what remained of an old network that had found itself connected to the mysterious Undernet. At the beginning of the path, the sand covered almost every inch of what had once been a surface covered by shiny tiles until it became sparse and piled up in holes or corners that broken metallic walls formed. Further into the passage, the walls and floor became less damaged until it became some sort of corridor complete with a ceiling and a door at the end.
"So the rumors were true," the white navi said, advancing into the old path. He was amused by how the Undernet seemed to find any possible way to connect itself to the surface networks, as if it had a mind of its own. "SciLabs's old network got linked here..."
Ninja, the ever observant navi that he was, stopped just before the entering the less damaged part of the corridor. Despite looking abandoned and run down, the place still functioned and the security was exceedingly high. Whoever had built the defenses had made sure that who was out stayed out and what was in remained in. Bypassing or cracking the password to access the old network would take a lot of time and effort. It was a good thing that their spy at SciLabs had willingly provided them with the password they needed.
The black navi looked at his surroundings once more, wanting to make sure that no enemy was hiding in what little hiding spots the desert and broken passageway offered, then reached his brother in front of the door. "How are you feeling?"
Sky-gray eyes softened as Paladin started to digit the password on the panel next to the door. Some of the glass-like material covering the display was cracked and some of the numbers were darkened, the program lighting them damaged beyond repair. "I am... fine," he murmured, trying to focus all of his attention to the mission they had been given. "I think..."
It was not easy, however. To think that he was playing a fully active role in his creator's scheme to rule the world and kill the boy that he so admired was taking a heavy toll on his thinking. Every time his mind drifted to when Netto and Forte had been held captive by Dark Mu, he trembled with suppressed fury, making his hands shake slightly.
"You still haven't reported me..." he said after a while, glancing up at the sharp amber eyes of his younger sibling. The two of them were so different, almost the total opposite. While he was passionate, Ninja was cold and calculating, and it showed in their eyes. "Why?"
The black navi remained silent for a moment, pondering at the reason, still not sure himself why he was keeping Paladin's stray thoughts a secret from their creator, then gave a deep sigh and patted his brother's shoulder in a rare display of affection. "Believe it or no, brother," he said, eyes glinting with what could be translated as a soft smile. "I care about you."
And it was true. Ninja, despite his behavior that had granted him the status of an emotionless killer amongst the lower ranked members of their organization, cared about the only navi that could be considered as his family. They weren't related by blood, and even the programmers of their frames were two completely different teams of people, but their 'soul', for lack of better term, had been created by Osamu Michiro alone. Thus, he considered Paladin as his brother, and thus, he had started to care when they got to know each other deeply. Only in a different way than Paladin's.
"But your obligations are towards our creator, not me..." the white navi said, his finger pausing above the key for the last digit of the password. He was torn between the dream of his brother fully siding with him and the reality that it was impossible for them to break free from their loyalty program. It was mentally painful and it showed on his mouth with a light frown of displeasure.
He closed his eyes and went back to when it all began. It had been just another order at first. Very simple, too. All he had to do was watch over the scientific staff working on the Hybrid, to make sure that no one betrayed his creator's wishes. Then things had taken a turn for the unexpected as those sharp eyes looked straight at him for the first time. Paladin clearly remembered how he had been rooted to the spot, unable to do anything but stare back with a growing sense of feeling trapped until the Hybrid finally lost consciousness again.
In the successive days of his warding duty, things didn't improve. The Hybrid was rarely awake, but whenever he was, he was looking right at him with those dark red eyes that expressed a cunning intelligence far superior to the average human. It was both captivating and frightening to be the center of attention of such a mysterious being.
That wasn't what got him to think, however. What made him sway so much in his belief that Dark Mu was always right was the incident that almost took the Hybrid's life. "You weren't there, brother," the white navi continued, taking the hand away from the panel in front of him and looking directly into the amber eyes of his sibling. "He... they were laying on the ground... unmoving. I've seen many dead people, killed many myself, but I've never felt this way."
