Beginning A/N: Please, read end notes for more info. For now, enjoy the return of UP. Little warning: my writing style is different from the past and it might feel like a huge slap on the face. I apologize for that. And I apologize for any errors I might have missed.

Unfortunately, if I don't post this now, I will never post it.

.

.

There were a lot of things that Netto could deal with without even breaking a sweat.

He could deal with his friends trying to drag him somewhere to have fun during the most inappropriate times.

He could deal with Rockman trying to cheer him up when he obviously wanted nothing but stay alone with his inner thoughts.

He could also endure long hours of being poked and prodded by people that were searching for a way to undo the Cross Fusion he shared with Forte.

And he had no problems with Forte being... well, Forte.

What he couldn't seem to have any patience for, however, was the silence from the latest organization hell bent on conquering the world, or whatever they wanted to do. Netto didn't really care what their objective was, he was just happy with throwing as many wrenches as he could in their plan. Their inactivity however, was the one throwing a wrench in his plan, making him less... approachable.

"I think you should relax, Netto-kun," Rockman spoke from the other side of the table, looking as if the world was going to crumble under his feet just because his operator was in a sour mood. "I'm sure that they are just taking a pause after following you through half the planet."

Netto stared at him for a moment, debating his sanity during the moment he had decided to give one of those Materializers to him. Granted, he was a great help to his father when it came to calculations and carrying heavy equipment around, but now the blue navi could follow him almost anywhere. Normally, he wouldn't mind that, but after what he went through, he just wanted to brood on his own for a while.

"Two weeks, Rockman," Netto replied, rubbing his eyes and trying to get rid of the soreness in his facial muscles for having kept a frown for too long. "And nothing has happened. Not even a minor disturbance in the network, or even a glimpse of their agents lurking around. I'm pretty sure I could walk down the street during the day and sing Merry Christmas and shake bells without them checking out what's all the ruckus."

I will not have you parade in such a way while we share our existences, kid, Forte's voice muttered darkly from the back of his mind. Once we are separate, you are free to do so, but until then...

There was a moment when Netto let his attention shift inward to his other friend. Forte had changed a lot lately, even if he retained that 'gruffness' so characteristic of him that others mistook for an 'I'm-better-than-you' complex.

Netto promised himself he would hunt down a free Materializer and figure out how to have the black navi manifest outside his head, body included.

Rockman frowned and tilted his head a little to the side in that way he did whenever he tried to see things the way his operator did see them. "I know that them being so quiet is worrying, but-"

Broken out of his wandering thoughts, Netto raised a hand and stopped the navi from saying more. "I'm not worried, Rockman," he said. The corner of his mouth drew a downward line before the boy sighed and rubbed his eyes, cursing the weird tiredness that had appeared by being idle for so long. His father suggested that maybe he was just crashing after months of being constantly on the run. "I'm just... frustrated. And angry. And I want to go out there and bring the fight to them instead of having to wait."

He waved a hand towards a nearby table and the large stack of paper haphazardly put together. There were a few other things on top of the wooden surface, like pens, pencils, erasers and a few colored markers.

"And I'm tired of writing down stuff I can't even fully understand because my head is filled with it. Yesterday it was... something. The other day it was... something else. Last week it was an ancient PET system that somehow had more advanced technology than what dad has now."

As he ranted, Netto stomped his way to the table and looked down at the first page he could find. It was filled with technical drawings and ancient Murian symbols he could only vaguely give a meaning to. To him, it was all gibberish, with the exception of that PET diagram that everyone else seemed to take an interest in. Enzan had gone as far as having his company try to decode the technical mess.

Hopefully something good could come out of it and give them an advantage over their enemy.

Then his eyes moved to a pile of books in the corner and Netto gave another heavy sigh. "Or homework. In the last two weeks I've done everything the others did in the past months, and I think I even did stuff we're supposed to do in later years... and... why am I even bothering? It's not like I can fight them with math problems and history lessons..."

Perhaps if he threw a few cargo ships worth of material, maybe they would be unable to go on due to their base being physically impracticable.

As amusing as whatever insanity you're thinking of doing, Forte's voice snapped Netto out of his wondering, bringing the boy back to the present. There is nothing better than going there and deal with them personally.

