A/N: Oh… wow. Wait. Have I really not published this chapter yet? Like, seriously? I could have sworn I'd posted this. It's been ready for a few weeks now, and… I… oh, man. I am so, so, so, so sorry!

Really! I'm sorry! Here you go! ^_^;;

It was working.

Doctor Hikari laughed aloud as he looked at the solid pieces of data in front of him. It was working. His idea, and Saito's contribution, had accomplished what months of unceasing drudgery could never have done. Streams of binary revolved on the screen in the shape of a double helix, coiling with a majestic, mysterious beauty. In Doctor Hikari's mind, it was grander than the largest galaxy and more beautiful than the brightest stars. It was working! And there was still more than a month before the deadline! He would be cutting things close, but with a bit of focus…

He was going to make it.

Doctor Hikari felt like he could sing.

"Hikari-san?" Said a voice to his right. "The scans say we've copied the basic structure of 80% of the DNA without any problem, using just under 450 megajoules and 1100 cyberwatts of power. Do you want me to check for a more specific reading, or…"

"I want everything as specific as possible," Doctor Hikari said with an affirmative nod. "Everything. If you can give me numbers rounded to the nearest hundred-thousandth, then maybe I'll start to be satisfied. And remember to—…"

"Make a careful note of it," his companion finished with a snort, turning to move back to his computer. "Of course."

"I'm serious, Meijin-san," Doctor Hikari said, glaring over at the young intern. "Record everything that happens. Carefully, with detail. I've already had to restart this project more than one hundred and fifty times, and I'd be stupid to assume that just because I'm coming at this from a different angle, I'll get it on the first attempt. Take notes."

"First of all, there's no need for the '-san,'" Meijin said, sending a cheeky smile his way, "and second of all, I would take precise notes even without your nagging. I didn't get an internship at Scilab for nothing."

Doctor Hikari raised an eyebrow at the other man's cocky stance, but found that between his elation with the experiment and his gratitude at having a new companion in his work, there was little room left for irritation.

…And really, if Doctor Hikari was honest with himself, then he was so indebted to Meijin that he would never really be able to grow impatient with him.

When Doctor Hikari had woken up on his lab floor two days ago to see that a young college student had discovered him unconscious and was busily calling a doctor, Doctor Hikari had been hard-pressed to hide his outright panic. The higher-ups had kindly decided to turn a blind eye to his little side project so far, but if someone started filing complaints about his health—or sanity—then he could very well have been forced out of the lab. Rather than drawing unwanted attention to Doctor Hikari's unconventional work system, however, Meijin had become interested in Doctor Hikari's project, and after a few questions, he had decided to start staying late to help out where he could. Though he couldn't quite put a finger on why, Doctor Hikari had a good feeling about his new assistant/partner in crime.

"Also," Meijin added, breaking into Doctor Hikari's thoughts as he scrolled through lines of code, "it's only fair that I should warn you—your wife called me last night. If I think you're going to pass out again, I'm under strict orders to cart you home before it happens, this time."

Doctor Hikari held back a snort.

"The new readings are up on the screen," Meijin said, walking up to Doctor Hikari after a minute or two. "The figures are too long to relay aloud."

With a grateful nod, Doctor Hikari rose from his seat and walked over to look at the figures. At a distance, Meijin followed, one hand tucked into the pocket of his dark pants. His standard white lab coat billowed out behind him, contrasting nicely with his stylish orange shirt and gelled-up hair. Still, for all his casual talk and his semi-rebellious look, there was a sharp edge of seriousness in the line of his brows and the set of his jaw. "You seem… awfully chipper, Hikari-san," he said after a moment of studying the older man.

"I can't see why I wouldn't be," Doctor Hikari responded, most of his attention absorbed by the data in front of him.

"Alright," Meijin said, drawing the word out slowly. "Would you mind explaining something for me, then?"

Something in the tone of Meijin's voice made Doctor Hikari look around, uncertain. "Of course."

"How in the world is this brilliant 'new angle' of yours going to work, anyway?"

Doctor Hikari blinked. "What do you mean?"

"Well," Meijin said, cocking an eyebrow. "Let's say this works. Let's say that you create a living, functioning netnavi from the sample DNA. Wonderful. …But that's just the thing—you're using actual DNA to do it."

"So?"

Meijin sighed in exasperation. "Haven't you ever heard of the Petrov Theory? Or of 'nature versus nurture'? Or the Ichigo Akayama Studies? No one's been able to decisively prove much, but some people—a lot of people—think that personality is determined by genes."