He looked away, tapping a finger on the side of the panel repeatedly to keep his hands from shaking. Ninja perfectly knew what had happened that day thanks to several reports, but he hadn't been there. He hadn't seen those sharp eyes become empty and distant. So empty that he had felt like they were dragging him into oblivion. He had been deeply shaken for hours on end after that incident, and when he had been called to watch over the comatose Hybrid in the medical room, his thoughts raced wildly without him being able to stop them.
Paladin was not sure what kind of thought process he had followed, but at one point of his watch, he had started to ponder about what life really was. With his creator never bothering to load the more detailed information on 'life', the navi was left with the task to discover it himself, if only to keep those empty eyes randomly appearing in his memories at bay. Thinking about it now, he realized that he could have sent one of those Mr. Programs to fetch from the internet the answer to his question, but at the time he had been so entrapped by his meditation that the world outside the room had completely disappeared save for those occasions that someone walked in or he was called by the Emperor of Dark Mu.
It hadn't been an easy task. His reasoning had ran in endless circles for almost a week and more than once he had given up only to find that he came back to think about life only minutes later with renewed vigor. Still, it wasn't until he saw a doctor controlling the Hybrid's pupil's reaction to light that he found where his answer was.
Once the man had left the room, he had moved next to the bed, his sky-gray eyes looking down at the unconscious Hybrid with fierce determination. He... they were still alive, so the dead, empty eyes had to stop haunting him because they were no more, and to really make sure that he was right, he lifted one of the purple eyelids to look underneath.
Despite being held into a forceful coma by sedatives and whatever other chemicals the doctors were administering him, the hybrid's eye reacted to the dim light of the room by having its pupil shrink in size. The dark red color was wonderfully clear and vivid, a complete opposite of the dead and dull hue it had possessed just after that incident. He had lingered there for a bit longer, watching how the iris moved according to the different levels of light, watching the life lazily drift behind the surface, its powerful energy laying dormant, but ready to explode as soon as the Hybrid willed it.
Energy. That was what life was. Pure, unbridled and unchained energy with the sole purpose of continuing to exist through a host. Without each other, both would cease to be.
Every creature had that energy. Humans, animals, even plants and navis. He had it too, making him truly alive and not a thing like his creator had always treated him to be. From there, the resentment towards the man and the admiration towards the Hybrid grew, and was still growing. Especially after being named.
Paladin chuckled and shook his head, bringing his mind out of the reverie and back to his brother that had been waiting patiently for him to say something. He wasn't sure how much time he had spent remembering, maybe only seconds even if it felt like days, so he gave an apologetic smile and placed a hand onto the black navi's shoulder.
"Brother," he said, knowing that his question was going to confuse Ninja for sure. "Do you know what life really is?"
"And what does that have to do with your problem?" Ninja answered with a question of his own, quick and sharp as one of his Kunai. Perhaps too quick because Paladin lost his smile and looked away, suddenly feeling like a deflating balloon.
"I'm not sure," he confessed, releasing his sibling's shoulder and returning his attention to the panel next to the door. The broken display was showing the almost complete password in blinking red letters. "But I know that it was the start of everything."
Paladin gave another smile and pressed the last key on the panel. The blinking red digits turned bright green for a second before the numbers morphed into the word 'access' and the door slid open with a faint hiss, revealing a dark corridor inside. The white navi was the first to enter it, followed closely behind by his brother, both thinking about the weird conversation they just had but none of them trying to bring it up again.
.
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A/N: Alright, it's finally here! Chapter 25 of Unwilling Partners! Some pieces might be oddly written to you, and there might be a lot of errors, but I don't have a beta reader right now. And I really need to get this posted or it won't get posted at all...
So yeah, people are starting to reveal and/or realize some stuff. I really hope you enjoy it despite the... weirdness of it and its errors...