Netto hummed and gave a tiny smile that went unseen by Rockman. Forte had a point there. There would be little satisfaction to just bury them with all of the world's school supplies. Part of him knew that his need to destroy their base and everything they had worked for was going too far, but he found himself not caring. Not after all they did to him and Forte.

He wanted retribution, even if it was the last thing he did.

Leave revenge to people like me, Hikari, Forte murmured in a warning, guessing Netto's darkening thoughts through his emotions. Do not follow the path I took.

"They have to pay for everything!"

Netto's sudden outburst made Rockman jump and look at his operator with worry. Netto had refused any psychological help, saying that he was perfectly fine and capable of dealing with the horrors he had lived through, but everyone knew and saw how volatile his temper could be when he wasn't distracted by something.

Dekao once had put into words what everyone mutely agreed to.

He was a ticking bomb, and no one knew how much was left on the timer.

It was a good thing that Forte seemed to talk some sense into the boy and defuse a potential disaster.

And they will pay, but you are falling into a dangerous thinking pattern. I know better than you. It start with wanting revenge, or retribution as you call it, then you realize you aren't satisfied, and all the anger and frustration is still there, slowly becoming hate. And then it never ends until someone gets you out.

Netto took a deep breath and let it out slowly. Forte was right, and he knew, but it was also true the fact that it was hard to stop his thoughts from spiraling out of control. It was just so easy to be so angry at the people that caused him, and by extension Forte, so much physical and mental pain.

He perfectly knew what was happening to him, and by result he should be able to deal with it. But no one went through experiencing death the way he did without consequences.

"I think... I think I need fresh air..." He muttered after a while, casting a glance past Rockman's shoulder and out of the window behind his back. It was still the middle of the afternoon, but the cloud cover was muting the daylight and rendered the shadows darker. Perfect if he wanted to just disappear or watch things without being noticed.

"Yeah, some fresh air sounds nice," he repeated, a tiny smile appearing on his lips. "I'll be back later. If dad ask where I am, tell him I'm not too far from here."

Rockman didn't know if he should frown at the veiled dismissal or be glad that Netto had smiled and looked serene, even if for a moment. "Alright, Netto-kun," he said as he watched his operator walk to the door. "You just... be careful."

The only reply he got was a simple wave and a click of a closing door when Netto disappeared outside.

.

.

Enzan had spent two weeks hunting down as many leads as he and Blues could find. Fourteen, almost fifteen days scouring the network and physical archives in search of anything that could reveal who had sold SciLabs' sensitive information to Dark Mu. Or who had left behind those little traces on purpose so that he could start the investigation.

There were too many coffee cups involved and too little hours of sleep to really count, and the exhaustion was mounting, but... he had finally narrowed it down to the original group that had tried to erase Forte ten or so years ago.

It was a group of seven people, of which four had stopped working for SciLabs a few months after Forte going rogue and one had died three years ago. This left him with only two people still working in SciLabs.

Enzan was betting on the man that had tried to destroy Forte again with the aid of those devices that Netto called Leeches. The other just had no real motives or the same kind of open hostility towards the black navi to go as far as betray SciLabs' trust.

Although he should keep an open mind. Sometimes, even the most innocent-looking of people could be the culprit.

"Enzan-sama,"Blues' voice crackled out of the computer's speakers in such a bad way that his operator made a mental note of making someone check it out. "You look tired. Perhaps it is time for you to rest."

'For more than a couple of hours' went unsaid, but Enzan caught his navi's hidden meaning anyway and decided, after so many sleepless nights, to give in and accept the suggestion. There wasn't much more they could do now. No more leads, no more hints or information hidden in long forgotten archives. All that was left to do was to bring the report to his superiors of NetPolice and have them decide what to do.

"Just one more thing, Blues," the boy stretched and moved the chair back, but did not get up yet. "Did the research department decipher Netto's PET diagrams?"

Blues looked to the side and poked at an interface outside of the window linking the cyberspace where he was with the real world. "So far no one has been able to decode the Murian written language so they are unable to fully understand the specifics, or the kind of programming that goes with it," the navi replied with a displeased frown. "But they strongly believe that it is the same model, if not a similar one, to the one that is currently holding Netto and Forte in a Cross Fusion."