Doctor Hikari shook his head, and moved back to the control panel for a moment to input a series of commands. "I don't buy into that theory for a minute."

"Well, Mr. Brilliant Scientist, unfortunately for your little project," Meijin said, "a lot of people do. A lot of scientists do. And if you keep on going without doing something about this, then everyone is just going to accuse you of using a different, even more controversial type of personality programming on your 'programming-free-navi'!"

Doctor Hikari paused, and finally, the reason for Meijin's concern registered in his preoccupied brain.

"Oh." He paused for a moment, tapping one hand distractedly on the console in front of him. "Well, even if personality is completely determined by one's DNA, it won't apply in this case. All the theories point to a specific series of subgenes on a certain set of chromosomes being the deciding factor, and I'm purposely not copying those subgenes into the cyberworld."

Meijin blinked, reflecting on the statement. "Oh." Then he shook his head and ran his fingers through his hair in an exasperated motion. "You could have just said that, you know."

Doctor Hikari smiled apologetically. "Sorry. I've had a lot on my mind." Then, as an afterthought, he said, "…and even if we did copy those particular subgenes, we could still compare an extensive personality analysis of the natnavi with an analysis of the DNA's donor. It would be hard to prove anything for sure, but we would definitely have enough of a case that we could—…"

With a small sigh and a somewhat bemused smile, Meijin cut him off by clapping one hand on Doctor Hikari's shoulder. "You're crazy, Hikari-san. You know that, right? Brilliant, resourceful, and determined, but crazy."

"All things considered, I'm going to take that as a compliment," Doctor Hikari said, shooting his new lab partner a grin in return. "Now hurry up and get back to work—the diagnostics on the project so far aren't going to run themselves!"

The next several hours passed in a similar manner. Meijin, as it turned out, was one of the greatest blessings that Doctor Hikari could have asked for. He might be the most experienced scientist in the books, but he was a whiz with programming, and had a creative mind and a knack for thinking of potential obstacles that Doctor Hikari may have missed.

All in all, between the wonderful new breakthrough, his new partner in crime, and his somewhat improved health (Meijin had taken to throwing bits of rice at him if he didn't stop to eat), Doctor Hikari was on top of the world. He was absolutely certain that he was done with the hardest part, now.

Nothing else could possibly go wrong.

.*.*.*.

While her husband was working overtime to save an entire race from permanent enslavement, Haruka was busy at a local outdoor market, shopping for vegetables.

Haruka smiled a little to herself as she paced down the sidewalk, with her hands full of groceries and her eyes on the twins. It was almost funny, in a way. But then, someone had to provide the fuel for the manic genius she was married to.

"OW! Mom, Saito stepped on me!"

"I didn't do it on purpose, Squirt! Your big feet just got in the way!"

"Boys," Haruka said automatically in a warning tone. She didn't bother to look down from the cabbages she was inspecting.

"But he stepped on my foot!"

"I did not! Okay, well I kinda did, but it was just at kind of an angle, and he was in the way so it was actually his fault, and…"

"Saito, Netto," Haruka said, selecting one of the cabbages and placing it in her basket. "How's that new game coming that both of you were working on? It's… what, the fifth Stealth Warriors game that they've come out with?"

The expression on both boys' faces changed instantly. "It's so cool!" Saito exclaimed. "There's this one battle against this huge boss on level six that's supposed to be impossible, and at first I thought it might really be impossible, because the robot just wouldn't die, but then I unlocked a new move and…"

"It's completely awesome!" Netto said at the same time. "…Except that Saito hogs it, of course. And I've already found two bugs in the game. The first one isn't bad—it just makes the color kinda funny for part of the level, but the second one can make you get stuck so you need to restart the game, if you're not careful! I think it's a problem with the coding in the battle sequence in one of the rainforest areas, but it's hard to tell for sure, since…"

Haruka couldn't help but grin. Both boys were speaking faster than a hummingbird could flap its wings, but at least they had stopped in their fighting, for now. Subtly, Haruka glanced down at her PET to check the time. She kind of wondered how long it would take for the bickering to start again. Their current record for the fastest new argument was just under four and a half seconds.

When Haruka turned back to the groceries, something unusual caught her attention out of the corner of her eye. There was a limo parked across the street and a little ways ahead of them, in front of a tall building that was just opposite the outdoor market. That by itself was rather interesting, and she was just wondering whom the vehicle belonged to when she caught sight of a black-and-white haired boy walking toward it, flanked by bodyguards on either side. His hands were shoved casually in his pockets, but his brow was furrowed, as if in deep thought about something.