Enzan raised an eyebrow and leaned forward, as if getting closer to the monitor he could peek at the interface Blues was using off-screen. "Can they replicate it? If Dark Mu has these models, then having these ourselves can put us on equal ground. Not having to depend on a Dimensional Area being deployed..."

"True," Blues replied with a nod. "But also, we need to understand the specifics first. If it is the same as Netto and Forte's PET, once activated Cross Fusion, there is no easy way to undo it. Doctor Cossack has confirmed that DNA and data are fused, and there is no other way to break them apart than finding the original protocol for ending it."

What Blues was trying to say without actually saying it was that if they used that type of PET, then they would be stuck in one single body for as long as it would take the most brilliant minds of SciLabs to figure things out.

Which might just be quite the long wait as they had done very little progress.

"Still..." Enzan leaned back onto the chair and looked up at the ceiling with tired eyes. "Blues, I'm willing to risk it, if you are willing to do the same. Especially if this Alpha is involved."

Call it sense of duty, call it devotion to his operator or call it a deep friendship, but Blues did what Blues always did.

"Understood, Enzan-sama."

.

.

It had been months, yet his anger towards the kid was burning as fiercely as the first day. He had prepared for years, had spend hours upon hours in planning everything. From the place, to the time, how to capture the strongest navi of the world, to the finest details of security.

And all it took to ruin it was a kid sent to check out some odd power outage in a place no one would take much consideration of.

But he suppose he should also be thankful. If he had been the one to claim Forte's powers, he would be the one to deal with the navi's personality still active. His scientific department, during those couple of months they had them subdued and trapped, had confirmed that something had gone horribly wrong in the procedure.

Forte had survived, transferring his personality from the PET to the kid's brain, and by doing so, he broke so many protocols and delicate programming that it was a wonder they had survived at all. The mental merge was another side effect that no one had seen coming. Whenever the two were put under heavy stress, or when they were close to dying, their wavelengths would synchronize and become one.

The first time it happened was when the Cross Fusion was activated and lasted a couple of days. The second was when they almost died during the separation process, forcing them to halt everything unless they wanted to lose the navi's powers.

A few more times happened after they had escaped, but from the reports his agents had delivered to him, they had figured that they had returned to normal soon after the threat was gone.

Yes. Even if he was still angry, he was glad to not have to deal with this personally. And thanks to that, the process had been debugged completely and he had gotten his hands on something far more powerful than the black navi.

"How is everything proceeding?" he asked, casting his coldest glare towards a scientist madly typing away at a keyboard despite a broken arm. "I want this perfected, but my patience has a limit, too."

The man at the console jumped slightly and his glasses slid down his crooked nose. If it was possible, this man's hate towards Forte was equal, if not greater, than Osamu's anger at Netto. Especially after realizing that the annoying brat with the white hair had noticed his dark dealings.

"Almost complete, Michiro-sama," he replied with a tiny bow of his head. He wasn't really one to bow to anyone, but the guy he was talking to was the leader of Dark Mu and held power. A little of respect was due, if only to not get kicked out of the organization. "I predict... three or four days. Perhaps five, but that is only if something else comes up. In that case, I will notify you as soon as I find out."

Osamu gave a curt nod as a silent thank you. "Very well. Go on, and use as many resources as you need."

.

.

Ending A/N: Ok, how long as it been? Years, for sure. I apologize to all my readers for this absurdly long absence, but every time I wrote something, it came out to be something that was far from what I wanted, and even if I could have used that as a base to get better results, it wouldn't just work. Thus bringing me to hate what I wrote and scrap it entirely. Which made me have to start up from the beginning. Again and again and again.

It was a horrible cycle that only now I managed to break.

Truth is, I'm not entirely satisfied with this chapter either, but what you have just read was a necessary evil to start things up again. Yes, Netto has issues. You don't go through what he did and be the same person you were before. And no, he won't be able to work them out as quickly as snapping his fingers. These things take time, and sometimes they don't even disappear completely. That's why he's so... moody, I guess? He's not the easiest person to deal with right now, and Forte manages only because he was there to see him changing (not to mention he went through something similar in his past) and knows better than anyone how he thinks now.

And yup, all that knowledge is not there just because and then forgotten. Most of it is "junk" in the eyes of people, but there are little gems hiding in it (the new/ancient PET diagrams).