Haruka's eyebrows rose in recognition, and a bit of faint distaste. That boy had to be Enzan Ijuuin, son of IPC's president. Over the last few days, he had done a bit of research about each of the people that her husband had been struggling to reason with. She hadn't been able to help herself. She'd wanted faces to put to the names that loomed like dark obstacles before Yuuichirou's goal.

Haruka shook her head, forcing herself to stop staring at the boy. She didn't know much about Enzan himself, but recently, she'd been indulging herself in fantasies of marching up to his father and slapping him in the face. She smiled. Yuuichirou would probably laugh at her if he knew.

"Hey!" said a sharp voice from somewhere near her knees. Startled, she looked down.

"Yeah, you! Skunk-head!" The shout had come from Saito, who was pointing dramatically in the boy's direction. A few of the people nearby turned to stare.

Across the street, the boy stopped in his tracks to look over at the source of the noise. Her cheeks flushing scarlet, Haruka grabbed Saito's arm, trying to hush him, but he barely even seemed to notice.

"Your dad and his company stink!" he called. "You should tell 'im that he'd better shape up, or my dad's gonna make both of you sorry!"

Enzan his eyes, apparently unruffled, and climbed through the limo's open door.

Haruka stared at Saito, hoping for a fraction of a second that she'd somehow just imagined this outburst—but then she felt heat rising in her face and she planted her hands on her hips. "Saito!"

Saito pretended not to have heard, slinging one arm around Netto's shoulder as the limo drove away. "Didja see how stuffy he was? I'll bet it comes from his dad being so egotistical."

Netto blinked. "Egotasti—… wait, what?"

Saito gave one of his usual cocky grins and pushed on ahead. "Someday, you've gotta teach him for me, Squirt. That guy's probably never had fun a day in his life! Someday, you hafta beat some sense into that skunk head of his, and teach him to loosen up!"

"Saito Hikari!" Haruka interjected, grabbing one of his shoulders with her free hand and forcing him around to face her. This was more than enough. She was entirely too aware that they had drawn the attention of the entire street by now. "That is it! We are going straight home! As soon as we get there, you'll get some time to think about what you just did!" Mortified, she paid for their groceries quickly, and then seized his arm and firmly began to steer him back toward where she had parked the car.

"Well, it's true!" Saito protested as Haruka steered him away.

"Not a single word out of you until we get home!" Haruka scolded. "And when we get there, you are going straight to your ro—.."

Then, all at once, Haruka stopped in her tracks, trailing off in mid-word. Just ahead and to their right, there was a large TV screen like the ones she often saw on the sides of large stores and company buildings. Most of the time, they blared out advertisements, but this one was among the number of screens that relayed broadcast highlights from different news stations.

Her eyes glued to the screen, Haruka tightened her grip on Saito's arm. "No," she whispered, her voice little more than a silent breath. Under her fingers, Saito stiffened, and for the first time that afternoon, fell completely silent.

After a moment's pause, he wriggled his way out of her vicelike grip and turned so he could see her. "Mama?" he questioned softly.

To their left, Netto shifted anxiously from foot to foot. "Sai? Mama? Is somethin' wrong?"

"Oh, come on, Squirt! Are you blind? Of course somethin's wrong!" Saito sent his brother a smile that was probably intended to lighten the mood, but it quickly vanished, and he turned back to his mother, who was still staring at the screen in shock.

At last, Haruka closed her eyes, squeezing them shut as she offered a silent prayer. Oh, please… if there is any mercy under Heaven… Any at all…

"Is it the bad guys?" Saito asked. Then, his voice growing stronger and more eager as he went, he said, "Does Papa know? Does he need my help? Is there anything else I can do? What are we waiting for!? Come on already, I'm ready to rock!" He stood on the balls of his feet, practically overflowing with energy. If Haruka had asked him to swim across the entire Pacific Ocean for her, he probably would have done it, and then crossed the Atlantic, for good measure.

"Oi, Mama! Sai!" Netto said, now sounding scared. "What happened? What's wrong?"

"I—…" Haruka swallowed around the thickness in her voice, but then, she determinedly pasted on a smile and looked at the boys, bending down to gather her scattered groceries. "It's okay, you two. Papa and I can handle this. The three of us just need to go home quickly right now, and once I look something up on the news website, I'll need to give your father a call. Can you wait patiently while I do that?"

The boys seemed reluctant to let things go, but although Saito wouldn't stop asking his never-ending line of questions, he helped her carry the groceries and followed her at a quick trot when she turned to leave.

For maybe the first time in her life, Haruka broke at least three traffic laws as she raced back to their house. Oh, please, she pleaded again. Please, Heaven help us!